Well, there is not much new to post this month.  It is currently 17F and sunny outside.  The interior of the house is 71F and the heat has not been on since approximately 10AM.  We are making hot water, albeit less efficiently than usual because the panels are 90% covered with snow.

Happy New Year!  I begin 2010 with a slightly failed experiment…  I have been doing a little research on the energy savings achieved by using the setback feature built into Energy Star thermostats.  While some studies show little to no benefit to lowering the temperature of the house at night, and while unoccupied, others have shown a savings of up to 30% by dropping the temperature set point by 10 degrees for 8 hours per day.  Last night, while waiting for the ball to drop in New York’s Times Square, I decided to try a little experiment of my own.  I turned the thermostat setback fea

I wanted to let everyone know that changing the thermostat cycles per hour (CPH) from “3” to “1” has had a positive impact on hot water production from the desuperheater.  Previously, the best we had ever gotten was ~90F water in the tank.  This morning the tank storing water heated by the desuperheater is at 105F.

So, if our groundwater is coming in at 47F and we heated it to 105F, how much energy did we essentially get for “free”?

It is currently 14F outside.  The sun shining brightly and there is a stiff wind.  I have come to expect some neat things from this house…

1 – The heat last went on about 20 minutes ago.  It will not come on again until the sun goes down.
2 – We’ll have 80 gallons of 100F+ solar heated hot water by the end of the day.

How great is that!

What is a super insulated home?  A house with super-insulation generally far exceeds insulation levels required by building code.  While there is no hard and fast rule that draws a line between a “normal” home and a super-insulated home, Wikipedia states that R40 walls, and an R60 roof are typical (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superinsulation).  Our house combines R40 polyurethane SIPs (structural insulated panels) with an outer layer of R5 rigid foam board.  Add in the R-value of the other materials in the walls (wall board, house wrap, and siding), and most of our exterior walls reac

We are now into the heating season.  Last night the outside temperature dropped into the mid-teens and the ground source heat pumps had to run to keep the interior of the house at 69F.  One part of me doesn’t want to hear the heating system running at all, another part of me likes the fact that when they are running, we are making “free” hot water. 

According to the US Department of Energy (DoE), water heating consumes 14-25% of all household energy consumption (http://www.energy.gov/waterheating.htm).  In short, most of us spend a great deal of money to make sure we can take a hot shower, wash our hands in warm water, and wash our laundry and dishes in hot water.  In addition to making sure our building envelope was well insulated, I spent a great deal of time agonizing over hot water.

I have to admit, building an airtight house, it is MUCH more difficult than I thought.  I previously mentioned that my wife had taken to calling me Mr. Foam.  It is a good name for me; I spent a great deal of time and effort making sure to seal every gap I could find. 

It has been a long time since my last post.  I have some personal reasons, but they may sound more like excuses to many.  Now I have a lot of catching up to do…

One of the cornerstones of an energy efficient building is an air tight envelope.  Any leak in the building envelope will allow heat and moisture to exit in the winter, and enter in the summer.  The tighter the building envelope is, the less energy is needed to condition the indoor environment (because we are not losing the conditioned air to the outside).  While a "perfectly sealed" building if more efficient for heating and cooling, it is not good for occupants.  We need to bring fresh air in and exhaust both stale air and airborne contaminates in order to provide a healthy ind