Green Home

Save Water This Holiday

scleaver — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:12:55 -0500

This holiday, for the eco-minded Mr. Fix Its, or for yourself if you’re looking to save water and money, check out the Niagara Conservation’s Water EcoKit to reduce water consumption (recommended by ReallyNatural.com).

Inside you’ll find, an Earth Massage Showerhead that provides good force at low pressure, and saves 40% more energy and water. A kitchen swivel aerator for your kitchen sink and two bathroom aerators. A toilet tank bank and toilet water saver help reduce the amount of water you’re using, up to ½ gallon per flush, that’s up to 2,700 gallons each year.

And, to help you seal up any leaks or other drips, the kit includes a flow meter bag to help you identify where water is being wasted in your house, leak detection tablets, and tape to seal water leaks.

Buy the Niagara Conservation Water EcoKit at Amazon's Home Improvement section.

Photo from Riverina Water Council.

What happens at a Home Energy Audit?

ellen — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:57:00 -0500

Jimmy and John from ASK Construction came over to do a Home Performance Energy Audit (a comprehensive energy and safety inspection) of my home.

First they did a fairly quick survey inside and out to determine the overall volume of the house, including the size of all the windows and doors.

The Audit was divided into 2 parts: Energy Efficiency and Health|Safety.

The items they looked for in the Health|Safety category are fairly obvious but are often overlooked including:

Adequate Carbon Monoxide (CO) coverage: in addition to having a sufficient number of detectors, each needs to be located such that if one of them is activated, all the occupants will hear the alarm, no matter where they are in the house. Suggested locations are: at the top of the Basement stairs in case there is a problem with the mechanical equipment and just outside the kitchen because when you turn on your oven, carbon monoxide levels of 700-2000 parts per million can accumulate until they are vented away by your hood exhaust.

They checked all the mechanical equipment in the house to see if there was any carbon monoxide (CO) leakage (there wasn't any), and that there is adequate fresh air intake and exhaust (there's plenty).

They checked to make sure all mechanical gas-fired equipment was enclosed in a fire-rated room (this item needs a little work).

They checked that the bathroom exhaust fans were working properly. An adequate bathroom exhaust fan should run for 20 minutes after a shower to remove the moisture from the room. (Ours are pretty good - loud but powerful).

At the Basement, where we have a de-humidifier running all year round, they tried to determine where the moisture was entering from (I think it's from along the side garden wall - more difficult to fix than if it was just the rear wall at the backyard) and we had a long discussion about what kind of exhaust fan to install.

Now for Energy Efficiency (!)

Heating/Cooling system: First they had me turn the thermostats for the furnace way up so they could check if there was any leakage in the air ducts. Turns out that there was a 50% drop in pressure when they added up the measured supply of air in each room. Unfortunately, these ducts are concealed in the ceiling - this wastes a lot of energy in both the heating and cooling seasons because a lot of conditioned air is wasted heating and cooling the duct enclosure so expect to see big holes in the ceiling sometime soon so we can get in there and repair the ducts.

Air Infiltration: Jimmy and John tested all the windows to make sure they were operational and then closed up all the doors and windows for the blower door test - that's what is going on in the picture above. The idea is to close up the house and then measure the volume of air that leaks in from openings in the building envelope and locate the source of those air leaks so that they can be corrected. The red fabric shown in the picture is stretched over a temporary frame in the door (you can sort of see the digital gauge attached to the edge of the door that measures the air flow). Jimmy said the air leakage in the house didn't seem so bad but he wanted to do the calculations back in his office to confirm.

We have an opening in the ceiling in one of the bedroom closets in order to access some valves and it was totally screwing up the test so they taped the door closed to get the proper seal. Apparently, it's openings like this that can suck out your heat in the winter and conditioned air in the summer. Closing up this opening will be a high priority.

Windows: John mentioned that our aluminum windows with double-pane glass, circa 1990's could be improved. I know that vinyl or wood windows are more efficient (vinyl and wood are better insulators than aluminum) and new double-pane glass comes with Low-E coatings and can be filled with argon glass for added efficiency but these types of new windows are VERY expensive and I don't think they will fit in our budget for a while. In the meantime, we will invest in high-efficiency double-honeycomb shades to better insulate at the windows.

Insulation: John made a small hole in the wall adjacent to the garden and found that it was PACKED with fiberglass insulation. This is very good news.

Costs:

As for costs, the audit cost $350 which I believe will be refundable by New York State's Home Performance with Energy Star Program if we do more than $2,000 worth of weatherization work (which seems likely).

Having completed the audit, we will now be eligible to take advantage of the incentives offered by the program which can be up to 20 per cent cash back on the total amount of eligible measures, plus federal and state tax credits. The whole point of this exercise is to improve the efficiency of our home so we should also expect to see a large cost savings in our heating and cooling costs.

I expect the full report in about 10 days, after which we will start the corrective work to repair all deficient conditions.

This was a very interesting experience and I would highly recommend others to investigate the efficiency of their home.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

We used wind power for 1 year

ellen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:03:41 -0400

We received this certificate from Con Ed the other day certifying that we purchased wind power for the year January - December 2007 (I can't imagine why we are receiving this in October but I digress).

The first thing I did was log into Con Ed's website to download our usage for the past 2 years so I could see how much the premium was but only Con Ed's delivery charges were shown, not the actual cost of power so there is no real analysis possible.

However, I recall that I agreed to a premium of $.09/kWh for wind power so the premium for 450 kWh is $40.50. Not a bad price to pay to ensure clean emission-free power for the future.

If you want to sign up for green power, there are 2 options in New York, hydro (65%) /wind (35%) and 100% wind which is what we signed up for. Both are eligible to avoid NYS sales tax, which offsets some of the premium. Be advised, though that the prices quoted do NOT include Con Ed's delivery charges and other taxes and surcharges. This is from Con Ed Solutions:

ConEdison Solutions is leading the way in promoting pollution-free electricity by offering WIND and GREEN Power - clean, 100% renewable power. Instead of drawing on traditional power sources, such as nuclear power and fossil fuel sources, GREEN Power is generated from regional wind and low-impact hydropower sources. GREEN Power is composed of 65% run-of-the-river hydro and 35% wind power. See content label WIND Power is composed of electricity exclusively generated from 100% wind power. The benefit of clean energy is that it produces none of the detrimental environmental effects associated with electricity production that results in air emissions..

If you are a NYS customer of Con Ed, go to Con Ed Solutions and sign up.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

Remote Energy Monitors

ellen — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:40:54 -0400

I have posted about remote energy monitors before (click here and here). Several studies have shown that average energy users can reduce their consumption by at least 15% if they can be made aware of their usage in real time.

In addition to the Power Cost Monitor, I have recently come across 2 additional models with various features. Please note that I haven't test driven these yet. I'm comparing based on available information.

The Energy Detective (TED)

and the

Power Cost Monitor

both cost approx. $140 and can interface with a computer to allow you chart your usage over time.

A new model by Black and Decker (pictured above) costs less than $100 but does not allow interface with a computer so the information is available but a little harder to analyze.

None of these models require an electrician to install them, you just install them at the glass cover of your meter (if it's the kind that has the spinning disks) or you can plug them into newer electrical meters which have a port for this kind of device.

While initially I was really excited that this kind of device could be used for anyone who pays their own electric bill, it seems that folks who live in big apartment buildings may have a harder time with these because of the long distance between the apartment and the meter. I plan to install a few of these on projects in the next few months. I'll keep you posted.

If you have used one and have comments, please let us know!

Ellen

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

Free Energy Audit

ellen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:13:44 -0400

At our request, an experienced and knowledgeable auditor from National Grid (formerly Keyspan) came over to do a free energy audit. We walked through my entire house and reviewed all the potential for saving money through weatherization. I learned a few interesting things.

Basically NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research & Development Association) has money available for very low-interest loans (they'll write down up to 6% of the loan) and rebates up to $750 for weatherization work. The problem is that not enough New Yorkers are taking advantage of these programs so they launched this free energy audit program to promote participation. You can find out more information at www.getenergysmart.com

The general principle of weatherization is: Seal up air leaks and insulate the entire house. Start from the top and work your way down. Based on the visit, I changed the plan of the work I want to do in our house.

The original plan was 4-fold:

1. Roof: The area below the roof and above the 2nd floor ceiling is called a cock-loft. It is currently uninsulated and unvented. I want to blow in insulation and vent it to prevent mold build-up and heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. The Auditor confirmed that this is definitely the highest priority. I want to get this work done soon before the heating season arrives.

2. Exterior Wall: We have an approximately 800 SF of North-Facing wall which faces a community garden. It is brick construction with a layer of stucco, now cracked in many places. There are 3 windows on the wall which will need to be dealt with carefully. Our idea is to insulate the wall and paint it so that it can receive a mural painted by a community group. Surprisingly, the Auditor said that this was much less important in terms of heat loss and heat gain. Good thing because this work would be the most expensive of the bunch.

3. Basement ventilation: We installed a fan a few years ago to ventilate the Basement. Unfortunately, due to a mis-communication with the contractor, we ended up with the kind of vent that has a cover manually controlled by a chain which basically means we have an 8 inch diameter hole in the Basement wall. Yes, this is something the Auditor agreed we should do. It is important to remove moisture to prevent mold and mildew build-up year round. He also pointed out that we need better Fresh Air Intake for our boiler.

4. Boiler Room: The boiler room is located adjacent to the exterior wall and is completely uninsulated. The plan is to insulate the room as well as the boiler, hot water heater and all exposed pipes. The Auditor said that the amount of heat we are losing through the wall to the outside is negligible and since the Boiler Room is located at the Basement, most of the heat migrates out to the occupied rooms in the Basement or up to the main living floor and can be used. It would be somewhat difficult to install sheetrock at this wall anyway because there are pipes and valves adjacent to the wall which would interfere with the studs and there really isn't any available insulation you can install in a boiler room that is fire resistant without being enclosed in sheetrock.

Remember how excited I was when we installed a jacket at our hot water heater? Turns out we didn't really need it. If you put your hand on top of the hot water heater and it feels cool, you don't need to add insulation, it is internally insulated.

5. When we ask the contractor to install the insulation at the attic space, I'll also ask him to insulate the walls and ceiling of our front room and kitchen which were built years ago as additions to the original house and are really cold and uncomfortable in the winter.

One very interesting thing I learned is that it is extremely inefficient to install high-hats (recessed lighting fixtures) at the top floor of a house because each one acts as a little chimney, pulling heat away from the living spaces and into the attic or directly out of the house, even if you have CFL's in them.

In all it was a great visit, and we got 2 free compact fluorescent bulbs to boot!

For all the posts about the Insulation Project, click here.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

Want cleaner indoor air?

ellen — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:50:18 -0400

A short post today.

Click HERE to see 37(!) very good reasons to take your shoes off at home.

I never thought of #13 (yuck) or #25 before but I really do like the idea of taking off your shoes to set the psychological stage for entry into your home environment.

By the way, you can buy the cute little tag shown above here. Now to find the shoe rack.

Ellen

Improve indoor air quality at home

ellen — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:54:49 -0400

The number one way to improve the quality of your indoor air is to remove your shoes before entering your home. Think about it. All the toxins and crap (literally) that you track in on the bottom of your shoes eventually turns to dust and settles on everything you own and becomes inhaled and ingested. Gross.

It is now my habit to remove my shoes when I come home. I have to say though, that I hate walking around barefoot inside, especially since I live with a 4-year-old who is a fairly sloppy eater and a husband who is a fairly enthusiastic cook. The floor is often wet or sticky.

I searched for and found perhaps the greatest green product known to man...mops on slippers called Slipper Genies, I bought ours at Sur La Table. The mop bottoms come off so you can wash them.

One big item on my greening my home project is a good-looking, versatile, shoe rack. I haven't been able to find one, I may just have to design one myself. In the meantime, we'll have to endure the mess at the front door.

Very efficient: making a mess and mopping it up at the same time.

Fun for the whole family!

Insulation Project: Wrapping the Hot Water Heater

ellen — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:54:07 -0400

This was so ridiculously easy, I can't believe we didn't do it before.

This is the hot water heater before:

for the "after" picture, see above:

Make sure you leave any air intakes and valves uncovered (notice the perforated vent at the bottom - it's pretty clear on the instructions)...and wear gloves to prevent splinters from the fiberglass.

You can see two choices of hot water heater insulation at Low Impact Living. I went to Lowe's and all they had were the Thermwell R6.7 version (shown on top of the LIL page) which said it could fit up to a 60 gallon tank but it barely fit our 50 gallon tank - it actually didn't completely wrap around the entire tank - but it's pretty close.

We can expect to save from 4% to 9% in water heating costs from this $16.95 installation that took less than 1/2 hour.

Now onto the more difficult stuff.

Insulation Project: Energy Audit

ellen — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:25:00 -0400

We want an official audit of the energy efficiency of our house so we signed up for a free audit by National Grid (the utility formerly known as Keyspan).

I plugged in all the relevant information about our house into National Grid's Home Energy Analyzer. The results are posted above. I don't know if this is a real result or if it's just a Magic 8-ball type of thing that generates similar results for everyone. Regardless, the 3 repairs listed that would generate the most savings are:

"Controlling air leakage" which we are preparing to do along with all the insulation work.

"Replace the heating system" which we are not about to do (we installed radiant heating and an efficient central heating/cooling system a few years ago)

"Install a programmable thermostat" which my husband did about 8 months ago.

So we're doing pretty well. The Audit is scheduled for September 3rd. I'm concerned that we'll "get what we paid for" with a free audit but I plan to review it with some experts who do this for a living and we'll let you know how it rates.

Oddly, improving insulation barely makes the list. Next I'll do the R-value calculations to see how much we can expect to save by doing the insulation work.

Stay tuned.

Growing clean indoor air

ellen — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:27:00 -0400

Sorry if these posts about house plants are about as interesting as watching grass grow. You may recall we bought seeds go grow houseplants which are especially well-suited to removing indoor air toxins. Based on availability, aesthetics and a few other criteria, we decided on a Rubber Tree which is supposed to look like this:

and a Pygmy Palm which is supposed to look like this:

well, after sowing the seeds (you can see all the fun here), and raising them from seedlings:

This is what we ended up with (see picture at the top of this post). They are growing like the weeds they probably are and smell like tomato plants.

Anyone know what they are? I emailed to the company I bought the seeds from.

UPDATE:

Turns out, these are volunteer (probably tomato) plants from the compost. Whatcom is sending us new seeds to try again in clean fill.

Stay tuned.