We do plan to spend more time in the greenhouse. Only trouble now is that by the time we get home from work, it's dark out :( As far as costs it's easy to see our heating costs are drastically down, but not easy to calculate exactly how much. The GH shares a propane source with our garage & studio which we are heating about the same as last year. Just a rough estimate but we have two 100-gallon tanks that cost about $500 to fill. By this time last year they had been filled once and were about 50% full. As of Sunday, both tanks are 60% full and have not been filled yet this heating season. I don;t know this years propane rates but I'm hearing they are pretty close to last year. I'd say that's a significan savings. Keep in mind we did see an increase in our electric bill by about $20 per month for late Oct & Nov when we were only heating the GH with electric. Even so I'd say the savings in just a few weeks in propane have already paid for the solar pool cover. As an added bonus, we're seeing much more reliable GH temps so we can start to us ethe GH more. In fact we're planning to start some salad greens from seed this weekend. Our tomatoes are starting to fade and our cukes are fading also. Any other suggestions for winter vegetables? We don;t plan to add supplemental light so I know we;re limited by that but I'm betting there are crops that will grow even now.

Hi ryanaiden! We saw that you are trying to convince your husband to go green so we thought the information below may be helpful. We listed 10 reasons to add natural light to your home to help cut down on energy costs. Hopefully this information will convince him! :) Each year, 10 percent of a typical single family homeâs energy bill is spent on lighting. An additional 49 percent of the bill is spent on heating and cooling costs, which can be greatly impacted by electric light use and heat gain or loss from inefficient windows and skylights. When daylighting applications are properly applied, homeowners can greatly decrease the amount of energy used within their home. The New Solatube Smart LED system delivers beautiful daylight during the day that seamlessly transitions to energy efficient LED lighting at night. Here are 10 reasons why you should add daylight to your home: 1. Daylighting provides energy usage reduction during the most important time of day, peak hours, when energy rates are the highest and daylight availability is the greatest. 2. Integrating Solatube Daylighting Systems into home designs can slash interior lighting costs by up to 80%. 3. Solatube Tubular Daylighting Devices can bring daylight into dark spaces into homes and businesses, and can be easily installed in about two hours without the hassle and expense of reframing. 4. A 2003 study of office worker productivity found that exposure to daylight was consistently linked with higher levels of concentration and improved short-term memory. 5. According to the Wisconsin-based Daylighting Collaborative, about 86% of electricity in traditional buildings is used for light, fans and cooling. Adding Solatube daylighting systems can cut these costs by more than 50% by reducing electric lighting, because daylight produces less heat per unit of illumination than most light sources. 6. Daylight provides the truest and most vivid color rendition of all available light sources. At night, the LED lights in the Solatube Smart LED, offer the more beautiful color and are more efficient than compact fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. 7. The Solatube Smart LED, a fusion of daylighting and LED lighting, can deliver up to 94 percent in energy lighting savings. 8. Studies in Canada and Sweden noted improved student behavior and health, including fewer days of absences per year, in daylit classrooms. 9. The new NAHB Green Home Building guidelines specifically recommend that Tubular Daylighting Devices be installed in rooms without windows. 10. Skylights are cited as the number one option in âdream bathroomâ designs. Instead of making drastic structural changes that will cost you a fortune, a Solatube Daylighting System can provide you the daylight you need at a fraction of the cost with no structural changes or painting. Daylighting systems (i.e. windows, skylights, Tubular Daylight Devices, etc.) are not only eco-friendly, but they provide exceptional lighting and have even been proven to boost morale and productivity (among many other benefits). By using a renewable resource, daylighting systems are able to harness the sunâs rays and help build a sustainable future.

I'm including a link to a very good (although long) discussion about power vents. So you noticed that pulling a batt of insulation over the attic access/stair reduced the smell. attic vents create a negative pressure on attics. air is then drawn in through openings from the conditioned space into the attic when the fans are in use. (see why it cools off the attic!) when fans are off is when smell would be greater. Don't add insulation until you seal openings from attic into conditioned space. And avoid power vents. They cause more problems than they solve. best of luck..and happy reading! http://www.hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=166795

Wanted to follow up post install and thank tigerdunes and others who helped with my questions. The XR13, XR95, and all new ducting (with dampers) in the attic are installed. I know a 95% furnace is total overkill in southern CA but at the end of the day I replaced my 12 year old builders model Payne 80% furnace with the XR95 at a total out of pocket of $400 after federal tax credit and gas company rebate. It was suggested I go with a variable speed two stage furnace which was the plan with the Rheem but on 12/31 the Rheem contractor informed me he made an error and that his quote was for a single stage furnace. This didn't sit well with me (and the dimensions of the Rheem condensor were restricting) so with no time to get additional quotes I went with the single stage Trane. Would a VS furnace provide a little more comfort? I think there is little doubt that it would but with the addition of the upstairs return and dampers in the ducting I�m able to nicely balance the temperature between the upstairs and downstairs which was absolutely impossible previously. I also replaced all the old registers with new bar style registers and the difference is dramatic. I have the furnace blower speed set one notch below the default speed and with a quiet home can detect only a slight audible whisper from the vents. One half the downstairs has high vaulted 2-story ceilings but the home still heats quickly and efficiently. In the morning it takes roughly 25 minutes to raise the home temperature from 62 to 68 degrees where previously it took at least 2x that. My one complaint is that I can feel the air coming from the downstairs vents (with the upstairs dampened down) when I walk by. The opposite will be true in the summer when I dampen down the ducts leading to the downstairs. It would be nice to have no clue the blower is on when walking by the vents but given the moderate southern CA climate and the $1,000 cost difference for VS I can live with it. Thanks again-