Hey! Just wanted to introduce myself. Although I don't own a Prius or a Hybrid (because I just can't afford to buy one right now), I think of Prius owners as being environmentally conscious. With that said, could you all tell me what other things you have done to reduce your carbon footprint, or save on energy costs and such? Thanks! Glad to meet you!
Well hello, welcome aboard! Just had our house run through an energy audit and improvements... reduced 12tons of CO2/year and NatGas reduced by a 1/3. What have you done?
As my wife remodeled every room in our house, I added energy savings as as I could two A/C units 20 SEER 'on demand' water heater 3 LED lights where they need to run forever 72 CFL lights T8 tubes replace T12 Fluorescent light bulbs additional Attic insulation additional insulation on all outside walls double pane low E gas windows Solar/Hybrid Attic fans on south side, low Amperage attic fan on north side and garage Reflective shingles to reduce A/C use Gas Dryer rather than Electric Front load washer leaves clothes dryer Unlike Spiderman, I have no idea how much this reduces my carbon foot print, but every month since I started, my energy bill has been smaller than 12 months ago.
Nice to meet you all and so glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has done some work on a house to make it more efficient! Hey Jimbo...what color are your reflective shingles? My house has a really light grey shingle and I think it's fine....much better than black! Have you all done any air sealing? I have added insulation to my house, although I still have some to add...cannot afford to do it all at once. I have also done a complete air sealing on the home. I have to add some Q-lons to the side and back door to seal them properly and seal my ductwork. I have some CFL's...like you said Jimbo...where they have to last forever. But in some of my lamps that I don't use often, I just left the cheap bulbs. Hey Spiderman, was it difficult to get on board with an energy audit? People here in Central KY don't seem to be too interested.
If you don't mind me asking, how much were the 20 seer ac units? What brand are they? Did you upgrade the whole hvac system or just the ac unit?
I protect land from development, restore natural habitat and plant thousands upon thousands of native plants.
Actually, it was easy. That State of Alaska has a program that will actually pay for energy efficiency upgrades and the audit itself! We just scheduled an audit, the auditor came in and ran tests and sat down with us discussing all the things we could do and the points associated with the improvements. The largest point increase was replacing our old furnace (~84 to 96% eff.). That along with insulating the crawlspace walls, sealing walls and outlets, replaced most of the windows, and new garage door came to about 11.5K and we got reimbursed 7.5K. What a blessing. Anyone can apply and can get up to max of 10K.
The whole house HVAC was a 5 ton American Standard and including labor was about $13,000 The unit it replaced was over 30 years old. Platinum ZM Air Conditioner - Air Conditioners - Allegiance® 20 Air Conditioner - American Standard Air Heating and Air Conditioning My computer room got an LG mini-split unit for about $2500 I use a lot of computing power. (folding@home) High-efficiency Single Zone Inverter
Somewhat sandy brown/grey called cool barkwood GAF Roofing - Timberline Cool Shingle - Timberline Cool Series Shingles
I'm a bit of a green nut, though I am not a believer that carbon dioxide is the evil that some make it out to be. It's what my beloved plants need to perform photosynthesis. I'm a composting fool, and between the worm compost operation, the many outdoor windrow and upright compost bins and the recycling, our household trash amounts to a couple cubic feet a week, uncompressed. We also ripped out most of the drywall in our house to remove the inadequate vintage 1930s "balsam wool" insulation and some fiberglass. We had closed-cell insulating foam applied at R-6.8 per inch, plus it's an air barrier so it seals out all drafts. Now the second floor of the house really doesn't really need heating (it's heated by the warmth radiating up from the lower floor). It used to be extremely drafty and that balsam wool had almost no insulating value. The insulating foam is applied directly to the underside of the roof decking, between the rafters. This eliminates the "vented" roof assembly and keeps the hot and moist/cold and dry air from entering your attic area in the first place. No fans required, no vents, and it feels far more comfortable. One of the projects coming up will be relamping the whole house for LED lighting or "tube" fluorescent lamps. CFLs really aren't a terribly efficient choice--fluorescent "tube" lights beat them hands-down. Plus, every CFL has to have a ballast (that big base) in order to be compatible with the incandescent base. That ballast is a throwaway when the lamp goes out, unlike the dedicated fluorescent fixtures that have a built-in ballast and you just replace the tubes. Though I have several CFLs installed, I'm not buying any more and will relamp in lieu of continuing to buy a product that is inherently wasteful.
