After 2 years of effort, all of the insulating and caulking, a whole house fan, hot water recirculator, self discipline and training, etc., and around $2,000 invested, we finally have our home energy usage where we want it! Below is a graphic of how we stack up against similar households in our region, provided by a tool from our utility company. It encompasses both the electricity and natural gas usage for our two story, 1,800 square foot home: :woot:
It took me a minute to look, then realized you are in prime AC use territory. The costs rather surprised me, since our 4000 sq ft. house costs us less than $3000 a year for electric (no gas in the house). We still have some insulating to do, and I still have some more training of the room mates to do also.
Whats the cost per kwh there? ...and wtf is a whole house fan? Now I gotta go look that up. Edit: Well, whole house fans seem like a neat idea. Seems a little more sophisticated than just putting a box fan infront of a window. My parents got some solar powered attic fans, but they just got them installed recently, so I'll have to wait a year to tell you how well they work. Oh yeah, congrats on reaching your goal!
Way to go Brian, you are the standard by which all others are measured! Impressive. Do you think you can make further improvements or was this the best to expect for your efforts? Cost effectively of course. - Dale
Our price per kWh averages $0.125. Our price per therm of natural gas averages $1.22. Thank you for the kind words. Nope, this is as far as we can go cost effectively. Most of our appliances are inefficient but they are newer and came with the home, so it would be rather ridiculous to replace them just for efficiency's sake. As they come out of service we'll replace them with more efficient models. The same goes for our big screen television. I did not start paying close attention to electrical usage until about a year after we bought it, and I wish I had known that the plasma we got uses twice as much energy as its LCD counterpart. Doh! :eyebrow: Due to the volatility of my profession (technology) and the general economic and rebate shenanigans that have gone on recently I am leery of any investment that does not pay for itself in a few short years, which leaves a solar PV array, or any other expensive projects, out in the cold for now.
Thanks for the inspiration. Wife and I just bought a small place in Richmond. A whole house fan is going to be one of my early additions. I don't expect to escape all A/C use in the humid summers here, but the fan should help considerably. I also have insulation to add, and with the tax credit, it is a good year to add some. I have had a dream of solar electricity also, but it just doesn't seem cost effective yet. I may look at solar hot water heating when I have some time.
Great job. We're putting on a solar water heater tomorow, and are thinking about photovoltaics. We'll try to catch up to you.
That's quite good, especially for having invested such a reasonable sum of money! It's important to drive home to the masses that you don't have to spend a fortune on top-shelf hardware to make a home efficient.
