And you don't live in a 2400 sf house in this climate using a heat pump for heating and cooling. Nor do I use Coleman lanterns for light...
I cut our utility bills down about 10-15% or more by going on a room by room sweep of sealing every possible crack, joint, opening, etc., that existed. That's mainly the small gaps between the junction boxes and drywall. After a week or two of work and a couple of tubes of high quality latex caulk, I pretty much eliminated all exfiltration from the house. I then installed a solar attic fan to increase airflow through the attic space. Fortunately, our builder overestimated the airflow requirements for vents, so I had good airflow to begin with. By sealing up the house I prevented negative pressure in the attic space from pulling conditioned air out of the house. The difference was noticeable, and verified by a blower door test I had performed afterwards. I think my numbers were in the 0.2-0.3 range of infiltration, almost unheard of for a house like mine according to the engineer who conducted the test. Also, my house gets direct sun exposure for about 75% of the day. That's a big load on the system, even with proper ventilation and insulation. We have planted trees for shade, but it will be some years before they kick in fully. Dan Sent from my iPad > On Jul 15, 2016, at 10:21 AM, Curt Raymond via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > Holy snot, if our electricity bill gets over $50 I start looking around to > find whats been left on. Last month we were just barely over 200KWH. > Getting the last of the incandescent light bulbs out of the house, our local > True Value has had some great deals on Sylvania LEDs. Next step is replacing > the cheap CFLs... > > -Curt > > > From: Dan Penoff via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> > To: Mercedes Discussion List <mercedes@okiebenz.com> > Cc: Dan Penoff <d...@penoff.com> > Sent: Friday, July 15, 2016 10:14 AM > Subject: Re: [MBZ] Request for help > > Yeah, don't get me started on Florida and solar. We could easily be net > metering rather than paying as much as $180/month in peak times to cool our > house. > > The only place it's been successful here is when developers do it across the > board on new construction. Under those circumstances the utilities don't have > a say. As individual consumers, we're powerless (no pun intended) against the > utility lobbyists. Even if you spend your own money to do it they bone you > on the rates, pushing your payback out many years. > > Dan > > Sent from my iPad > >> On Jul 15, 2016, at 10:08 AM, Curt Raymond via Mercedes >> <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: >> >> Florida has been chasing Illinois for corruption for years. The energy >> sector in particular, take solar for example which is basically illegal in >> "the sunshine state". >> MA has more solar energy than Florida. We've covered just about every old >> landfill with solar, parking garages are next... >> -Curt >> >> >> From: archer75--- via Mercedes <mercedes@okiebenz.com> >> To: Mercedes Discussion List <mercedes@okiebenz.com> >> Cc: "arche...@embarqmail.com" <arche...@embarqmail.com> >> Sent: Friday, July 15, 2016 12:31 AM >> Subject: Re: [MBZ] Request for help >> >> We were Progress Energy until its CEO decided to "save some money" by doing >> part of the routine replacement of the major unit of a large round high >> pressure structure. The structure was held together by steel bands that >> encircled it. This was the result: >> >> http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/2/4/1477515/-The-Crystal-River-Nuclear-Power-Plant-How-Progress-Energy-Broke-its-Own-Nuke >> >> In the end Progress Energy (Formerly Florida Power) was sold to Duke Energy. >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
