Energy Conservation Projects for your House?

PastTense · Mar 6, 2010

Anyone do any energy conservation projects for your house (more insulation, new windows, new doors, new furnace...)? What were the results (costs vs energy savings)?

quarttoolow · Mar 6, 2010

Installed corn stove last Fall & never lit propane boiler.

Old heating cost at 62F setpoint 800g x $2

Corn heating at 70+F about $500

Travelover · Mar 6, 2010

I put in a 95% efficient gas furnace replacing one that was probably 60% efficient. I got back about 30% rebate on my taxes this year, but have not calculated the savings in fuel - though it should be a fairly straight forward calculation. A couple of years ago I went around and sealed the air leaks thoroughly, then added another 6" of fiberglass insulation in the attic. I'm sure the air leak sealing is the most cost effective improvement.

RalphVa · Mar 6, 2010

I've done the following:

1. Put radiant barrier in attic of garage and rolled it over the insulation in the house attic and tacked it up against the sun side underneath the carriage house rafter (the way I did it in the garage). When we didn't have one bedroom done, my wife reported that room was 8 F warmer in the summer. The garage is much warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

2. Replaced very old 5 ton heat pump system with a new 4 ton (provider did the calcs after I remarked how short a period of time the unit ran) high SEER one with new refrigerant. Calculated a 200 kwh/month savings. That's what it had been running until mid Jan-mid Feb (very cold) when it was 1,000 kwh lower than same period last year.

3. Put a heat pump on the 1st hot water heater in series with a regular electric one. Calculations show it show save 100 kwh/month. The first unit failed after one year. Air Tap sent a new unit free of charge. The old unit wasn't showing these savings. This unit plus the new 4 ton heat pump saved 1,000 kwh last month. (We've also turned off the underfloor electric heat in the master bath because it did little other than warm the tile floor. This shutoff was part of the 1,000 kwh.)

Ralph

dex3361 · Mar 6, 2010

I upgraded my Heat pump this past year I had a 8 seer and went up to a 14 seer and It has made a difference in the electric bill. my wife want the house to be about 72F.

arrabil · Mar 6, 2010

We have electric heat and only one heater in the basement. A couple months ago we put a curtain in the doorway to that room. Now only that room gets heated instead of the whole basement. We got the bill a couple week ago... and it dropped $140 in one month. No kidding.

Opti-Mist · Mar 6, 2010

I installed an add-on wood burning furnace to my propane heating system. Heating costs plummeted. So far we've added 125 Gallons of LP to the 500 Gallon tank and its still 70+% full. My annual pre-buy is going to last a couple of years, at least.

cityfarma · Mar 7, 2010

We put in 2kw of PV and the last power bill was $41 in credit. Our summer average daily generation is 12.5Kwh and average net feed to grid is 1.5Kwh. I expect this to fall considerably in winter but my credit from summer should give me a net of approx zero from the grid for the year.

We are a household of 2 adults and use solar HWS and gas heating. Summer airconditioning is evaporative.

cityfarma

RalphVa · Mar 7, 2010

I got an estimate for solar hot water: $7,600. Also got an estimate for geo thermal: $26,000. These won't pay out. The latest for heating hot water is a GE Hybrid unit. This Old House Hour had a film on how to replace your electric unit with one of these. You can use either the GE or an Air Tap in series with another electric one and achieve the same economy (1/2-2/3 reduction in hot water heating) for about the same price (the GE unit is a bit expensive).

Ralph