If you have a Lowe’s home improvement, thru today 4/25 (order online, and pick up latter or return them if you don’t like them), they have LED lights on sale for $9.98 each. These are the same as 40 watts, but I think they are brighter than the 60 watt bulbs I replaced them with. And they only use 7.5 watts. Brand is Utilitech Pro. lumens of 430. 3000K. estimated energy cost of .90 year. rated to last 25,000 hours or based on 3hrs a day at 22 years. The warranty is for two years. I have used LED lights in my office for the past year, and have been happy with them. I paid a lot more for them in the past. I figured this is such a good deal, and ended out picking up 40 bulbs for my home. If electric rates go up, or you need a generator, these use much less than CFL’s and don’t put out dirty energy.
Great comprehensive article. I have the Heat Pump Hot Water heater, highly recommended. I powered down my home by 80% before I brought my solar in so I’d have a net-zero solar home with no utilities of any kind. I attached one of my videos to help and show people what they can do…
http://youtu.be/PUCl1TruUfo
MrEnergyCzar
Great article.
On the subject of reducing moisture, “Avoid storing items against cold outside walls or in damp basements”
LOL, I stored some silver coins under a bunch of stuff in a corner of the basement and checked them a month later to count them and noticed that a few of the coin tubes had turned brown…
Regarding ROI, I think we also have to consider that gas and oil prices are inevitably going to go up (prices for everything are going to go up). So heat mumps and solar systems and other similar things may be significantly more cost effective than people realize. And that natural gas furnace may only seem cheap now, when gas prices are low.
If you were to go all the way and be grid-independent if necessary, then during times of high inflation you woud be totally “insulated” (pun intended) from rising energy prices.
I can attest to the ROI on upgrading the attic insulation, at least in sunny Texas.
A few years ago, a contractor that I had called about blocking access of squirels to my attic pointed out that there was no insulation at some corners of the attic. Probably the builders blew the insulation from the access opening, near which there was the normal amount of material, but far from uniform throughout the attic.
Unhappy about the utilities bills, I had to correct this issue. Since the insulation level when the house was built was too low for current standards, I decided to increase it to current standards.
One thing that I found out was that blown insulation is not the most durable one. With time, as it receives moisture in the winter, it will tend to sag and lose some of its insulating properties. So I opted for rigid urethane insulation that fits neatly between the joists.
The contractor reused the blown insulation piling it to the required thickness at the North side of the house and installed the new rigid insulation in about 2/3 of the attic. The total cost was then $600.
When the summer came with its 100F+ days, I noticed immediately that the master bedroom, facing West, was much more comfortable to sleep in the evening. Not only that, but the temperature in the 2nd floor was much more uniform than it used to be.
Although it’s hard to compare one year’s summer to another’s, my first summer utilities bills were about $30 to $50 less than the respective months the year before. As a matter of fact, I never got bills as high as before upgrading the attic insulation, which could reach up to $190 in the summer.
Since the Texan summers are long, I estimate that the new insulation paid for itself in about 2 years. And $600 was no break-the-bank expense to start with.
HTH
[quote=bluestone]I have a question about CFLs. They are always advertised as lasting a long time, but I’ve had a problem with many of the bulbs going out after a few weeks or months of use.[/quote]It seems that if a CFL is on for less than 15min often, its lifetime will be severely shortened (see http://bit.ly/aAwZ6t and http://bit.ly/iCGl6I).
If that’s your case, avoid installing them in rooms where you don’t stay long enough, like corridors and closets. Either use up remaining incandescent bulbs in those rooms or consider LED lights.
HTH
thanks Augustine,I guess I’ll be looking at getting LEDs.
thanks again for your advice Phil.
Brian
What about halogen bulbs? Are they being banned as well? Surely, at twice the efficiency of regular incandescent bulbs they’re nothing to write home about, but perhaps they would be suitable for those cases where replacing sensors and other electronic fixture controls is too costly.
Zero Energy,
Very good post on a very important topic.
I had insulation blown in last year and can tell the difference.
One of the other things one my list was to figure out how efficient my refridgerator is. Unfortunately, the model I have wasn’t found in the database you provided (it is a Kenmore 795.75012401). Please let me know if you have any ideas about where I might go to look it up.
That’s a first for me. Sometimes if you can’t find your fridge, just entering the first few characters, instead of all of them, will bring it up. I tried that based on the numbers listed above, but nothing as you said. I would make sure it is the Model # and not serial # also, make sure you did not leave off any letters before the numbers. Worst case scenario, if that doesn’t work, you can get a watt meter like I discussed under the phantom load section. You do have to leave the meter on for a day or so to get a really accurate reading.
Thanks
Phil
I think that low-flow shower heads deprive us of a relaxing shower and, at least in the South, they would not contribute significantly to reducing water usage. Watering a lawn during the summer months may easily require 5000 to 15000gals per month.
I’d be more interested in sustainable lawns that still look nice with much less watering.
Phil,
I second all of the other congradulations on an informative post. My question relates to insulation options for a 1960’s home with very poor insultation of the walls and just Certintead fiberglass (original construction 50 years ago) laid between the floor joists of the attic. I live in Westchester county, just north of New York City. I mention this since it seems to matter which climate you reside in as to the wisdom and ROI for any insultation method.
Traditionally, I understood that the attic space was essentially a covered outside place to allow the escape of moisture from the house, was insulated on the floor and had both passive and forced air ventilation. I have recented had proposals to change that by spraying Foam insultion (SEALECTION® 500 a Urethane Foam product of Demilec (USA) between the ceiling joists and on that attic walls and sealing off the vents and thermastatically controlled attic exhaust fan. The theory put forth was that this will better insultate from the summers heat since the foam is just below the roof and will retain the house heat better in the winter.The space will then be closer to house temperature and be more usable as well.
Also I discovered when replacing the bedroom windows that there is NO insulation between the outside shingles and the inside plasterboard walls (only a tar paper moisture barrier). This is also true for the cathedral slanted ceiling in the living room. Any suggestions on adding insulation to these areas now.
Simon
Simon,
It makes sense to spray foam the roof deck if you plan to use the attic space or if you have duct work in the attic. Basically if you want to include the attic inside the thermal envelope. Otherwise why go through the added expense. It will certainly be more expensive to go that route, and you will now be heating and cooling that added volume of space, even if you are not purposely doing so.
Insulating the walls will be tricky for you. Given the age of your home, it is platform construction, which means you will have to make a lot of holes to dense pack insulation in the walls. If you have a very small wall cavity depth (just an inch or two, it is not worth it, but if you have a 4-6" of depth of vacant space in your walls, it might make sense. If you have siding, then a lot of the holes can be made from the outside, which would be better, but if you have a brick or stone house they will make a mess of your house. It would be worth talking to an insulation contractor to have them assess your site.
Thanks
Phil
Yes I completely agree with zeroenergy on his saying that we should also focus on safety of our home after we build it. And about increasing energy efficiency level of our home then there are lots inventions that can help us to save energy and electricity bill. Instead of buying energy consuming lights we can get a CFL light that helps us to save energy and electricity bill with guarantee service. And this type of light is becoming more popular these days due to its good result. Also you can get a good pump to generate water that helps to save energy. Now as far as home security and safety matter is concerned, there are lots of security gadgets regarding home security that helps you to protect your home from theft and also alerts you from accidents like fire etc which allows you to be aware and protect your home from hazardous events.
I would LOVE to be able to foam the walls of this 1880s house but this house has 2 or 3 remodels to the exterior, as well as add-ons making it so complex. I got a bid of $9K to have foam done. I think that if people take into account their cost for fuel it would make a huge difference in cost - effectiveness. . . but we cut & burn wood so we have a different objective. IF it didn’t cost us $35 a year for gas for the chainsaw & splitter, foaming the walls should be a priority. Then it becomes very cost effective.
Given our situation, here are some of the changes we have made because we could afford -
LED Lights in bedrooms, halls and kitchen counter space. These seem to be lights that are always on (more for comfort) and we put the CFL lights closer to work spaces. Solar Lights outside and in out-buildings (the night light provided by the power company cost only $8 a month to run and I spent well over that budget and I have to keep adjusting the solar piece to the season - but what the heck). I also want to put in a solar attic fan to keep the place cooler just from the air flow but the units are spendy and we only need them 25 days of the year here in MN.
We have a metal roof so we felt safe putting in rain barrels. Rain Barrel water uses a fraction of pump power as we have a deep well and huge pressure system that we’ll keep installed for back up. 10 barrels cost $50, plumbling we did ourselves, smaller pressure system was $258 and we save $9 a month less on electric. Note that with the well we had to use the water softener and don’t need it, just a triple gravity filtration system. Also note- I would not put them in if we had asphalt roofing without an extensive filtration system. I wouldn’t even use the water from an asphalt roof for my garden.
No Mow Grass has been planted in the most used areas of the lawn and around the gardens. I want to extend that into the woods area where we grill out and hang out to watch wildlife. I’m hoping the shorter grass will reduce the insects that plaugue the area too. . . (fingers crossed). It used to cost $10 a week in gas to mow the 3 acres building site once a week for 9 months 2 years ago.
Hy Tech Paint Additive for inside & outside of house was almost $550 but insulation was a beast to tackle. It also helps fire-retard and since we burn wood for heat, that’s what I went with for now.
Thermal Window Curtains - and I made them with a shiny side and "decorative" side. The shining side reflects out the sun in summer and they get closed winter nights to keep in the heat. I also plastic over most windows in this house over winter. Cost for curtains was scrap material that looked good-enough and thin silver insulation. And this is something only I would do- I have a winter garden in my south facing patio doors and I pull the shiney curtain behind it winters for double sun when the sun is low in the sky. It seems to work well enough to keep us in celery, swiss chard, cherry tomatoes and a slow ripe tomato over winter.
A good pair of wool socks and long johns- (on sale this time of year!!) under $100 a person.
Shut off un-lived areas and only space heat living area. - nothing.
My list could go on and on…I’m always thinking of ways to keep the extreme weather out and stay comfortable.
And for today - we are past the hottest days we’ve had in MN and we got through it and even worked outside some days by getting our t-shirts wet and the evaporation cooled us. That was how the old timers did it and that’s how I see many of us making life more comfortable in heat in the future. . .
EGP
EGP,
The solar attic fan is typically a bad idea. Running an exhaust fan in the attic will depressurize the attic, which will pull conditioned air from the house into the attic. The best way to keep an attic cool is with a light colored roof. Also natural ventilation requirements for PA are 1 free square foot of vent for every 300FT2 of attic space. I’m not sure about MN. A free square foot is not the same as a regular square foot. Vents typically have the amount of free square feet written on it.
Thanks
Phil
Yes I completely agree with zeroenergy on his saying that we should also focus on safety of our home after we build it. And about increasing energy efficiency level of our home then there are lots inventions that can help us to save energy and electricity bill. Instead of buying energy consuming lights we can get a CFL light that helps us to save energy and electricity bill with guarantee service. And this type of light is becoming more popular these days due to its good result. Also you can get a good pump to generate water that helps to save energy. Now as far as home security and safety matter is concerned, there are lots of security gadgets regarding home security that helps you to protect your home from theft and also alerts you from accidents like fire etc which allows you to be aware and protect your home from hazardous events.
Great article.
I have been considering a building shell audit to hunt down some the air leaks we have. However, I’ve been weighing the costs of having the blower door test done versus just buying a moderately priced thermal imaging camera - the newer $1500 or so FLIR cameras. Do you have an opinion on if a home owner armed with an inexpensive (relatively speaking) IR camera can hunt down the leaks? Are the newer low price/lower resolution cameras adequate for the task? I look at it as I get an IR camera out of the deal and if I can find a few friends to go it with me, it works out cheaper than and audit and I can iteratively tackle the task.
I had a question on your ROI calculation for solar PV (may apply to some of the others that have a large initial capital expense):
To get the ROI it looks like you simply took the savings/cost, $3,504 / $49,000 = 7.15%
However, I believe you need to take into account that the panels and the system degrade over time. Particularly the inverters have a 10-15yr lifespan, batteries 5-20 years, and panels 20-25 years. I believe this means you need to depreciate the equipment in your calculation. So assume a 20 yr life span (probably high), I believe the calculation would be:
($3,504 - ($49,000 / 20)) / $49,000 = 2.15% ROI
This is works out very similar to the more complex ROI calculation I did for our system taking into account time value of money, depreciation, as well as including the costs of taxes you have to pay on some of the incentives.
While still better than you can get at a bank currently and I think it will improve as energy prices rise dramatically in the coming years, it’s important to make sure you count the depreciation of your asset in your calculations so that you can accurately compare the ROI to other possible investments. Note, even with a lower ROI I still consider solar (PV & thermal) a good inflation adjusted insurance policy against rising energy costs and potential energy interruptions.
I had an old house with single pane metal casement windows that I replaced with newer vinyl/double pane. In that scenario I believe the ROI on the windows was probably quite high because it was nearly impossible to seal the air gaps without simply placing plastic or other barrier over the entire window frame. I can also attest that the reduction in drafts and dirt in the house had a significant "quality of life" improvement even if the energy ROI might not have been justified - I considered it one of the best home improvement projects I did while in the house.
[quote=Augustine]I think that low-flow shower heads deprive us of a relaxing shower and, at least in the South, they would not contribute significantly to reducing water usage. Watering a lawn during the summer months may easily require 5000 to 15000gals per month.
I’d be more interested in sustainable lawns that still look nice with much less watering.
[/quote]
You know Augustine… it’s all in your head! My MiL says the same thing about our shower head (4L/min), but whenever I shower at her place I can’t help thinking of the astronomical amount of water wasted down the gurgler, and I get the guilts, and that’s not exactly relaxing…
There’s no such thing as a sustainable lawn. And if you don’t water it, you don’t have to mow it so often! We have NEVER watered ours in over eight years. I hate mowing. Half our place is kept under control by four legged mowers.
Mike
In a well sealed and insulated home, solar gain through windows is a major factor in electricity for a/c.Some options:
- Solar Screens. Screens are used in the sunbelt to control infrared (IR). Screens are mounted outside the window. Permanent installation is recommened. The room is darkened some but a view is maintained. Savings are significant, even in northern tier States.
- Shutters and Awnings. A return to FUNCTIONAL shutters will produce energy savings.
- Solar Grates. Grates are installed outside the window. Visible light is passed while IR is blocked. Think cool and bright. Savings are similar to screens. A view is maintained. The grates are stored in cool seasons for free winter solar heating. Maintenance is nil. Grates are not yet commercially available. Ref. USP # 8,307,602.