Sloved the energy shortage problem

[GlueGuy]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

<font color=blue>such a great straightline</font color=blue>

Let me introduce you to my partner Jerry. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif....

Yes, I was just looking at our usage for April/May. We managed to cut back by about 25%. Pretty happy with that result. Wasn't really difficult. Main thing was (1)Switching to CFL lights everywhere it made sense. (2)Paying more attention to turn off lights when you leave a room. (3)Cleaning the coils on the old fridge. I think we might be able to make another big dent by getting a new fridge. Read that a new 20cu.ft. energy saver fridge uses only 50W of electricity. That might be a good deal.

But you're right. Our next door neighbor just installed a bar in their basement. They now have 5 refridgerators running in a house with 2 people (that are not home most of the time). /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif I'd hate to have their electric bill.

Will let everybody know when we go solar. May be getting closer. Neighbor called yesterday with a deal on 65W solar panels for only $150! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif That is less than 1/2 what everyone else is charging! That sounds too good to be true. (and probably is /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif)

The GlueGuy

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

GlueGuy,

What brand of fridge are you considering?. I'm gonna be in the market by September or October. One that only uses 50W sounds pretty good. Can't go to home power production with grid type power requirements /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif. Heard of any low wattage chest type freezers?

SHF

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

Hadn't actually considered a specific brand. My sweetie just picked up the latest Sunset magazine at the store yesterday. It had an article about energy efficient homes, and also gave some tips about the best ways to save energy. That's where they mentioned that the latest energy efficient 20 cu. ft. fridge only uses 50W. That is quite an achievement.

I might just make a stop at one of the appliance stores in the next week or so to see how real that number really is...

The GlueGuy

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

GlueGuy,

I don't think I've seen Sunset magazine. I'll have to look for it. I wonder if they're talking about "Sunfrost" refridgerators. They're supposed to be the most efficient on the planet. But, I don't think they've got a freezer compartment. I've seen kits for them that you can build. Provide your own box and they provide controls, coils, compressors, etc. Keep me posted if you find out anything. My leaning is toward efficiency, and my gut is telling me that efficient homes will carry premium prices in the future.

SHF

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

I think Sunset is only available west of the Rockies. Their motto is "The magazine of western living" or something like that.

The fridge they were talking about sounded like a regular fridge. They said it had an 'on top' freezer section. Don't know though, as they did not mention brand. Just listed this as an example, as if several makes were available.

You may be right about the efficient homes. One of the homes in the article was a super-efficient design. Guy said he spends $3/month on electricity.

The GlueGuy

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

GlueGuy,
I believe in the energy thing this much.

SHF

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

Wow! Is that your place? Besides the partially underground part, what other features does it have?

We are still noodling on re-doing our place. Because of the monster mortgage we already have, I think it will be "some time" before we can actually do it.

The GlueGuy

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

GlueGuy,

2x6 sidewalls. Cement walls are 8" reinforced concrete, 12' high. This allows for a 3' crawl space. You can see the vents in the picture. Crawl space has a slab, lights and GFCI outlets for storage, and will be insulated and drywalled to act as a "heat bank" for the furnace. The exterior of the cement (bermed walls) is covered with 3" of pink foam clear to the bottom of the footing. The foam is covered with diamond mesh and stealth fiber reinforced cement with a top coat of vinyl polymer modified mortar/cement. (Which altered the color so it matched the siding--that was luck, not planning.) The lower floor has one long room in front which is kitchen/dining/living room. The rear has 1 bedroom, 1 bath and a large laundry/pantry. The second floor is 1 bedroom, 1/2 bath and an office. Sidewalls are planned to be R22 and ceilings R44.

The stone wall (so far about 20' of middle completed), will wrap all the way around and be about 130' feet long. It will be 3 tiers high. The part you see in the picture is part of the middle wall. There will be a generator shed and a root cellar built into it. Plenty of stone for it. Got the rockiest piece of ground I ever saw.

The tall front wall up top allows room to retrofit in some solar when the technology catches up with us. The little windows are designed to catch the winter sun and bounce it off the ceiling upstairs providing natural illumination. Also, there are 2 cool tubes in the rear that can be opened and by opening the crawl space access and the upstairs windows, we can suck cool air from the crawl space through the whole house without need of a fan (natural chimney effect).

So far, we've been under construction for 2 years. (It WILL be done this year, my wife says so.) But, we've managed to keep ourselves relatively debt free, with only minor credit card buys when we absolutely have to do it and don't have enough cash. (I guess that's why my car has 309,000 miles on it.) /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif (No, that's because I'm cheap.) /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

This design really fit the place and if we'd got another piece of land I probably wouldn't have done this. The small town we're building near is at the bottom of a valley and my land is on top of the hill above it. Add to that-- everything is wide open field, farms on 4 sides, and the wind comes whippin down the plain. With that dirt bank, and no insulation yet, I've sat in there in windstorms and the only thing you can hear is the little tag on the electric meter going ting, ting. Should help alot on heat because 2/3 of the floorspace is sheltered from the north, west and east. (East side somewhat less so since there's a big ol egress window in the bedroom). I guess I'd better believe in energy efficiency being a selling point, because I've bet an awful lot of money on it! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.

SHF

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

I am truly impressed.

A neighbor built his "earth home" mostly underground (about 60% or so). His house is so efficient that he doesn't even have a furnace. On really cold days, they might just light a fire, but if they cook a pretty good meal, they let the left-over heat from the stove heat the house. Since it has a fair portion above ground, he can still open windows and such to modulate the heat. All in all, a pretty good design. They built it around 20 years ago, and it seems to be doing well.

Good luck on your project. Maybe we will get progress pictures? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

The GlueGuy

 

[ddl]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

We live in a earth contact home and our energy bills are fairly low. In the winter, I just burn wood to heat the house and it is 50 foot from the stove to either end of the house and the stove keeps it about 70 degrees all the time.

Dan l

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

Dan I,

Always glad to meet another caver. Us trogladites gotta stick together. The earth designs have been around for a long time. I helped my buddy build his about 7 or 8 years ago, and watched all his mistakes and tried not to make them myself. My biggest regret was listening to the few subcontractors I've had to hire. I'd planned to hang pex tubing under my floors and heat with a commercial Polaris water heater. But the contractor talked me out of it. So, I have a conventional furnace in the crawl space. The contractor seems to think I'm going to need central air capability. Personally, I don't think that's a necessity. The main floor should moderate its temperature fairly well. Without insulation, it's tough to tell, but I logged winter temps when I was running the wiring and I was definitely getting a consistant gain during the days. So, I expect if the system is working in the winter, it should work in the summer too and keep the living area cool. I'm set up so I can close the second floor off and only heat the main floor. Just in case times get tough. We're also setting up for multi-fuel, outdoor boiler, wood pellets and LPGas. The site is always windy and I need to measure and log it to see if we can handle a couple of windmills. (I like LOTS of options.)

When I started this, I planned a cheap project. As I've gone along, it's wound up being comparable to conventional housing, with me doing a large portion of the labor. But, I've got some nice features that I'm hoping will seriously cut energy costs. If the cost to heat continues to rise, it will become a major factor in the decision to buy a house. The only down side. Lender's don't like earth homes. According to FNMA (the major secondary market lender), they do not want "basement houses" or "non-grid" homes. Which is why I have a crawl space and why I will ALWAYS have a power line from the electric company. (Even if all it does is run the yard light). /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Glueguy,

You can count on more pictures. I've been taking them real regular. Maybe I can get myself a nice magazine article outta this. Biggest downside to building this has been the gawkers. When we were framing, people were driving down the road so slow it looked like a parking lot. Wish they woulda stopped. I always need volunteers. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

SHF

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

My neighbor's place was in a magazine article way back when. It was a pretty novel concept when he started, but it was kind of an outgrowth of his degree in environmental science. I think it has worked out better than even he expected. I'll see if I can dig up references to it somewhere...

The GlueGuy

 

[heehaw]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

i have gone thru almost every post here, and the one thing that seems to be important about energy/gas prices, at least to me, didn't show up, or at least i didn't find it. the meeting clinton had with opec about a year or so ago, when he told them to raise the oil prices. I saw the media mention this, and actually play a recording of the meeting, one time. i couldn't believe my ears when i heard it.
heehaw

 

[skent]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

Ok. We see that over the past year or two gas has increased, What? say 70% or there abouts. My question (And I'm sure those wiser than I may know) is why hasn't the price of a quart of petrolium based motor oil gone up. I'm STILL paying what I paid 10 years ago for motor oil. Seems to me, if the cost of Arab Oil has risen that much, all oil petrolium products should be taking a hit.

Likewise I know for a fact that Maryland has some of the highest State Tax on gas/diesel. If I go over the border to Gettysburg PA I can pay (on an average) of 0.15 gal less across the board.

Steve

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

Just read about a new web site (but forgot it already /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif) that lists the best/worst places to buy gasoline. You punch in a zip code, and it produces a list. They use 12,000 volunteers around the country to report prices...

The GlueGuy

 

[skent]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

Yeah, I heard that on the radio yesterday, but every time I hear of a dot com I wanna visit, I always manage to forget it by the time I get to a puter.

Steve

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

Found it on Google.

Here 'tis

For those link impaired, it's http://www.gaspricewatch.com/

The GlueGuy

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Re: Solved the energy shortage problem

Heehaw,

I think he told them to raise prices to help cover the cost of that vitamin/chemical weapons plant we blew up. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Wait till we have to pay for the Japanese trawler and the Chinese jet. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

SHF