June Update

I've received another utility bill and the total was $31.45--so far the lowest to date. We've had quite a heat wave here in the mountains with highs in the low 90's and upper 80's, but the home is performing exceptionally well. I've only had to turn on the A/C for about 2 hours on 2 seperate occassions (on the upper floor/zone) over the last week as the home stays very cool during the hottest parts of the day. Two days ago, the temperature reached 92, but my indoor temperature on the main floor only got to 75. This way only a 4 degree difference from the early morning to the early evening. I will calculate the total savings % for the 1st 9 months on my next post when I receive that utility bill.

The pictures on this post show the berry bushes to the right and what will be an additional parking area to the left of the driveway. The berry bushes are already producing quite a bit of fruit and it also will serve another purpose--as a natural fence/boundary marker for the lot next to me. The parking area will be all gravel as it is permeable and accepted by the HOA. I hope to have made some significant progress on the raised bed organic gardens by the end of June.

Last Utility Bill

I didn't realize that it's been over a month since my last post. Eco-Panels is keeping me quite busy. My most recent utility bill was $34.45, which continues to reflect the impressive performance of this prototype. I am working on planting my organic gardens and so far I have planted blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Even though I haven't had much time to focus on the organic raised bed vegetable gardens, I am researching possible options that will help me build these gardens safely and affordably. Once I get more information and the time to build the raised beds, I will do a post on this topic.

Simple Economics of Energy Efficiency

I've been working in the residential building field now for 8+ years and the market still isn't quite sure how to properly value energy efficiencies. One of my best friends is a very experienced residential appraiser and he says that, even though the governing bodies for appraisers have/are working on this issue, there is still no standard value added formula to adjust the appraisal of a home based on how energy efficient it is. The Department of Energy back in the 90's did a study and came up with the 1:20 ratio rule: for every $1 of energy saved that equals $20 of added value to the home. That sure seems like a lot at face value, but after some simple calculations, I feel that the experts that performed these tests and released this study were pretty close in their valuations. Let me explain.

So far I have received 5 montly utility bills for this prototype. The total = $292.38 or an average $58.48 per month. The code based model home that this prototype is compared to was expected to average $175 for each monthly bill. 5 X $175 = $875. If these figures were to stay consistent for an entire year, my prototype home's yearly energy bill total would be $701.76 and the code based model home would be $2,100.00. Because Asheville has more heating degree days than cooling, it would be safe to assume that these costs should be even higher for the model home, but I'm trying not to make too many assumptions. Ok, back to the math. Subtracting $701.76 from $2,100.00, I get $1398.24. Divide this # by 12 (months) and this prototype home is averaging a savings of $116.52 each month on energy costs. A well qualified buyer, at today's interest rates, that adds $116.52 to their mortgage, instead of paying the local utility, would be able to borrow about $23,000.00 more. Using the 1:20 DOE rule, this prototype should be worth an additional $27,964.80 ($1398.24 X 20)--so not too far off my prototype figures. Please understand that these #'s are based on my KW/HR rate of $.10. Savings could be higher or lower depending on your utility rates. Also, it is very likely that utility rates will continue to increase in the future. Would you rather put the money into your home or pay the utility company? Easy question right?

Now the issue of payback. "What is the payback?" is a question I hear often. Although this prototype is a great example of the true monetary value of energy efficiencies, the cost factor is difficult to calulate. I put in a fair amount of sweat equity and also worked very hard to find quality materials at an affordable price. So I will use a more simplified example: If a homeowner added $20,000 in improvements to their home to be more energy efficient and those improvement saved $150 a month in energy costs, at today's interest rates there would be an immediate payback. The reason is because your total month expenditures would be less the very 1st month you live in the home. $20,000 added to a 30 yr mortgage would add about $105 to your monthly mortage payments, but you are saving $150 a month is utility costs.

I've written about alternative and renewable energy options/costs in previous posts, but a really good blog entry discussing the return on investment (ROI) for solar (PV) is available at Eco-Panels website. Not only does this prototype home save me quite a bit of money in energy costs, this home is also stronger, healthier, safer and lower maintenance than the vast majority of new homes built today. How much are these added benifits worth? That's a question that's impossible to put a price on!

Last Two Energy Bills Comparison

My mid-January to mid-February utility bill was so far the highest to date at $79.01. I wasn't surprised that it was $6 higher than my previous months bill as I was out of town for the Christmas holiday reducing my energy demand for 5 days. $79 was still about a 62% reduction in energy use compared to a code based modeled home.

Today I received my mid-February to mid-March utility bill and WOW what a difference 12 degrees makes. What I mean by 12 degrees, is that the average daily temperature has been about 12 degrees warmer over the past month significantly reducing the amount of time my heat pump is running on auxillary or strip heat. It still gets into the 30's every night with several frosts and even some snow showers on a few occasions, but considering my heat pump is set to go to auxillary heat below 35 degrees, it wasn't using strip heat nearly as much. This months total utility bill was $45.73. That's a savings of around 74% compared to a code based home. 74% reduction in total energy costs is significant considering this prototype home has no other alternative source to produce energy--just an air-to-air heat pump with an ERV. This reduction has to do with many factors that have been discussed in other posts, but it just reinforces how satisfied I am that I chose to use Eco-Panels as my wall system. My next post will talk about the economics of energy savings!

Water Saving Features

This prototype home includes many water saving features. All the toilets are dual flush, which means there are two settings to chose from when flushing. One setting is for solids = 1.6 gal and one setting is for liquids = 1.1 gal. Most new toilets use 1.6 gallons per flush. On the lower setting I am obviously saving 1/2 gallon per flush. I also bought the elongated toilets which are much more comfortable. Every faucet in this house, including the kitchen faucet, bath vanity faucets and shower faucets, is rated at 1.5 gallons per minute of flow. These fixtures have special low flow aerators that reduce the amount of water coming out of each fixture. The average faucet on the market has a rating of 2.5 gallons per minute of water flow. For every minute that water is being used at these faucets, I am saving 1 gallon of water compared to most new faucets. With the proper water pressure setting, nobody, including myself, has noticed any difference. These low flow faucets also save energy when using hot water as less hot water is actually used. When shopping for a new washing machine, I knew that I wanted to buy a front loading style. Front loading washing machines use up to 70% less water than a top loader, while also reducing energy costs. The way they reduce energy costs is by using less heated water (I usually wash all of my clothes on cold anyways) and because the drum can spin at a much higher RPM, there is much less energy used to dry the clothes in your dryer. Although I have yet to buy these, I also plan to install rain barrels at the end of each gutter's down spout. The rain barrels I have picked out are made of 100% recycled plastic and have two valves--the main valve at the bottom and an overflow valve closer to the top. These rain barrels will be used to water the fruit and vegetable gardens with drip hose attachments extended to each garden or fruit tree. I estimate that over a one year period I alone will save over 3000 gallons of water living in this prototype. It's amazing how easy all of these water saving features are to buy and install, while not reducing comfort in any way. If every person in this country could save just 500 gallons of water per year (which is really easy) that would equal 156 billions gallons collectively.

Driveway completed

The driveway was installed and just in time for the last winter storm. The driveway was covered in blankets for 10 days to help it stay warm and dry while the concrete curred. I didn't drive on it for 2 weeks and outside of some remaining water stains it appears to be in good shape. I decided to add two features to the standard concrete driveway that most people in this area use. For an additional $100 I had the mix changed to 4000 psi from 3000 psi. Obviously this gives the concrete more strength and I felt is was worth the additional costs. I also asked for a concrete mixture with recycled fly ash content. This was provided at no additional costs from Carolina Ready Mix as a green option for us environmentally conscious people. I was told the mix was up to 30% recycled fly ash content. Fly ash is a waste byproduct of concrete plants that normally would just go into our landfills. I will be touring the concrete facility this coming July. I am told that it is a L.E.E.D certified facility--Wow--concrete plants are well known for being some of the worst polluters around.

Because I live in a gated community, there were restrictions on the type of driveway I could have. My preference was to use gravel and then pavers for the parking area. This was not approved. I then started pricing permeable pavers for the entire driveway. The only way to make the paver option affordable on my tight budget was to install the pavers myself. Considering I don't have any experience in this area and it's the middle of winter I thought it best to leave the paver option to my walkways and extra parking spot off to the side of the main driveway. By the way, asphalt was not an option. It would have only saved me a few hundred dollars and the longevity of asphalt is a serious weakness, not to mention less environmentally friendly.

3rd Utility Bill

Happy Belated New Year to Everyone! My 3rd utility bill arrived today (via e-mail as I try to have all my mail sent electronically) and I was very curious as to what the total amount would be. It's been very cold here in Asheville over the entire last month and not much free heat from the sun as it's also been very cloudy. The Asheville area has been 10-15 degrees colder than normal, with a few good snow storms mixed in. Even an affordable high efficiency heat pump system (the only heating system for the house), like the one used in this prototype, typically starts to struggle on heat pump mode below 35-40 degrees. With the outside temperature below 35 degrees for the vast majority of the past month, the heat pump has shifted to Aux or Em heat, which is basically strip heating. This is when the heat pump is least efficient and strip heating in general is a very inefficient way to produce energy. I am happy to report that the total utility bill was only $73.01.

I was starting to get a little spoiled by having total energy bills that were less than $50 a month. I then decided to look up my utility bill for the 475 sq ft apartment I was renting at this time last year. That apartment was also all electric and using a heat pump, but didn't have laundry. I also spent time fixing the weatherstripping, inspecting the insulation in the attic and air sealing wherever I could in that apartment. The total bill for that apartment last year in January was $95.36. This prototype home is almost 4x the size of that apartment and my utility bill is $23 less. I know several people living in smaller homes than this prototype who paid $200-300+ over the last month--OUCH! Combining my 1st 3 months of utility bills while living in this prototype home, and according to the Energy Star software, I have saved an average of 68% compared to a newly constructed code based model home. Considering how affordable it was to build this prototype, it feels great to know that I am doing something that is not only smart for my wallet but is also smart for my community--68% reduction in total energy use is wonderful!

My old camera died last month, so I have a new one coming this week. I will take pictures and write a post about the newly installed driveway. I will also take some interior pictures and write a post about the water saving features of this prototype home.