New Eco build started!! - Page 2

Daox · 11-26-14, 11:05 AM

Very cool! I like the idea of the warmed air intake. I've read about it a few times, but haven't really seen people use this idea.

BenniGholami · 01-21-15, 08:37 PM

Take it from me when I say I've seen a lot of property for sale and rent and a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon to get their house more eco-friendly. I'm really loving this idea that you've got for your new build though and I bet a lot of people will definitely buy into the idea of something so unique on their estate!

Drake · 01-21-15, 09:11 PM

I am not going for zero net consumption but rather a more realistic economically affordable 25% net that I think can be not hard to sustainably achieved with proven eco construction methods, materials, low tech and lower consumptive lifestyle practices out there. And lots ands lots of DYI sharing. Just now waiting thru this winter reworking my plans/drawings and preparing for the upcoming building season of framing, roofing and enclosing the structure before next winter.

gasstingy · 03-13-15, 12:50 PM

I believe that your 25% goal is easily attainable. When we built our home, we open cell spray foam insulated the 2x4 wall cavities around the entire heated envelope and sprayed 3.5" of open cell foam on top of the ceiling sheetrock. We went back later and had 2"+ of closed cell foam sprayed on the underside of the floor. It has the house well sealed. Later we added some blown in cellulose in the attic and upgraded to more energy efficient appliances, and managed a HERS score of 28. With what we learned from the home energy audit, we have lowered our HERS score to 19.

I believe the well sealed part with good windows and doors are the absolute key to meeting your 25% goal. Most everything else can be accomodated after the place is occupied.

MN Renovator · 03-18-15, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gasstingy

I believe that your 25% goal is easily attainable. When we built our home, we open cell spray foam insulated the 2x4 wall cavities around the entire heated envelope and sprayed 3.5" of open cell foam on top of the ceiling sheetrock. We went back later and had 2"+ of closed cell foam sprayed on the underside of the floor. It has the house well sealed. Later we added some blown in cellulose in the attic and upgraded to more energy efficient appliances, and managed a HERS score of 28. With what we learned from the home energy audit, we have lowered our HERS score to 19.

I believe the well sealed part with good windows and doors are the absolute key to meeting your 25% goal. Most everything else can be accomodated after the place is occupied.

How much does that cost to have the rater come back out to make a HERS score? I suppose I'd be interested in getting some sort of score on my house once all my work is done with it. ..maybe when I go to sell it, I can give the potential buyers of the house some information on what to expect from the added insulation and sealing, rather than a pile of electricity and methane bills.

gasstingy · 03-18-15, 11:48 AM

I'm pretty sure I paid $600.00. The sad part of this is TVA had an energy audit program going on at the time that, had I contacted my local electric utility, I could have gotten much cheaper.

IMHO, an energy audit is money very well spent.

BTW, you might consider not waiting until you're finished making energy efficiency improvements before you have an audit performed. The audit can help you choose the order of projects so you can do those that have the greatest results for the money first.

MN Renovator · 03-18-15, 07:00 PM

I've had an audit already, my methane provider has contracts with local energy audit firms and have $100 energy audits with blower door and thermal imaging included. I got his suggestions and IMHO they weren't the best and I was actually a little disappointed in the "The best bang for your buck is to toss an insulation blanket on your water heater". ..sure buddy, I'll skip going into the attic and sealing up the thermal bypasses down the living room walls that make it look like I've got heat flowing like a waterfall on the thermal images. ...meanwhile in the summer, without the blanket, I'm using 4 therms of methane(~$3 of the gas), meanwhile the odd thing is the pilot light is enough heat to keep the water above 120f for comfy showers with the thermostat turned all the way down to vacation for months at a time and I still haven't bothered to blanket the heater because I haven't been motivated to unwrap and handle the fiberglass.

I guess in a nutshell, the only number or figure I got was that my house was at 1500cfm50 or about 5ACH50. I'm certain I'm well below that now considering how consistent the moisture content in the house stays now versus before. If I turn on two bathroom fans, I can feel cold air getting sucked down the draft pipe. :-O ..but if I fire up the water heater, the flow reverses and goes the proper direction within about 10 seconds once the pipe gets a chance to get hot. It would be nice to have a HERS rating or something tangible to pass on or make comparisons with. It seems people turn a disbelieving eye when I show them a 32 day January methane heat bill of $40 and a PV grid-connected electric bill of $16($18 is basic service fees and I was just barely net positive on PV production.

gasstingy · 03-19-15, 08:13 AM

If I remember correctly, my house was either 2.6 or 2.8ACH50. The biggest incoming air source was from my water heater closet. I put an overflow pan under the water heater when we built the house, plumbed with a 3/4" CPVC drain pipe through the floor. During the audit I was suprised at how much air it sucked in! Some came in from the gas vent above too, but it didn't feel as drafty from that opening. (Is drafty even a word?)

The worst heat loss was from the two poorly insulated can lights over the kitchen sink. I decided to switch from 60w equivalent CFLs to 40w equivalent LED's in the cans, took aluminum foil tape to seal all the penetrations in the cans and put about two cans of great stuff foam around both cans. Then I covered the whole area in blown in cellulose.

I don't have many other projects for the house that are wife approved, because our gas bill is just above the minimum charge, and we have received checks for excess production from the PV array for two years in a row now that were enough to pay the gas, water and landline telephone bills for the year.

I'm a very happy camper on that front!

Daox · 03-19-15, 08:58 AM

That is awesome!

Drake · 03-19-15, 09:44 AM

You may be able to add a flow check valve to limit that air leak. It is amazing how as you eliminate air leaks those left, even very small, become wind tunnels. The door lock set and deadbolt on my front door became vornados. I sealed the lockset some but on a windy day the deadbolt whistles. I finally sealed it with DIY magnetic cover.

11-26-14, 11:05 AM	#11
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Very cool! I like the idea of the warmed air intake. I've read about it a few times, but haven't really seen people use this idea. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

01-21-15, 08:37 PM	#12
BenniGholami Lurking Renovator Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Phuket Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Take it from me when I say I've seen a lot of property for sale and rent and a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon to get their house more eco-friendly. I'm really loving this idea that you've got for your new build though and I bet a lot of people will definitely buy into the idea of something so unique on their estate! __________________ Sorry, new users are not permitted to post links in their signatures.

03-18-15, 11:48 AM	#16
gasstingy Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Arab, AL Posts: 491 Thanks: 109 Thanked 49 Times in 43 Posts	I'm pretty sure I paid $600.00. The sad part of this is TVA had an energy audit program going on at the time that, had I contacted my local electric utility, I could have gotten much cheaper. IMHO, an energy audit is money very well spent. BTW, you might consider not waiting until you're finished making energy efficiency improvements before you have an audit performed. The audit can help you choose the order of projects so you can do those that have the greatest results for the money first. Last edited by gasstingy; 03-18-15 at 11:52 AM.. Reason: Added suggestion at the bottom.

03-19-15, 08:58 AM	#19
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	That is awesome! __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

01-21-15, 09:11 PM	#13
Drake DIY Guy Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Mpls,MN Posts: 315 Thanks: 2 Thanked 17 Times in 17 Posts	I am not going for zero net consumption but rather a more realistic economically affordable 25% net that I think can be not hard to sustainably achieved with proven eco construction methods, materials, low tech and lower consumptive lifestyle practices out there. And lots ands lots of DYI sharing. Just now waiting thru this winter reworking my plans/drawings and preparing for the upcoming building season of framing, roofing and enclosing the structure before next winter.

03-13-15, 12:50 PM	#14
gasstingy Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Arab, AL Posts: 491 Thanks: 109 Thanked 49 Times in 43 Posts	I believe that your 25% goal is easily attainable. When we built our home, we open cell spray foam insulated the 2x4 wall cavities around the entire heated envelope and sprayed 3.5" of open cell foam on top of the ceiling sheetrock. We went back later and had 2"+ of closed cell foam sprayed on the underside of the floor. It has the house well sealed. Later we added some blown in cellulose in the attic and upgraded to more energy efficient appliances, and managed a HERS score of 28. With what we learned from the home energy audit, we have lowered our HERS score to 19. I believe the well sealed part with good windows and doors are the absolute key to meeting your 25% goal. Most everything else can be accomodated after the place is occupied.

03-18-15, 07:00 PM	#17
MN Renovator Less usage=Cheaper bills Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 939 Thanks: 41 Thanked 116 Times in 90 Posts	I've had an audit already, my methane provider has contracts with local energy audit firms and have $100 energy audits with blower door and thermal imaging included. I got his suggestions and IMHO they weren't the best and I was actually a little disappointed in the "The best bang for your buck is to toss an insulation blanket on your water heater". ..sure buddy, I'll skip going into the attic and sealing up the thermal bypasses down the living room walls that make it look like I've got heat flowing like a waterfall on the thermal images. ...meanwhile in the summer, without the blanket, I'm using 4 therms of methane(~$3 of the gas), meanwhile the odd thing is the pilot light is enough heat to keep the water above 120f for comfy showers with the thermostat turned all the way down to vacation for months at a time and I still haven't bothered to blanket the heater because I haven't been motivated to unwrap and handle the fiberglass. I guess in a nutshell, the only number or figure I got was that my house was at 1500cfm50 or about 5ACH50. I'm certain I'm well below that now considering how consistent the moisture content in the house stays now versus before. If I turn on two bathroom fans, I can feel cold air getting sucked down the draft pipe. :-O ..but if I fire up the water heater, the flow reverses and goes the proper direction within about 10 seconds once the pipe gets a chance to get hot. It would be nice to have a HERS rating or something tangible to pass on or make comparisons with. It seems people turn a disbelieving eye when I show them a 32 day January methane heat bill of $40 and a PV grid-connected electric bill of $16($18 is basic service fees and I was just barely net positive on PV production.

03-19-15, 08:13 AM	#18
gasstingy Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Arab, AL Posts: 491 Thanks: 109 Thanked 49 Times in 43 Posts	If I remember correctly, my house was either 2.6 or 2.8ACH50. The biggest incoming air source was from my water heater closet. I put an overflow pan under the water heater when we built the house, plumbed with a 3/4" CPVC drain pipe through the floor. During the audit I was suprised at how much air it sucked in! Some came in from the gas vent above too, but it didn't feel as drafty from that opening. (Is drafty even a word?) The worst heat loss was from the two poorly insulated can lights over the kitchen sink. I decided to switch from 60w equivalent CFLs to 40w equivalent LED's in the cans, took aluminum foil tape to seal all the penetrations in the cans and put about two cans of great stuff foam around both cans. Then I covered the whole area in blown in cellulose. I don't have many other projects for the house that are wife approved, because our gas bill is just above the minimum charge, and we have received checks for excess production from the PV array for two years in a row now that were enough to pay the gas, water and landline telephone bills for the year. I'm a very happy camper on that front!

03-19-15, 09:44 AM	#20
Drake DIY Guy Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Mpls,MN Posts: 315 Thanks: 2 Thanked 17 Times in 17 Posts	You may be able to add a flow check valve to limit that air leak. It is amazing how as you eliminate air leaks those left, even very small, become wind tunnels. The door lock set and deadbolt on my front door became vornados. I sealed the lockset some but on a windy day the deadbolt whistles. I finally sealed it with DIY magnetic cover.