10 positive things to do for the environment

Does anyone have a quick translation between American and metric R units?

By our units, R4.5 and R3 are fairly close to 'uninsulated'.

 

Some Aussies live underground, like in Coober Pedy and Andamooka. Even underground hotels and churches.




A housing estate in Coober Pedy

jk.

Australia was settled by poms mate, they had no idea and we keep on the same track. Building an alternative type of house is hard to get approvals for. My sister lives in a mud brick home built into the side of a hill, but that is really unusual. It is a really nice house and my brother in law built it all. It has recycled timber framing and exposed earth walls.

 

R4.5 is 200 mm thick rock wool.

Remember the first part of my post, I choose to live in a mild climate.

 

Let's see, in no particular order:

1) Went vegan from omnivore.

2) Replaced a standard car (28 mpg) with a Prius (48 mpg).

3) Replaced every incandescent bulb with CFL, except the porch flood lights - put LEDs in them, and put them on a motion sensor instead of the dusk-2-dawn thing.

4) Switched to reusable shopping bags, and reusable produce bags, AND USE THEM!

5) Buy organic most of the time - at least the 'dirty dozen'.

6) Switched to only biodegradable cleaning supplies.

7) Switched to soap nuts for laundry.

8) Replaced main home heating [electric wall units] to a ductless heat pump system.

9) Went vegan (this is worth two entries).

10) Grow our own greens in our front yard, using compost we make ourselves from our veggies wastes, and organic soil - no chemicals!

 

I found a conversion factor. Your R4.5 ceiling and R3 walls correspond to R26 and R17 on our scale. Much more reasonable.

No, there is a difference. Ours is expressed in Btus, square feet, and degrees F. His is in watts, square meters, and degrees C.

 

We who are condemned by our collective stupidity to live with English Units say the following:

1) Once upon a time in America, we were going to make the conversion to metric. I can recall dual-distance mile/km interstate signs in my youth.

2) But then the dummies took over, or something.

3) Quick, now, how many yards in a mile? How many square yards in an acre? How many acres in a square mile?

4) That's a statute mile, of course, not a nautical mile.

5) How many guys out there, like me, have complete sets of English and Metric fill-in-the-blank -- socket sets, wrenches, Allen wrenches.

6) Oddly, no matter how metric cars have become in the US, every fitting on the car will be metric except the @#$#$ lugnuts and the @#@#$ battery terminals. So you still have to carry dual tools to do basic maintenance.

7) My observation, via my kids, is that we're going to drop English units just a matter of ignorance. Maybe metric will come and fill the vacuum, maybe not. Both my kids are numerate, neither of them can tell you how many yards in a mile, acres in a square mile, and so on. Whereas, I was drilled in all that crap as a kid. And, on net, upon reflection, I don't think that's a bad thing, really. Let the trivia die a natural death.

8) OK, back on point. Call 200mm about 8 inches. Rock wool is about the same as fiberglass or English Units R3/inch. So I make that out to be an R24 wall, or thereabouts, based on the thickness of the rock wool.

Let's check that against an English/Metric converter. For those of us who can do algebra, looks to me like you multiply your metric Rs by 5.68 to get to a US R.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-value_(insulation)

So, metric 4.5*5.68 = about R25, English units.

So that checks. Crude calc from insulation depth = R24 in US units, direct conversion gives R25.

Pat's walls are insulated about twice as well as typical US building code requires. We ask for R12 (about 4" of fiberglass, call it 3.5", pardon me, call it 100 MM fiberglass batt).

Pat, am I totally off-base, or is your house well-insulated? And if so, was that per the local building code at the time or did you do that on purpose?

One of my friends is an architect, and he says you get your LEED certification here for being 30% better than code. By my calc Pat's past that.

Oh: 1760 yards in a statute mile, 2000 in a nautical mile, 640 acres to the square mile. That's etched in my brain, but so are the lyrics to the Gilligan's Island theme song. I'd judge them to be about equally useful.

 

Actually that is his ceiling, so it is quite substandard for my climate. But his walls, at R17, are good.

 

1760. 4840. 640.

It's all very easy. Just remember:
22 yards in a chain.
10 chains in a furlong.
8 furlongs in a mile.

Yards in a mile:
8 * 22 * 10 = 1760.

Square yards in an acre:
1 acre = 1 furlong x 1 chain
220 * 22 = 4840

Acres in a square mile:
8 furlongs x 8 furlongs = 8 furlongs x 8x10 chains. = 8 x 8 x 10 acres = 640 acres.

No, I didn't look it up. Just takes a bit of medieval history combined with a bit of horse racing.

Fun fact for those of you who can't fathom* cricket: the wickets are 22 yards (1 chain) apart.

I grew up in the metricized English educational system but my height is measured in feet and inches and my weight in pounds**.

* 6 feet.
** Was stones and pounds until I moved to the USA. 1 stone = 14 pounds. In the UK I was 12 stone. Now I'm 200 pounds***.
*** No, my math isn't wrong. The USA has been bad for me.

 

Did you do this in the past year and get the regional utility incentive ($1200 for the first few thousand folks, less for later adopters)?

And can you take the 30% federal tax credit?

I did, and it has seriously reduced electric usage this winter. Though the record warm winter is partially responsible for that too.

 

A family member and I built a duplex a few years back. Both sides are totally identical down to the very last detail. The common wall is 12 inches think for insulation and sound deadening purposes.

Due too some unforseen issues ( the county building inspector died didnt have a replacement for 4 months) they remained unoccupied.

We decided to experiment. For this experiment we left the thermostat in one unit at 68 degrees. Never changed it.

The other unit we set to be 68 degrees for 12 hours. Overnight it was set to 60 degrees.

Other than once a week to check on them over that four months no one entered the units. That way the test was consistant.

The utility bill for the unit that was consistantly kept at 68 was always 15% cheaper than the one that was programmed to stay cooler at night.

Both units had identical high efficiency rated forced air heating units as well.

Based on that alone one has to assume that it takes less energy to maintain a constant 68 degrees. Than it does to allow it to cool over night rebuild that heat in the morning and maintain those temps over each period

 

Both gas heat. Both identical high efficiency lennox forced air units.

No difference in solar gain between them whatsoever. No holes or poorly installed equipment either.

Windows are all intalled identically There is no south facing glass in either unit.

Unfortunately I cant reverse the situtation and redo the experiment. Both units are occupied at this time.

 

You paid to heat an unoccupied building for 4 months? Sorry, it's just too convenient a story for me.

 

Very interesting indeed. I might have try an experiment myself. Thanks for the information.