Wow, never been to the coast in Oregon, will have to check it out. Thanks!
I got last load of LP for $1.35
This is awesome... way above my paygrade BUT definitely worth me looking more into
I completely agree I am looking at lowering out electricity usage.. but the wife is not along for the ride lolHere in Sweden we get away with not running AC during the summer, but it’s the winter when the bigger bills come, as our house has electric heating (ground source heat pump) and temps can get to -10C regularly and to -30C rarely.
I’ve been on a campaign of reducing our consumption over the last few years and got us down from nearly 12,000kWh per year to under 5,000kWh this year. That’s an average of 13.4kWh/day and it’s a 1670 sq ft 2 storey house. The reductions have come from the combined effects of all sorts of measures I’ve taken. Lots of insulation improvements. More efficient appliances, killing standby consumption by switching off at the wall, etc.. The only contribution from solar began from Oct 2020, so I’m hoping to further reduce the numbers next year to keep up my year on year improvements. It’s a rewarding and addictive game! To me it made sense to get the energy consumption under control before trying to use solar power to take some of the load, as the alternative of continuing to be profligate and wasting power gets far more expensive when you have to buy a whole load more solar gear. My interest in solar actually came as a result of needing to find a way to keep winning this game
I may as well add these stats which I’ve kept track of since moving into this house in Apr 2016. The cumulative figures represent the total of the prior 12 months consumption / cost and the cost figures are in Swedish Kronor (multiply by 0.12 for USD). 1 KWh of electricity costs1.1 kronor or $0.13 here.
View attachment 31402
What I find amazing when I hear about very energy efficient houses like yours, Dacian’s and other eco homes, is that the regular housing stock production industry doesn’t at least begin to incorporate some of the ideas. I’m not even sure it’s on grounds of cost, just sheer lack of ambition and perhaps lack of public demand thru lack of knowledge of what’s achievable. Certainly, once you make an effort with building a house to be low energy, remarkable results are possible.
Commercial SIPS are not cheap but they are much easier to build with, provided the right builder is used & they know what they are doing with SIPs. I designed & "Stick Built" my home and I was fortunate enough to locate a Commercial Roofer that supplied most of my hard foam insulation sheets. The XPS, EPS & PolyISO. It was also very labour intensive as I did it all by myself. Simply put, I was "On a mission". The cost was nowhere near what many people think it should have been. IE: I paid $8.00 per sheet of 4'x8'x4" PolyISO which cannot even be bought retail.
These are on the California side of the border - our nearest 'city' Crescent City lighthouse, Budiroux at the still pristine Smith River - the jewel of the Northcoast - and one of the multitudes of Roosevelt Elk (the largest Elk) that roam the area in herds. Several of the Jurassic Park, and Walking With Dinosaurs have been filmed here under the Coastal Redwoods (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) the tallest trees on Earth, and the mouth of Wilson Creek at False Klamath Cove, not far from here. Mostly public land, but I wouldn't consider living anywhere else.
it's not so awesome when I fill the LP tank
Wow Matti, that’s extraordinarily high. That direct El heating really sucks the power! I’m at 59,5N with a ground source heat pump, and my Dec figures are 18-29kWh per day, depending on the weather.
Just checked and we use 30kWh even during summer months.
Females living in the household like hot showers...and sauna stove is also heated with electric. Includes also small garage/hobby shop. And I don't like to work in candlelight, garage lightning takes ~500W alone.
Wow... that’s another level. I use around 200-250kWh per month thru the summer. No pool, sauna and hot water via the bergvärme (GSHP) comes cheaply. when we moved here four years ago our summer consumption was around 725kWh/month with a direct Electric immersion hot water cylinder.Just checked and we use 30kWh even during summer months.
Was looking at geothermal heat pumps but ROI doesn't look that attractive. Just drilling 200m to granite bedrock is 6000 euros in here.
High efficiency T5 fluorescent tubes. I could probably save some watts with LED retrofit but if go that route I'd probably add some fixtures to add even more light in couple of darker spots.
