RSS/ATOMCutting Energy Consumption and those Power Bills
By sblackb • Jan 17th, 2008 • Category: Energy Savings
All good solutions start with a real problem. Mine is that we suck way too much juice at the house. I’m not talking juice as in the Florida type; I’m talking the carbon producing, wallet draining variety. I bought the house that my wife and I currently live in back when I was young, single, and had other concerns in life beyond how efficient my house was. It’s a 1938 transitional ranch that measure approximately 1138 and has a partially finished basement that’s approximately 450 square feet. Construction is double bonded brick, plaster walls, and steel casement windows which have vintage single pane glass. There is a bit of insulation in the attic, but none in the walls which on summer days in Phoenix, simulates a pizza oven. Top it all off with the fact that this house is considered “Historic” and I’m limited to what changes I can make, a we have quite a challenge on our hands.Maybe I should first quantify what I think way too much juice. I know people who gripe when their power bill hits $200 in the summer, and that’s for 3000 square feet of living space. For us, $400 plus power bills are not uncommon during peak heat and that’s for less than 1600 square feet if you count the basement. I’m sure many who read this post can trump our bills pushing into the six, seven, or even eight hundred dollar range. If you are in this range, maybe getting your peak bill down to $400 would be a great victory, for me, I’d like to get mine down to $200.
Star
ting with a Goal
So if my goal is to get my peak energy bill down to $200 or roughly half of what it currently is, I’m going to need a better understanding of where the power is going. I took a trip over to my local utility company’s website and logged in to see what my monthly KWH usage was. While I was there, I discovered all sorts of tools that allowed me you analyze our energy consumption and even upload my usage data to a nice piece of software called the Nexus Energy Survey. Even if your power provider doesn’t support uploading you usage history, you can still sign up for free and enter the details manually. After answering a few questions, the survey returns power usage stats that are based on your location, age of home, and types/quantity of appliances. It also shows you where your consumption stacks up with homeowners in similar scenarios. As you can see from this picture, we are pushing nearly double the energy load of the average home. Wow!
Houston, we have a problem…
So hopefully by now you are starting to see my challenge. Big energy usage and no smoking gun, but if I’m ever going to get my power load down to a point where a solar (photovoltaic) system makes sense, I will need to hunt down where the power is going, and do it precisely. Sure the Nexus Energy Survey is a worthwhile tool to check out and see where you fit into the mix, but it lacks the ability to get device specific and give you a truly pinpoint the black holes in your energy plan.
For this task, we need a power meter designed to measure usage over a period of time. There are several on the market to choose from and each have their pros and cons. The two I like are the Kill-a-watt from P3 International and the Watts Up Pro from Electronic Educational Devices. For down and dirty testing, it’s hard to beat the price of the Kill-a-watt, but the features of the WattsUp? Pro make it a clear winner if you are doing a lot of testing. So I ordered one up and should have it next week. We will begin testing the loads, both active and phantom, of the electrical devices in the house, then I will build a table and share the results. Until then, head over to Nexus Energy Survey and see how you stack up. Who knows, maybe you will learn something about your usage.
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sblackb is Scott and Liz share a passion for the outdoors and want to help protect the natural beauty of our planet. Scott feels like one of the best ways to accomplish this is to take on responsible power use, generation and learning new methods for better living with less resources.
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How To Reduce Your Energy Bills / Energy Conservation Begins at Home
Imagine leaving a window open all winter long — the heat loss, cold drafts and wasted energy! If your home has a folding attic stair, a whole house fan or AC Return, a fireplace or a clothes dryer, that may be just what is occurring in your home every day.
These often overlooked sources of heat loss and air leakage can cause heat to pour out and the cold outside air to rush in — costing you higher heating bills.
Air leaks are the largest source of heating and cooling loss in the home. Air leaks occur through the small cracks around doors, windows, pipes, etc. Most homeowners are well aware of the benefits caulk and weatherstripping provide to minimize heat loss and cold drafts.
But what can you do about the four largest “holes” in your home — the folding attic stair, the whole house fan or AC return, the fireplace, and the clothes dryer? Here are some tips and techniques that can easily, quickly and inexpensively seal and insulate these holes.
Attic Stairs
When attic stairs are installed, a large hole (approximately 10 square feet) is created in your ceiling. The ceiling and insulation that were there have to be removed, leaving only a thin, unsealed, sheet of plywood.
Your attic space is ventilated directly to the outdoors. In the winter, the attic space can be very cold, and in the summer it can be very hot. And what is separating your conditioned house from your unconditioned attic? That thin sheet of plywood.
Often a gap can be observed around the perimeter of the door. Try this yourself: at night, turn on the attic light and shut the attic stairway door — do you see any light coming through? These are gaps add up to a large opening where your heated/cooled air leaks out 24 hours a day. This is like leaving a window open all year round.
An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add an attic stair cover. An attic stair cover provides an air seal, reducing the air leaks. Add the desired amount of insulation over the cover to restore the insulation removed from the ceiling.
Whole House Fans and AC Returns
Much like attic stairs above, when whole house fans are installed, a large hole (up to 16 square feet or larger) is created in your ceiling. The ceiling and insulation that were there have to be removed, leaving only leaky ceiling shutter between the house and the outdoors.
An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a whole house fan cover. Installed from the attic side, the whole house fan cover is invisible. Cover the fan to reduce heating and air-conditioning loss, remove it when use of the fan is desired.
If attic access is inconvenient, or for AC returns, a ceiling shutter cover is another option for reducing heat loss through the ceiling shutter and AC return. Made from R-8, textured, thin, white flexible insulation, and installed from the house side over the ceiling shutter with Velcro, a whole house fan shutter cover is easily installed and removed.
Fireplaces
Sixty-five percent, or approximately 100 million homes, in North America are constructed with wood or gas burning fireplaces. Unfortunately there are negative side effects that the fireplace brings to a home especially during the winter home-heating season. Fireplaces are energy losers.
Researchers have studied this to determine the amount of heat loss through a fireplace, and the results are amazing. One research study showed that an open damper on an unused fireplace in a well-insulated house can raise overall heating-energy consumption by 30 percent.
A recent study showed that for many consumers, their heating bills may be more than $500 higher per winter due to the air leakage and wasted energy caused by fireplaces.
Why does a home with a fireplace have higher heating bills? Hot air rises. Your heated air leaks out any exit it can find, and when warm heated air is drawn out of your home, cold outside air is drawn in to make up for it. The fireplace is like a giant straw sucking the heated air from your house.
An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a fireplace draftstopper. Available from Battic Door, a company known for their energy conservation products, a fireplace draftstopper is an inflatable pillow that seals the damper, eliminating any air leaks. The pillow is removed whenever the fireplace is used, then reinserted after.
Clothes Dryer Exhaust Ducts
In many homes, the room with the clothes dryer is the coldest room in the house. Your clothes dryer is connected to an exhaust duct that is open to the outdoors. In the winter, cold air leaks in through the duct, through your dryer and into your house.
Dryer vents use a sheet-metal flapper to try to reduce this air leakage. This is very primitive technology that does not provide a positive seal to stop the air leakage. Compounding the problem is that over time, lint clogs the flapper valve causing it to stay open.
An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a dryer vent seal. This will reduce unwanted air infiltration, and keep out pests, bees and rodents as well. The vent will remain closed unless the dryer is in use. When the dryer is in use, a floating shuttle rises to allow warm air, lint and moisture to escape.
If your home has a folding attic stair, a whole house fan, an AC return, a fireplace, and/or a clothes dryer, you can easily, quickly and inexpensively seal and insulate these holes.
Mark D. Tyrol is a Professional Engineer specializing in cause and origin of construction defects. He developed several residential energy conservation products including an attic stair cover, an attic access door, and is the U.S. distributor of the fireplace draftstopper. To learn more visit http://www.batticdoor.com