Energy, like money, runs right through my fingers. Except it's my house, really, that's the problem. It runs right through my house. Money, too. So the first statement can only be taken metaphorically. Or something. The subject of where all the money goes is terribly painful, I know; but let's follow the money a little, and also the energy.
I invest roughly two thousand dollars a year on electric power to run my house. It goes, roughly, like this: five hundred dollars for lights, tv and computers. Five hundred dollars to operate heating and central air conditioning in their respective seasons. Five hundred dollars to make hot water. Three hundred dollars to operate the laundry, i.e. washer and dryer. And about two hundred dollars to operate the kitchen, range, microwaves, fridge and toaster.
I spend about another two thousand dollars to buy heating oil, depending upon the per-gallon price and the severity of the winter. My boiler is a good one but twenty years old, my distribution system (warm air from the hot water boiler through a blower coil) is newer and very good, my ductwork is insulated and pretty tight. My house is old but improving as an energy envelope (see previous post Starting Close to Home); my thermostat is programmed to set back all night and all day while we're gone.
My wife and I drive an aggregate 50,000 miles per year, being self-employed and having no regular daily commute. The fuel bill for my Sprinter van and her Volkswagen Passat comes to around eight thousand dollars, again depending upon oil futures and the Middle East. Don't get me started. We maintain our vehicles well, so they get the mileage they're designed to get.
Our whole house energy bill is an acceptable fraction of our net income. The national average is about 14%. Our automobile expenses qualify as the reasonable cost of enterprise. We drive to our clients' locations, mostly within our county.
So what to do? Contractors and realtors can't car pool the way corporate employees do. The client frowns when you get out of your vehicle and it drives away again. They begin to feel stuck with you. And you can't carry half a ton of business equipment and inventory in a Prius. Or two realty clients, unless they're small.
Where does the heat go in my house? Can we shave a gallon of oil there? Well, we're working on it. Engineers maintain that up to 30% of heat losses in the average house comes from air leaks. Infiltration, it's called. Doors and windows, electrical penetrations, light fixtures, exhaust fans, range hoods and just plain cracks and crannies are the usual suspects. Fireplaces, wood stoves, and air ducts are also repeat offenders. My house has six inch walls, and two sides are resheathed and resided; well-installed fiberglass batts give us R19 walls at least. Doors and windows are up to date energy star stuff. No fireplace. I do ventilate my basement to discourage mold growth. Since few of us can wave a wand over our houses, the big variable, and you'll hate me for this, is the thermostat. Here's some unavoidable math.
If the temperature outside is 20 degrees, and you want your house at 70, you are establishing a temperature difference (differential, actually) of 50 degrees. Heat escapes your house to the outside at a rate driven roughly by that difference. Lower your thermostat ten degrees, and you've reduced your inside/outside temperature differential by......... let's see, power of three, carry the one........ 20%. No, that doesn't quite translate into a 20% drop in energy bills, since it discounts infiltration and radiant losses and other things engineers talk about at parties. But it's the biggest number you can rack up for savings without spending lots of money on contractors like me and tiny little cars and appliances made on another planet by alien compulsives. But you hate being cold, I know; and now you hate me for telling you the bad news. I can stand it.
There's real money to be saved, also, in weatherstripping doors, plastic-sealing windows for the winter, and caulking/foaming visible gaps in outside walls. Small dollars for reasonable gains.
I invest roughly two thousand dollars a year on electric power to run my house. It goes, roughly, like this: five hundred dollars for lights, tv and computers. Five hundred dollars to operate heating and central air conditioning in their respective seasons. Five hundred dollars to make hot water. Three hundred dollars to operate the laundry, i.e. washer and dryer. And about two hundred dollars to operate the kitchen, range, microwaves, fridge and toaster.
I spend about another two thousand dollars to buy heating oil, depending upon the per-gallon price and the severity of the winter. My boiler is a good one but twenty years old, my distribution system (warm air from the hot water boiler through a blower coil) is newer and very good, my ductwork is insulated and pretty tight. My house is old but improving as an energy envelope (see previous post Starting Close to Home); my thermostat is programmed to set back all night and all day while we're gone.
My wife and I drive an aggregate 50,000 miles per year, being self-employed and having no regular daily commute. The fuel bill for my Sprinter van and her Volkswagen Passat comes to around eight thousand dollars, again depending upon oil futures and the Middle East. Don't get me started. We maintain our vehicles well, so they get the mileage they're designed to get.
Our whole house energy bill is an acceptable fraction of our net income. The national average is about 14%. Our automobile expenses qualify as the reasonable cost of enterprise. We drive to our clients' locations, mostly within our county.
So what to do? Contractors and realtors can't car pool the way corporate employees do. The client frowns when you get out of your vehicle and it drives away again. They begin to feel stuck with you. And you can't carry half a ton of business equipment and inventory in a Prius. Or two realty clients, unless they're small.
Where does the heat go in my house? Can we shave a gallon of oil there? Well, we're working on it. Engineers maintain that up to 30% of heat losses in the average house comes from air leaks. Infiltration, it's called. Doors and windows, electrical penetrations, light fixtures, exhaust fans, range hoods and just plain cracks and crannies are the usual suspects. Fireplaces, wood stoves, and air ducts are also repeat offenders. My house has six inch walls, and two sides are resheathed and resided; well-installed fiberglass batts give us R19 walls at least. Doors and windows are up to date energy star stuff. No fireplace. I do ventilate my basement to discourage mold growth. Since few of us can wave a wand over our houses, the big variable, and you'll hate me for this, is the thermostat. Here's some unavoidable math.
If the temperature outside is 20 degrees, and you want your house at 70, you are establishing a temperature difference (differential, actually) of 50 degrees. Heat escapes your house to the outside at a rate driven roughly by that difference. Lower your thermostat ten degrees, and you've reduced your inside/outside temperature differential by......... let's see, power of three, carry the one........ 20%. No, that doesn't quite translate into a 20% drop in energy bills, since it discounts infiltration and radiant losses and other things engineers talk about at parties. But it's the biggest number you can rack up for savings without spending lots of money on contractors like me and tiny little cars and appliances made on another planet by alien compulsives. But you hate being cold, I know; and now you hate me for telling you the bad news. I can stand it.
There's real money to be saved, also, in weatherstripping doors, plastic-sealing windows for the winter, and caulking/foaming visible gaps in outside walls. Small dollars for reasonable gains.
Can you save a bundle by replacing windows? The link, and two other articles I consulted, give payback formulas for replacement windows ranging from 2.5% per year to 20%. Some range. You either save enough energy to recoup your invesment in 40 years or something close to 5 years. Consider that the 20% figure was the calculation of a company selling windows. Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink.
We discussed the consumption of power in the kitchen in an earlier post. Apart from that, your biggest savings is to be had from more small moves: turn off that light, refrain from using air conditioning until you can't move, don't leave the tv on unless you're watching it, and here's the big one: dry your clothes on a rack somewhere in the house. Preferably in a natural air path. Or use a small fan. More than two thirds of the estimate I ventured above for laundry is gobbled up by the dryer. Your house is dry and warm during winter; you can dry the clothes while increasing humidity, and Bob's your uncle, as they say. But here's one caution: if you wash in cold water, using mild soaps, you may not be able to remove "natural odors" from your clothes as well without the dryer. Hard to shed that manly funk without the high temperatures or anti-bacterial soaps. Just a thought.
I may touch on automobiles and energy savings in another post, but for now, just this: if you google "45 mpg car," you get two models, Prius and Audi. When you google "30-40 mpg car," you get 20 models. If you're ready to buy a new car, don't set the bar impossibly high. You'll still save a nice wad of cash driving available technology, and the futuristic spit-fueled miracle buggies will be there by the time you've worn this one out.
At 4:03 in the following Youtube clip from the movie Contact (1997, Jodie Foster) Dad advises his brilliant but impatient daughter, " small moves, Ellie, small moves." I hope you get a little hooked and wind up watching the film. Let's act out small, reachable visions in our homes, and take on grander, bolder ones together. No one of us can save the planet alone. All of us together? Ah, that's another story.
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