2014 Green Conservation Plan

[starfoxACEFOX]

I would like to know what everyone plan for 2014 for saving more energy and also sharing new tech.

This year for my 2,000sq bi level home is goign to have a heat pump isntalled to my water heater from Nyle, their Geyser PRO line. Upgrade all my PSU in my server and desktop to 80 Plus Platinum or Titanium once they market 115v vers. Which I have about 10 system running 24/7 which could be nice saving of 200$ a year. Seeing most of my PSU already out of date. Also build 2kw solar system to help with peak usage.

Things I already did for 2013, installed quad ductless heating & cooling system with seer rating of 18 from LG, change all lighting to LED base and added more insulation to the attic. Also change all water fixture to meet EPA WaterSense program, 2.0gpm shower heads and 1.5gpm faucets from Delta and 1.1g per flush toilets from Kohler. Which we all did during our whole house remodel.

Here photo of before and after, I hope you like. I would love hear more about what you do to save more.

 

[woodgeek]

After a lot of work over the last few years to drop HVAC BTU demand by 50%, cost by 75%, and carbon by 95%, I am going to try and chill out...

...until my home energy monitor, the Efegy e2, recc'ed by Highbeam, shows up. Then I am gonna kill me some phantoms.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/my-energy-audit-report.117919/

 

[starfoxACEFOX]

After a lot of work over the last few years to drop HVAC BTU demand by 50%, cost by 75%, and carbon by 95%, I am going to try and chill out...

...until my home energy monitor, the Efegy e2, recc'ed by Highbeam, shows up. Then I am gonna kill me some phantoms.

I never got idea on why people monitor usage, wont change efficiency just the usage? Maybe it's my data center mind, it's always on and never off.

 

[woodgeek]

Yup we agree. I decided to work on house envelope loads and efficiency first. I have noticed, though, that my baseload usage is 2X what it should be....when we are on vacation, no HVAC or DHW, our house uses 10 kWh/day. Adding up all the known loads I expect <5 kWh/day. I got a monitor to track down the rest of it. If they can be eliminated, it would be >1500 kWh and $200 in savings per year.

Did you airseal your attic before insulating??

 

[midwestcoast]

Seal & insulate the rim joist after we finish a basement purge / reorganization that's well under way (mostly baby gear that has been taking over).
Also plan to greatly expand our veggie garden in spring since we have to take out a rotting tree & we'll then have enough sun.
MAybe backyard chickens.

 

[starfoxACEFOX]

Yup we agree. I decided to work on house envelope loads and efficiency first. I have noticed, though, that my baseload usage is 2X what it should be....when we are on vacation, no HVAC or DHW, our house uses 10 kWh/day. Adding up all the known loads I expect <5 kWh/day. I got a monitor to track down the rest of it. If they can be eliminated, it would be >1500 kWh and $200 in savings per year.

Did you airseal your attic before insulating??

Nah, seeing there was already old insulation there. I didn't want to pull it all out to do that, then renting foam gun would have be fun. Almost killed myself with paint gun and shot myself with framing nail gun. Foam, what nightmare could I do with that.

 

[semipro]

Welcome to the forum Fox.
If you'll look around a bit you'll find many here have done a lot of work doing energy upgrades at their houses.
Woodgeek mentioned phantom loads (I like the name "parasitic" better but...) and I'd like to address some more of those loads also.
You mentioned computer power supplies. Since you do IT work could you elaborate a little more on what could be done in that area. We have numerous laptops and one tower sucking power constantly at our place. What's the deal with the power supplies you mentioned?

 

[Highbeam]

I never got idea on why people monitor usage, wont change efficiency just the usage? Maybe it's my data center mind, it's always on and never off.

Efficiency and usage are related. What are you trying to accomplish with efficiency improvements? Most would say that they wish to reduce their consumption of the resource for one of several reasons including cost, carbon footprint, resource conservation, off grid, etc. Through monitoring your usage you can evaluate your efficiency improvements. How do you know if your low flow shower heads are saving you energy? Can you quantify it?

 

[Highbeam]

This year, I have already removed the pair of 8' t8 tube fixtures in my kitchen and replaced them with 6 ICAT can lights. The tube fixtures use 1 amp each and the LED flood lights in the cans use 60 watts combined. Less lumens but superior placement make for excellent lighting at a huge reduction in usage.

As the long life (LOL)CFL bulbs die I am swapping them to LED replacements. Each time I drop from 13 watts to 9 which is a big drop as a percentage.

I have a shop that I store freeze sensitive items. I insulated the walls last year to R-19 and this year will be installing an ceiling and insulating above it to R-30 to maybe R-50. Until then I've been forced to run a resistance heater at times and my meter really spins. With full insulation I expect that the building will need only minimal energy to avoid freezing.

I have well water and it has grit, light sulfur, and iron. I will be installing a grit filter, and a greensand filter to clean up my water. Until that happens I cannot risk replacement of water heating or dishwashing equipment. The water treatment will happen early 2014.

I hope to install a single 18000 btu mitsubishi hyper heat ductless mini split heat pump in my 1963 built home. It has no ducts currently. I hate the looks of the indoor units but the superior efficiency is very attractive. Also attractive will be removing a handful of those electric wall heaters.

 

[starfoxACEFOX]

You mentioned computer power supplies. Since you do IT work could you elaborate a little more on what could be done in that area. We have numerous laptops and one tower sucking power constantly at our place. What's the deal with the power supplies you mentioned?

Sure I can share a lot about high efficiency computers and electronics, all the way from audio amps to LED drivers. I think I would have to make other post just about that. There a lot out there, it can get confusing with how many option there are.

Efficiency and usage are related. What are you trying to accomplish with efficiency improvements? Most would say that they wish to reduce their consumption of the resource for one of several reasons including cost, carbon footprint, resource conservation, off grid, etc. Through monitoring your usage you can evaluate your efficiency improvements. How do you know if your low flow shower heads are saving you energy? Can you quantify it?

Well I can see this being helpful when doing projects that don't have a set specification like home insulation lost or renewable energy production. Sometimes I've seen people get little to carried away with it. Most specification are accurate and got to compare spec with what you have from what your replacing and shop with well known companys seeing they take the time test it. Like shower head, I just got house in mid 2013. Which I didn't have any shower heads, so I went from full flow to 2.0gpm. If it was 2.2gpm to 2.0, more likely wouldn't have wasted the time replacing it. I must say Delta claim with there H2Okinetic system, as it dose only use 2.0gpm or 1.8gpm base on model. Dose feel like more water, seeing water droplets are larger I use little less hot water to get same temp. Now I don't think I need test if I'm saving hot water just base on H2Okinetic system, but I do know I'm saving cost of water use and heating of the saved water.

 

[TradEddie]

I've started insulating my basement walls, foam will go in first, and eventually drywall will follow to meet code in case I ever need to sell. I've only put a few panels in yet, but now I can feel big drafts under my sill plate where I must have missed some sealing previously. Twofer!

Yesterday I found an untaped duct joint, worst of all I never noticed when I insulated that duct five years ago!

TE

 

[starfoxACEFOX]

I've started insulating my basement walls, foam will go in first, and eventually drywall will follow to meet code in case I ever need to sell. I've only put a few panels in yet, but now I can feel big drafts under my sill plate where I must have missed some sealing previously. Twofer!

Yesterday I found an untaped duct joint, worst of all I never noticed when I insulated that duct five years ago!

TE

Good plan, I want to do my garage this year, right now there no insulation. Just between the house, so I can heat and and cool it during the year.

Dose anyone know good way to have good air tight garage door? I want to buy new one, but if I could reuse old one I have I would.

 

[DawsonBuck18]

Started backyard chicken in June with three chicks. Now have three hens each laying an egg almost every day. Free range for now. I moved into new construction in June. Already replaced every contractor grade 60 watt incandescent with CFLs discounted by Georgia Power. Installed two Venstar programmable WiFi thermostats. $100 rebate for each one from Georgia Power. Already replaced 6 month old electric water heater with a new GE hybrid. Added 40 rolls of R30 Corning Eco Touch to attic but need 40 more to completely cover the sprayed in insulation that contractor installed. Installed Delta water sense kinetic shower heads (1.8 gal per min).

Tip: run the hot water tap at your kitchen sink until you feel HOT water before running your dish washer. This is a big energy saver as your dish washer isn't having to raise the water temp itself at a rate of 1 degree per 3 minutes in order to start washing.

Great thread. Thanks for starting this one.

 

[semipro]

Now have three hens each laying an egg almost every day. Free reign...

Ruling the roost because there's no rooster I guess..
Sorry, couldn't help it.

 

[jatoxico]

Replaced all the windows, new siding w/ tyvek and foam board. Have an energy audit scheduled for early Feb. Lemme guess, attic?

 

[semipro]

2014 goals (some longer term realistically)

• Finish basement air sealing and insulation
  
• PV array
• Convert hybrid Highlander to plug-in
• Run adult children who take long showers out of the house

 

[jebatty]

Our PV array went active at the end of October, it is not sized to meet 100% of our prior usage, so our goal is to reduce usage to the kwh produced by the array over the course of an average year. This means we need to increase the efficiency of our electrical appliances, reduce usage or both: likely both. If we achieve this goal, and since we heat primarily with wood, we will be 100% carbon neutral, except for fuel usage for our vehicles.

We already have done a lot to reduce usage and increase efficiency, and for Nov-Dec 2013 our average daily general electric usage has been 11 kwh/day and our electricity for supplemental heat and dhw has been an average of 35 kwh/day. Usually we use no supplemental heat from about April to December. Average solar production during Nov-Dec, two very low production months, has been 10 kwh/day. So total usage was 46 kwh/day offset by 10 kwh/day solar for a net of 36 kwh/day grid usage. Solar has been providing 22% of our total usage for these two months.

Our solar has been below estimated production of 15 kwh/day. November and December appear to have been much cloudier and snowier than normal. Hopefully other months will make up the difference.

Besides supplemental electric heat, our big energy hog is the electric clothes dryer. It will be difficult for my wife to alter her behavior to do dry some clothes outside. We do have a HE clothes washer, so drying time takes much less time and electricity than before. We also replaced our failed dishwasher with a more energy efficient model. We already do an excellent job of turning off lights and other electric devices when not being used, but still can do better and are working on that. I just bought 20 LED A19 bulbs from Earth LED, half 40 watt and half 60 watt incandescent equivalent, and I am switching out CFL to LED based on usage levels.

And we will monitor our level of goal achievement, and look for ways to do even better.

 

[jebatty]

One more energy hog is the dehumidifier in the basement, about 1000 kwh usage during the summer, and I don't know of any way to not use it.

 

[woodgeek]

One more energy hog is the dehumidifier in the basement, about 1000 kwh usage during the summer, and I don't know of any way to not use it.

An airsealed basement in a AC'ed house will need less. A Central AC could take the humidity in the house out for a similar or lower usage, and make you more comfortable in the process.

 

[jebatty]

Fortunately we do not need AC. Our summer days of high 80's to low 90's are typically only about 1 week long, and uncomfortable humidity then and other times is quite uncommon, at least not enough to consider AC. And ceiling fans do a good job of handling the few days when AC might be useful. We have neighbors who "must" live in a conditioned house all the time for reasons unknown to me other than that they can.

 

[semipro]

Fortunately we do not need AC. Our summer days of high 80's to low 90's are typically only about 1 week long, and uncomfortable humidity then and other times is quite uncommon, at least not enough to consider AC. And ceiling fans do a good job of handling the few days when AC might be useful. We have neighbors who "must" live in a conditioned house all the time for reasons unknown to me other than that they can.

Our situation is similar. We rarely use AC.
And like yours (per another thread), basement dehumidification is a challenge.
I'm currently doing a lot of water/air sealing and insulation in the basement in hopes of getting away from the dehumidifier.
We have two hot water heaters (WHs), one of them a heat pump WH in the basement, the other is an electrical resistance unit near our master bath. Each WH feeds a completely different circuit. The HP WH (Geospring) does dehumidify the basement.
I'm considering combining our hot water circuits into one to put as much water heating load on the Geospring as possible. I could put the ER WH in series and after the HP WH to maintain capacity.

 

[DawsonBuck18]

Fortunately we do not need AC. Our summer days of high 80's to low 90's are typically only about 1 week long, and uncomfortable humidity then and other times is quite uncommon, at least not enough to consider AC. And ceiling fans do a good job of handling the few days when AC might be useful. We have neighbors who "must" live in a conditioned house all the time for reasons unknown to me other than that they can.

Jebatty, I don't recall which type of hot water heater you have but if you install a GE Geospring heat pump water heater in your basement, it will heat your water and dehumidify your basement at the same time. As long as your basement temp stays above 45 deg F, the heat pump will do its job and remove moisture from the air at the same time. Just a suggestion. I installed a Geospring two weeks ago in my 2nd floor and it has really dried the house out, almost too much. Avg humidity level went from about 45-50% to 25-30% in a 2,500 sq ft 2nd floor.

 

[jebatty]

I've thought about a heat pump water heater, but we use very little hot water, only about 100 kwh/mo at $0.05/kwh or $5.00/month, that the investment in a heat pump water heater may not be worth it. A heat pump hot water heater would result in about $1.75/month electric cost perhaps, or a savings of about $3.25/month. We would get some dehumidification for sure, but I'm tending to think that because the heat pump would not be active very much we still would need dehumidification. What do you think?

 

[TradEddie]

When we moved in, our basement was very humid, with obvious signs of damp an many places. One of the first things I did was to install an exterior door at the the bottom of the stairwell of the Bilco door. That made an immediate and huge difference in the humidity, later work sealing the rim joists improved it a little more and I'm hoping that insulating the walls will bring up the temperature and consequently reduce the RH again. One remaining problem area is due to exterior drainage problems which needs to be addressed before I foam over that corner.
I still keep a humidifier down there, but I put a kill-a-watt on it for a week in the summer and it used less than 10 kWh in the week.

TE

 

[Wear More Layers]

So far in 2014 I have:
a. put a 2nd blanket on my bed
b. worn a new fleece jacket I found on clearance.

You guys amaze me with all the things you've done. Thank you for posting many of your ideas for the rest of us to learn from.