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Update - I never expected for the savings to be this much!
Yes, we are in the beginning of the heating season but I have data for November and doing some calculations, it's ridiculous the amount of savings with a R60 attic AND basement insulation (basement alone decreased even further the usage).
My gas bill for this past month was 20$ (total was 33$: 13$ for Customer charge and 20$ for gas and delivery).
My house is a 1958 house therefore it's considered leaky and not insulated from the start.
Acording to EIA, the average NE house built from 2005+, therefore new construction, uses 5 BTUs/sq ft/Heating Degree day.
My house is using currently 1.1 BTUs/sqft/HDD
If data is correct and holds for the full season - which it should because I adjusted the data, then it means for the whole heating season, I should only use about 150 therms of gas ... or a bill of $120 at current prices for the WHOLE heating season (0.80 dollars per therm), which is crazy!
Galaxy, insulation is totally worth it. Do it. And you being electric probably have lots of rebates. My electric company rebates 75% of costs with attic insulation up to 500$ which is in essence most of it - cellulose if you DIY. Since I was NG, I only got 25% back with max payout of 125 if I recall. Still worth it since savings compared to previous year was 35-40% per calculations - we used about the same NG but last winter was WAY COLDER.
I wish I could be all electric. As of now, all utilities NG and electric, we spend 1000-1100 dollars, due to increase in NG and electricity. Out of these 1000-1100 dollars, 204$ is just for electrical account and 168 for NG account maintenance!
If I can eventually swtich everything to electrical, I could save the 168, plus a little bit of efficiency on the rest. I estimate on todays prices we could have all electrical for 65/70 per month. We are heating for 2300 sq feet - we are single ranch at 1170 sq ft however, the ducts of the HVAC also deliver heat to the basement - I guess previous owner heated the basement where he sort of had a little workshop there.
So, not bad as of now at 90 USD/month in utilities.
No, we are nat gas for heat. Only the 144sqft bonus toom is electric heat.
But the main house is only 750 sqft and is nat gas heat. Kept at 65 night and when out, 67 when home and up.
Our utility company cover all electric and gas. One bill for $175/m. Too high.
All bulbs are LEDs with a few left over CFLS that are rarely on.
We will shut down the electric heat bonus room Dec-March.
Our electric rates are through tye roof, as i am sure the nat gas rates are too. We are NY. High taxes and fees too.
Yes, attic insulation will be coming and will help. The house has 2" in the attic and none in the walls.
I dint think there are any rebates now from my utility company.
We might qualify for incone based insulation program, will have to look into it.
Update - I never expected for the savings to be this much!
Yes, we are in the beginning of the heating season but I have data for November and doing some calculations, it's ridiculous the amount of savings with a R60 attic AND basement insulation (basement alone decreased even further the usage).
My gas bill for this past month was 20$ (total was 33$: 13$ for Customer charge and 20$ for gas and delivery).
My house is a 1958 house therefore it's considered leaky and not insulated from the start.
Acording to EIA, the average NE house built from 2005+, therefore new construction, uses 5 BTUs/sq ft/Heating Degree day.
My house is using currently 1.1 BTUs/sqft/HDD
If data is correct and holds for the full season - which it should because I adjusted the data, then it means for the whole heating season, I should only use about 150 therms of gas ... or a bill of $120 at current prices for the WHOLE heating season (0.80 dollars per therm), which is crazy!
December confirmed it. We are now deep in freezing temps with about 1100 HDDs for the full month and we spent only in heat $30 ... this is with heating 2400 sq ft ! We pay about 85 cents per therm.
We finally bought that new fridge. Difference in consumption is staggering! Old one was at 2.5-3 kWh/day while new one sits at 0.4 kWh/day ... our electrical bill is now around 240 kWh. It could be less if we didn't use the dryer ... I stopped caring about the dryer, I still hang most of the big/bulky items such as jeans or towels or comforters but hanging multiple socks and underwear? I just toss into dryer and run a short cycle along with light garments that are mostly dry.
We can probably reach sub 200 kWh, once the furnace blower is not used during shoulder season.
We cook at home everyday pretty much and stove is electric.
Our heating bill is very low too. Estimates were a little lower initially, instead of 1.1 BTU, the house settled for an average season of 1.55 BTUs per sq ft per HDD. We currently have used 190 therms for the whole season, or 153$. Remind you this is in an area that sees sub-0 temps at times.
Once we obtained a Monitor heater, we saved a ton of $$ and it was as if we had central heating.
So nice! We used to convince ourselves nothing was better than a fire but no more. Comfort is much better.
Next is replacing our huge water heater with a smaller one. Making more room for shelving
The best for space/smaller would be an on-demand water heater... But our furnace, water heater and AC are pretty much in their begining of life - previous owners purchased new in 2009.
If I were to buy new, I would buy a mini split AC system for AC and heating (electricity but with COP higher than 4, meaning it gives out 4 units of energy per each 1 used ... cheaper than NG). Also an on demand electric heater.
It would save us an extra 320$ per year on utilities, and we would just pay around 600-700$ in electricity for both heating, AC, water heater for the year.
Galaxy, insulation is totally worth it. Do it. And you being electric probably have lots of rebates. My electric company rebates 75% of costs with attic insulation up to 500$ which is in essence most of it - cellulose if you DIY. Since I was NG, I only got 25% back with max payout of 125 if I recall. Still worth it since savings compared to previous year was 35-40% per calculations - we used about the same NG but last winter was WAY COLDER.
I wish I could be all electric. As of now, all utilities NG and electric, we spend 1000-1100 dollars, due to increase in NG and electricity. Out of these 1000-1100 dollars, 204$ is just for electrical account and 168 for NG account maintenance!
If I can eventually swtich everything to electrical, I could save the 168, plus a little bit of efficiency on the rest. I estimate on todays prices we could have all electrical for 65/70 per month. We are heating for 2300 sq feet - we are single ranch at 1170 sq ft however, the ducts of the HVAC also deliver heat to the basement - I guess previous owner heated the basement where he sort of had a little workshop there.
So, not bad as of now at 90 USD/month in utilities.
I have put in to home advisor to have quotes for insulation in the attic. Im disabled and getting up through the hole in the basement stair landing is difficult for me to do it myself. Also want to be sure its done "right", so I'll hire an insulation contractor who knows (hopefully) what they are doing.
We'll see what costs. Also need new furnace, and that may take precident over the insulation. Want central a/c too.
We'll see what it costs so can budget accordingly.
Also anyone have any idea about which is better...batts or blown in????
Location: Small community in the California Sierra Mountains
119 posts, read 120,953 times
Reputation: 230
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lusitano_
The best for space/smaller would be an on-demand water heater... But our furnace, water heater and AC are pretty much in their begining of life - previous owners purchased new in 2009.
If I were to buy new, I would buy a mini split AC system for AC and heating (electricity but with COP higher than 4, meaning it gives out 4 units of energy per each 1 used ... cheaper than NG). Also an on demand electric heater.
It would save us an extra 320$ per year on utilities, and we would just pay around 600-700$ in electricity for both heating, AC, water heater for the year.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,576 posts, read 81,186,228 times
Reputation: 57813
We just calculated our savings from the triple pane windows we had installed last May, so just under a year. We are on pace to save $950 for that time, despite a colder winter and being home more during the day with heat turned up higher (snowed in, illness). This is a 3,000 sf home, 3 people, gas heat, 2 window AC units in summer. Of course it will take about 13 years of that savings to pay for them, but when we retire, sell and move in 3-4 years it should be a helpful feature with the transferable warranty.
I guess I'm a fairly high electric consumer, so I'm glad I installed the solar power because it helps me avoid the most expensive tiers of usage. I immediately replaced every light with LEDs and I installed the most efficient HVAC systems money can buy. In the basement is a ductless mini split around 30 SEER and the central system is variable to 1%, it's 21 SEER (Trane XVi 20), but I also run my systems constantly. I don't think the indoors should be a variable thing so it's set to maintain a temperature of no more than 72 during the day and around 67 at night regardless of season. To me, it's worth the money, and my electric bills will be around $90/month for a 3-story home in the summer and $200 during the winter, because there is almost no sun during the winter here.
From condo living I'm not used to this situation, winter has always been the cheapest for me in every condo ever, because condos are self-heating. It'll remain 70 degrees in the winter even if it's 20 outside just because of the quality of construction. In the past, summer was always the most expensive season by 2-3x and now it's the opposite. Kind of weirds me out, but I guess that's what happens with less well insulated homes. In our last condo we had to run AC even if it was 45 degrees outside because it's a sealed box, there is no escape of body heat or other electronics, so you're always cooling the place but it's so energy efficient that it's very inexpensive regardless.
I work from home and spend about 95% of my time in the house, but I think we use around 1,400 Kw per month even with extremely energy efficient systems. I suspect that's just the reality of using a computer most of the day, having the HVAC system active, home theater sound system downstairs, etc. I kind of thought our usage would be lower. When we move, we're installing another solar system but it's in Las Vegas, so I am hoping and expecting to get my electric bills much closer to zero with almost constant sun. The house itself is better insulated as well, it's just better quality of construction than my current home and it's a "green build" with way above code insulation, 2x6 construction, etc.
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