I had a great chat today with Linda Johnson, the owner of the passive solar home I built, featured in this blog. I try to touch base with her on a regular basis, just to see how the house is working and if she has any problems with it. She also sends me her energy bills on a regular basis which enables me to keep track of how the house is performing. Yes, we did a whole bunch of energy modeling when designing the house but nothing beats having the actual energy costs to prove that this stuff works and works well. 
She just turned 62 (she's gonna kill me for telling that) and she will be retiring within the next few months. Then she went on to tell me that had she not built this house she would not have been able to retire at this age. She stated that she is saving $550 a month living in her new home, even with having to pay a little more in property taxes. I'm not sure how she did the math but it was nice to hear. In another month or so she will have been in the house for 2 full years and we will once again compare the annual energy costs to make sure the house is meeting expectations. Early on, back in 2008 when I was first getting ready to build this house I estimated the annual heating costs of the house to be less than $700 and the total energy cost to be about $1,500. Last winter the cost to heat this home came in at $341 for the entire winter, far exceeding expectations. The total energy cost for the house over the entire year was $1,786 about $286 higher than expected, so we sat down and tried to figure out were the extra energy was being used. We made some adjustments to the cooling system that helped the system perform more efficiently, we adjusted the setting on the whole house dehumidifier and we made recommendations about habits that could reduce energy costs. We will see in another month how well those adjustments worked and if we have met the goal of $1,500 annual energy costs. Next we will be installing a solar hot water system that should reduce the energy costs even further, ( she currently has an electric hot water heater)
Tracking the energy costs for this house has been pretty simple, it's all electric. No oil, gas or wood, no fossil fuels being burnt in the house and the ability to convert to solar electric, should she choose to do so. That will be the next step to fulfilling the goal I had when designing this house, a true zero energy home, right here in New England that costs less than $175 sq/ft to build.
Tom Pittsley
Collecting and converting usable energy from solar radiation can be accomplished by using many different forms of technology and includes various direct and indirect methods of harnessing the solar energy.
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I am quite sure I will learn plenty of new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next! Thanks for sharing. According to Direct.gov, making your home as energy efficient as possible will reduce carbon emissions and could save you over £300 a year on your fuel bills and contribute to reducing greenhouse and carbon emissions. InterHome incorporates an intuitive touch screen user control panel that also allows the house to be monitored and controlled using web browsers, smart phones and any SMS-capable mobile phone. I like the helpful information you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and check again here regularly.
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Using earth energy would really help anyone save a lot of dollars from their monthly revenues. Green living does not just help rebuild the earth but also helps rebuild one's finances. It's not easy to have your house reconstructed for an energy efficient one. But what's harder is when you didn't try and just kept looking on the survey data without doing anything.
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Nice big windows saves electric consumption.
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Very well said. Retirees can go at ease in early retirement, knowing that they will have a cozy and cold home to stay.
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ReplyDeleteFirst of all, energy-efficient homes will save you a lot of money, from electric bills to repair costs. This allows you to have more resources for other basic needs like food, clothes, and medicine. It is important for a retiree to have his or her savings come a longer way because there is no longer a constant source of income available at your disposal.
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I love your post on energy efficient homes. Thank you for sharing this information. It was very thought provoking!
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Obviously, such energy efficient home equates to comfortable living and retirement. As a result more retirees will spend time in their home where extreme temperatures and brown outs are forgotten.
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I will take that as a great tip.
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By the amount of comments this looks like a great post! I have been tinting windows for quite some time and this is a huge concern for home owners. Thanks for the content!
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