As you and the other guys on this page have touched on, the rates I listed in post 252 don't account for all the ancillary BogusChargeForUsingElectricityOnDaysEndingInY that are common now. After I check my stock of BP meds, I should crunch the bottom line #'s again..... it won't be pretty......
:laughing::laughing::laughing: That was really funny. Well, it really wasn't, but it made me laugh.
I designed our house to be energy efficient. We made some compromises in the passive solar design aspect which were the right decision but it likely costs us a bit of money in the summer and some rooms might be a tad colder in the winter because of the large windows we wanted. Since the design was to be energy efficient I tracked our power bills from day one to see if the design and build was working. It is. :thumbsup: Our "new" house has twice the square footage compared to our old city house but with an additional 20% more volume since the ceiling is 10 feet vs 8 in the old house. The new house uses the same, if not a bit less, power than they old house. Insulation and energy efficient windows works.
Stewart Brand puts it more eloquently, but part of what he has been getting at lately is the Green movement needs to get a grip/get real. Most people won't live in many parts of this continent w/o ready access to good supplies of consumable energy - plus or minus 35C isn't much fun w/o heat or AC.
A lot of work needs to be done, and I'm not talking about exotic tech or designs. In many jurisdictions, the building code is a joke when it comes to energy efficiency. A snow-bird I know of who has boatloads of money got laughed at by his "custom" home builder in Florida when he asked for upgraded (from dismally poor) insulation in the walls - answer was "That's code, and I can't be bothered doing otherwise". Said snow-bird wasn't asking for a freebe.... the contractor turned down a blank cheque (OK, check, down your way).
As green as the Aussie's like to think they are, their insulation standards are pretty low too, according to an old college buddy who's lived there for quite a while. Up here (Canada) some of our standards have come a long way, but others languish. Millions of square feet of commercial space gets built here every year, often w. very little insulation requirements.
I get that people more intuitively understand the need for insulation in cold climates - frozen water pipes being a good educator - but obviously there is good operating value to extra insulation in hot climates too.
Rgds, D.
We put in the recommended amount of insulation for our climate. If we put in more, it would just be a waste of money, or so they say. I do mostly believe that but I still want to put in a bit more insulation to cover the pipes. Our water supply pipes are in the attic and we have not had problems with that installation but the last two winters has been the coldest we have had in decades with temps down into single digits. :shocked: Houses here did have frozen pipes which was pretty devastating. A bit more insulation would make me feel a bit better.
Insulation in the walls is not as helpful as attic insulation. We have six inch walls and 1 inch of rigid foam insulation giving us about R25 in the walls. The problem is the danged big holes I poked into the walls.
We call them windows and doors. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: We wanted the view and in the summer it really does not matter but I think the house would be a few degrees warmer in the winter for the same energy burn if we had smaller windows and doors. So 3-4 months of the year I kinds muss and fuss about the windows but the rest of the year is great. :laughing::laughing::laughing: There really is no excuse for not putting in the proper insulation since it saves money for the life of the home. The snow bird you mentioned should have had a better builder.
Code is a MINIMUM. I was shocked at the lack of quality in house construction in South Florida. I saw some houses that there going to be major problems because of their exterior. I would hate to think what was done for details that could not be seen... :shocked: There are good homes down there but you really had to be careful. Lots of rip off artists down there.
When I calculate our KWH cost, I just use the amount of money on the bill and the KWH used. That is the real cost of the KWH with taxes, fees, and oh yeah, the power we used.
:laughing::laughing::laughing:
Later,
Dan
