05-06-15, 11:25 PM | #21 |
Lurking Renovator
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: evanston, il
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In that period, I added a wife and 2 children, which is a disaster when comparing household usage year over year.
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05-07-15, 06:38 AM | #22 |
Apprentice EcoRenovator
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Moore Oklahoma
Posts: 267
Thanks: 108
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How much have the fixed meter charges gone up over the past 16 years? Ours used to be $5/mo, it's not $13 for electric. Gas is up to $30/mo, forgot what it was 16 years ago.
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05-07-15, 06:44 PM | #23 |
Journeyman EcoRenovator
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Delhi, NY
Posts: 332
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AC_Hacker,
I use an epeat gold laptop now (Elitebook 8560w) and do some pretty heavy CAD/CAM and electronic design. It wasn't cheap but I love it and don't miss the main frame computers I used before it. Running it uses about 22 watts. My speakers are from Dynaudio and they're 4 ohms so they require power to sound good. I'm still debating an amp for them. The class 'D',s are efficient amps but I just don't like the sound at all. When I need to conserve power I use headphones. I designed a capacitor amp for Elektor Magazine but it didn't seem to take off. I guess you have to be power conservers like us to appreciate it. It charges in 30 seconds and runs over an hour. |
05-08-15, 01:19 AM | #24 | |
Supreme EcoRenovator
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Portland, OR
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Quote:
I guess I was being just a bit facetious when I included my sound system, because in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't pull much power. I used to use a 200W+200W Hafler, for the mains and a 100W+100W for surround, and a 200W for subwoofer but I finally came to my senses. Now I have a modern Denon that barely gets warm when it's in use, and the sound is quite nice. Larger speakers, so I don't need so many watts. I'd have to say that that relentless insulation upgrades (which has also been accompanied by knock-on relentless infiltration reductions) has been the biggest improvement. And since I don't have a horde of people using hot water, the demand heater really does especially well. Then there's my puny little 3/4T heat pump! My goal is to improve the house insulation so much that this little thing will heat the whole house. Best, -AC
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I'm not an HVAC technician. In fact, I'm barely even a hacker... |
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05-08-15, 07:35 AM | #25 |
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: SC
Posts: 2,923
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I have been running laptops for a while now. I run development software cad on it.
Dell has a outlet with good deals. Dell Outlet Home and Home Office | Dell You can get some good deals on fast laptops. Signup for their email they have 35% off sales or more. You get a cheap docking station off ebay to run duel monitors. I run two 27 inch Led monitors. My laptop is quad core i7 with 8 Gig ram 512 Gig SSD I have a 1TB SSD here waiting to go in. all this power at very few watts. The fan is even variable speed depending on the load on it. I get the features I want then add the SSD hard drives myself. I take out the DVD drive and put a second SSD drive to have the laptop backup to the second drive. They make a adapter for this. Power settings I set to have monitors to go to sleep then after so much time I have it go into hibernation. SSD hard drive are fast so it does not take the long to wake up with all your software ready to go. |
05-08-15, 08:32 AM | #26 | |
Journeyman EcoRenovator
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Delhi, NY
Posts: 332
Thanks: 20
Thanked 53 Times in 40 Posts
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Quote:
I like your approach. Getting down heat bills, which tax my system most, are my goal too. I've owned, and actually built, David Hafler's amps. They do use power! I looked at the big Emotiva amp but boy does that use juice! I'm evaluating my system to see what I can get away with realistically. What I might do is build a lower power amp to use when the power is out (our co-op doesn't lower rates at night so that's not an issue). I don't use the 40" TV during the day but at night when I'm beat I really enjoy Netflix so I would hate to give that up. What I might do is get a smaller more energy efficient TV for when the power is out to help my aging batteries cope. I like the laptop because it is so versatile. I can hook up to 5 monitors on it and I only switch on the big monitor when I'm doing fine circuit board work or CAD drawings. The down side is laptops cost more per computing power. Best, Rob |
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05-08-15, 09:50 AM | #27 |
Supreme EcoRenovator
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 4,004
Thanks: 303
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Vapor barrier...
My house is really old (1892) and there is the main part (15 x 24, 1.5 stories) and the kitchen (16 x 16 w/ crawlspace). Last summer, I put in a vapor barrier under the kitchen and the difference has been astounding, not only for the kitchen, but the whole house. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. I also put in 2" EPS under the kitchen floor which has helped greatly, but the vapor barrier has helped in the whole house and the basement which shared air with the crawlspace.
Now, it is much more comfortable in the basement, and I don't have to keep mopping my tools with oil to keep them from rusting. My basement is pretty dry for such an old building, but there's no real vapor barrier there... yet. -AC
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I'm not an HVAC technician. In fact, I'm barely even a hacker... Last edited by AC_Hacker; 05-11-15 at 08:09 AM.. |
05-08-15, 04:26 PM | #28 |
DIY Guy
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Mpls,MN
Posts: 315
Thanks: 2
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My household just does not have the consistency in elec demand or N. gas heating cooking to be able to track conservation improvements reliably. I just have to go on the best efficiency improvements that are working for others. My wife wife travels for business about half each month and I can see that our consumption is near a third that when she is home(but see earns more than enough to pay for what she consumes if she wants). Some months I fire my elec ceramic kilns several times a month and some not at all. Even degree day weighting doesn't really accurately heating demand when accounting for windy days, humidity and other very variable MN weather conditions for heating/cooling. The only thing constant here is that one day will be very different than the next and one year from the next(avg is only a concept for tolerable living here). For me each conservation effort is not always a visible savings as much as knowing it would be costing much more if I didn't. Marriage and family have many investments. Just got to hope you can manage them as efficiently as you can. Good to see that some are able to see that their conservation efforts are visible on their energy consumption.
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07-21-15, 03:26 PM | #29 | |
Helper EcoRenovator
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 65
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Thanked 13 Times in 6 Posts
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Quote:
I think SH's point was to use payback period to help decide how much insulation to use. These days we have access to REAL data to help us decide how much to use. No folklore involved. While building my house, it was easy for me to get a bid for spray foam. I knew how much exterior wall space I had and how much it was going to cost to use spray foam (high and low density) or fiberglass. Then using that information, I could decide how big of an AC system I wanted to buy. As an engineer (can I say that without posting my transcript?), with a little reading, those things can be figured out. Actually, you don't need a master's in mechanical to do the math. Lots of good data out there. I could have filled the stud bay with high density foam, but putting in 4" of low density was "good enough" for where I live and the design of my house. I might have filled the bay with the low density stuff but I found some used chicken house blue rigid foam to use on the outside. This is all just a math equation. If you double your insulation, does it cut your heating cooling bill in half? Where do you draw the line? It is up to the individual on how much they want to invest to get that last little bit of return. I get into the same argument when someone I know buys new Honda "because it gets 35 MPG". They owned a perfectly good car or truck that got 20 - 25 mpg but they think the 35 mpg car (with full coverage insurance) will save them money. HA! Someone didn't do their math! Now, I'm going to go look at my energy bills so I can post up actual numbers for my before and after. Austin |
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07-21-15, 03:38 PM | #30 |
Helper EcoRenovator
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Here is my before and after.
While building my house, I put a 1700sqft double wide (brand new) on my property. It was all electric with six people living in it. My July 2014 electric use was 2000 kwh. My new house that we moved into in May of this year is 2700 sqft of air conditioned space. It has 2x6 construction, a silver metal roof, and (on average) 4" of low density foam in the stud bays and under the roof deck. I also have 1.5" of rigid foam under the metal roof. June of this year was my first full month in the house. Again, my wife and I plus our four kids. Our electric use was 1400 kwh. I'm obviously very pleased. Over the past month, I did find some air leaks that the spray foam didn't get. It was usually where two studs were together. I still haven't finished caulking and touching up those spots. I think it will be even better after that. Then I also have the rigid foam to put on the outside that I haven't done yet. Then, finally the hardi plank siding. Things are only going to get better. Oh yeah! I haven't built the front porch yet. It was shade the lower half of the south facing wall. thanks Austin |
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