Hey, that’s paid for over half of my latest project.  I’ve spent about $450 to insulate my Living Room.

Looks like I need to work on saving some water this year.

Dan Bossenbroek

  Shop light conversion: $36

This results in a grand total investment of $1,262. 

Our utility bills have been paid through the end of 2009 and our total annual savings has climbed to $912.18

Progress: as of end of  2009 vs 2007

• Electricity – 67.7%
• Natural Gas – 80.5%
• Water – 83.0%
• Utility Costs – 75.3%
• Savings 2008 – $  200.15
• Savings 2009 – $  912.18
• Total Savings – $1112.33

What this means is that we are about half way to cutting our utility costs by 50% and we have already recovered 88% of what we have invested so far.  Furthermore, we have only invested about 15% of what we will save over five years once we cut our utility costs by 50%.   Our plan for 2010 is to invest another $900 or so, and increase our savings to $1,150 or more for the year.

So far some of the projects that we are considering are:

• Insulate the Crawlspace – $100   Actual Cost
• Insulate the Living Room – $450  Estimate
• Install a Dual Flush Conversion Kit – $55  Estimate
• Complete Weatherizing Walls and Windows – $45  Estimate
• Two DIY Rain Barrels with Soaker Hoses – $80  Estimate

Stay tuned, more updates coming soon!

Dan Bossenbroek

The first thing you should do is to simply turn things off when you aren’t using them:  TVs, lights, computers, stereos, monitors, and computer speakers.  This seems obvious, but many houses are lit up like an operating room, even when there is no one home.  With the flick of a switch you can start saving.

Your second step, if you are serious about cutting your electrical bills, is to invest in a Kill-A-Watt monitor.  Plug your refrigerator, freezer, small appliances and other electronic devices into this handy gadget and it will tell you your electrical costs by the hour, day, week or year for each of these items.  This way, you can determine how much you can save by unplugging those devices that are off, but that still draw juice, or how much you will save by replacing that old refrigerator.  Make a list of all of these appliances and devices with their corresponding annual costs for your records.

Lighting accounts for about 25% of the average homes electricity bills.  So, if your annual electricity bill is a $1,000, you could save about $150 to $200 a year just by replacing your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.  As a rule of thumb a 100 Watt bulb that is left on 24/7/365 will cost about $100 per year to keep lit.  Replace incandescent bulbs that are used on a daily basis as follows:

• 100 Watt bulb: 25 minutes or more,
• 75 Watt bulb: 30 minutes or more,
• 60 Watt bulb: 40 minutes or more,
• 40 Watt bulbs: 60 minutes or more, and
• 25 Watt bulbs: 90 minutes or more,

and the savings in electricity will pay for the new bulbs in five years or less.

Calculate your savings:  If you would like to calculate your annual savings you will need to list all of the fixtures whose bulbs you replace, the total current watts (Wc), the total new watts (Wn), and the average time in minutes (T) they are on per day.  You will also need to refer to your electricity bill to find your electrical rate (R).  The formula for calculating your annual savings (S) per fixture is:  (Wc-Wn)*T*R*.00608 = S

Change your drying habits.  Drying your clothes in a clothes dryer can cost you from $50 to $100 a year.  By line drying your clothes, you can reduce this number significantly, and by installing a Clothes Dryer Heat Saver you can recapture the heat from your dryer to help to heat your home during the heating season.

After taking these few steps, you can now determine which electricity saving products and strategies that you should employ first and how much you should expect to save.  Take a first step, take the Net 50 Energy Challenge, and cut your electrical bills starting now.

Dan Bossenbroek

Progress: as of end of August 2009 vs 2007

• Electricity – 65.6%
• Natural Gas – 77.3%
• Water – 83.5%
• Utility Costs – 73.7%
• Savings 2008 – $200.15
• Savings 2009 – $700.67
• Total Savings – $900.82

Now in step 3 we collected information on the Building Envelope and filled in this chart: 

We investigated the insulation in the attic to verify how much has an additional  layer of 5 ½” fiberglass batt insulation on top of the 5 ½” layer of loose fiberglass insulation that there is throughout the entire attic.

Our house does not have any floors above unheated spaces, or any slab on grade floors.

We measured the walls of the basement and crawl space walls, above and below grade, and have subtracted the area of the windows.

Finally, we measured the areas of the two different types of exterior wall and subtracted the area of all windows and doors.

After investigating the exterior of our house some of the energy saving improvements that we are considering are to finish adding a layer of R-19 batt insulation to the attic, insulating the crawlspace and basement walls, and possibly adding insulation to the exterior of the southern portion of the house.  Our next step in developing our Home Energy Audit will be to examine all of the gaps, cracks and holes in the exterior of our house.

Dan Bossenbroek

Here in step 2 we will investigate the exterior of our house and property.

We don’t have a survey of our property, so we have developed one ourselves.  We went to our county auditor’s website and found a site map and a building sketch.

Next, we used the site map as a base to sketch the rest of the site improvements on.  Several items of interest are: the perennial gardens, the trees and house to the east that shade our property in the morning, the trees to the south that shade the south portion of the back lawn, the redbud that shades the perennial garden between the house and the patio, and the garage to the west that shades the patio from the harsh evening sun.         

We then transferred this information to graph paper.

Finally, we photographed the exterior of the house.

Some of the exterior water and energy saving products and strategies that we are considering are: weatherizing, rain barrels, solar air heaters, sun shades, and a green roof on the porch.  We will need to complete this Home Energy Audit to verify which make the most sense.

Dan Bossenbroek

Pull out your vacuum cleaner, remove the grille at the bottom of the front of your refrigerator.  Plug your vacuum cleaner in, put the longest and thinnest attachment on the end, turn it on, stick attachment in this thin and most likely filthy little space, move it around, pull it out and unclog end, reinsert.  Repeat until the space it dust, dirt, and dog hair free.

Congratulations!  You have just improved the efficiency of your refrigerator, and saved yourself a few bucks.  Don’t forget to repeat this activity a few times a year.  Now air can get to the condensing coil tucked under your refrigerator more easily.  Oops, unnecessary technical jargon.

Take one step at a time and eventually you will meet your own Net 50 (or 20) Energy Challenge.

Dan Bossenbroek

I’ve decided to turn the clock back to 2007 for the official start of our Net 50 Energy Challenge since that is when we began to

implement energy saving strategies on our house.  So here is the scoop: our family of four moved to a 2200 square foot, two story brick and aluminum sided house with a partial basement and no garage in the winter of 2005.  In 2007 we used 14,227 KW of electricity, 1,145 CCF of natural gas and 106 CCF of water.  Through the end of July this year we have used 65.6% as much electricity, 77.3% as much natural gas, and 89.1% as much water as we did through July of 2007.  So already we are averaging about a 26% reduction in utility costs.

To date, these are the water and energy saving products we have used:

• Installed radiant barrier/insulation in the attic:  $400.
• Added R-19 insulation to a portion of the attic:  $100.
• Replaced almost all light bulbs with CFL’s (the rest we don’t use much and we’ll replace when they burn out):  $56.
• Weather stripping and door sweeps installed on all exterior doors and screen/storm doors:  $25.
• The entire front yard (except for the tree lawn) has been changed into a garden of drought tolerant plants:  $400. (I’m only counting 50% of this since it is one of our hobbies as well.)
• Use clear plastic film window insulation on all windows throughout the winter, and on east and wet windows throughout the year:  $24.
• Insulated some ductwork and sealed all ducts in basement:  $35.
• Employ most of the Green Free Fifteen, I haven’t been able to break my night owl tendencies:  $0 – The operative word is FREE.
• Installed a low flow showerhead:  $20.
• Upgraded our computer, Windows Vista, with a flat screen monitor:  $0 – Needed to upgrade anyway.
• Built a trellis for a wisteria vine that acts as a sun shade through the summer:  $0 – Used branches from a tree that fell in our back yard.
• And numerous water saving activities: $0 – again changes in habits that don’t cost anything.

This results in a grand total investment of $1,060. 

The Goal:  To reduce our annual consumption to 7,113 KW of grid fed electricity, 577 CCF of natural gas and 53 CCF of potable water.

The Cost:  Our total utility cost for 2007 was $3,278.  So, once we cut our utility bills in half, we will save $1,640 a year, at 2007 utility rates.  Therefore if we invest $8,200 in energy and water saving products and strategies, we will recover our investment in five years, and if we invest $11,480 it will take seven years.  However, since our utility rates have gone up about 15% over the past two years our savings will continue to grow and grow.

Next Step:  To walk you through an energy audit of my house, hoping that you will follow along and do a similar energy audit on your house.

Dan Bossenbroek