Aloha from South Texas - Nice Place Ya'll Have Here

[Crowz]

I've seen those installed on some YouTuber's setups. I like the idea, but the previous owner was a DIY type... and as a result our circuits aren't the most well thought out. And we have 3 breaker boxes. Just had an electrician update 2 of the boxes as part of this project as the wiring was questionable and the oldest one still had screw in style fuses. Still have to try and label everything in someway that is logical.

Nice I wish I only had 3



All told I have 6 that I know of

There are 4 in that pic I took right after buying the place. There is one of the old fashioned screw fuse boxes in the kitchen and another in the workshop.

When I first moved in I was bound and determined something was off power wise. I was using double to triple the power we were using from the old house. I was wanting to get the meter tested or replaced since it had to be the problem. I had an older energy meter that just showed the power coming out of the main meter but it was on its last leg from years of use so I bought the emporia 16 circuit unit (not near enough probes for the amount of circuits the house has). I attached the emporia to the mains and then I picked out what could actually tell were circuits of interest but at 4000 sqft of house I had waaaay more circuits than the emporia had probes for.

Didn't really matter though because the readings off the mains was showing WAY more power than I thought I should be using. Clue #1 and gave me the motivation to find the cause.

It itemizes the probes you attach and if the readings from the mains which it shows at the top is greater than the circuits you do have probes on it puts a number in a field it calls balance. That number is mains - probed circuits = balance. So with balance I could hunt down things using power even though I didn't have it telling me x circuit was using x power. Of course if I did have enough probes it would of been even easier but it was enough to figure it all out.

 

[Texas-Mark]

We priced out having an HVAC company come install a SEER 22 5 ton unit

If the AC guy is trying to sell you a 5 ton unit for 2400sq ft, you need to look for another AC guy. Bigger is not always better when it comes to AC units. It needs to be able to remove moisture from the air and if it's too large, that won't happen because it will short cycle too frequently and it will always be humid (and feel warmer). Ultimately it will raise your electric bill instead of lowering it. Plus the more frequent cycling will lower the lifespan.

 

[Crowz]

This is a screen shot I took just now showing the emporia in action.



The total being used right now is 2.766 kw

937 watts is being used by the minisplit in my computer room where I'm at right now.

896 watts is the master bedroom which has a window unit in it.

The funny symbols by the workshop airconditioner is from it being plugged into an emporia smart plug at the outlet. This allows it be set on a timer to run just at certain times and gives you a power usage reading so its using 514 watts. Normally that would be in the balance column because that outlet is on a circuit that doesn't have a probe. The amount of power the plug unit is measuring is being subtracted from the total usage up top just like a normal probed circuit does. If it didn't have that outlet meter on it then it would be in the balance column instead.

If you notice the balance column is green right now. Normally it would be black. Black numbers in the balance field means power being used that the total usage isn't able to measure. Normally its about 350 watts in the balance column most of the time. But its a green 675 right now.

The Green 675 means that 350 watts normally there is being zeroed out by my solar panels and 675 more is going into the usage of the house.

So its :

2766 watts from the grid leaving 350 watts in the balance column.
350w - solar put in that it can't account for leaving 675 watts more than is being used by the balance stuff.
So right now my solar panels are putting 1025 watts into the house. Its very cloudy here right now.

 

[crystalworks]

If the AC guy is trying to sell you a 5 ton unit for 2400sq ft, you need to look for another AC guy. Bigger is not always better when it comes to AC units. It needs to be able to remove moisture from the air and if it's too large, that won't happen because it will short cycle too frequently and it will always be humid (and feel warmer). Ultimately it will raise your electric bill instead of lowering it. Plus the more frequent cycling will lower the lifespan.

Oh, I agree with that. I think we'd be able to use a 4 ton unit as well. When we bought back in 2005 it had an old 12 SEER 5 ton. So we put in a 14 SEER 5 ton when replacement was necessitated as it was only about $4800. But a 4 ton 22 SEER unit is massively expensive. We've taken the money we might have spent on a replacement AC and diverted it to a less expensive, equally affective solution. The bonus caveat is that the ~7kW worth of panels we have now, are already paid for and can be repurposed when we go for an inverter/battery solution.

For the cost of a replacement central we could put a mini split in every room of the house. And possibly still use less energy, while being able to put the temps to basically as cold as we wanted. Through my research, I've come to the conclusion our Texas builders' method of putting ductwork in hot attics puts our conditioning units at a severe disadvantage. And our wallets in serious peril. ?‍

 

[heimlich]

My central AC stopped working well so I put in a few windows units. It dropped me from 90kWh/day to around 40kWh. You can put the window units on timers so they turn on and off based on your usage of the rooms. For $5000 you can put window units in every room, have money left over, and never have to worry about dealing with AC people.

In Houston we can see our smart meter usage at https://www.smartmetertexas.com/home

 

[heimlich]

I'm just outside of SA, so the weather here is the same. My electric rate per Kwh is between $0.10 and $0.12. Can't imagine the rates being that much different there. My AC is going on 17 years old. If the rate per Kwh is not way higher than mine, I would be looking into doing an energy audit to find out what is going on before possibly wasting money on solar.

Is that $0.10 delivered? If so I'd like to know who your retail provider is. I'm paying $0.14 in the summer and lower in the winter.

 

[Texas-Mark]

Is that $0.10 delivered? If so I'd like to know who your retail provider is.

Yes delivered. Calculated by total bill divided by KWh used. Last month it came to $.09 KWh. Medina Electric Cooperative.

 

[heimlich]

Here's my bill. My base rate is 0.09685. My all in is 0.14. Are you within the limits of the coop? I'm wondering if you have transmission charges like I do.


Co-op Energy ChargesBase Charge............................................................... $7.50
Energy Charge............................................................ 1,492.00 0.09685 $144.50
TDU Pass-Through Charges - (Centerpoint)TDU Pass-Through Charges...................................... $60.08
Assessments & TaxesGROSS RECEIPTS REIMB....................................... $3.49
Sales Taxes................................................................ $1.79
TX PUC ASSESSMENT............................................. $0.29
Total Current Charges............................................................................................................................................................ $217.65
Total Amount Due........................................................................................................................... $217.65

 

[Texas-Mark]

Are you within the limits of the coop?

Yes, of you mean their service area. All I have is an energy charge (the usage) and a customer charge of $29.00

Not sure about the reason for this:
Franchise Fee 0.00
State and/or Local Taxes 0.00

 

[sunandspirit]

2800 sf in Austin, newer double-paned, old blown-in insulation in the attic, 1 AC per floor of the 2-story so we set the lower level 78-79 degrees at night. 2nd floor about 75-76 during the day and 73 at night. Out last bill was a touch over $300 during the 100-degree heat which is pretty much the max $ we ever see.

 

[crystalworks]

2800 sf in Austin, newer double-paned, old blown-in insulation in the attic, 1 AC per floor of the 2-story so we set the lower level 78-79 degrees at night. 2nd floor about 75-76 during the day and 73 at night. Out last bill was a touch over $300 during the 100-degree heat which is pretty much the max $ we ever see.

Thanks for the data point. I've come to realize our house setup just sets us at a disadvantage to more recent builds, or more efficient AC systems. This last bill for our record August would have been $550+ easy. On NextDoor (the wife uses it) we are regularly seeing ppl complain in our neighborhood with bills north of that $500 mark.

Our big problem is our AC is terribly inefficient and our ductwork is old. We have dark shingles on the roof too which doesn't help attic temps. When we were younger we crawled around the attic and taped/mastic'd all the rat holes we could find in the duct work. Think we got it 95% resealed, it helped a lot, but the odds were stacked against us ever being able to have an efficient central AC setup.

Quotes for new AC systems and ductwork were more than a full off grid setup and batteries. So we're going to solar and mini split temporarily (>30% energy reduction) with a full off grid install later. Ultimate goal is to only need grid on multiple cloudy/unproductive days.

 

[SignatureSolarJames]

San Antonio. The heat hole of Texas this year. Though most of Texas has been setting records really. The house is 2400sf but was built in the 60's so isn't the most efficient in the world. Plus we have the garage plumbed into the central (one of the reasons we bought the house) as I work on our fleet of vehicles fairly frequently and it's too hot to do so outside.

A grid-down setup is always handy given how irresponsible our politicians and energy company execs are with the power supply.

Here are some pics... not sure what the best size for this forum is but I'll downsize them so they don't take up the entire screen for those with 1080p monitors. I know it's not the prettiest work, but it is functional, and safe. The EG4's have some foibles that I'll bring up in a thread on them but other than that we've been very happy with this.

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Love you sharing photos sir