Energy efficiency in my home?
By SurlyWhen we buy our new home (1977 single story ranch on a crawl space, 1440sq. ft.) I live in NW Indiana, we have 100deg. summers and -20deg winters for reference. I will have to do a few upgrades. I want to make the home as effiecient as possible to reduce the amount of fuel we use and keep the house as comfy as possible. Of course, I'm thinking of the environmental issues as well. Does anyone have some cool ideas as to "greening" up my house? The furnace is old (nat. gas foced air) so that will be the first to be replaced and I will go with the highest efficiency I can afford. The house also has central air, FWIW. Any other ideas? I'm thinking solar attic fan, insulate any exposed cracks etc...(duh), maybe catch rainwater for gardening, new windows. We'll have a few bucks to spend from the sale of our current house. I want to keep my utility bills as low as I can and keep the family happy. I'd love to hear your crazy/conventional ideas.
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Member since: 05/02/07
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I'm a midwestern contrarian trying to develop a sense of style. My wife and I...
Green Talk
Some quick ideas. Make sure you have adequate insulation in your attic, crawl spaces, etc.
Look down at your attic floor and see if you can see daylight coming up from the second floor. This means all of your warm and cool air is going right into your attic. Also, seal around all plumbing vent that come up from your second floor to your attic. (Seal them at the floor level with expandable foam) Keeping your attic cold in the winter will alleviate ice dams from happening.
Don't forget your doors. Look under to see if there is daylight or you can feel a draft. You may need a new sweep or need to weatherstrip around the door.
I have solar exhaust in my attic and they cost the same as the ones my electrician would have put in except I am not paying for the electricity to run them. (solar tube makes a version of these.)
As for insulation, JM makes a formaldehyde free encapsulated insulation as well as a regular formaldehyde free insulation. I think Lowes carries this brand. You might want to use the encapsulated one since it encapsulated the fibers.
Use all low VOC paints. Lots of brands out there now.
Also look to landscaping to help you with the cooling and heating of your house. Talk with a landscaper how to best go about that in your climate. Consider planting native plants to safe on water in the summer.
Rainwater harvesting is great! Also take a look at Toto's aquia which has 2 flushes. Toto also has some toliet with a 1.28GPF vs the standard 1.6 in most new toliets. Install low flow shower heads and aerators on facets to save water.
I hope some of my suggestions help. Good luck! anna hackman, www.green-talk.com
Surly
tmgeorgo
First thing to do--switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. Drop by the hardware store and check out the selections, then try and use the same brand/color temperature bulb in all rooms of your house. Using the same brand everywhere is an easy way to keep the light color consistent throughout the house. Switching to CF bulbs was the easiest, easiest way to reduce my electric bill. It also has the added benefit of reducing heat generation in a room, which helps the AC do its job more easily in the summer.
A programmable thermostat is also a wise choice, especially if no one is home during business hours during the day. That will allow you to run your HVAC systems less when you are away, since there is no reason to keep your house super cool during the day if there isn't anyone around to enjoy it.
As for your furnace, make sure it really needs to be replaced before taking that on. Unless it is the original furnace and super inefficient, investing in a new super efficient furnace could take a long time to pay off. Checking the ducts for leaks and making sure the burners are clean and working properly would be my first steps. If the furnace is 80% efficient and you are considering a 92% or 96% efficiency gas unit, get the HVAC engineer to run some calculations for you to show payback time.
If you have good attic ventilation with properly sized soffit vents and matching gable or ridge vents, and there isn't any insulation blocking air flow from the eaves into the attic, you probably won't need an attic fan. The solar ones sound interesting, but I haven't installed one myself and I'll bet it needs to be installed in a sunny location so the panel can gather enough sunlight.
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