So… At this point, I find I’m looking around for more things to do, more energy efficient measures I can take.
So far, I’ve replaced most of the light bulbs. There are still a couple I’ve discovered, hiding in plain sight, that I can replace. There’s are a couple in the bathrooms. I still need to replace the ones in the dining room. Just need to get those chandelier CFLs for that.
I’ve cut back a lot on our energy use just by being more energy aware. I don’t leave a string of lights on as I pass from room to room, and I turn out lights I used to turn on at night because “I needed the extra light.” All of this without ruining my eyes or stubbing my toes in the dark.
I’ve lowered the thermostat in the winter and raised it a little in the summer. That’s worked out well, too.
I wasn’t able to install the astragal, because it didn’t fit on my french doors. So astragal didn’t save the day. In fact, there’s not much I can do with those french doors, probably one of my major sources of heating and cooling loss. So that one is still on the agenda. I’m going to ask my architect brother-in-law if he has any thought. The problem was one of the doors has a molding that would prevent the astragal from fitting snugly.
At this point, I’m searching around for other ideas. If anyone has any, please post them.
DC weather is nothing if not inconsistent. Today, it’s nice and comfortable, again. The temperature and humidity are just about perfect.
Over time these temperature fluctuations should even out, so the real proof will be in the energy savings I achieve, or don’t achieve, over the course of several months.
You gotta love DC weather. Most of last month, most of last week, the weather was sooo nice. Temperatures in the 70s. Not too humid. Not quite perfect, San Diego-type weather, but pretty nice for DC. After all, we did have those miserably hot and humid days at the beginning of April. Well, now, it hot, humid and disgusting. And the a/c is on. We’ll see if I can keep up my little streak of monthly reductions in energy use. We’ll see.
My 7 year old Panasonic DVD player died the other day. Perfect excuse to buy a Blue Ray player, something the cheap bastard in me wasn’t going to do as long as my DVD player lived. (No sharp or blunt instruments of destruction were used to speed up it’s demise.)
So I’m thinking, I’ll just get another Panasonic and I find a nice one online. I check out the specs and everything, and, being all Mister-Tree-Hugger, save-the-planet guy, I check to make sure it was Energy Star rated. It’s not. The player had some nice reviews, it was a Panasonic, which I had a pretty good experience with, but it wasn’t Energy Star rated. I bought a Sony. I went with another quality player that was Energy Star rated.
The big Energy Star feature on the Sony player? A feature that puts the player into a sleep mode to save electricity. I suspect this is a piece of coding that cost about 9 cents as an initial cost. I don’t know why the Panasonic wasn’t Energy Star rated. Maybe they have this feature and don’t bother to submit for the rating. Probably not. I do know the lack of the Energy Star rating cost them a sale.
Consumers everywhere have become more energy aware. At the very least, they’re aware that energy costs them money. Manufacturers who chose to ignore consumers’ desires for greener products are just costing themselves business.
My Sony DVD player seems pretty nice. I set it up to go to sleep when I’m not using it.
Okay, we had some great success in March. A 25% reduction in electricity usage is pretty sweet. But how was the weather in March? Maybe it was a little milder than usual. Well, let’s check in with our buddies at the National Weather Service.
Average temperature in March was 51.2. That’s 4.7 degrees warmer than usual.
The extra little bit of warmth probably helped with the electric bill. It wasn’t too hot or too cold, so we didn’t have to run the heat or the a/c. So maybe our energy saving measures weren’t the primary reason we did so well in March, but whatever the reason we’ll take it.
Plastic bag footprint: 140, now. The Washington Post and a couple of other stray bags.
Guess what? It’s lower. Our electricity usage is lower this month than it was a year ago. Guess what? It’s a lot lower.
April 2009 – 1710 kWh used
April 2010 – 1283 kWh used
Great googly moogly! That’s a 25% reduction in energy usage!!! Just by changing out some lights, being more energy aware, and implementing a few painless energy saving measure.
Here’s a pretty good ad about keeping the San Francisco Bay clear of plastic bags. There’s a cool part at the end where the woman pucks up a paper bag. Really. Well, I thought it was cool.
(The above image was found on CreativeCommons. Uploaded by mosshouse5.)
The small white box in the room above is a tankless water heater. They’re obviously much smaller than the traditional tank water heaters. Basically, they heat the water on demand, unlike the traditional tank systems that heat the water up and store it until you need it.
There’s a certain tendency to think the latest and greatest of anything must be better. But here’s what the DOE has to say about tankless water heaters:
“These water heaters provide hot water on demand without a tank, like a demand water heater, but because they rely on the furnace or boiler to heat the water directly, tankless coil water heaters work most efficiently during cold months when the heating system is used regularly. That’s why they can be an inefficient choice for many homes, especially for those in warmer climates.”
So basically they’re a great option for cold weather climes, but they’re not great energy savers elsewhere.
Here’s what Energy Star has to say about both tank and tankless water heaters:
“Both electric storage tank and tankless water heaters can not earn the ENERGY STAR because they have limited energy savings potential. The most efficient electric storage tank water heaters on the market have an Energy Factor of 0.95, which represents 4.8% savings over the minimum federal standard (Energy Factor = 0.904). Electric tankless water heaters fare only slightly better. The best performing electric tankless water heaters have an Energy Factors of 0.99, which represents a savings of 8.7% in comparison to the Federal Standard (Energy Factor = 0.904).
This technology has little to no room for improvement. The perfect electric (storage tank or tankless) water heater could not exceed an Energy Factor of 1.0 due to this technology’s physical limitations.”
So whether it’s tankless or the old-fashioned tank, there’s little room for improvement.
Or is there? This is a hybrid water heater:
The water heater above is a Rheem, hybrid water heater, a cross between tankless and tank water heaters. You can read more about it here. It is Energy Star rated, it will save you money on your energy bill, and it qualifies for energy tax credits. It’s not cheap at $1500, but with tax credits and potential savings around $280 a year, it can easily pay for itself in 3 or 4 years.
Tankless systems look cool, but hybrids are more energy efficient.
The above tank water heater is what I have in my home and is what’s in the majority of American homes. But times have changed, of course, and so have water heaters.Today, many people are considering tankless water heaters. Are they worth it?
Tomorrow – Yes, really. – we’ll look at the new tankless water heaters and the advantages and disadvantages of using them.
