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[100mpg]

Hello all!

I'm hoping to find some help here with a simple idea.

"If we were able to take an average american home and buy only the best commercial appliances, & we used simple easy to do modifications that an HOA would allow, how low could we get it's energy usage, without giving up any modern conveniences?"


Well, what are those modifications? What are the most energy efficient appliances?

Here are a few I know about & are working on.

Can you add ideas or info you have?

Ceiling fans - the Haiku Fan, 60" as low as 3 watts when running $825.00 to $1,250.

Lighting - 7 to 8 watt LED bulbs, about 60 needed in my house $10.00 ea

Washer & Dryer - HE3T ? Gas dryer

Dish washer - ?

Fridge - other than a frost king styrofoam unit. What would a good bottom freezer three door with ice maker use

Gas stove - ? What is the most energy efficient?

Solar oven when possible to use.

Solar water heater.

A new 24.5 seer ac unit, or use an adjustable phase drive to save energy with a current whole home HVAC? Need a 5 ton or lower with better insulation.

Radiant barrier under the roof decking - what kind is best?

Super seal the home

Solar attic fan

Triple insulate the ductwork in attic, shorten runs, eliminate where possible.

Can any one help me find the very best of each appliance, DIY project, or professional install?

Thanks.

[100mpg]

Haiku fan specs

2-30 watts
Link
Specifications | Haiku Fans

[100mpg]

Dishwashers

Bosch SHE68E05UC
180kwh/year
49% better than energy star requirements
2.22 gallons of water per load

Other Bosch models with same specs
SHE8ER5#UC
SHV68E13UC
SHX68E05UC
SHX68E15UC
SHX8ER5#UC

[100mpg]

Close to 1000 cfpm of air



I know they are using a dc inverter to drive this motor.
Combining a dc inverter with a brushless permanent magnet motor seems to be the only way to go for saving tons of energy.

[100mpg]

Dishwasher

I think I found the one I would like

[100mpg]

HVAC - Whole house air condoning at 24.5 SEER

Video link

YouTube video of the IQDrive Maytag version

[100mpg]

Light bulbs

Yesterday I purchased 6 more LED bulbs. At the same time, I was able to locate 5 more "evil" incandesents that were 60 watts each. This seems to be the most costly way to save energy, but at the same time, nobody ever complains about someone who picks a more expensive light fixture over a cheaper one because that person just likes the way it looks over another. I pick my cars, appliances, and yes even light bulbs based on how they perform & how much energy they will save me over what they cost, "within reason." I buy the best I can afford.

I now have 26 out of 64 bulbs switched in my home. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve like replacing 5 bulbs with one by installing a can light and removing a 5 bulb chandler that is over my breakfast table. Replacing 5 candelabra bulbs with three A19 bulbs in my dining room. Also, changing my sons celing fan to take one a19 bulb instead if two small candelabra bulbs.

[100mpg]

Extra Bulb Money today

Saw that the weedeater I purchased last month went on sale for $20 bucks off, so I swooped into Homedepot, got my cash & purchased two more 8.6 watt bulbs!

That makes 28 bulbs out of 63.
28 bulbs times 8.6 watts = 240.8 watts

When I'm done I'm wanting to be able to run every bulb in my house for just under 500 watts total. That's like five 100 watt bulbs. When I was a kid, we used those around our house like candy!

[100mpg]

Saving energy in the attic

One of my on going projects is to insulate my entire attic by using 4' by 8' sheets of foam boards that have on one side a reflective foil. I plan to make the area under the roof decking & between the rafters a ductwork from the soffets to the ridge at witch point I will install a solar powered vent. This should bring about 90% of the attic into the house envelope. This area does not need to be cooled but this will stop it from getting hot in the first place

I've purchased an Acu-Rite temp gauge with a radio remote sensor.
Today my attic was 120 deg F., outside the high today was only 89 deg. F. The high in the attic during the past week was 123 deg. F.

I figure if I can stop my attic from getting so hot in the first place, I'll spend less cooling my house & get closer to an affordable amount of solar panels that can power my home.

[100mpg]

Attic vents

I've looked around the home depot & lowe's, and even the Internet. Solar fans work great! However, they are far too expensive for what they are. Why should I pay a premium for a vent cover, a small solar panel, & a fan? I mean is the vent suddenly more valuable now that it has a motor attached to it? Is a fan suddenly more costly now that it is powered by a solar panel?

The answer of course is no.

I already own several small solar panels, .5, 10, 60, & 75 watt

For the vent cover Solaro has a point, go metal, or risk embers melting through your roof. However as far as it being better built? Maybe that is true, but I can build five fans for the price of one of theirs & I know I can build it at least 90% as efficient as theirs. Yes, I too can form a plate to smoothly transition the air through the vent.

Here is a vent I plan to use, I could get a 14" opening vent but at three times the cost, so I figure let's keep it simple, & cheap.

[100mpg]

HVAC repair

I guess I am one of the lucky ones, I can do work safely on high voltage systems. My ac went out on my house but I was able to replace the condenser fan motor with a new one. Also, replaced the capacitor with two new ones, one for the compressor & one for the new fan motor. However, I had to use a puller to get the original fan blades off the old motor and in doing so I bent the fan blades so that my whole condenser unit shook when it ran. A new blade had to be ordered and I installed it today ant it is now working better than before.

Now for a few experiments on the fan.
http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/publicati...CR-1674-05.pdf

[Aaron]

weatherization and insulation/radiant reflective

I'm glad to see you addressing this topic. It isn't that exciting for many people interested in "free energy" but is the best place to start. We address much of this in Save on Home Energy at Save On Home Energy | #1 Home Energy Savings Manual

Anyway, with the list you gave early in the thread, the priority should always be weatherization package (sealing the home) and insulation and radiant barriers.

Besides leaks, you want to have radiant reflectors against radiant heat, which is where majority of the heat loss and gain happen and the insulation for protecting against conductive and convective losses.

Why this before lights, etc...?

Because heating and cooling on a nationwide average (if you're in the USA) accounts for about 50-55% of a home's total energy costs so it only makes sense that you update your home to address this as a priority. Meaning - hold on to the heat you make when it is cold and keep out the heat you don't want when it is hot. Doing this will give you the biggest bang for the buck in terms of saving money on home energy costs.

Many people want to waste time and money with solar installations, etc... but the fact is that the average home wastes about 50% of the energy it uses so if they spend a little to take care of a lot (sealing and radiant + insulative), then you can reduce how much solar, etc... you will wind up needing, which accelerates the ROI - if you go solar AFTER the home is actually efficiently using the energy.

For leaks, have a blower door test done. You'll see where your weak spots are that need to be sealed.

To do the rest right, cover your attic insulation - if you have access - with Prodex. They have the best aluminum reflective radiant heat barriers there is. You roll it out on top of the insulation and it reflects heat radiating down from the hot roof in the hot seasons and it will help to trap heat in when you make it in the home during the cold seasons. One layer on top of the insulation ads a R-value of about 15. So if your attic insulation is R40, you will then have R55 for not that much money. Radiant barriers don't have a real R value but Prodex has a type of foam in between the foil and your overall equivelant is R15 for 1 layer. Insulation for Less : Prodex : Reflective Insulation : Pole Barn Insulation : Metal Building Insulation : Bubble Insulation

Then for insulation, whether you want to improve insulation in the walls or not by having it blown into the walls, etc..., on the ceiling paint and on the walls going to the exterior of the house, I would paint on 3 coats of Nansulate. It is BOTH radiant reflective and insulative. I used to recommend and use Hytech's ceramic paint additive. It works but is only radiant reflective. Nansulate is also insulative.
I'm buying about $1500 + $200 shipping worth of it tomorrow. About 20 gallons, which will be delivered in about a week from UPS. This is exactly what I'm getting: Nansulate HomeProtect Home Insulation Coatings to Insulate Walls, Attics, Ceilings and more

I'm putting it over the ceiling paint and over the wall paint on walls that go to the exterior of a new property I bought. They won't give you a R value for 3 coatings but from the savings and the numbers you can see, it will give an R value of about 15 in my estimation at MINIMUM. Not just insulative but ALSO radiant reflective.

I'm just doing this to the upstairs and will do the bottom floor later.

I'll also put the Prodex in my attic but the paint coating is priority. It dries clear but will have a sheen to it so if you want everything to look the same, you can paint walls that go to other interior parts of the house but I'm not worried about it myself as I'm going to wind up changing the colors anyway and will paint over any sheen.

So with the Nansulate and Prodex, you're adding about R30 to the ceiling/roof and about R15 to the walls with only Nansulate. Don't quote me on those numbers - you can see their data and reach your own conclusions.

Nansulate also has a coating for roofs. There is one section I have to remove some moss from and after that, I'm coating the entire roof with their roof coating and then I'll coat the exterior walls on the outside with the exterior coating.

When I'm done, the ceiling/roof total will be around R70 equivelant PLUS extremely radiant reflective. I'm going to have virtually no heat loss or gain through my ceiling roof or walls for that matter.

My ideal preference is that building codes should be R100 for roof/celings and R60 for walls at MINIMUM. If these things were done as a standard, the prices could come down on products like Prodex and Nansulate.

Anyway, everything I recommend I actually use myself. And after I do the above, I'm using the Nansulate product to coat my hot water pipes and the pipes from the boiler. Since it is gas fired boiler with hot water radiators in every room, I want to install a solar hot water heater to preheat the regular hot water but also the heating water. When I do that with the insulative and radiant reflective package I describe above, my heating and cooling bills will be next to nothing.

Many people are only fixated on the ROI. For me, it is irrelevant. Obviously, I'm not going to put $50k into something that saves me $10k. But what I mean is that even if the ROI is quite a ways off, ROI NEVER accounts for convenience, security, independence, etc... and I am ALWAYS willing to pay more for those things even if paying more pushes the ROI off down the road.

Obviously, you can just do what you want and don't have to go all out like I'm doing but you can certainly do what fits your budget. Putting Nansulate on the interior of your home is a great place to start. It is invisible and any HOA will never even know it exists - and that is still the case if you do it on the outside of your walls and room too.

Anyway, my 2 cents on the issue for now - I hope that helps - at least on the heating/cooling & insulation/weatherization topic.

[100mpg]

Prodex, & Nansulate

Wow! Thanks for your input. That is exactly what I was looking for when I started this thread. Input, and information on new products that I have never even heard of.

I'm now doing research on these ceramic paint additives that can prevent solar gain from even getting into the house if you paint them outside.

What I would suggest is that we try to find documentation on these ceramic powders to see I'd we can make them ourselves even mor cheaply. An open source DIY paint additive that is cheaper & just as effective.

With these coatings & proper home sealing improvements, I may be able to drop from a 5 ton HVAC to a 3 ton 24.5 SEER HVAC to cool my home.

[100mpg]

Aaron,
I'm very excited about the ceramic coatings. Including the clear coat that might be able to go on my shingle roof. Please keep me informed of your progress.

[100mpg]

Slow progress

Over the past few weeks I've purchased a solar powered attic fan, insulad paint additive & another 10 bulbs. Now 38 of my bulbs are 8.6 watts each. I'm still working on my goal of being able to run the lighting for my entire house at under 500 watts if I left all the bulbs on. I will be swapping out some light fixtures so I will only need 56 bulbs total in my house.

I will need to get a very tall ladder to install my new roof vent so that will have to wait a little while. Once that is in, I will concentrate on thermally reflective paint on my home before continuing the attic insulation improvements.

It's been raining a lot here so I have been unable to do any painting on my west facing back wall. The solar gain is incredible here but my new solar screens have really paid for themselves. My electric bill is about $100 less each month as compared to last year for the past three months.