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Old 09-12-08, 06:42 AM   #1
insaneintenti0n
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Default Loving this already

I know you guys haven't really opened this up yet (i actually looked through a good portion of the main site and found the link to here so you didn't hide it well), but I think you're on to something. I already 'know' Daox (and I'm blanking on your real name) from the Tercel Forums. He's how I found the main site in the first place.

Alot of what you're covering so far has been things my wife and I have either done, or would like to do. So it's good sharing my stories and hearing every elses. Now, i hate to say I'm not really here so much for the 'conservation aspect' as much as I like my money and don't want to give it to BGE (my gas & electric company). But, as I get into doing this stuff, I do start looking at things I do a lil more closely. Like how unfortunately, I'm really not going to have an trees left in my yard by the end of this year... but 2 are/were dead (one being removed today actually), no hope for em, and the 3rd was a maple tree planted 10ft from my house... near my water/gas lines. It HAD to go before the roots took over.

I'll definitely be posting on here at lot as I have time. Hopefully not to much that you're all ready to tell me to shut up, lol... but considering my main presence online is in the car community and I'm getting bored with that, this is something new to open my mind to. Not "use this engine", "no really, use this engine", "how many times do i have to say it... this one!"

So yea... Hi!

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Old 09-12-08, 08:57 AM   #2
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We all have our reasons for doing the things we do. I think saving money is probably on everyones list. Some people are willing to go farther and spend more than others and thats fine too. I think the fact that you are at least doing something is much better than nothing, even if it isn't the most environmentally friendly option.

For me personally, I guess money is a big factor (I too only have so much). However, I am willing to go a bit further. I got into ecodriving and ecomodding vehicles to save money with the long commute I used to have (its still not real short). Hanging around with those folks opened my eyes to a lot of other things. I used to care about the enviroment, but if it meant spending more I forgot all about it. Now, its a main priority after seeing a few presentations on the proof of global warming and other things. Also, national security and energy independance is huge to me. We rely soooo much on foreign countries for fuel and other things. What would happen if they cut us off (or jack up prices like they are doing right now)? We'd be totally shut down or at the best limping sorely along. It has happened before. Unfortunately, if you aren't a part of the solution to this, you are part of the problem. There are so many easy and useful things people can do to help. Every bit you put back not only helps you, but it helps everyone else too.

So, I guess thats kinda my brief list of reasons for doing this. I'm really looking forward to seeing the community grow and see what comes of it all. I'm also excited to see other people's projects move forward.
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Old 09-12-08, 09:22 AM   #3
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It's kinda strange for me. I don't mind putting the money into this stuff (though obviously it'll also be a huge selling point on my house when i can turn around and tell someone that yea... energy bills are only $100 or so.) but i definitely hate the high and varying monthly bills. I'm already thinking that if I can do a full solar shingle roof for ~$20-30k ( plus prices will be dropping, and i have ~5years left on my roof) then i'll be all for it. A regular roof would be ~$8k i think. But, i need to do a lot more research. Power storage, etc.

So yea... somehow i can justify $20k up front, but not $350/month... I guess i've never liked monthly bills. The mortgage on the house was a big enough shock (only 28 years to go! - yes, trying to shorten that ). And all my cars are actually paid off (including the '08)

hmm, thinking about the roof... my boiler needs to go sometime... and hopefully at my own discretion. It was installed in ~'79 (it's older than me!!) Maybe I can do something to flat out remove that heating system... taking advantage of solar heating, and not waste the step of replacing the boiler only to remove it in the future. (i really really hate my heating system if i haven't expressed that enough yet)

Which makes me think of something else... it's too early to get a LOT of opinions on this... but...
My kitchen is the coldest part of my house in winter. because of the extension on it overhanging air and not my basement... i wonder if a skyllight would help at all... or just have the wrong effect during the summer. (it's hard to cool that room too) I've thought alot about this room, it's what hurts my energy usage the most.

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Old 09-12-08, 11:37 AM   #4
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I'm glad you like us! Obviously, we aren't even brand new yet ("grand opening" on monday), so no one is really here, but we're going to work hard to gets some users and start the conversation,
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Old 09-16-08, 01:30 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by insaneintenti0n View Post
My kitchen is the coldest part of my house in winter. because of the extension on it overhanging air and not my basement.
Is there a crawl space under the kitchen? Has the floor been insulated and can you get into the attic to add more insulation up there? Which side of the house is it on? Does it get the afternoon sun or the winter wind? Growing up, my bedroom was always the coldest in winter and the hottest in summer. We found out later that it had never really been insulated over.
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Old 09-17-08, 09:06 AM   #6
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No attic overhead and not sure what the insulation looks like under the ceiling. (it's actually fairly easy to remove the ceiling... just some kind of panel board type thing nailed in, so maybe i'll remove that sometime before I caulk everything around it.)

It doesn't get any sun (kinda) It's on the north facing side of my house, it gets some in the morning, but not the brunt of the afternoon sun.

There's crawl area under the kitchen. I've added some insulation, but i need to seal it. somehow. The idiot who did the extension left some piping out in the open air too. (my sink is on the overhang, so the drain for the sink goes down, outside, then back in through the basement wall)

hopefully the walls were insulated... if not, it'll probably never happen. my cabinets cover 90% of that wall. and they're all only about 4-5 years old (I've been there 2 years)
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Old 09-18-08, 12:08 PM   #7
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It sounds like you have already started to fix the problem. You may also want to add those foam gaskets behind all of your outlet covers to block any air infiltration.

That's amazing that they ran the drain outside and then back inside. I wonder if you can use 4 mil? poly to act as a vapor barior under the addition.
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Old 09-26-08, 06:02 AM   #8
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^ Went to home depot yesterday to load up on supplies for my kitchen sealing project. It's a bit much work right now for me to rip the ceiling apart, but i did buy several tubes of clear caulk to fill all the gaps I can find, and luckily you mentioned the 4 mil cause I was looking through the rolls of plastic and happened across 4mil, so i grabbed that.... but, it's gonna rain now for 5 of the next 6 days, so i need about 3 days of no rain to dry out the crawl space before i'm crawling under there.
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Old 09-29-08, 08:02 AM   #9
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yay, i was productive this weekend! i emptied 4 tubes of caulk in that one section of my kitchen. I took a few pics i'll get up sometime, now i have to wait a week for the ground to dry to get under the kitchen and put up the tarp. i didn't realize i was getting 4-5 inches of rain. it was insane. i took pics of that too, lol, my swimming pool yard, and garage..
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Old 09-30-08, 06:12 AM   #10
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Good to hear. Lets see some pics!

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