tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post6054118789042260330..comments2024-02-24T18:01:44.751-08:00Comments on Musings . . . by Karen Lynn Allen: One Family's Energy Evolution--How We Dropped our Utility Bills by 80%Karen Lynn Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01570980995774757572noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-64350993759855816812013-03-29T23:51:52.101-07:002013-03-29T23:51:52.101-07:00We'd like to invite you to crosspost in our ne...We'd like to invite you to crosspost in our new online community for home energy savings, here:<br /><br />http://homeenergysaver.ning.com/forum/categories/how-do-you-save-energy/listForCategoryEvan Millshttp://hes.lbl.govnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-14073776401790271972013-03-17T17:01:28.752-07:002013-03-17T17:01:28.752-07:00What a great job you’ve done!
That’s pretty much w...What a great job you’ve done!<br />That’s pretty much we would do on energy efficiency when we do our green remodel. For our heating and cooling system, we’ll have a hydronic forced air which use the air handler to move heat from the high efficiency hot water tank since the water is being heated 24/7. Another device I like to add is the On-Demand recirculation pump, which you press the button to activate. Instead of letting the water going down the drain, the cold water would be pumped back to the hot water heater. That saves water and energy. I’m looking into induction cooktops. They save about 10% energy compare to electric radiant cooktops. It’s a whole house green remodel, hopefully it’ll start in a couple of months. Well, I have to walk my talk since I created this website, http://greenremodelforum.com to help homeowners to understand the benefits of greening their homes by making them energy and water efficient and using sustainable materials. I will start my project soon.<br />By the way, you did a great job keeping records of your energy usage. Would you like to share your experience with other homeowners how you drop your utility bill by 80%?<br /><br />My contact info smkwong@GreenRemodelForum.comSundong Kwonghttp://greenremodelforum.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-80776777845947320922013-03-02T22:06:58.485-08:002013-03-02T22:06:58.485-08:00ps... our home in the northern california mountain...ps... our home in the northern california mountains is zero energy with 4.5 kW of solar pv. our average daily consumption (including electric heating) is 14 kWh/day!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-7316277224987844622013-03-02T22:05:01.817-08:002013-03-02T22:05:01.817-08:00thank you for not just putting 'lipstick on a ...thank you for not just putting 'lipstick on a pig'. solar modules are energy intensive to manufacture and have a low eroei, so conservation and efficiency upgrades are job one... and yield a smaller system which means cheaper prices and less materials... a win-win for everyone.<br /><br />unfortunately most installers will not recommend these changes first as they make more money putting in larger systems.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-83272245589209314942013-02-28T09:54:24.635-08:002013-02-28T09:54:24.635-08:00Karen we are supposedly the cheapest in the countr...Karen we are supposedly the cheapest in the country for kwh and for transport fuel and we have the highest in the country per capita energy consumption, as you have pointed out. Could there be a connection? We are hydro based, not coal generated and the dam is 48 miles away so very efficient, no sig line losses and electricity from hydro is 90% efficient as opposed to the 30's for coal and 50's+ for the best NG plants. Your rates are stunning. I thought in your area it was Nuclear and NG. Answer me this: Why in the Bay are you not using Wind and water generation?!! All that wind and water in an out under the Golden Gate! Nuclear is too cheap to meter.That's what I heard growing up! Yup unfortunately off grid electricity has lots of maintenance with on demand gas heaters, battery maintenance and replacement, generator backup etc. Proponents always emphasize the positive and eliminate the negative. There is a lot of fragile technology that must be attended to which I am well acquainted withsv kohohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058401490041584973noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-32973097420097018352013-02-26T06:45:16.737-08:002013-02-26T06:45:16.737-08:00Thanks for the encouragement! I am surprised that ...Thanks for the encouragement! I am surprised that general knowledge about heat pumps is so low in the US. (Heck, I didn't know about them until I started reading The Oil Drum.) Even now they seem far more economical than heating oil, but cheap natural gas gives everyone else little reason to convert. But as natural gas prices rise (which they must because nat gas companies are losing money, drilling has fallen way off, and the wells have steep depletion curves) that may change.<br /><br />Thanks for the tip about the tankless hot water heater. I will look into the maintenance.<br /><br />How great you are doing energy retrofits! It's almost an unimaginably huge task, making the US housing stock energy efficient one house at a time, but it's really the only practical path there is. Just curious, do you put heat pumps into all these foreclosed houses, and what (general) region do you do this work?Karen Lynn Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01570980995774757572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-8520439521358725992013-02-26T06:35:35.474-08:002013-02-26T06:35:35.474-08:00If we were in an area with lots of power shutdowns...If we were in an area with lots of power shutdowns, I think we would've invested in off the grid, too. I was a little nervous about battery maintenance and getting through those rainy days in December (when our energy use is high and solar panel production is low for days at a time.) Yes, children are energy gobblers! <br /><br />Very interesting about seasonal micro-hydro. I think every region has an idiosyncratic set of energy production possibilities, and eventually we'll see all sorts of creative adaptations that make sense given a region's topography and resources. It seems to me that distributed energy production, while not easy to turn into an on-going profit stream for large corporations, can increase the resiliency--and ultimately the economic well-being--of the households, communities, regions that embrace it.Karen Lynn Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01570980995774757572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-46532854825839986592013-02-26T06:22:48.177-08:002013-02-26T06:22:48.177-08:00Your home sounds lovely, and your greenhouse sound...Your home sounds lovely, and your greenhouse sounds fantastic! Wish we could do the same, but our house has very little southern exposure and at the ground level we are mostly shaded due to hills, other buildings. (The drawback of living in a city.) I agree that it's so much easier to design energy efficiency into a new house than retrofit a house into some kind of shape afterwards. It's a crying shame that most of the US housing stock was built with almost no consideration of best orientation to the sun (not to mention poor insulation, energy-gobbling devices, etc.) Houses built with passive solar principles in mind (like yours) can have 80% of annual heating needs met for free and no fossil fuels burned. (Sigh.) <br /><br />Good for you for doing your own audit! My husband is the keeper and charter of data in our family and he's been doing it for many years, which made it easy for me to do an analysis of our energy history. In fact, that's why I thought about doing the post, because I had the data available.<br /><br />You have very low electricity rates! In our utility district, time of use summer peak electric rates vary from $.28 per kwh (baseline) to $.50 kwh(tiers 4 and 5)! (Partial Peak rates: $.18 - $.38; Off Peak: $.10 - $.31) So there are huge benefits to moving electricity use to non-peak hours and reducing load (or producing your own energy) to keep off the higher tiers of the rate structure. And our utility will buy electricity from us at whatever the retail rate for the time produced. So that's a good deal for anyone producing solar in the summer afternoon sun. In the winter, the peak rate is after 5pm, so no benefits there.Karen Lynn Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01570980995774757572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-52692176673137152242013-02-25T06:44:05.417-08:002013-02-25T06:44:05.417-08:00Nice job. You did everything as I would have (ex...Nice job. You did everything as I would have (except the tankless water heater ... tip - they really do require that maintenance the manufacturer recommends, that few people do) Your next steps seem on track to me as well. The Mini-Split Heat Pump is a great next step. The Energy Recovery Ventilator will probably happen when the rest of the windows go in and tighten things up a little more. All these things are exactly what we do in our company that does energy retrofits to foreclosed homes that we buy. One final thing you might consider is induction cooking. Keep up the great work. I wish there were more people like us.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00276651894450366699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-84345787783030025852013-02-25T05:16:23.444-08:002013-02-25T05:16:23.444-08:00Very Impressive! I loved reading about your journ...Very Impressive! I loved reading about your journey! We have been on that same journey since buying our home over ten years ago in New England. Additional insulation and that 'replace the windows' worked magic. We went off-grid on the solar solution as grid-tied systems shut down the homes electricity to ensure safety to crews working on the lines. We felt that wasn't acceptable when living in the sticks. Our children are now out and about (college or onto careers) and our energy use has dropped significantly. We are at the point where I can investigate seasonal micro-hydro feeding a grid-tied inverter to supplier electrical usage to zero. I will celebrate that month with Champagne!<br />Keep it up!Jonathan Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13562883811393512832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-29336765615872720212013-02-24T15:23:21.648-08:002013-02-24T15:23:21.648-08:00Nicely done comprehensive review of your energy am...Nicely done comprehensive review of your energy ameliorating strategies along with your rationale.I am amazed at your low kwh numbers for a decent sized house. Our log house is 3500 sq ft but we live in 2500. the other thousand is a garage apt, rented occasionally. I built that in 03 and it has spray foam insulation in roof and floor and R25 walls and r60 roof. Logs walls are under R10 so I build frame additions around 2.5 sides. The greenhouse runs 48' with lexan and glass and hollow concrete floors which circulate hot air. It was below zero last night and is 92 deg inside now warming the house thru french doors. Works great on sunny days. We dry our clothes in there in the winter and raise vegetables in the summer. My big salvaged copper solar hot water panel is INSIDE the greenhouse and it provides hot water from May to November. Our wood stove preheats hot water the rest of the season delivering 90-100 deg water. The greenhouse kicks out water at over 140 so our electric water heater hardly runs in the warm months. Heating hot water cut our kwh from 1200-1500/month to 1000 kwh(3600 megajoules/mo or 42000 megajoules/yr)), where we are now. We pay 6.8 cents kwh so around $60-70/month. It is for lights, fridge and clothes/dish washers, irrigation pumps as well as well pump and 500 watts/hr for the livestock as well as 500 watts winter plug in heat for the cars and trucks .We were going thru$300-400 year in propane for our cook stove but we now only use it in the summer. We cook on an Amish Kitchen Queen wood cookstove, a monstrous 800 lb cookstove which also heats the house unless temps are below -20 when we supplement with our LR wood stove.. We use 4 cords of wood/yr (72000 megajoules/yr)with most of the wood cut on the property or nearby. HRV are only of value in cold climates and tight houses. We are pretty tight but logs are logs. I have built and rebuilt many houses and my rule now is NO Remods unless you have no choice. Build new, build green and site the house to the sun. Solar heating of the house and water is of great value for anyone but except in certain circumstances the lousy efficiency of solar electricity is rarely cost effective. That said I have 500 watts in panels on our sailboat which run 100% of all electric needs on the boat. IN WY they will buy your generated elec at wholesale rates, not retail :2.8 cents. No state rebates either so not cost effective on grid houses. We use 1000-1200 gal of gas and diesel in 2 tractors, 3 cars and 2 trucks. My 2 cars are an 82 MB diesel(summer only) and a 2001 corolla for winter use. The MB get 32-36 mpg and the corolla 40-50. Both have over 250K miles. That is 126000 megajoules/yr for 1000 gal. THAT'S 126000 MJ FOR FUEL, 72000 MJ FOR HEAT AND AND 36000 FOR ELECT. WHEW! Your article made me do my own audit. I was surprised that fossil fuels were on top. Food for thought on the backside of Hubbert's peak. BTW I did cite you in one of my recent blogs.sv kohohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058401490041584973noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-73562747896178374792013-02-22T04:00:34.054-08:002013-02-22T04:00:34.054-08:00Sorry about your comments. It's so frustratin...Sorry about your comments. It's so frustrating when they disappear into the ether! Hope you are able to post to eventually. (I know I should be talking about joules, even btus woud be better, but in California most people get their heating bills in therms, so it seemed a measure easier to understand. At least it's better than cubic feet of nat gas!)Karen Lynn Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01570980995774757572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-59999763042674455562013-02-21T17:23:08.666-08:002013-02-21T17:23:08.666-08:00Great Post Karen! I have just done two long commen...Great Post Karen! I have just done two long comments which blogspot has dumped in the circular file. Will try again perhaps. We have also fought the battle of the joules and watts tho" in two very different regions. I would like to share cost benefits. great work, as usual.sv kohohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11058401490041584973noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-20461175832349793012013-02-19T15:00:05.516-08:002013-02-19T15:00:05.516-08:00So I've been wanting to learn more about solar...So I've been wanting to learn more about <a href="http://www.solarsystemsusa.net" rel="nofollow">solar energy systems</a>. I find them pretty fascinating. Where can you get them?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01835357342528883851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-67700518333486525472013-02-18T15:11:57.236-08:002013-02-18T15:11:57.236-08:00Yes, solar PV is a lot cheaper now, although when ...Yes, solar PV is a lot cheaper now, although when we put ours in we hit a good period when there were city, state *and* federal incentives/tax credits reducing the cost. I think we will eventually put at least a couple more panels on our roof. If we were to do it again, I would've had at least three more panels put on during our original installation.Karen Lynn Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01570980995774757572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8731149177870823280.post-29287672678714121242013-02-18T13:39:29.912-08:002013-02-18T13:39:29.912-08:00Well done! You could add more solar PV if you...Well done! You could add more solar PV if you'd like, it is probably a lot cheaper now than it was in 2009.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com