- Built in 2002, wood framed, 3100 square feet, three floors and crawl space
- Insulation to 2002 North Carolina Building Code. Radiant Barrier added in Attic spaces since Solar Hot Water and PV installation in 2007
- We use Compact Fluorescent Bulbs(CFL's) throughout our home. CFL's use about 25% of the energy of Incandescent Bulbs and I support Australia's lead in making these bulbs something we will hopefully soon see only in museums. We have CFL's in our dimmable and chandelier circuits too
- We use two zones of controllable heating and cooling using Programmable Thermostats. We only heat / cool the home when we are home. We use room fans to circulate air and make use of the summer and winter settings. We change our HVAC air filters every three months and have the system serviced twice per year
- In the summer, we cool our home to 79F when we are home, and let it rise to 83 when out. In the Winter we heat from 68F and let the temperature drop to 55F when we are out, and in the middle of the night while we sleep
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- We use an EnergyStar Washing machine certified to the more stringent 2007 code
- We do not (DELIBERATELY) own a clothes dryer. We line dry all our clothes in modified attic space (our drying room). Please note that EnergyStar.gov do not rate "Clothes Dryers". They all use similar amounts of energy ..... which is actually TOO MUCH energy, hence our active decision not to use one
- We use Watt Stoppers to help reduce our Phantom Loads. From our PV meters, our static load in our home is less than 200 Watts
- Although, not in the home we also drive a Hybrid
We
cycle, walk and carpool as often as we can
- We shop at the local farmers market too
To June 28th 2007, 89.08% of the hot water heated in our home was heated by the Sun. We estimate that our Hot Water Heating bill has reduced from $37.94 per month to $2.48 per month.
We are saving $35.46 per month.
Additionally, we are generating an average of 10.63 KwH of Electricity per day.
Our combined Natural Gas and Electricity Bill for the month of May 2007 was $50.77.
Since moving in to the house in July 2006, our average Utility Bills have been $50.44 per month on Electricity and $95.53 on Natural Gas, which equates to $145.97 per month.
In May, our Gas and Electric bill was $95.20 under our average bill.
