🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:40:28 -0700, Steven
<thisjukeboxplays33rpm@yahoo.com> wrote:

>On Jun 7, 9:04 am, Don Homuth <dhomuthoneatcomcast.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 02:43:53 GMT, trijicon <d...@null.set> wrote:
>> >Don Homuth wrote:
>> >> On Wed, 6 Jun 2007 18:09:05 -0700, pjb...@webtv.net (Paul J. Berg)
>> >> wrote:
>>
>> >>> ~
>>
>> >>> What is difference between a conservationist and a real estate
>> >>> developer?
>>
>> >>> Answer: The conservationist built their house a year earlier.
>>
>> >> And lives in it.
>>
>> >And turned up the thermostat to 72.
>>
>> Nah -- the temperature just Stays at 72, by virtue of the
>> super-insulation and passive solar heat gain, the attached greenhouse,
>> etc.
>>
>> That's how my house stays at 72, even with the thermostats set at 67.
>>
>> In addition, there's the heat that comes from the other appliances --
>> refrigerator, water heater, etc.
>
>If that actually made a difference you wouldn't need all that Stuff.

I need a refrigerator and a water heater.  Each is Star rated on the
energy scale sufficiently to have received a State Rebate for their
purchase and use.

My local electric co-op and I monitored how that works for several
months, just for the hell of it.  (Nice folks at Salem Electric.
Heavily into Conservation programs for the members hereabouts.  Much
better than PGE across the river.)  The heat given off by in-house
appliances is actually relatively significant.  Put your hand behind
your refrigerator or freezer sometime when it's running, for example.

>Avocado Green Frigidaire (when they were still owned by GM) AND a ''78
>Gibson

Eventually they'll break down, but they sell well at garage sales --
which is what we did with ours.

>Two fullsized Sharp microwaves

We bought a good one of those for some reheating purposes.  Beats hell
out of using the stove -- so that works.  And if you have it vented
inside, you don't lose the heat either.

>fairly new average sized electric water heater

Ours is fairly large, but Very well insulated with a Very high
efficiency rating.  Even at that, though, it does result in some heat
-- which keeps the laundry/utility room very comfortable even in the
wintertime.

>50+ year old house and I freeze my butt until I can absolutely AFFORD
>not to.

Mine is now about 60 years old.  One of the last lath & plaster homes
built in the neighborhood close by.  

Do whatcha gotta do there, in that case.  When I bought this place in
1993, the first round of remodeling involved some HD changes to
insulation in walls, ceiling and under the floors, replacement of All
the windows (which were at the time single-pane aluminum) with
double-pane, argon-filled, vinyl-clad, Low E and for all I know
kryptonite-powered.  The electric co-op underwrote half of all of
that.

Then did a Massive air infiltration examination -- which included the
co-op folks bringing over a door-mounted fan and pressurizing the
house to find where the heat leakages were.  That took some work but
didn't cost much to repair hardly at all.  Caulking and
weather-stripping mostly.

Then replaced the previous dark brown roof with a white one, to reduce
summertime cooling problems.  (Barely need an a/c unit any more, and
then only a small one for the bedroom that vents into the attached
greenhouse.)  Place cools down quite wonderfully at night, and then in
the morning we close it up and it scarce heats up.  Even during 100+
temperatures, the internal temperature runs 15-18 degrees cooler than
outside.

Then replaced all of the electric appliances with new ones, purchased
specifically for their efficiency ratings, and naturally replaced all
of the light bulbs with the high-efficiency ones.

As a result, since this house is all-electric so I can track usage
over the long term rather easily, the First time that the Overall
electric bill for the place (and it's 2500 square ft or thereabouts)
for heat, lights, cooking, computers, entertainment -- the entire
shebang across the entire house -- went to over $1,000/year was two
going on three years or so ago.  It remains at about $1300/year even
now, after the recent rate increases.

That's pretty damned good, by any measure.

Two years ago, I rebuilt the attached greenhouse, to make it function
more efficiently as a solar collector, along with just making it look
a lot nicer.  Now of a sunny morning even during the winter, once the
sun hits it the internal temp hits 75F or so within an hour, and
opening a window or door into the main house takes advantage of that
heat.   Along with the Large windows in the family room too.

And since it's on the east, the heat comes at the right time --
morning.  By afternoon when the sun can get Really hot in the
summertime, it's pretty much in shadow.  And there are only two fairly
small windows on the west wall of the house, so that's not a problem
either.

It was sorta fun -- re-doing the place to maximize energy efficiency.
Anyone can do it, depending on finances naturally.  And some time
available to either do the work (I did the air infiltration stuff) or
hire it done (roof and windows ftmp).

The cost of operation of my place is surprisingly modest -- probably
less than half of what a similar place would be without the
improvements.

I'm quite pleased, overall.

New construction would be easier to build these sorts of things into
from the getgo, but I'm surprised at how seldom it gets done.

(I understand that the investor-owned utilities aren't Nearly so
interested in conservation as are the cooperatives.  That's mostly
because Investors want you to use More of their product -- not less.
Which is understandable.  But then, it's your money.)