Electric Saving Tips

[dmccarty]

I read it - interesting article. I do think they missed an important aspect with the windows. It all depends on where you live and how cold it gets. If the windows don't have a good mechanical seal or if they are situated in a location such that they result in a cold zone that causes the homeowner to significantly turn up the central heat in the rest of the house to make up for it - then it is probably worthwhile to do the replacement.

Joe

Yeah, I wondered a bit about the article as well.

Our current house is twice as large as our city house. But in volume its 2.5 times as much. The old house was 1200ish square feet vs 2450ish in the new house. The old house had eight foot ceiling vs ten in the country house. The city house had a new HVAC system put in right after I bought it so it comparable to what we have in the new house.

Our electric bills are the same or less in the new house vs in the old house. Now the new house is much better insulated and better built. BUT, we have huge areas of windows in the new house. Each room has at least one window that is 8x6 or 8x5. The living room has an 8x6 and an 12x6 window. The old house had four yes four windows 3x6. Just our living room has almost as much wndow area as ALL of the old house.

The old house was either cold or it was hot. And not in the right season. The windows in the old house were double pane ALUMINUM windows. The new house has double pane wood casements clad in metal. The difference is astounding. Being near the windows in the old house was pretty close to being outside. If it was hot outside it was hot near the window. During the winter you could really feel the cold. That AL would really transfer the energy. Not to mention the air leaks.

The windows in the new house are comfortable. No air leaks. No felt energy transfer.

We were never really comfortable in the old house. Either too cold or too hot. That is not the case in the new house. So even though are energy costs are the same or a bit less we are much more comfortable.

Later,
Dan

 

[texbaylea]

Well, we bought 'em. Lots of them. They work for us. We put one in every major room in the house and one on the porch. Moving the air helps keep you cool.

We have reversed the fans in the winter to pull the hot air from the ceiling. Since we have 10 foot ceilings I figured there would be lots of heat up there from the wood stove we use to heat the house. The air temps when up a degree or so with the fans reversed. BUT with the ever so slight breeze we felt cooler. Not a good thing in winter we just let the air mix normally.

Later,
Dan

In our previous home which was a story-and-a-half vaulted to the ridge in a portion of the house, heat stratification was a serious problem. Because of the manner of construction ceiling fans were not an option. I made circulators of sono-tubes using large axial fans sucking the hot air out of the ridge area and dumping it out a floor level. No direct breeze on our skin. Helped make the house more comfortable. With a good paint job the sono-tubes were not obtrusive. Reduced the gas bill also.

Vernon

 

[dooleysm]

Has anyone heard of the Marathon electric water heater?
Marathon Water Heaters
They are expensive at around $800 but would they be worth it in the long run?

When we built our house 4 years ago we bought one directly from our electric company. It was $450. The electric company gave us a $100 credit for buying an electric water heater. It works just like every other water heater I've used, but I can't really speak to its efficiency compared to other water heaters. I did have a part fail on it, I think it was an emergency release valve or something that started leaking. I got a new part installed for free, possibly under warantee or possibly because I had recently spent $50k on floor coverings, furniture, HVAC, and plumbing with that company.

 

[Travelover]

(I have the best clothes line in the area but the wife won't use it).

mark

One tip I read is to line dry clothes, then tumble on air dry only for 10 minutes in the dryer. This gets rid of the stiffness usually associated with line drying.

 

[Highbeam]

From Eddie's article:

"How much heat flows through an uninsulated ceiling into a 1,000-square-foot 32ｰF attic? Assuming that a 72ｰF house has an uninsulated drywall ceiling that is, a ceiling assembly with an R-value of 2 the heat flow across the uninsulated ceiling is 20,000 Btu per hour.

If insulation is added until the ceiling assembly has an R-value of 38, the heat flow is reduced by 95 percent, to 1,052 Btu per hour."

This is huge. I have a whoppin 3 inches of attic insulation and 1700 SF of rambler. My woodstove makes like 50,000 btu/hour and runs all winter. Well duh, the attic is losing 30-40k btus all by itself. WHoa! That item just moved up the priority list. R-38, here I come.

 

[RedDirt]

From Eddie's article:

This is huge. I have a whoppin 3 inches of attic insulation and 1700 SF of rambler. My woodstove makes like 50,000 btu/hour and runs all winter. Well duh, the attic is losing 30-40k btus all by itself. WHoa! That item just moved up the priority list. R-38, here I come.

The priorities for reducing home heat loss are sealing for air infiltration first then insulation. With insulation the priorities are ceiling first, then walls, then floor. Any upgrades from substandard to current standards will have a remarkable effect on your heating bills.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

save on electric by running an extension cord to the neighbors house

 

[MossRoad]

save on electric by running an extension cord to the neighbors house

Funny you should mention that. My grandma used to rent out some two story duplexes. In one of them, the upstairs couple called to say their electric bill had spiked all of a sudden. My dad went over and looked in the basement. Seems the first floor guy had broken into the basement and tapped into the upstairs' electric and was heating his apartment with space heaters. My dad called the cops and they went in to the apartment. They found crow bars, screwdrivers, flashlights and lots of stolen T.V.s. They never found the guy.