Energy efficiency from the ground up (LONG)
woodswell
17 years ago
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smile3
17 years agowoodswell
17 years agoRelated Discussions
Energy Efficiency - Don't Forget This!
Comments (18)Hey Oberon!! can you drop me an email?? what I would like to see is homes designed with the ductwork in the conditioned space, then duct leakage would be to the interior of the house and not the exterior. there are so many real world problems with duct leakage/return leakage and so many oversized units to make up for the leakage. HO gets 5 tons on 2500 sq ft home..if house leakage were reduced and duct and return leakage reduced to 5% then unit is oversized... one of the biggest misnomers is that a bigger unit is better. what really happens is that unit short cycles costs more to use per month, doesn't run long enough to remove humdidty..and because of all the stops and starts has a shortened life. high efficient hvac is only as good as the install. in my latest training class they did a calculation that blew me away... I've seen a lot of home with R-38 attic insulation, with attic staircase in the conditioned space. so when uninsulated attic staircase is included with little to no R-value the overall attic insulation is reduced to R-25...now throw a bunch of IC rated recessed cans (not air tight ICAT) one equals one sq ft of uninsulated attic..what do you have now??? insulation that can't perform because of air movement through the insulation.. efficiency always costs more upfront, but it is the length of time it takes to pay back that cost that makes one option preferable to another. green is 80% energy efficiency and 20% everything else (joe lstriburek of buildingscience.com) I would like to see an energy efficiency forum here....See MoreResidential/home elevator travel speed and energy efficiency
Comments (9)Renovator8 - Blast from the past indeed! Hello to you, MightyAnvil and others! I remember the soundproofing debate we all had many years back - very informative (at least for me LOL). I've had some whacky ideas over the years and it's nice to have some unbiased feedback from experienced people like you and others. I'm actually building this condo concept from scratch. Yes, another whacky idea I've been dreaming up for years. I've been wanting to take an urban building (in the middle of the urban core) completely off the grid with the utility only as a back-up. Basically, all the units will operate 100% on photovoltaics coupled with a large Li-Ion battery bank, inverters and BMS. The local utility here is a bit of a tyrant (and monopoly) and has recently come out with a plan to charge flat fees of up to $71/month to residents even if they use no power at all. I realized years back this would happen to power producers so this is the next step in being independent from the utility. I've had a very very hard time getting accurate power consumption figures from elevator manufacturers. The townhome/condo design is one that almost requires the use of the residential elevators to make them easily accessible. Of course there are stairs one could take... but traversing two flights of stairs every day just to access their front door isn't very appealing. I've read mixed reviews about elevators here and reliability seems to be a concern... but then again most of the comments I've come across were for older residential units - not current makes. The machines seem very simple yet are prone to failure more often than I would expect. The installer stated that the units have improved dramatically over the years in terms of reliability, efficiency and cost. I've been told that they are much more reliable than commercial units. But I'm not sure if this is just typical elevator sales guy talk as online reviews are mixed. I was hoping to get some feedback from people that use and rely on their residential elevators on a daily basis. I know people that own residential units here but they rarely use them. I'm going with prestressed/prefabricated concrete panels for this project and the hoistways have already been spec'd per the mfg's requirements. I was originally going to frame out the hoistways but was worried about noise transfer so am now going with concrete enclosures....See MoreSTRUGGLING to build an affordable, energy efficient house
Comments (12)I always enjoy threads dealing with energy-efficient homes, as our plan is to, within the next few years, build a home that is as energy-efficient as possible. Like teresa b (above) originally considered, we have thought about an ICF home and geothermal. The ICF concept is still almost unknown in our area. A few years ago, we attended a home show, and not only was ICF not represented, no one with whom we spoke knew what we were talking about. Fortunately, I have located a builder in the area who has some experience with the Logix ICF system, so I hope to speak with him in the future. Another interesting thing -- at a party last night, I spoke with a guy who has one of those Hardy (brand) woodburning furnaces, the type that is located outside the home, with underground lines connecting it to a heat exchanger located in the standard heating system. It also preheats water going into the water heater, to save on water heating costs. Something else I will consider!...See MoreNeed advice re energy efficient closet lighting
Comments (3)thanks for the suggestion. I always thought LED lights were only for things like xmas lights. (i.e., a tiny light - very bright for its size but not very useful for lighting a room.) I looked at the suggested site and it looks like there may be LEDs out there that can replace incandesents - but I will need to do some more research. LEDs use lumens to talk about light output - which I think is more accurate than using watts b/c watts tells power consumption, not light output. But most folks are used to thinking about bulbs in terms of watts. That is, "I've been using a 60 watt incandecent bulb, how many watts do I need of this new-fangled kind of bulb?" The folks pushing CFLs seem to understand that so they tell us that a 13 watt CFL is equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent and we're all starting to figure that out. Looks like the people making LEDs haven't made that leap yet....See Morewoodswell
17 years agowoodswell
17 years agowoodswell
17 years agoericwi
17 years agoJXBrown (Sunset 24, N San Diego County)
17 years agowoodswell
17 years agowoodswell
17 years agowoodswell
17 years agosolargary
17 years ago
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