The Realist Idealist turned her home into a lab for energy-efficient, money-saving ideas for sustainable living. Here she uses a rain barrel. (Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times, Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times / January 9, 2010

It started with gray water, then escalated to chickens, composting toilets and rain barrels. I’m talking about the two years I’ve spent transforming my humble California bungalow into a test case for sustainable living — an experience that’s cost me hundreds of hours of my time and thousands of dollars, an endeavor that has tested the limits of not only my checkbook but also my sanity — and my DIY skills.

When I launched the Realist Idealist column, the idea was to look at environmentally promising home improvement projects through the eyes of a budget-minded consumer. I had seen so much media coverage that heaped praise on newly constructed eco-manses or expensive retrofit products, but the stories didn’t answer my biggest question: For the green-minded person writing the checks, are the improvements worth the time, effort and expense?

Although everything I retrofitted seemed wise at the time I did it, hindsight tells a different story. Over time, I occasionally questioned the wisdom of some actions.

The idealist in me finds value in every improvement, but the realist can’t deny that some have been far better in terms of payback — if not financially, at least morally. The systems that easily fold in to my busy life are the ones I’ve enjoyed most.

What’s been worth the money and effort, and what hasn’t? I’ve divided the projects into two categories: “Worth It” and “Second Thoughts.”

WORTH IT

Gray water, 1st place

Gray water is the waste generated from faucets, showers and laundry machines — water that accounts for 54.2% of all water used inside a home, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With California deep into a drought, in August 2008 I retrofitted the plumbing on my laundry machine to send its gray water onto my landscape. Over the last two years, that simple switch has sent 9,720 gallons to passion fruit vines instead of the sewer, and it required only one change to my usual routine. I had to swap laundry detergents because my usual brand, like many, contained salt and other ingredients that kill plants.

When I first installed a gray-water system, it wasn’t legal. Making it legal would have required a permit, extensive filtering apparatus and lots of cash. But in August 2009, these laundry-to-landscape systems were legalized in California, as long as homeowners followed 12 guidelines.

I’ve been so pleased with this low-cost, high-impact system that I hired a plumber to expand it in January, tying the wastewater from my bathtub, shower and bathroom sink into the same gravity-fed plumbing line that handles my laundry water. This so-called simple system also was legalized in California in 2009. Its legal status has since been rescinded, so once again I’ve gone rogue. I estimate my additional savings to be roughly 1,120 gallons per month.

Financially, this system is paying for itself, just slowly. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power charges me less than half a penny per gallon, so technically, gray water has saved me only $95 in water costs so far. But it’s also reduced my sewer charge by about one-third, saving me an extra $3.30 per month. In drought-prone Southern California, gray water feels like the right thing to do. It’s been the easiest, most sensible, hassle-free, sustainable system I’ve put in place at my house.

Cost: $1,988 ($312 for the laundry-to-landscape plumbing, $1,676 for bathtub and bathroom sink tie-in)

Resources: Greywater Action, http://www.greywateraction.org; Oasis Design, oasisdesign.net

Solar power, 2nd place

Photovoltaic systems pay off most quickly for consumers who use a lot of energy because tiered rates impose a penalty for heavy use, but solar electric still makes sense for low-energy users such as myself.

So much of Americans’ carbon footprint results from buildings — about 43%, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. I’m a household of 1.5 (mom and 7-year-old), and we use only about 4 kilowatt hours of electricity per day, something we’ve managed through behavioral changes, such as turning off the lights in rooms after we’ve exited, and through in-home efficiencies, such as swapping out incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents and using power strips that can turn off DVD players, coffee makers and other energy vampires.

Using less electricity means I can get by with a smaller, less expensive photovoltaic system that not only covers my use but also produces a credit on my power bill. Going solar also meant my house was upgraded with a time-of-use meter. This type of meter allows me to receive credit for the electricity I generate during peak hours when electricity costs the most, but pay the least for the electricity during off-peak hours, when I recharge my cellphone and laptop and perform other tasks requiring power.

The downsides are that I am tied in to the grid and still susceptible to power outages, and I now have panels that need to be cleaned. It’s a subject of debate, but my installer, REC Solar, said dirty panels decrease energy production by 6% to 8%. Many panel manufacturers recommend cleaning panels at least once during the summer. I wash mine whenever they look dirty or dotted with bird droppings, which is about every other week.

I think $6,000 is a small price to pay, not only for panels that should generate my next 20 years of electricity, but also for the greenhouse-gases I’m not creating.

Cost: $5,939 ($11,564, minus a $3,898 DWP rebate and a $1,727 federal tax credit)

Resources: California Public Utilities Commission, http://www.cpuc.ca.gov; 1 Block Off the Grid, http://www.1bog.org; REC Solar, http://www.recsolar.com

Rain barrels, 3rd place

I was a rain barrel skeptic before I joined L.A.’s rainwater harvesting pilot program last fall and received a 55-gallon pickle barrel. Though rainwater holds such enormous potential for supplementing Southern California’s dwindling reserves of imported water, rain barrels seem like such thimbles. During a normal L.A. winter, my 1,500-square-foot roof generates 13,500 gallons of water — a tidal wave compared to what a little barrel can handle.

Having lived with rain barrels for a year, I’ve learned that their small size makes them manageable and affordable. The water they catch isn’t stored only for summer use. It can be drained in between rains to water nearby plants. An added perk: reducing storm-water runoff to the ocean.

I have three rain barrels — one from the city and two that I purchased separately. They’re along the edge of my house, at the halfway point in a row of kiwi vines and berries. The 175 gallons they hold were a lot more useful than I’d expected for feeding my exceptionally thirsty fruit plants. The water they held lasted about a month into the summer.

I never had mosquitoes. I did, however, have some algae growing in the plastic tubes connecting my rain barrels, but it wasn’t significant enough to reduce flow. Water pressure was problematic only for the last few gallons of each barrel.

I still think larger rain catchment systems are preferable. Alas, larger systems frequently need electric pumps and are far more expensive. In this economy, affordability rules. And it’s affordability that could lead to mainstream adoption and significant water savings for our parched city.

Cost: $500 ($300 for rain barrels, $200 for installation and parts)

Resources: L.A. Rainwater Harvesting, http://www.larainwaterharvesting.org; Rain Bud, http://www.rainbud.com

Earth works, 4th place

Rainwater isn’t only a resource. It’s also a potential pollutant if it runs off property onto pavement, picking up fertilizers and automotive fluids that are washed, unfiltered, into the ocean.

To prevent my home’s contributions to runoff, which could be as much as 10,000 gallons per year, according to L.A.’s Bureau of Sanitation, I’ve sculpted my landscape to retain as much rainwater as possible.

The parkway between the sidewalk and the curb is concave and mulched. My backyard is home to a 15-foot-wide hole in the ground that is fed with gutters from my roof. During the rainy season, this infiltration pit can hold as many as 500 gallons at a time, allowing it to gradually replenish groundwater. During the dry season, it’s been doing double duty as a skateboard pit.

Cost: Not easy to determine because it was part of a larger landscape project, but for DIYers, potentially free

Resources: Rainwater harvesting books by Brad Lancaster, http://www.harvestingrainwater.com

::

SECOND THOUGHTS

Waterwall

The Waterwall is an Australian product that is exactly what its name implies: It’s a wall that catches and stores water. Water channeled from the roof and gutter drains into a tank shaped like a thick concrete-block wall. It operates similarly to a rain barrel but holds six times as much water and is better looking. It’s also modular, allowing water to flow freely from one wall into another in series.

The Waterwall was expensive, and installation was a nightmare. It’s an excellent idea that simply wasn’t worth the money for a person of my means. If California’s drought persists and water prices start going through the roof, I’m likely to change my attitude. But so far, the $4,078 I’ve spent to store 634 gallons of water I could have bought from the city for about $3 is an embarrassment, particularly with so many ways to conserve.

Even worse, it’s been annoying to use. I put my Waterwall near a trio of stone-fruit trees that would happily drink in the water. Unfortunately, the water pressure drops along with the level of water in the wall, and running the water through a relatively short, 15-foot length of hose or even lifting the hose above the spigot decreases its flow rate.

I love the Waterwall in theory, and I still think I would’ve ringed my backyard with Waterwalls if I’d known about them 10 years ago, when I installed an appallingly expensive redwood fence.

Cost: $4,078 ($2,300 for two walls, plus $944 for shipping and taxes, plus $834 for installation)

If I had to do it over again: I’d go with a cistern or a large, agricultural above-ground tank.

Edible landscaping

When the economy was freefalling two years ago, I couldn’t shake the fear that the American infrastructure was about to crumble and that I should start growing my own food. Thus began an incredibly long, expensive and back-breaking journey. Not only did I have soil that was high in lead, but I also had critters that liked to dig and destroy. Then there’s the water issue. It takes a lot of the wet stuff to grow most fruit and vegetables.

Having transitioned my low-water ornamental landscape to edibles, I’d say this is a project for people with time, money and a love of gardening and cooking. It isn’t a job for single mothers with high-stress jobs who’d rather not spend their precious down time watering, pulling weeds and bringing in their harvest.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I won’t likely learn as much as I should to maximize my yields. At this point, I’m just hoping this whole project won’t end up being a high-cost intellectual exercise that bears little fruit. Passion fruit and tomatoes have had the biggest payoff so far. Beans, corn and kale? Not so much. It’s so easy to get high-quality produce from a CSA, or community supported agriculture group, which is what I’ve been doing for the last year: spending $18 a week for organic, locally grown produce conveniently delivered to my son’s school.

Cost: outrageous

If I had to do it over again: I would install one or two planter boxes. I’d buy the rest of my produce from a community-supported agriculture group such as Equitable Roots.

Composting toilet

Water is a precious resource, and we flush an awful lot if it away. At my house, my low-flow toilet uses 1.6 gallons per flush. If it’s flushed 10 times a day, that’s 16 gallons of imported drinking water that’s pooh-poohed and sent 23 miles to a wastewater treatment plant that uses precious electricity to process it, then has to dispose of leftovers.

The final frontier of green living, the composting toilet is a low-tech option. There are a surprising number of commercial composting toilets on the market that look nice, cost a fortune and can’t handle heavy use, which is why I went with something called a Separett. Developed in Sweden, it’s a piece of plastic foam that looks like a toilet seat except it’s outfitted with two holes — yes, No. 1 and No. 2. Each empties into its own 5-gallon bucket I access through a trap door on the side of my house.

I’ll admit, as committed as I am to living green, this is not a system I use all the time. In fact, I use it rarely, and only for No. 1

As much as I support the premise of a composting toilet, I’m more devoted to the traditional porcelain god. I just try to flush less.

Cost: $627 ($127 for Separett, $500 for construction labor and materials to convert built-in cabinet to toilet)

If I had to do it over again: I might need more clearance under my house, but I’d go with a commercial composting toilet from Clivus Multrum.

Chickens

This is one of the projects I was most excited about and one that’s turned out to be among my biggest failures. After buying a chicken coop, feed and hens procured through L.A. Animal Services, I got only four eggs.

L.A. may be a sprawling metropolis, but it isn’t devoid of wild animals. Some people have coyotes. I’ve got possums and raccoons, which breached my coop and gobbled down my ladies.

A forensic investigation revealed the intruder had dug under its edges, so I fixed the problem by driving stakes deep into the ground and nailing pieces of wood to other possible areas of entry. Although I wasn’t 100% confident that these beady-eyed villains wouldn’t return to the scene of the crime, I nevertheless journeyed back to the animal shelter to purchase two more chicks, only to be woken up at 1 in the morning to the sound of distress. Running outside, I found a lady bird dangling from the mouth of a shiny-eyed raccoon. The other chicken was missing.

I’ve been buying eggs at the store ever since, but I was hipped to my local egg underground. Last week, I got my first dozen eggs from a neighbor who’s more game than I for the challenge of raising chickens.

Cost: $530 for coop, feed and chickens

If I had to do it over again: I would skip the coop and find a local alternative.

::

SIDEBAR: EASIER FIXES

Green home improvement doesn’t have to mean elaborate new systems or expensive construction projects. Some small steps for a greener life:

Laundry line: Clothes dryers account for 5% to 10% of a home’s energy use. I have one, but I use it only if I’m desperate. My laundry line is strung unobtrusively across my backyard deck, and the sun dries clothes in mere hours. For me, the low-tech laundry line is about the easiest and simplest thing I can do to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Cost: about $50 for equipment.

Diet: My home improvement retrofits have convinced me that more environmental savings could be obtained by eating less meat and dairy. The cattle business creates more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry, according to a 2006 United Nations report. So, although I love burgers and can’t give them up entirely, I eat fewer, and I’m mostly substituting almond and soy milk for dairy.

Composting: About 26% of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream is yard and food waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Composting that waste is how I produce only a small grocery bag’s worth of trash every other week. It’s one of my greatest achievements. About a quarter of my trash savings comes from composting food scraps. Cost: $20 for a bin through a city of Los Angeles composting workshop.

Recycling: The other three-quarters of my trash savings comes from recycling, for which I have an almost-religious fervor. About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet only 28% actually is recycled. Cost: nothing but the time it takes to throw something in the blue bin.

There are no signs that homeowners are growing complacent about environmental concerns and there is still a lot of interest in green DIY improvements.

This is the view of Matt Hunt, a spokesman for renewable energy firm BritishEco, who said the prospect of saving money is always a popular reason to improve energy efficiency in the home.

His comments come after a report from the Energy Saving Trust found that 61 per cent of consumers are more interested in taking steps to save energy than they were a year ago.

Seven out of ten respondents said they hate the idea that they are wasting energy, while three-quarters said they were actively looking for ways to reduce their gas and electricity bills.

Mr Hunt said his company, which designs and installs a range of micro renewable energy solutions, including solar panels, is busy at the moment, suggesting that the need for greener homes has not diminished.

“There is still a desire from people to make their houses environmentally sound, especially if they are rewarded with fixed tariffs and things,” he remarked.

DIY Home Energy Audits

Auditing a home’s energy use while going solar can be a smart move – it can give a homeowner a picture of his house’s energy consumption and help him see where solar power will contribute to energy savings.

Combining a solar installation with an energy audit is nothing new. SolarCity – one of the nation’s largest solar leasing companies – bought an energy-audit software company, Building Solutions, in May. The purchase lets SolarCity provide energy-auditing services at the same time it installs solar arrays for residential customers.

Energy audits and solar projects are naturally interlinked: Both lead to energy savings, and both can save homeowners money. It’s the cost savings that make a home energy audit a good investment, whether the audit is performed before or after a homeowner installs a solar array.

Even the White House may benefit from an energy audit. The Obama administration announced recently that it would install solar panels on the building – and a green-education company called CleanEdison offered to audit its energy use at no charge.

Average homeowners should expect to pay for their home energy audits, but the cost isn’t substantial – usually $400 to $500.

(continued below)

Internal Sponsorship:
Just released from GreenEcoClub the DIY Easy-Energy-Audits. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do energy audit on your home like the pros. Easy-Energy-audits

Finding a professional energy auditor can be a good idea: Professionals have equipment that can help them perform a comprehensive audit, like giant fans that blow air through a home so that pinhole leaks can be detected. They also use infrared cameras to find sources of heat loss.

Homeowners can undertake some simple energy-auditing measures themselves, too. To find air leaks on a shoestring, a person can simply light a candle and draw it slowly around window and door frames. If the flame flickers, there’s air entering the home – so the leaky spot should be sealed up with felt strips or plugged with a commercial-grade leak-filling product like Great Stuff.

There are also products that help people see how much energy their appliances are using. Any comprehensive home energy audit should include an examination of appliance energy consumption – and devices like the Kill-a-Watt can make the process easy. The Kill-a-Watt, which has a small display, simply plugs into the wall. After appliances or electronics are plugged in, the display registers how much energy is being consumed.

Going cutting-edge on energy efficiency means cutting some serious checks, Milton case shows

By Johanna Seltz
Globe Correspondent
October 10, 2010

MILTON — Andrew Koh is learning that going extremely green — his house renovation project is designed to cut home energy costs in half — can cost a lot of green.

Take the new water heater he’s installing as part of the “deep energy retrofit’’ of 225 Gun Hill St., the 30-year-old Garrison-style home he and his wife, Tracy, bought last year.

“It’s the prettiest water heater I’ve ever seen,’’ Koh said.

And it’s 96 percent efficient, compared with the 80 percent efficient water heater he had not so long ago in their old condominium in South Boston. That translates to using nearly a fifth less energy, he said.

But the old heater cost about $500 and the new super-efficient one sells for “well north of $2,000,’’ Koh said.

“The biggest moral of this story, for us, is that going green will cost you more than conventional,’’ he said. “And as you go further and further to the extreme, things get exponentially more expensive.’’

He’ll save money, of course, in reduced utility costs.

But unlike other families who take a more conservative approach to going green — and get an immediate payback — Koh figures it could take many years before the savings catch up with the eco-investment at his house. Luckily it’s not all his own money on the line.

“Obviously, we wouldn’t do all of this if there weren’t some funding dollars behind it,’’ he said.

The biggest financial support comes from National Grid, which is sponsoring the project as part of the utility’s “Deep Energy Retrofit Pilot Program.’’ Manufacturers and retailers also have donated or deeply discounted such things as solar panels, foam insulation, and appliances.

But the fact that the true cost of the project is beyond most homeowners’ budgets doesn’t lessen the worth of the exercise, Koh said. His house, he said, is a laboratory of sorts — an experiment in the best ways to make an old house energy-efficient.

(continued below)

“The deep energy retrofitters are the warriors,’’ said Caitriona Cooke of the Conservation Services Group, a Westborough-based company that advises on energy efficiency. “They’re setting an example and leading the way, showing what’s possible.’’

“The ultimate goal is the trickle-down effect,’’ Koh said. “Not everybody will go to the extremes we have, but there are a lot of practical lessons to be learned from what we are doing.’’

They’re lessons likely to be heeded in Milton, he said. The town recently adopted the new Stretch Energy Code mandating energy efficiency, so it can apply to be named a green community by the state. The designation would make Milton eligible for state grants for energy-efficient projects.

Energy efficiency wasn’t high on their priority list when Koh, who runs a software security company, and his wife, a physical therapist and personal trainer, started looking for a new home. The green they sought was a yard where their two young sons could play.

By Herb Weisbaum

An energy-efficient home is not only good for the environment. It’s also good for your wallet, because it saves you money in energy bills.

Patti Southard, with King County’s Green Tools Program, says there are all sorts of small remodeling projects you can do for under $1,000 that will cut your energy use.

“If you’re not going to be replacing your hot water tank, you can buy wraps that will help make that more energy efficient. You could beef up the insulation in your roof. And you can typically do that for under $1,000. You can use rigid foam board to do that. There’s a lot of eco-friendly batting material now so that you’re not dealing with fiberglass anymore. So you can get a recycled cotton bat, you can get a recycled wool bat and again the rigid foam board will all help beef up the insulation in your roof. And that’s another really good place to start.”

King County has just launched a new website called Eco-Cool Remodel Tool that will show you a lot of things you can do in your house and in your yard, one space at a time.

“It’s an interactive tool and you just click on a room and there’s tips,” says Southard. “So if you don’t want to spend a lot of time on that page you can just look at the tips for each room, such as kitchen, bath and bedroom. If you want more information you click “more information” and it gives you a comprehensive list of things that you can do to improve each room in your house and at the bottom of each page there is a set of resources where you can buy materials, find your tax incentives and look at what kind of rebates are available.”

Patti Southard says you can also use the Eco-Cool Remodel Tool site to e-mail her your conservation questions – and she promises to answer them.

You might want to get a home energy audit, so you can identify the simple things you can do to cut your homes energy use.

Most utilities in the area offer this service at a discount price. You can get one done for around $95 when the normal price is about $250.

If you’re heading to the home show, there’s a great place you can learn about all this – head to the Built Green booth. You can talk to experts who know all about energy-efficient remodeling and how to find a good contractor in the area.

by Martin LaMonica

A prototype of Intel's home energy management panel.

Intel has announced a reference design for a home energy-management device, an attempt to get a foothold in the smart grid business and bring Intel’s chips to your kitchen table.

At the West Coast Green conference in San Francisco yesterday, Intel Vice President Doug Davis said the design of the tablet-like device, which Intel calls a home energy control and management “panel,” is part of the chip giant’s efforts to provide tech tools around energy.

The device is meant act as a hub for controlling networked appliances and thermostats and to gather information from smart meters. It’s based on Intel’s Atom processor and can work with Wi-Fi and Zigbee wireless devices, such as thermostats.

Intel is one of many companies developing products geared at giving consumers better control over their energy consumption. Intel-based home energy controllers can show how much electricity that networked appliances use and give people a touch screen for programming thermostats.

Since it is a mini-computer, it can do a number of other tasks, including work with utilities’ demand-response programs to lower electricity use of appliances during peak times. A networked clothes dryer, for example, could step down its power consumption and take longer to do its job. In exchange for participating in the program, utilities would offer a cheaper rate or a rebate.

(Credit: Intel)

Intel’s reference design can also access the Internet and display video from security cameras. In the past, Intel executives have pitched the device as a home communications center where family members leave messages for each other. Third parties can also design applications for it.

At the conference yesterday, grid networking company Grid Net said that it will be creating a home energy-management system for an Australia smart-gride program. The system will use Grid Net software and be based on Intel’s design, according to Earth2Tech. Intel is an investor in Grid Net.

Yet Few Believe Their Homes Are Very Energy Efficient

OCEANSIDE, Calif., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Home energy efficiency is valued by the vast majority of American homeowners, with 89 percent of national survey respondents indicating that making their home more energy efficient is important to them personally.

Key findings from the September 2010 national survey include:

• Less than one in three homeowners believe their homes are “very” energy efficient
• While the majority reported knowing “a lot” about how to make their homes energy efficient, they mistakenly identified  ”older windows” as the top energy-loss culprit
• 90% said it is important to have a professional energy auditor who is “certified by an independent national organization”

“These findings are a call to action to the industry to help consumers tap into the true value of an independent energy audit,” said Steve Baden, executive director, RESNET. “While the benefits of window replacement are obvious, it is often a less visible and less expensive repair – for example, sealing cracks around air conditioning and heating ducts – that can significantly improve a home’s energy efficiency and cut homeowners’ utility bills.”

(continued below)

Internal Sponsorship:
Just released from GreenEcoClub the DIY Easy-Energy-Audits. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do energy audit on your home like the pros. Easy-Energy-audits

D.C.-based Clarus Research Group, a Qorvis company, conducted a market survey of 800 U.S. homeowners(1) on behalf of RESNET, an industry leader in the energy efficiency marketplace. The sample was defined as adults over 21 years of age who currently own a home or plan to purchase one within the next year. The survey was conducted by Ron Faucheux, Ph.D., president of Clarus and a nationally recognized research and polling expert.

Key among other survey findings:

• 86% of homeowners would trust an energy audit performed by someone who was “certified by an independent national organization” over someone who was not
• 80% of those surveyed said that if they were in the market to buy a home, an energy audit conducted by an “unbiased professional” would be important to them

About RESNET

RESNET is a national nonprofit organization that sets the standards for the inspection and testing of the energy performance of homes. RESNET saw 119,000 homes rated last year, and has had over 1,000,000 rated since its inception. RESNET is recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Energy Star Homes, the U.S. Department of Energy for the National Builder’s Challenge, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the federal tax credit for builders building energy-efficient homes. For more information, please visit www.resnet.us

(1) Poll conducted Sept. 1–4, 2010 via live telephone interviewing of a nationwide, scientifically-selected random sample. Margin of error: +/-3.46%.

SOURCE RESNET

September 13, 2010 by Anja Atkinson

Staying warm, cooking food, bathing, and driving to work are essential functions in our daily lives. Remove for a moment the stove, the hot water, the heated cozy home and your car and we see the vital, integral thread of energy in our daily lives. Electricity has been invisibly supplied in the background for decades, taken for granted perhaps. Yet energy convenience has been provided at a cost to our human health and the well-being of our natural environments.

Transitioning our homes from reliance on environmentally damaging energy systems that burn oil and coal for example, to sustainable energy, begins with a fundamental understanding and appreciation for home energy management. Time, personal effort and money will be wasted if home energy efficiency is not given adequate attention prior to doing any renewable energy home retrofit.

To begin we can measure energy used at home with the help of a few simple tools and some basic math. The information you collect will help you understand and map how you use energy on a daily basis, and give you a clear picture of how much energy you use on a monthly and annual basis. This is invaluable information you will use when evaluating what a solar system can supply to your home in terms of meeting your energy needs, and how much that system will cost to install. We like to remind our readers that solar installations can begin with a modest system that meets some of your energy needs. In North America, we are conditioned to the idea of bigger and faster, but most of us still live on a budget and approaching a new solar installation that’s smaller to start out with suits many of us. Residential solar systems can be expanded very easily as your budget allows.
What you will be recording for this home project is how many watts of energy you use at home, to then calculate your kilowatt hour use (kWh), and the associated cost of operating each appliance.One kWh is 1000 watts and is the universal standard used in electronics. When it’s time to calculate your solar system requirements to see what system costs are and what system energy capabilities are you’ll be prepared with a close estimate of kWh’s you use at home. For this project you will need some paper, a pencil, a clipboard and a calculator. Later you can throw this information into a spreadsheet if you like.

1. Go through your home, room by room, and make a list of all your appliances, fridge, stove, lights, vacuum, clocks, computer etc., leaving room on the page to record corresponding power use and cost information. Consult the labelling on your appliances which should tell you how many watts are used per hour and record this on your list. Power measurements of some appliances may be displayed as amps, volts or ohms. Use this Watts Conversion Calculator if you need to translate amps, volts or ohms into watts, which then can be calculated into kWhs.
2. Home energy management ultimately brings us closer to lowering our energy consumption, which is cost effective time well spent. With your list in hand, we can now gain further insight on what you spend each month on power by using either or both of these free tools, Energy Cost Calculator and Home Electricity Audit Form. This will show you how much it costs to run each appliance in your home based on the cost of energy your currently pay for. Record the results on your list.
3. Any appliances you can’t evaluate with the free online tools just mentioned, can be measured with a reasonably priced power monitor.  It will provide you with the most accurate measurements of energy used by appliances and identify problems. We recommend the P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt electricity usage monitor, which connects directly between an appliance and a power outlet. It not only measures power used by an appliance in kWhs, but also measures voltage and potential issues with outlets, line frequency, and will identify appliances that are guzzling the juice and costing you more than needed. This can lead you to explore upgrading to energy smart appliances, which has long term value in reducing energy costs and improving home energy management.  Find Energy Star products here.
4. After appliances you need to determine energy consumed for heating requirements in the winter and cooling needs in the summer. Base your cooling needs on estimated usage in a 24 hr period, to determine how many kWhs you use at home per month when running an air conditioner and/or fans. Climate plays a huge factor in energy cost so estimate your usage on climate in your area and required cooling needs. Professional help is useful to determine heating energy demands because many factors, like insulation, weatherstripping, types of windows and even what you home is built from factor into both heating & heating loss, and home cooling energy demands. Home energy assessments are being offered for free in many areas so check out what’s available where you live. If you don’t want to get an assessment done, you can still get an estimate with the help of this Heating Load Calculator. We looked around for a good calculator and feel this one is clear and easy to use. Heating is measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units) and this information should be readable on your furnace.  Record your results as well as heating and cooling costs based on what you pay your provider.  Add your totals.

You now have a list of how much energy each appliance in your home uses, what it costs, including your heating and cooling numbers and your total overall home energy use. This serves as a home energy map which you can use to then reduce energy consumption by replacing old appliances, removing redundant ones, or by making improvements to home insulation and weather stripping for example. Consider small things like power saving devices and power smart lighting you can use around your home. The best results of this project is simply your own awareness of how you use energy and thereby how you can save energy.  It shows you also what you have control over through good home energy management. In planning a residential solar installation you will now really appreciate the energy a solar system can create for your home, having clear insight of your home energy needs.

In light of the recent stint of above-90 degree days, discussing home winterization seems downright painful. Or at the very least, preemptive. But to draw from Aesop’s fable of the industrious ant and the lazy grasshopper — there is no time like the present to get started, before the first dusting of snow calls to reality the impending winter.

Logan Brown, a home performance manager at Efficiency Vermont said basic home maintenance is often overlooked. “What we really want homeowners to know is homes are just like any other complex system that we maintain in our lives. Like a car or like our bodies — you’ve got to put effort into maintaining the system. No one questions oil changes or tire rotations — it’s just common sense — and a house is an even more complex system that we frequently neglect.”

Brown gave a few suggestions for homeowners, as well as renters, ways to get started on winterization, and maintaining those important systems that keep heat and hot water chugging all winter long:

Get a home energy audit: Brown said Efficiency Vermont always recommends a professional home energy audit. Even if you plan on making the improvements yourself, the audit sets a path, giving you a prioritized list. “It will let you know, if you have limited time and budget, what are the things you should tackle first,” Brown said. A professional energy audit is also important from a safety standpoint, by identifying any concerns over changing the structure’s envelope, or the way air moves. It is possible that minor home improvements could compromise a heating system, or trap moisture. Professional audits run $250 to $500, depending on the size and complexity of the home.

Filling in the cracks: Brown said tightening up a home’s holes, by identifying where warm air is escaping, and where cold air is entering often has the most impact on a home’s efficiency. Brown said caulking and some insulating can be done by homeowners; more difficult to reach places or complicated installments may require the help of a professional.

Attack the attic: “The first place I would look is in the attic,” Brown said. Leaky, creaky Vermont attics are often uninsulated and not air-sealed, resulting in warm air flowing out of the house. He recommends identifying any large openings from lower, heated areas, such as the attic hatch, pull-down stairs and gaps around chimneys. “Those are things you are going to want to air seal first,” said Brown. Afterward, small holes can be fixed with caulking, spray foam and rigid foam, which can all be purchased at local hardware and home improvement stores. Non-combustible material should be used around the chimney.

Blast the basement: If warm air escapes from the attic, the basement is where cool air enters. Brown said doors to the outside, broken old windows and other openings are often neglected. Doors to the outside can be insulted, rotten windows can be boarded over with rigid foam, sealed into place with caulk and spray foam.

Keep in tune: Brown recommends regular tune-ups on home heating systems and chimneys to keep them running as efficiently and safely as possible.

Ax the AC: “We like to see people remove window AC units instead of having them left in place and covered,” Brown said. The units are not designed with the colder months in mind and are not airtight.

Pro plastic: Brown said if homeowners or renters don’t have the resources for window repair, covering them with plastic is an appropriate alternative as well as an affordable option for very leaky frames. Kits are available at most home improvement and hardware stores.

Wait on the windows: Brown said he recommends homeowners wait on investing in new windows. “It’s just what we’ve found, year after year, is that most windows can be repaired or improved. Investing in windows, buying them new, there is a lot of marketing, a lot of promise. ‘Buy and save!’ The best return on investment we’ve seen is air sealing and insulation in the attic, basement and walls.”

Trust in your system: Brown recommends avoiding electric heating options like space heaters, and instead focusing on a good central heating system, tuned up and ready for the winter. Space heaters are good to take the chill off an infrequently used room, he said, but they aren’t designed to carry the heating load for a whole house. He said he’s seen “miracle super heaters” advertised, that purport to “heat for pennies a day.” But Brown said this is rarely the case. “Anything that sounds too good to be true as far as heating is concerned is likely going to be a disappointment for the consumer.” If a space heater is needed, opt for the inexpensive models at a local hardware store, he said.

Contact Hannah Crowley at 651-4835 or hcrowley@burlingtonfreepress.com