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I just sold my 3600sqft house. It's a single story, it had two a/c heating units and two hot water heaters. The house was built in 2000 so it's very open floor plan, no way to isolate the heating&cooling needs so it seems economical on paper but the reality is it needs two for the sheer size of the house.
My new house is 600sqft mainfloor and 600sqft basement. If you want to be efficient build the house underground. It's been a heatwave...weeks at 90 to 100 but it's always 65 to 70 in the basement.
Our home was built in 2007, it is modern and very energy efficient.
Because you live in La, you may want A/C in your home. That has no bearing on it being modern or not. Running A/C is the opposite of energy efficient.
love it,
another goodie is the "energy efficient dryer"
I do have an energy efficient dryer, its called a "clothesline" and uses no energy at all, and I use it all year long. now thats what i call energy effieicient
So long as your annual heating / cooling expenses are under $1,000 then you are likely doing it fairly efficient.
I live in Maine. Many people insist that Maine is 'too cold' and that heating costs must be high here. For some people their heating costs are high. I know people who burn as much as 15 cords of firewood each winter. We burn 3 to 3 1/2 cords a winter. One of the projects we have lined up will be Solar-Thermal heating. We hope to reduce our winter heating to less than one cord per winter.
I think it is easier to live in a cold region and build a self-heating home, than it would be to live in a hot region trying to build a self-cooling home.
What if a house was built with insulated rooms? Why heat the laundry room 24/7 when you only spend a couple hours a week in there? Same for closets, pantry, etc. Keep them above freezing of course.
This would work well if you insulated a single straight wall at one end or another of the house, and designed the floorplan so that unheated storage and ancillary rooms (e.g. laundry) were placed inside that minimally-heated area. Trying to 'gerrymander' the house with insulated walls all over the place would be ungainly at best. Just separate out a whole section, and place what you don't want to heat, in there.
This would work well if you insulated a single straight wall at one end or another of the house, and designed the floorplan so that unheated storage and ancillary rooms (e.g. laundry) were placed inside that minimally-heated area. Trying to 'gerrymander' the house with insulated walls all over the place would be ungainly at best. Just separate out a whole section, and place what you don't want to heat, in there.
But that wouldn't work if you had any ducting or pipes running through the uninsulated area.........unless you insulated the same very well.
It is common in this area, to see older homes. Where the front porch has gone through stages. First they are an open porch. Then they get screened in. Then storm shutters. Then they get walled in, with no thought to insulating. So they end up having an unheated room for storage. When you enter one of these homes, the first room you step through is a storage room.
This would work well if you insulated a single straight wall at one end or another of the house, and designed the floorplan so that unheated storage and ancillary rooms (e.g. laundry) were placed inside that minimally-heated area. Trying to 'gerrymander' the house with insulated walls all over the place would be ungainly at best. Just separate out a whole section, and place what you don't want to heat, in there.
This was what I had in mind. Sorry I didn't convey it well. Thanks for helping.
So long as your annual heating / cooling expenses are under $1,000 then you are likely doing it fairly efficient.
I live in Maine. Many people insist that Maine is 'too cold' and that heating costs must be high here. For some people their heating costs are high. I know people who burn as much as 15 cords of firewood each winter. We burn 3 to 3 1/2 cords a winter. One of the projects we have lined up will be Solar-Thermal heating. We hope to reduce our winter heating to less than one cord per winter.
I think it is easier to live in a cold region and build a self-heating home, than it would be to live in a hot region trying to build a self-cooling home.
My home is a small mobile home with no shade trees and is all electric. Because of all the changes I made to the home, even with this heat wave our last electric bill was $120.
Our home was built in 2007, it is modern and very energy efficient.
Because you live in La, you may want A/C in your home. That has no bearing on it being modern or not. Running A/C is the opposite of energy efficient.
Because of modern building codes, if you live in hot climate areas you will need AC to be able to live in the home. There are homes locally that were built prior to AC that one can live in without AC. They're built a few feet above the ground, have less insulation to allow air circulation from floor to attic, have open vents or attic fans to help draw the hot air out of the attic thus a continuous circulation allowing hot air to escape. While not as comfortable as a modern home with AC, it is safe temperature to live with. But many of these homes have been converted for AC and thus are so well insulated that if the electricity is off or the AC is broken, the interior of the home will become hotter than outside the home. Modern home builders cannot bypass the building codes to build homes that don't need AC.
My home is a small mobile home with no shade trees and is all electric. Because of all the changes I made to the home, even with this heat wave our last electric bill was $120.
Your 'small mobile home' is currently costing you $1440/year.
I would hate to see how much you would spend on a large home.
Quote:
... Modern home builders cannot bypass the building codes to build homes that don't need AC.
That may be the case, in some limited areas. Possibly in your limited area. I have no idea. It is most certainly NOT the case every where.
"Energy efficient" is a part of the title of this thread.
Focusing on non- efficient homes, is outside of the topic.
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