How to SUBSTANTIALLY reduce electricity use?
 

I'm reposting this question from the closed thread because I think it was on topic and concerns the Lakes Region due to upcoming large rate increases.

Q: What are the biggest ways we can reduce our electricity consumption substantially? I don't think that eliminating trickle charges is going to make much of a difference if the bill doubles.

My biggest dilemmas are air conditioning and dehumidifiers. I work at home and have to have a cool environment. My house is very humid in the summer. The dehumidifiers (second floor and basement) use a lot of electricity.

One solution I'm considering is using only the ground floor of my house. That way I wouldn't have to use the AC upstairs at night. I could just continue cooling the downstairs, which must be more cost effective than cooling down the very hot second floor at bedtime.

Have you had an energy audit completed? I would absolutely suggest that, if not. Though you might not jump in to big projects, they'll give you an overall assessment of your home's energy use and ways to reduce it.

My second thought, in terms of the coolness, might be an attic fan—those are inexpensive to install and surprisingly effective and efficient.

Finally, have you thought about downsizing? You've posted a lot about repairs and needing to shave costs and all these extra floors/rooms that I can't help but ask.

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My suggestions...
 

1. Change ALL of your lightbulbs to LED... they even make LED replacements for the halogen bulbs in track lighting...

2. Get yourself a smart thermostat... I use a NEST and it has a great ECO mode for running the AC.

3. Get rid of all the small vampires you can... any small charger is almost always using some electricity. I have my phone/watch charger on a power strip that I turn on/off as needed. Same for my laptop.

They make wifi enabled AC units & dehumidifiers.... that will help save $$ too.


Woodsy

There are a few key components in any household that should be examined...

1. How old is your refrigerator and how well does it seal, when closed....
2. If you have an electric dryer, how old is it...

when shopping for new appliances look at energy star ratings.

Now look at the little things:
- Replacing Light bulbs wiht LEDs
- make sure computer monitors are shut off when not in use
- ensure lights are not being left on...

There are lots of things that have been done... Over the years I have fiddled with many ideas..... the 2 key components I list above are really the two main hitters, that cost people....

Had a 'whole-house' fan in a previous home in the attic, and it's amazing how much hot air it will suck out of the house. This will definitely help and at a low cost.

This is a golden oldie from Mom, circa 1950
 

This one is so basic that you’re going to laugh……weather permitting, use the cooler morning fresh air to cool your house by opening doors and windows, then close everything up, and let your shades, blinds, other windows/ door coverings work for you, keeping out the direct rays of the sun. We did this decades ago, pre AC, and it’s an easy fix. Our air conditioning has been on only a few times when the heat has been extreme, as in last week. BTW, it’s not like living in a cave either…you adjust to suit.

I agree with the energy audit as it should give an indication of most bang for the buck on various options, and which items you can do yourself.

How do you heat water? Electric? Get a timer. Cheap and effective.

Am I the only one on the planet without A/C in the home?
A squirrel cage floor fan in the great room and a fan over our bed keeps us comfy on the hottest days and nights.
If it's 90 as we pass through Meredith, it will usually be 85 when we reach home.Always cooler by the lake

If you have window a/c units replace them with mini splits.

If you have the type of a/c units that roll on the floor and have a large diameter hose going out the window, replace them with regular window units or better yet, mini splits.

Why are the floor units bad you ask?

The hose that blows all the hot air out the window is the reason why.

Background:

For the purpose of this explanation, think of a "coil" as something much like your car's radiator.

An a/c system requires an evaporator coil and a condenser coil.

The evaporator coil, which is inside the house, has a fan that blows room air across it.

The evaporator coil extracts heat from the air and sends it, via refrigerant, to the condenser coil.

The condenser has a fan that blows air over it releasing the heat that came from the evaporator located inside the house.

In a mini split, traditional central air conditioning and even window units, the condenser is outside.

That means that outside air is used to extract the heat from the condenser.

So here is how the floor unit with the big hose works:

The evaporator and condenser are both in the unit.

Each has a fan.

The evaporator fan blows air from the room over the evaporator coil and gives you nice cool air out of the front of the unit.

The condenser fan blows ROOM AIR over the condenser coil extracting the heat and sending it out the window via the big hose.

If you were to put your hand over that hose outside you would feel a whole lot of air moving!

But where did that air come from?

It was drawn into your house through any gaps around the doors, windows, cellar or worst of all... your vey hot attic!

So really all the floor unit does is make the room it's in cooler at the expense of the rest of the house getting warmer.

As long as it's running, warm air is migrating across the house into the room that you intend to cool.

It needs to run a lot!

An energy audit is a great idea. If you can't arrange that...

There's a doodad called Kill-A-Watt that you can plug in between something and the wall outlet. It will tell you how much electricity that thing is using. Useful for figuring out what things are costing you, and what things aren't.

Some libraries have these available if you don't want to buy one.

Nope
 

You're in good company. Overhead fan in LR blows down in summer and up in winter with the wood stove burning. Porch off the bedroom has an overhead fan. Slider open at night with an oscillating fan in the door opening.

Dave

Following up on 8gv--the same mini splits can also provide very inexpensive heat in the winter. Your electric bill will go up, but your gas or oil bill will fall by significantly more. Mitsubishi is the best brand, you may remember a thread or two on this topic

If someone had central air with an air handler in the attic and outdoor condenser, would they just have to swap the outdoor condenser with a heat pump to get heat out of the central air system?

Would that be electric efficient if the alternative was baseboard?

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Yes, I had an energy audit about 20 years ago, for heating rather than cooling. At that time, upon advice I had the insulation in the attic replaced and cracks sealed throughout the house. It was blown-in insulation. Honestly, the upstairs and attic got a lot hotter and more humid after that. For a later renovation I had the blown-in insulation in half of the attic replaced with foam panels for a cathedral ceiling (yes, used proper ventilation strips). When I got the roof replaced last year I had ridge vents installed the whole length of the roof. An attic fan is worth investigating, thanks.

Have I thought about downsizing? HA! Constantly. I want to own an energy-efficient house around 850 sq ft. Something like this: https://www.architecturaldesigns.com...e-plan-68574vr

Or: https://www.houseplans.com/plan/600-...-0-garage-4836

I've searched all over central New Hampshire and Maine and concluded that there are no newish small houses on the market. A modular house would be good.

Agreed!
 

I fully agree with you! I had a new garage / workshop built with mother in law apartment above. Decided to use Mitsubishi Hyper Heat unit installed as my primary for heating and air conditioning. Couldn’t be happier and just crazy efficient to run. Had no problem throwing heat even during the coldest days this past winter!

Dan

Yes, this is possible. I did it long ago at a previous house. It was not as efficient as mini splits, but it had a pretty good ROI, at least compared to a new AC without the heat pump. At the time, heat pumps were not effective in cold weather, so the heat pumps heated the house on days that were in the 30s or better, and then the oil furnace kicked on below that.

I don't know how the numbers would work out today.

My parents also used that system in the 1950s and 60s. BUT: It always got cool at night back then, and there was nowhere near the humidity we have now. Now, there is often no "cool, fresh morning air" and opening the windows in the morning will only bring warmer, more humid air into the house.

As the current owner of a modular that we built (knocked down the house on our property and rebuild on the same spot) , I can say when done right,,, they are outstanding and much better than what I saw local builders constructing in my area. The price was better, the quality control was better, the delivery schedule was better and we were able to design and build EXACTLY what we wanted and for far less than local builders were charging.

I was even able to dictate the materials that were used, as I wanted ZERO OSB used in my home and the local builders all said no, they chose the materials, the modular builder simply quoted me the additional cost and was happy to comply!

Compared the old 1970's house we tore down, the heating and cooling costs were immediately 1/2 and for a house that was double in size.

So for whatever all that is worth, my modular experience using APEX was great.

From a stock plan, I probably made 20+ changes to the design, moving walls, adding windows, custom features like pocket doors, and the list goes on and on and I paid not one penny for an architect, the cost to modify the floor plan/design was included.

Total cost per Sq/Ft was at the time was like $80 lower than a stick builder.

They are worth a look, but its not for everyone, its a whole lot more complex than just buying a house. But for those able to do it, there are big rewards at the end of the project!

https://www.apexhomesofpa.com/

Best of luck!

I knew it was going to be an issue in the spring of 2016 when we started to ship significant amounts of LNG, so I made most of the major changes.

I average about 247 kWh per month... summer and winter are a bit higher... but fall and spring tend to be lower.

20 years is a long time—I'd start with a new audit.

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You could be right.
Well ventilated attics shouldn't need fans - which would use electricity to operate - they should draw air from either the eave vents up and out the ridge vent... or seek humidity/temp balance with the outside through the gable vents.

John, last year we were talking about the relationship (in terms of air flow) between ridge vents, gable vents, and soffit vents. I can't remember what was said. Do you recall this conversation?

Yes.
Sometimes people mix the formats together and it actually diminishes the airflow.

Gable Vents in general tend to create draw from soffit vents and throw off the action of the ridge vent.

There are 2 types of floor units, single hose and double hose. Avoid single hose, as you say they just don't work well or efficiently. But double hose units bring in outside air in one hose, exhaust hot damp air in the other hose, so they aren't pulling air from your home and exhausting it.

I'm not saying they are as efficient as a good quality window unit, but they aren't awful.

The floor models serve a different purpose.

Window units and mini-splits are stationary. Floor models were designed so that you could condition just the room you were in and move with you to another room.

Also a very easy install and removal. We've used them quite a bit in multiple locations.

So what's the best way to ventilate given that I have all three? Close off the gable vents?

Nothing a boat load of money can't fix...

If all three lead to the same space...
It may be worth trying to close the gable vents off...
But you would need to monitor temperature and humidity for a time to determine that the soffit-ridge combination is working as designed.

If the temp or humidity rises, then something isn't right.

I agree with John.

I have a temperature activated exhaust fan at one end of the attic, exhausting out the gable vent. Air is pulled in from the other gable end, you can feel the flow when the fan is running. I'm sure some air comes in the soffit vents as well, which is a good thing, you simply want that hot moist air replaced with not-quite-so-hot air. I really like the fan system, though per this thread that's one more electrical device. I can't see why having all your vents open is a bad thing unless air doesn't vacate one area or another due to short circuiting of flow.

As far as attic ventilation vents go, gable end vents by themselves generally don't do what the homeowner expects. Air exchange through such vents is minimal. The best arrangement is with a ridge vent and either continuous soffit ventilation or at least vents in each soffit bay. With both ridge and soffit vents, it is generally advised to close off any gable end vents, as they interfere with draw of air in the soffit vents.

On the subject of powered attic ventilation fans, this is a good read:
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com...tic-ventilator. In general, it isn't a good idea, and it's the wrong way to address a problem.

Very interesting article. The comments are interesting as well---they show a lot of disagreement about results of attic fans. One interesting comment was that a hot attic isn't necessarily as bad as we think it is.

It is the mixture of heat/humidity relative to the ambient air outside the attic.

If the heat/humidity in the attic is much higher than the ambient, the venting system is not functioning properly.

For humidity to be higher in the attic than outside most of the time, there must be a source of moisture from within that is migrating into the attic. This could be from interior moisture-producing activity (eg. showers, cooking, aquarium, laundry). It also could be from a damp basement, with air leakage migrating up to the attic through wiring penetrations in the walls and even open passages, such as around chimneys. The source of the moisture must be found and dealt with properly; attic ventilation is just the band-aid, not the solution for a humid attic.

As to attic temperature being much higher than ambient, "much" is relative. With the sun shining on the roof, the attic certainly will be substantially hotter than outside air. With proper soffit and ridge ventilation, it's the air density difference due to the temperature difference that drives ventilation air flow. Using a powered fan to ventilate a hot attic will reduce attic temperature somewhat, but that's a wasteful, less-effective, and sometimes counter-productive way to address the discomfort issue.

Besides the direct conduction of heat through an inadequately insulated attic floor, a hot attic also enhances the "stack effect" (like the draft up a chimney produced by hot combustion gases). Without good air sealing between attic and the living space, a hot attic draws some of the air flowing out the ridge vent from the living space below, and that increases leakage of hot/humid air from outside into the living space. That, in turn, produces discomfort and increases load on an AC system. Stack effect air leakage also produces discomfort in the way of cold drafty areas, or at least higher heating bills, in winter.

A good energy audit, by someone competent, is a good first start for an existing house. A blower door test with IR photography can locate sources of air leakage and even rain leaks in the roof or around windows. That's a good starting point for a thorough air sealing project, much of which can be done by the homeowner. It's the "low-hanging fruit." For a new house, it's much better to make the house well insulated, much better than "to code," and very tight, with mechanical ventilation for controllable interior air quality. Not doing so for a new house is a wasted opportunity.

Much higher to me would be due to reduce air flow.
The much higher temperature creating the drafting effect...
But registering a much higher temperature over a long period of time... including early morning hours... should be a red flag that the draft is not working.

A higher than ambient humidity level over the long period also can be a red flag that the draft is not working.
It can be caused by other items, but an attic fan would not be the first plan of attack... more of a band-aid covering up a bigger problem.

But one item at a time needs to be addressed. If the draft is working correctly... then she can turn her attention to reducing humidity transmission from below - hence my focus on gutters. Charging unsealed foundation walls with wet soil is going to increase humidity in the interior.

It is a process... but one item at a time needs to be addressed.

Very helpful point, John. It explains the extreme humidity in my basement at times. I have spoken to my handyman about restoring the gutters.

I have analyzed my appliance use and came up with the following:

Attachment 17694

What stands out:

• Need to be careful with the space heater in the winter
• Air conditioning cost can be reduced by more than 50% by not using it at night(using a fan instead). I've tried that for the last 3 nights. Not fun.
• Water heater uses significant electricity compared to air conditioner. That's only for 1 hour a day.
• Modem/router consumes a surprising amount of electricity. Can't really turn it off at night because the modem is downstairs but Roku nighttime TV is upstairs.
• Refrigerator uses a surprisingly small amount of electricity compared to the top consumers. Hope I calculated it right.
• Dehumidifier is a top consumer, but doesn't need to be used every day or all day. Once the humidity in the basement is lowered, it's good for several days to a week.
• Other items are much smaller consumers of electricity. Every little bit helps, but, for example, changing from incandescent to LED lightbulbs isn't going to lower my electric bill significantly. LED bulbs are hard on light-sensitive eyes.

QUESTION: How can I figure out my new monthly Eversource charge using the above chart?

There are a wide variety of automatic switches available, from very simple ones that will turn off and on the power at the wall outlet to your modem at preset times every day, to programmable via iPhone/Android. The simple ones are available at any hardware store, the complex "Smart Home" (or something like that) at Best Buy.

I would re-visit your thoughts on LED bulbs. You save around 50 watts by replacing a 60 watt incandescent with an LED. Let's say you have 6 different lights on, some for 4-6 hours per day, some more. It's a fair amount of energy saved. I've used several brands, have found that Phillips soft white LED's have light that is very similar to incandescent, and I've never had anyone say they were hard on the eyes.

OY! My father worked for the electric company so he was hyper aware of excessive consumption and the cost of electricity. The rule in our house was, "One person, one room, one light." He would go around the house checking for violations and fine us 10 cents if we had more than one light on. I still follow this rule today.

LEDs emit an amount of blue light that is hard on the eyes, especially for older people with cataracts. I will check out the Phillips soft white bulbs, thanks.

https://www.oledworks.com/news/blog/...ght-from-leds/