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12-16-08, 02:12 PM | #1 |
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Location: 1000 Islands region, Ontario, Canada
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Squeezing the most from a tiny, old, uninsulated apartment
I'm staying on the Nova Scotia Atlantic coast for the winter (until March, approximately).
It's a tiny apartment - 287 square feet! (26.7 m^2.) - in an old house, maybe 100 years old. For the challenge, I'm monitoring & trying to minimize energy consumption - but mods have to be within reason because it's a rental, and a short-term one at that. Here's the set-up...
The window on the top left is my west facing one. Heat is obviously the big energy hog here.
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12-16-08, 02:20 PM | #2 |
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Ah, the luxurious pad I've heard so much about. Looking forward to hearing more on the subject.
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12-16-08, 03:19 PM | #3 |
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How much of a difference in comfort / energy use has sealing the windows made?
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12-16-08, 04:01 PM | #4 |
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I wish I could give you a number for energy use difference, but I didn't do any before/after calcs. (And I think it would be hard to gather experimentally, since the outside temps are constantly changing).
But comfort wise, it has definitely reduced drafts. The biggest bonus is that it has stopped most of the condensation forming on the inside of the outermost (non double-pane) glass. So I can see outside! When I first got here, the condensation was literally running on that glass before I put the plastic on.
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12-16-08, 04:16 PM | #5 |
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Oh, and power here is about 9 cents per kWh, and is apparently 75% coal, 13% natural gas, the remainder being oil, hydro, wind and tidal.
It's funny. On Nova Scotia Power's web site, the order they list their generation methods is the inverse to the proportion each represents in the mix: they put the renewables at the top, and coal/oil/nat gas at the bottom.
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12-19-08, 11:25 AM | #6 |
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Coldest night of the year (so far) last night (-10C / 14F), and not surprisingly the highest energy consumption in 24h: 24 kWh
Bummer! 24kWh would be enough to drive the electric car about 130 km / 80 mi!
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12-19-08, 12:06 PM | #7 |
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Wow, thats a lot of juice.
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12-19-08, 04:36 PM | #8 |
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Yeah, I'm considering building a smaller "room within the room" with the baseboard heater inside it.
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12-19-08, 06:11 PM | #9 |
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In Japan they have a device which is basically a coffee table with blankets that hang down to the floor on the sides. attached under the table is a small heater. The idea is they let the house go cold and stay sitting on the floor with their legs under the table. Later they sleep mostly under the table. It's a far smaller area to keep warm and should use way less heat.
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12-22-08, 10:19 PM | #10 |
Lurking Renovator
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I think you need to wear more clothing. 15C is what we keep our apartment at right now and it goes to 12 C while we aren't there or sleep. A few dollars for a good hoody can go a long way!
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