Comments on: Reducing Our Electrical Usage

By: tony

tony — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:13:52 +0000

Get a ceiling mounted drying rack which utilises your home warmth to dry clothes. It raises out of the way where the warm air is.

By: Daus

Daus — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:08:06 +0000

Great website! I noticed a huge difference in the temperature of my attached garage by insulating the garage door. I used liquid nails and aluminum faced insulation board. I also replaced a good majority of my lights with compact fluorescent bulbs. The trick to make a pleasing switch is to get the soft white version and use them in areas that already provide partial cover, like a lamp shade. Also, it helps to provide a hybrid of a single incandescent lamp in a room with a couple compact fluorescent lamps to created a pleasing effect.

By: Susan

Susan — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 15:31:20 +0000

I saved a noticeable amount on my electricity bills by drying laundry outside. Leave it out too long and it goes crunchy and needs ironing, but if you bring it in when it’s still very slightly damp and throw it in the dryer for just 5 minutes you’re golden!

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:39:15 +0000

depending on the location of your water heater and incoming pipes, you may be able to install a solar breadbox pre-heater for your hot water. This is much less expensive than a solar water heating system. You run pipes or pex to the black “breadbox”, loop the pipe inside the box a few times and then run to the water heater. This uses the sun to pre heat your water. In the summer, in a sunny location, you might be able to keep the water heater from needing to turn on. Just make sure you insulate the pipes, and have the pre-heater in a very sunny location (similar to how hot the inside of the car gets on a sunny, or not so sunny day. it really works). You can usually do this sype of system for $500 or less, depending on where your pipes, water heater, and such are. see homepower.com for more info, or check out your library for an old book called “solarizing your present home” by Carter. Pub by Rodale press. Could be worth it to lower water heating costs.

By: nickel

nickel — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:23:16 +0000

Black painted cardboard is a great idea Vicki! And we have plenty of cardboard around from our moving boxes.

By: Vicki

Vicki — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:11:02 +0000

I would consider covering the garage windows with cardboard, either painted black or white, or with pictures. You could also cover the cardboard with fabric, making a kind of curtained look to the windows.

Cardboard is a decent insulator itself, blocks viewing the inside, and can be insulated over on the inside. It has the advantage of being easily removed for resale of your home. You can also easily remove and replace it if the paint weathers, or if you choose a different color scheme, etc.

By: Pam

Pam — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 18:13:04 +0000

We have the same problem with our garage door and the heat it get once the sun shines onto it from 1pm until evening. I bought some a window tinting kit (reflective) and tinted the windows. That helped a whole lot. Our next plan of action is to paint it with Radiant Barrier Pain from KoolCoat. To fix the insulation problem we’ll buy a couple of sheets of the ‘board’ type insulation and cut those to fit into the empty cavity on the back of the door. It’s a whole lot cheaper than springing for new insulated garage doors.

By: Making Our Way

Making Our Way — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:57:27 +0000

wow! Great ideas. Since our house is new I’ve been wondering what we have to do. I’m going to check out your posting regarding insulating your garage door. Then again, Grandpa prefers to keep it open all day — inlaws!!

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 00:23:03 +0000

Nice blog. I’m just starting my own personal finance blog. Keep up the good work.

http://roadtoretirement.blogspot.com

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 16:35:22 +0000

You’re doing a lot of good things. Generally, if you stop air infiltration to the house you will accomplish a lot. Here are a few suggestions:

Use caulk and spray foam to fill small gaps all around the house. Don’t be afraid to get in the attic and under the house to accomplish this. Here’s a guide I found from Habitat for Humanity. It’s for new construction, but much of this you can do on an existing home: http://www.greenhome.org/pdf/opcaulk.pdf

Insulate UNDER the water heater as well the sides and top. A lot of people don’t do this.

Make sure duct work is well sealed and insulated. It has never made sense to me why we have our air conditioning vents in a 130 degree attic.

If you have recessed can lights, research how to insulate and seal them (if they aren’t). Some can lights can’t come into contact with insulation and many of them have holes in them. Uninsulated can light = hole in your ceiling. I sealed mine with duct tape (the stuff actually used on ducts, not regular duck tape).

By: FMF

FMF — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:32:28 +0000

Two comments:

1. You should have known the costs before you purchased. Many listings contain these numbers — yours didn’t? (Not that you wouldn’t have purchased the place anyway, but they should have told you this up front.)

2. 3k square feet? You’re the man!!!!!!!

By: Dus10

Dus10 — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:15:05 +0000

I have few suggestions.

1) Look into getting solar screens for the garage windows. They will block more of the sunlight getting into the garage, which will probably be the largest opportunity that you will have with the garage.

2) Maybe you should look into a reflective coating for the windows in the garage door. It will give you the effect that you want to acheive with the white, while giving you the advantages of the black (opacity and/or retaining the look of a window). Then you can insulate the garage door.

3) Check to see if your attic is properly ventilated. You might look into a solar powered attic fan to exhaust the heat.

4) You may want to see if you have an air return on each floor. In the summer, you could block the upstairs air return, and leave your central air fan on all the time, and do the opposite in the winter. This will help to equalize the temperature in the house without having to always run the central air unit.