Energy Conservation Projects for your House?

[PastTense]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[waynokakid]

Here is an interesting site I found on just that. Lots of energy saving projects. BuildItSolar: Solar energy projects for Do It Yourselfers to save money and reduce pollution

 

[Carl_NH]

Installed a new Buderus GB125 Boiler with indirect hot water tank to replace 30 YO oil boiler for our forced hot water heating and domestic hot water.

Previsous years 900 gal oil in 07/08 and 890 08/09 and same period 09/10 with new system used 600 gal - so 300 gal saving @ $2.50 or $750 annually. Also tax credit for the new boiler for this year will add another $1500.

 

[AHNC]

Installed a new Buderus GB125 Boiler with indirect hot water tank to replace 30 YO oil boiler for our forced hot water heating and domestic hot water.

Previsous years 900 gal oil in 07/08 and 890 08/09 and same period 09/10 with new system used 600 gal - so 300 gal saving @ $2.50 or $750 annually. Also tax credit for the new boiler for this year will add another $1500.

When you consider the difference in btu/per gallon (oil 140,000/lp 92,000/NG 100,000) your fuel saving is even more significant.

 

[forgeblast]

With us i put a lot more insulation in the attic, added a floor (in the attic) and will eventually be putting on a metal roof.
We also plan on replacing the doors to the house. With the rebates it seemed now is the time.

 

[magicheater]

ANY energy saving upgrade is good. Some payback more than others. Some just make life more comfortable. This is the last year of the 30% tax incentive so now would be the time. I have considered putting in a gas boiler for my in-floor heating system (sand beds) to augment my wood boiler. Use would be seldom and more for the transition times and going away in the winter.

 

[OlderToday]

If you have an older home (20+ years?) look into "air sealing" your home as one of the first items. The return on investment is one of the best bangs for the buck.

I live in Columbus Ohio and had Columbia Gas of Ohio do a Home Energy Audit, which cost me only $50 (since I use over 1000 CCF/year) for about 3-4 hours of their time. The best test they did was the Blower Door Test, which showed I had a typical old leaky home (built in 1962), and it was not mostly from the windows. Their computer estimated the cost to seal would be about $800-$1000 to contract out with an ROI of only 3-4 years, and that estimate was for gas, not the electric used for cooling in the summer. Adding an additional 6" of attic insulation would cost about $1000 (contracted out price), but the ROI would be over 9 years.

One item they also checked was furnace draft, they make sure if you do seal your home, the draft would still work and not kill you from the carbon monoxide.

Bet you can guess what's one of the first items on my list to do or get done!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

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

I've seen the ads for the GE water heater with the heat pump on top. Just remember the heat pump is displacing heat from your house into that water, i.e. cooling your house with the water, so your house heating system has to do more work. I'm sure GE isn't including that number in their efficiency numbers.

 

[AHNC]

Having run the 18 yr remodel gamut on siding, windows, wrap, insulation, weatherstripping, etc I am now trying to reduce lighting expense with flourescent and looking into LEDs

ON the mechanical side I have my oversized central boiler being replaced by a Rinnai Q85s, with individual system temp settings for the radiant (bathrooms and kitchen) and the rest of the higher temp baseboard. My primary heat has been my Rinnai EX22 direct vent heater. While we have 3000 sq ft we live in about 750 so the EX22 handles that nicely.

I have added a Fujitsu mini-split heat pump ( tax credit qualified and a local $500 rebate)in the common area and have been very pleased with the result both for heating and cooling. I'm doing a 4 evaporator system for the rest of the hosue this spring, so I will have boiler/heat pump combo and run the hp as much as possible.

For hot water I have a Rinnai RC98HPi condensing on demand water heater, which qualifies for the up to $1,500 tax credit and a local $700 rebate.

I represent both Rinnai and Fujitsu in my business, so bias noted...but they are both excellent!

 

[captin_insano]

I'm in the middle of building an addition on the home with an indoor pool. Once its done I'm building an open to atmosphere (not pressurized) hot water furnace that will be in an out building away from the home. It will heat the pool, hot tub and the hot water year round and I'm going to try to run it to the dryer too. I have a heat exchanger that I plan to build into a plenum routed to the air intake on the dryer. Its a good thing I enjoy cutting wood, I'm going to burn a bunch of it but my cost savings will be huge. I figure by the time I retire I'll have saved almost enough for retirement! :laughing:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I've put in more insulation, and will put in a geothermal system once my installer gets off his computer and starts working

 

[marchse]

yeah, i would like to do it for my house...
thanks for all here who have posted very good tips and provided useful info.


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