Welcome!
Bought a house in Rmd South just shy of 8 mnths ago:, a 7yr old 2story bldg with decent (or 1/2 decent insulation) and in-floor 3-zone hydronic radiant floor heating (natural gas hot water storage tank). I've been frantically trying to cut down on energy consumption and have made some progress on that since the house already built to the most recent housing code already.
Things done so far:
1. Upgaded all 26 - 6" project style pot lights to using CFLs (with proper reflectors). Since my wifey tends to be very absent-minded (left lights on all the time), the electricity and the associated heating when using conventional filament light bulbs savings well worth the 200+ bucks spent.
2. upgraded the dreaded mercury switched analog thermostat to digital. Got some seriously good deal for rite-temp from ePrey online, and even though they are programmable type, I set them to the same temp over the day-week profiles to be exactly the same all across and in an essence: serves like a manual switch. Saved over 60bux/month over the heating bills due to the rather bad mercury switch.
3. upgraded 2 of the 3 ventilating fans to Panasonic. Well worth the money spent.
4. replaced some door seals and re-caulk some vinyl window seams, etc.
Things to consider down the road:
(1) install a Panasonic ERV fan (FV-04VE1) to further cut down on heat loss during winter months.
(2) revise the attic blown-in insulation, particularly the stretch where the master bedroom (2nd floor, slightly protruded outside of the building structure).
(3) do a digital thermometer (those digi-thermo gun with laser aiming) to see where I the heat leaks/drafts coming in
Projects on the backburner:
(a) consider raising a solar panel (have a 20Watt Coleman in storage) on the roof of my separate 2-car carage for general automobile/backup battery charging, etc.
(b) a solar water heater (or instant on heater to replace my storage tank heater)
More to come.
Quest
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