Loading ...We have the house’s report card back and according to a scale I found of letter grades to percentages it got an F+, even with the + that still a FAIL! The results of the pre-retrofit energy evaluation gave the house a rating of 44; the average for a house of this age in Ontario is 42; so in that respect it could be worse!
What’s more disappointing is that the report goes on to say that if we implement all of the recommendations we can only reduce our energy consumption by up to 17% and increase the energy efficiency rating to 53. The highest rating achieved by the most energy efficient houses in this category is 83.
According to the report improving to 53 would reduce our green house gas emissions by 4.4 tonnes per year! Which I suppose is a good thing, but isn’t as much as we were hoping for.
Our biggest issues were the basement and the attic, so insulating them will be where we start. Plus with the latest discovery that the spray foam insulation for the basement will keep out the spiders and mice, the basement will be something we will look at doing soon!
For other energy saving tips, we have already replaced most of our light bulbs with energy efficient ones. All of the electronics in my office are plugged into a power bar which is plugged into a socket that is controlled by a light switch. So when I leave my office and turn off the light, nothing is left on stand-by.
To further fight ‘phantom load’ we have our TV with its attendant equipment on a power bar with a switch, the theory being that when we go to bed we just have to hit one switch and all the phantoms are taken care of. But we would often forget, so now we have the power bar plugged into a timer. The whole thing only gets power for a few hours in the evening without us needing to remember anything. The timer does have a override switch so if we wanted we can still easily turn the TV on during the day.
There are so many other easy tips that can make a difference without too much difficulty or expense. But I think that this post is already long enough so rather than listing anymore of the good ideas I will simply recommend a couple of very useful website: powerWISE and The Good Life.
Heidi…
you may want to re-think your power bar strategy. It is one sure-fire way to kill off your electronics quickly!
Without getting into details (IANAEE*), whenever you ‘flick the switch’ you spike the amount of current that is drawn by the systems. If the current drawn is outside of the nominal (110-130V AC) it may cause the power supply to burn out. Worse still, it could pass on the current down to the delicate electronics (which mostly operate in the +/-12V, +-5V DC ranges).
Look at point 6 in this article: http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/116162/computers/10_ways_to_kill_a_computer.html it explains it in the most basic terms.
Basically, by trying to save between .1 to 2W of power per hour per appliance, you may be damaging the expensive (and very toxic) equipment…. Further increasing your costs and polluting the environment with non bio-degradable, corrosive garbage! I’ll let the link speak for itself: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/gallery/2008/may/06/computer.waste?picture=333898276
*I am not an electrical engineer
Comment by Tom — April 7, 2009 @ 6:39 am
Thanks for the advice Tom. I should probably point out / have mentioned that my computer is a laptop, and our power bars have surge protectors anyway, as we have had a couple of scary moments after spikes caused by power failures. I don’t know if it is also worth mentioning, but the equipment would normally already be in standby mode before throwing the switch.
I was discussing your comments with my Dad (HIAEEBNAPE*) and he commented “point 6 that he’s referring to talks about unplanned surges and cuts on the mains, which can definitely be associated with wild voltage swings, but I think that’s quite different from turning your equipment on and off with a switch.”
There is an English saying: ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’. I find this is a good approach to many things – including energy efficiency and dieting! It is often easier to make small changes in routine that add up than it is to make huge changes that take a lot of getting used to.
I have been doing some research and read a number of articles that suggest that phantom energy can account for about 10% of an individual home’s electricity use. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power) quotes a study that estimated “that standby power consumption accounted for approximately 5% of total residential electricity consumption in America, adding up to more than $3 billion in annual energy costs.” And that was in a 1998 study; with the intervening years of ‘development’ think how many more devices there likely are now sitting in standby mode sucking up unnecessary power.
Just think how many ‘pounds’ that could be if everyone was looking after their ‘pennies’!
* He is an electrical engineer but not a power engineer
Comment by Heidi — April 7, 2009 @ 8:47 pm
Not to get into a dick swinging contest around here, but my mom is a Power Engineer
. But I don’t need her advice on how to save electricity.
Your approach reminds me of the old saying “Can’t see the forest for all the trees” or perhaps the more British “Penny-wise, Pound-foolish”. Take for example your LCD television in your living room. The average power draw of such a device in standby is generally unmeasurable with your standard measuring device measuring load at the wall. So much so that a big consumer electronics review site like cnet claims
“since the majority of TVs we’ve tested in the last year have standby power measurements of less than one watt–below the sensitivity level of our measurement device–standby power results have been excluded from the chart.”
when comparing LCD television power draw. ( from http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6475_7-6400401-3.html ). At that rate it would take at least 1000 hours (about 42 days) or more to use a whole KW of electricity and at today’s rate whole 5.6 cents + delivery charges (so maybe 11 cents total) by leaving a tv plugged in on standby. Now I don’t disagree that over the scale of a couple of computers, a printer, scanner, TV and associated boxes you might save a KW or 2 each month, but you should really be investigating your major power draws.
In reality you should ask yourself questions like this
How old is your water heater? Does it have an insulated blanket around it?
How old is your furnace?
How old is your fridge and freezer?
Do you have water treatment systems? How old is that equipment?
In the majority of these cases old = terribly inefficient. Those things alone took up about 16 to 18 KW/day in my house as a base load this winter and all my stuff is from the last 4 or 5 years (I know this because I wrote down what my meter read when I left for Christmas vacation and compared it to what it was at when I returned). That’s just keeping the house warm, the fridge and freezer cold, my water system on and primed and the hot water heater on. The other average of 6 to 8 KW/day I use for lights, TV (those suckers take quite a bit to run when on), 2 computers, 3 LCDs, cooking Dinner on the stove, etc… are actually the smaller part of my bill.
If you really want to save some energy and the environment try turning your hot water heater down from 80 C to 75 C and wrapping it an insulated blanket. Toss a heavy woolen blanket over the freezer (this seriously works. We used to do it during power outages when I was growing up and it would keep everything frozen for twice as long than otherwise). Turn the furnace down 1 degree. Take a look at all your appliances, find the worst ones and budget for a new Energy Star version. By all means don’t stop the little things, but seriously examine the much bigger things in your home to figure where you can really save the money. Unplugging your TV every night is not going to make any of the big things any more efficient. And that’s where the Pounds really live.
Comment by Daniel — April 9, 2009 @ 11:46 am
Some interesting comments made there Dan. I’ll jump right in to the larger items you mentioned.
How old is your furnace? – Old! But as mentioned it has already been identified as needing replacing.
How old is your water heater? – Fairly new from the look of it, although we will discuss it when we get a quote on the furnace. Does it have an insulated blanket around it? – It does not, and this is a good tip. Also by insulating our basement we should be able to raise the temperature around the tank which will also help.
Another good tip you mention is dropping the temperature a few degrees. This isn’t something that Heidi has talked about yet in the blog, but it is something that we have done. Our thermostat is set to 60F. People have been known to wear thermals to visit us in the winter!
How old are your fridge and freezer? – Our freezer is a newer Energy star appliance; the fridge is another of those items we have already added to our list. Having only been in the country for not quite 3 years all of the appliances we have bought are under 3 and energy star (where possible).
Do you have water treatment systems?
How old is that equipment? – We do not use a UV water treatment system.
Our audit has suggested some big things we can do to reduce our energy consumption. You yourself mentioned that when you go away you unplug as much as you can to reduce that phantom loss, we’re just taking it a little further.
Something to remember is that it’s not just about the TV – there is all the attending equipment as well – in our case this is the DVD player and set top box; others could include surround sound system, VCR…… The post itself was primarily we’ve had the Home Energy Audit done and there’s some big things we need to do; but here are a few quick ideas for you to try. It’s not just about saving money; Just think if every house hold did this how much power would be saved? How much less fossil fuel would be used? So just doing some of the little things is as important as the big ones. Not everyone can make big changes but they can make small ones.
Comment by Steve — April 10, 2009 @ 9:43 am
Energy audits are one way home owners can learn about their and their home’s inefficiencies. The solution to inefficiencies based on an audit report is often upgrades on the house. Another solution to energy inefficiency is lifestyle adjustment. There are a lot of things a person can do that slightly adjust their daily routine, but impact that individual’s energy efficiency. For tips on how to improve your personal energy efficiency, visit http://www.austinauditors.com and click the “Get Informed” tab.
Comment by William — September 9, 2009 @ 5:10 am