Energy Conservation

[WannaDoWindmills]

I'm so glad that y'all brought up all of these conservation suggestions.  I've had it in the back of my mind for a long time.  It is only resurfacing now because my very enthusiastic and somewhat compulsive husband is looking into grants for a big ol' windmill or two for our front yard!!  Yikes.  I know being a wet blanket isn't enough this time.   I am jumping in with both feet and enjoying the learning experience about wind turbines.

Insulation:  

Is this like the biggest thing to do?  I know I'm going to have to look online for more information about this.  But, if any of you are knowledgeable about it, let me know! (please).

I looked into our attic when we first moved here 5 years ago... it had some blown-in insulation which the Realtor said was great (what else was he going to say? lol.)  It didn't look excessive by any stretch of the imagination.  And, doesn't that kind of insulation settle down and become less effective?  I really don't know, 'cuz I've done only installed the rolled kind, in attics and in walls of houses as they were built.  

In addition to the attic, I'm also thinking that it would be good to insulate the walls somehow, but that I've never done after a house was already built.  Plus, I'm from the north where we always had basements... there we only insulated the sills.  But now we're in the south with a crawlspace.  Nothing down there is insulated (the house is brick, but there are vents down there).

Clothes Dryers:

We don't have gas to the house right now.  But, I'm pretty sure it comes to the road.  I didn't know that gas dryers were that much better than electric.  My mom recently bought a new front-loader washer and dryer for us.  So, we're using very little hot water & the clothes spin on the high cycle so that they are nearly dry right out of the washer.  In the summer, we always use the clothes line.  Something tells me that I should stick with what we got.

Light bulbs:  

So far, we've changed nearly all of our lighting to fluorescent bulbs.  They plug into our regular lamp sockets and are in a spiral shape. I'm not sure if that is the same thing as what one of you recommended.

Refrigerator & Stove:

Again, both of these are electric.  The frig was new in 2003 and has an Energy Star on its label.  The stove was here when we moved in and is likely to be very old.  So, how do I know if it is worthwhile to buy a new stove?

[DamonHD]

Conservation is in my experience up to 10x cheaper than the main alternative option, microgeneration.

So, yes, insulate away.

The rule of thumb for fridges/freezers is that if they are over 10 years or so old they should almost certainly be replaced.

But buy/borrow a Kill-a-Watt meter and see what energy your fridge actually uses each day.

We bought a (bigger) replacement for a 10-year old device that was using maybe as much as 2kWh/day.  The replacement (which is as tall as me) is not quite as efficient as the advertising suggests, but is about 1kWh/day.

http://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-Siemens-KG34NA10GB-upright-fridge-freezer-REVIEW.html

If you can halve your consumption with a new device then it's probably worth doing so from a 'green' point of view in spite of the embedded energy cost of the new device, and it may be worthwhile financially too.

A similar analysis probably applies to other devices.

Rgds

Damon

[ghurd]

Don't forget.  You asked.

"Is this like the biggest thing to do?"  YES!

"Attic... had some blown-in insulation... didn't look excessive by any stretch of the imagination" means it needs more.

Cheap to do.  Lowe's / Home DePot give you the machine free with like 15/20/25 bags.  Been a while, but it was under $3.50 a bag when I topped mine off.

Attic insulation keeps the heat in the house in winter, and the heat in the attic in summer.

IMHO, if you measured it in inches it is not enough.

I measured mine in feet.  I'm still up north.

Changed from A/C maybe 20~30 days a year to maybe 10.

Be certain the ceiling can support the weight.  20 bags of blown-in deciding it wants to be on the coffee table makes a heck of a mess.

Are the walls empty?  Crap!

Gotta get that done right away.

Second best thing about doing that is you can't hear the kids Boom-Boom Honda stereos so easy.

Best thing is being insulated (no more drafts, much lower bills, cooler in summer, warmer in winter...).

Run every wire your grandkids could concieve of ever having a use for before insulating.  Or a couple pipes to fish wires from one place to another.

Plaster or drywall?  Plaster can have cracking issues from the pressure of blowing in, more so if it is bad shape.  I nearly lost my stairway wall with "pros" doing it (they worked behind AL siding for what it cost me for materials, so let them work!).

Be careful if you DIY.  

Old houses could have "panned in" the heating ducts in outside walls.  The heat duct is just the hole in the wall.  Meaning you blow the ducts and furnace full of stuff.

Check the crawl space carefully for holes in the walls out the bottom.  Plumbing, wiring, etc.

Make a good plan before getting the material and machine.

Drilling the holes takes longer.

Double check, twice, with your ouwn tape measure, the size of the machine outlet (where the insulation comes out).

Insulating an older house can leave the attic poorly ventilated.

Use "proper vents" (that's what we call them here), ridge vents, gable vents...

Some vents should not be used with others.  Some are designed to be used with others.

Vinyl or AL or what siding?

Vinyl is easy from the outside because vinyl can be lifted and replaced.  

AL is usually considered best done from the inside, or it has all those holes with plastic plugs.

Wood could use a re-side job by now anyway, so get a hose painter to spray it with decent paint, blue foam it after the tyvec (personal opinion), and have the wood wrapped by a pro (not worth the DIY cost/pain/stiches at $100/hr).

A stove makes heat with power.  Electric is fine.  Gas is cheaper.  The stove is not on so many hours a day.

Not sure my stove works because drive-throughs do the cooking.  LOL

Take a long time to break even with the gas dryer if gas need run.

Hot water heater is another story.  And the hot water heater needs a "blanket" too (big box store).

Local big box place should be able to give regional info, like what to do about the crawl space...

Much of their Big Box training and data is outdated.  

A guy tried to talk me out of spending $150 on insulation because of "time to payback".  How long does it take to save $150 at 2% average savings per month?  LOL

Plus it is just a lot more comfortable year round.

Gas heat is cheaper.  If it is available.  Most places.

In 1976 my parents had an $1100+ electric heat bill.  Figure that one with inflation!  It was the same year I learned about wood stoves, and how an ax worked on sweat but without a cord or gasoline.

G-

[bob g]

you might check other houses in your area before you blow in insulation into the walls if you are thinking about doing so.

here in the wet pacific nw, older homes with wood siding will forever have paint peeling problems because there is no vapor barrier with blown in insulation, the moisture pushes the paint off in sheets.

there might also be issues with mold buildup in damp climates as well without a vapor barrier.

i have to agree, every watt you can conserve is equal to 10 watts or maybe much more in generation capacity.

scheduling your loads to take advantage of alternative sources of energy also seems prudent to most folks. if its windy do the wash, if no wind don't wash that day

that sort of thing.

the more successful you are at scheduling the more modest your system need be.

bob g

[dynaman]

 As a home energy rater I can tell you that in the vast majority of homes the biggest bang you can get for your money is to seal up air leaks. It is one of the cheapest fixes and will usually save you far more than adding insulation does. Buildings can have complex energy problems, and fixing one problem incorrectly can often cause another. I would check with your local utility. More and more they are offering Free or low cost energy audits. They will use a blower door and gather information on your home's construction figure in your utility rates, then calculate energy losses in your home and give you a list of the most cost effective solutions. This can save you thousands in the long run. Too many times I have seen people do  things without researching them, like replacing windows thinking they are going to save big money, only to find out that the payback is 20 to 30 years.

[hvirtane]

"people do  things without researching them"

I've seen this, too.

There are devices, which can measure, how much heat is leaking out of each place on the walls and the windows. It is best to do some measurements.

I don't think that a new stove would help much conserving energy. Stoves are very simple things, which use just resistors to convert electricity into heat energy. They have not developed much during the years.

Refrigerators and freezers are a bit different and much more complex. But even with them the important thing is that their doors are in good conditions so that there are no air leaks. It is as well important that they have got thick insulations on the walls.

Some of the new machines are much better than old ones, but much of cheap crap is nowadays sold with high prices (cheating people), because energy conversion is now important and in fashion.

- hv