The Lean, Green Scene

If you think it’s impossible to design a completely self-sufficient home, it’s not.

(zeroHouse was designed by Scott Specht, Architect. Rights to the image above belong to them and I hope they don’t mind my using it in this post.)

zeroHouse generates its own electricity, collects its own water, and processes its own waste. Almost sounds too good to be true, but it’s not. Follow the link on the photo above to learn more about it.

We went on vacation for a couple of days, this weekend. The cheap bastard, energy  efficient miser in me was very pleased I was somewhere else burning someone else’s electricity. : )

Unfortunately, I noticed it also raises my plastic bag count. Everywhere we stopped gave me a plastic bag. Every roadside stop and pretty much every purchase brought a plastic bag with it.

The plastic bag footprint is now 192.

Just like the ocean, my home has distinct and noticeable thermoclines. This time of year, especially at night, it’s most pronounced. Down in the basement, it’s icy cold, and on the first floor it’s perfectly comfortable. Or it would be if the top floor wasn’t so hot. The top floor, the home’s third distinct thermocline, gets hot and tends to stay that way, so my wife likes to turn down the a/c at night, which means the first floor is cold at night.

I’m not sure if this is a Holmes on Homes problem or simply the fact that the a/c unit is trying to force air up 3 floors. I’ll ask the HVAC guy about it when he comes out. That won’t be for a couple of weeks, now – the HVAC company had to reschedule.

The dog days of August come early to the DC area. Memorial Day weekend pretty much marks the beginning. The days were hot and humid. It was just a little warning from Mother Nature that summer was upon us. We had the a/c running most of the weekend.

Not all of June will be like this. June is usually off-and-on in DC: Sometimes it’s nice and sometimes it’s grotesque. Every time that a/c comes on, now, I think of dollars going out the door. Still, I’d rather be comfortable.

We have an HVAC guy coming out in a few weeks. We have some things he’s going to do, some standard maintenance stuff to make sure the a/c is working efficiently. I’m all atingle. : )

Actually, I’m finally going to get a programmable thermostat installed. This hasn’t been a high priority for me. Since my wife and I both work at home we can more or less monitor the thermostat ourselves. Still we can’t be awake all the time and it will be nice to have the thermostat manage the temperature in the house when were asleep or just not around.

On another note, we started using the a/c this week, so this couldn’t have come at a better time.

The plastic bag footprint is now 175.

The latest electric bill came late last week. More good news. My energy saving measures seem to be effective. After several months, now, the bill shows a consistent reduction in electricity usage from the previous year.

May 2009 1245 kWh

May 2010 1017 kWh

A little better than an 18% reduction in energy usage from last year.

Just an update on the plastic bag footprint, today. It stands at 166. I forgot my reusable bag at the grocery store and ended up with some plastic bags.

Ah. It’s so sad when your friends disappoint you. But what do you call it when your government disappoints you? Par for the course?

It turns out the Energy Star rating doesn’t mean diddly. Well, maybe it meant a little something in the case of doors or windows or light, but otherwise it doesn’t mean much. That Energy Star rating on my new Blue Ray player – Hah! What a lame-o I was for actually thinking the US Government might actually care about doing a good job when energy conservation was concerned.

The Government Accounting Office, investigating activities at the Energy Star office, managed to get a design for a gasoline-powered alarm clock approved as an Energy Star appliance. The application was bogus. I wonder if I can get my left-handed smoke shifter Energy Star approved…

You can read about it in this New York Times piece:  U.S. Tightens Requirements for Energy Star Certification, by MATTHEW L. WALD and LESLIE KAUFMAN.

New Energy Star regulations are suppose to be in place by the fall. Sure.

Okay, the focus of NRDC’s article is really about reducing carbon dioxide emission from your home, but the same principals hold. I’ve quoted their list in this post. I hope they don’t mind. The original article, CO2 Smackdown, Step 5: Low-Cost Cooling, by Paul Randle, can be viewed here. There’s lots of good stuff on the NRDC site. You should go check it out when you have a chance.

1) Tell your A/C what to do: a programmable thermostat lets you save money by not cooling your house when you’re not around to enjoy it. Set the temperature at 80°F when you know you’ll be away and set it at least 2 degrees higher than you would normally—a shift from 72°F to 74°F in the summer will save 366 pounds of CO2/year and $28.56 on your annual energy bill.

A programmable thermostat is a great idea. I’ve mentioned this before, but I haven’t installed mine, yet. It’s on the docket.

2) Seal, weatherstrip and insulate your home to keep hot air out and cold air in. As recommended previously in our CO2 Smackdown series, weather stripping and talking doors, windows and any cracks or openings and walls will save about 225 pounds of CO2 and $17.71 from AC use in the summer.

It is also important to insulate around window air conditioners which can lose cool air to be outside particularly if the unit has extended plastic “wings” to fill in the window frame. Insulating kits for window air conditioners are available at hardware stores for approximately $10.

Remember to clean or check the conditioner filter once a month as any buildup will restrict airflow and make it less efficient.

Do this, but I could be more diligent about it.

3) Seal and wrap your ducts: the ductwork that conveys your cool air from the HVAC to the rest of your house may be leaking air at losing efficiency. This can result in a 10% “leaky duct fee” on your power bill. Get your ducts professionally sealed and have been insulated properly. If possible, have your ducts moved inside the conditioned space. You may save 305 pounds of CO2/year and $23.82 on your energy bill annually.

This one sounds expensive, but I’ll check into it.

4) Windows: After weatherstripping your windows, consider adding low-emissive film to the panes to reduce solar gain. This will allow you to reduce the heat entering your home for a fraction of the cost of replacing your windows. If you decide to invest in new windows, seek out the lowest available U-factor, which measures how much heat can escape, and the lowest solar heat gain coeffiecient (SHGC), which measures how much heat from sunlight is transmitted through a window. A 30% of federal tax credit is available for windows with U-factors and SHGCs of 0.30 or less each. SHGC is most important in sunny climates and on the sunny side of your home.

Got the windows covered. Yea!

5) Start cooling from the outside: awnings, shutters and overhangs will provide a good defense against the summer sun, but you may also use trees and tall bushes to beautify your view and reduce the sunlight entering your windows.

Seriously? Okay, I’ll get right to work growing those trees.

6) Close the blinds: shutting curtains, shades or blinds on the sunny side of the house can make a big difference particularly blinder venetian shades with highly reflective light colors can reduce heat build up in your home.

Yep. Mentioned in the Dominion list. Good idea. I’ll do this more often, too.

7) Let in fresh air: When it’s not too hot out, pull in cool air by cracking open lower story windows just one or 2 inches and place portable and window mounted fans and upstairs windows facing outward to remove the air that rises due to convection your home. This will create a stronger draft throughout the house that will keep the air cool without the use of AC.

Come live in DC and see if this still makes your list. I welcome every opportunity to let the fresh air in in DC:  That amounts to about 2 days. (Only a slight exaggeration.) DC doesn’t have too many nice days, but I take advantage of them when they happen.

Install ceiling fans: fans use 10% of the energy consumed by AC and can make a room feel 10° cooler. They are even relatively easy to install yourself, as shown in our DIY installation article. Replacing your AC with ceiling fan could save you up to $215 and 1.35 tons of CO2 annually.

Yeah, got this covered. DIY is nice, but maybe have a pro do it if you’re even slightly uncomfortable doing this.

10) Install an attic fan: whole house fans that remove hot air from throughout the house only provide substantial relief at night and in low humidity. A cheaper option is an attic fan which can save up to 10% on AC costs—that’s $24 and 300 pounds of CO2 annually.

Another great, really expensive idea. I have an attic fan, it’s dysfunctional, coming on at odd times, but I do have one. (Did anyone notice the list skipped number 9? It’s like that on the NRDC site. /shrug)

11) Upgrade your AC: Whether central air or window-mounted AC, if your cooling system is several years old you can most likely save on your energy bill by upgrading to new, more efficient models. The most efficient models use inverter technology which also makes them very quiet. 30% tax credits are available for units 16 SEER and better. Depending on the age of your current unit, Energy Star-rated air conditioning could save you 10% to 30% of your cooling costs, or up to $71.52 and 916 lbs of CO2 annually.

Again, potentially expensive.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my electric company’s website, www.dom.com, actually has some energy saving tips. Here’s what they recommend for saving energy during the summer months (Except for my comments, this all verbatim from their website. I hope they don’t mind.) :

1. Raise your thermostat to 78º. This is the number one way to conserve energy.
   That’s not going to happen. That’s a tad too warm, but I have raised the temperature to 74. We’ll see if that’s too uncomfortable as the humid DC weather sets in.
   
2. When you are away from home for more than eight hours, raise the thermostat setting and you can expect to see a 1% savings for each degree of setback. This will reduce the amount of energy used to cool your home while you’re away. You can learn more about your thermostat online by visiting the U.S. Department of Energy website.
   Good advice, but I work from home.
3. Keep shades closed when the air conditioner is on. Sunny windows account for 40 percent of unwanted heat and can make your air conditioner work two to three times harder.
   Hmm. Hadn’t thought of that. Not a bad idea.
4. Check and clean filters. Cleaning and replacing air conditioning filters monthly allows the system to run more efficiently.
   Another good idea.
5. Install ceiling fans. Don’t underestimate the importance of ceiling fans. Moving air over the body provides a cooling effect. The use of ceiling fans can mean savings of around 25% on cooling costs and can make the temperature seem 10 degrees cooler.
   I have ceiling fans! Never realized they saved that much energy.
6. Make sure ceiling fans are blowing down. Most fans have a switch to change the fan direction. Make sure ceiling fans are blowing downward (in a counter-clockwise direction) to send air past your body.
7. Run appliances with large energy use late in the evening. Use the dishwasher and clothes washer late in the evening. When used during the day, these appliances produce additional heat, causing your air conditioner to work harder.
   Oh. Never thought of that one, either. I’ll start doing that more often, too.
   
8. Use cold water to wash dishes and clothes. This will save on water heating costs.
   Nope. Not going to happen. I like my clothes and dishes clean. Colors I’ll do in cold.
   
9. Unplug equipment not in use. Electric chargers, televisions and audio/video equipment use electricity and produce heat even when they are not in use. Running an older refrigerator can use up to three times the energy of a modern one. Unplug any appliance when it’s not in use.
   Already do that, within reason, of course:  I’m not unplugging the TV. Gripe, it took me forever to get it set up the way I like. If I unplug it, I’ll lose all those settings.
   
10. Turn off lights. Turn lights off when exiting a room. Consider replacing incandescent bulbs with energy efficient compact florescent lights (CFLs). And remember to recycle CFLs whenever possible.
    Yep. Know this. Got it covered.