10 positive things to do for the environment

How are the units oriented with respect to the sun?

As Icarus points out, if the common wall is East-West, with one having the only south facing wall, the other having the only north wall, then solar gain is not the same.

In my neighborhood, tree shading renders A-B comparisons impossible, regardless of orientation. Are there any trees East-South-West of your units?

As an engineer working with energy efficiency in a completely different context, I have to assume either a physics violation, or an undetected complicating factor.

People doing nighttime setbacks should realize that the better the home is insulated and weatherized, the less savings is possible, not just on an absolute basis, but also on a percentage basis. An extremely well insulated home that does not cool off much during the setback period will save very little.

And electric heat customers are not doing the utility a favor by all cutting back at night, when demand is already the lowest, and turning it back on in the morning at the same time, when demand is highest. Depending on the specific house, customers with time-of-use metering may find it cheaper to keep it warmed all night at the lower rates.

 

I've already followed Icarus' advice here, installing a ductless heat pump early last year. Combining regional incentives (Pacific Northwest) and federal tax credits, this is a very good deal.

The federal incentive for air source units continues through this year. Ground sources units have a separate incentive, probably with a higher limit and different expiration. I haven't recently checked the local incentive to see if it is used up. Interested PNW electric heat customers without gas should check with their local utility.

It is too early to know how much annual energy is being saved. This Dec-Jan cycle is running 31% below the average of the past four years. Part of that is due to an unseasonably warm winter, but most of it must be the heat pump.

 

They both have north and south facing walls.

The reason that neither unit has south facing glass is neither units south facing wall has glass in it. The south facing walls in both units exit to attached garages.

You guys are way overthinking this trying to prove me wrong.

I guess I could upload a blueprint of the duplex in the morning and show you. The east and west facing walls both have windows in them. All identical. Both the east and west sides however were equally shaded and blinds were drawn closed at the time as well.

 

Our local utility, the PUD, kicked in $1500 for this, plus we'll get the tax credit when we file for 2009. And, yes, it's been a lovely Winter, mostly, though it did run pretty constant for one really frigid week in December! BRRRRRRRR!!!

 

I am an engineer. This sort of thing, in another field, is part of my job.

Engineers are like this. If it is not real, they want to identify and fix the mistake or call the bluff. If it is real, they want to put it to good use elsewhere. While both happen, the former occurs far more frequently than the later.

 

My home is very well insulated by Australian standards especially hwen it was built. I could have gone one step further and insulated the internal walls but missed the boat on that.

My home is 20 years old, there was no building code for insulation then but there were recomended R values. I chose to insulate well above those recomendations which cost me only an additional $300 at the time.
I don't know if there is a requirement to insulate now.

I also choose to live in a mostly mild climate.

 

Physics says that less energy should be required (as the Energy Star website confirms).

As chogan2 mentioned, what's likely happening is that the auxiliary heat is kicking in in the mornings (electric resistant heat) when the temperature differential exceeds a certain point, or the heat pump runs for too long and it decides that it can't keep up.

Solution is to figure out how to keep the auxiliary heat from kicking in. Possible solutions:

1. See what options your thermostat has for disabling it and use it.
2. Have your HVAC guy install a switch to manually disable it.
3. Change your schedule so the thermostat doesn't see as big of a temp difference. Could be done either by "ramping" up the temperature using some unused program times, or by lowering the setback temp (less than ideal, but better than having the auxiliary heat kick in).

 

Chogans theory applies to a boiler with an electric backup.

This is a standalone forced air unit. No backup whatsoever. Chogans theory is 100% invalid here.

As I said you guys are overthinking this in every way possible to prove me wrong. I saw what I saw I know what happened. Couldnt possibly get much more controlled than that experiment

 

A controlled experiment would have run both units identically for a period, to see how well they really matched. Then it would have run just one unit with setback, as you did. Then it would have flipped, running just the other unit in setback mode.

Then some engineers would have come in for a review to figure out why predictions were not met. And any surprises would be reported to other engineers for use elsewhere.

 

I know the furnace, and all ductwork, exhaust fans and the like in both sides of the duplex were working 100% properly. I ran and installed all of the ductwork myself. Infact the only thing that was contracted out in the building was the installation of the furnaces and plenum. Both were built exactly identical by the same person.

The furnaces have slightly different efficiency curves would be the only possible variable. The setbacks on both homes are exactly the same

 

I hate "stuff." I hate clutter and/or knickknacks and all that garbage. I refuse to let my fiance keep any around the house. If I ever end with something I'm not using I either trash it, give it to charity, or throw it on ebay. I actually get bothered if I have stuff that I don't need.

 

Actually, the most common case would be a heat-pump, which is what I thought you had.

Natural gas fired furnace, then?

 

Bill Gates believes that cutting money that is pledged for curbing emissions and spending that money on things that are legitimate, like vaccines, you could save almost a million people:

Bill Gates worries climate money robs health aid | Reuters

 

Same could be said about the money spent on Bush's wars in the ME or the Wall Street bonuses or money spent on corporate welfare or............