Share Your Home Electrification/Efficiency Improvements

[SageBrush]

Over the last 12 months we have used about 14 MWh of electricity for our family of 4 in our 2550 ft^2 house. That includes all heat pump heating and cooling of air, heat pump heated water, both electric vehicles, induction stove, standard electric appliances including resistance heat clothes dryer, and pool pump. We might run the spa a bunch in the next 1.5 months before our annual true-up to use a bit of our ~2 MWh net excess generated electricity.

Brilliant !!

Did you consider a heat exchanger ?

[Zythryn]

We calculated we needed 19kW of solar to cover our annual energy needs (house and two cars). Turns out we needed about 11kW.

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This is a part of your story I am not familiar with. Please tell more !

Thanks for asking!
When we were designing the system, we used calculations based on a well used model for a 2450 sq ft residential home, with two adult occupants. We added to that a calculation for our cars based on what we expected our annual mileage to be.
It turns out we use less energy for the house than the model calculated. However, the biggest difference was that we drive much less than we expected to.
As I recall, our combined mileage at our old place was about 30,000 miles/year. We estimated we would be driving 24,000 miles/year. Over three years we are averaging about 13,000 miles/year for both cars combined.
Then, to add to that, we traded in our cars for a pair of cars that are 20% and 30% more efficient.

No regrets though. The way I look at it we provide all the solar energy our cars, house, and neighbor’s house uses on an annual basis

[iPlug]

Did you consider a heat exchanger ?

No heat exchangers. Would be a nice upgrade. You?

Our house is pretty air tight and would probably require ERV if we sealed up everything like our chimney (we don’t use it and NG is turned off to house) and/or if we upgraded to a ventless heat pump clothes dryer and sealed up the dryer vent. Fortunately we live in a dry climate so indoor humidity is not a problem with the current level of air tightness.

Would be cool to have ERV for the bath fans to recover the heat or cold air before it is expelled. When no windows are open the bath fans do next to nothing. On a summer day or winter night open windows bring in the wrong temp air...

We do have a whole house fan and I seal that up in the winter.

[SageBrush]

Did you consider a heat exchanger ?

No heat exchangers. Would be a nice upgrade. You?

Heat exchangers of the ERV type can indeed control humidity but they do so much more ! They replace inside with fresh outside air and lose only 1/5 - 1/6 the energy embedded in the heating/cooling already done compared to 'A/C.' This is only needed if the home envelope is tight.

A TMC friend has generously offered to help me DIY heat pump installation so I am going to put one or two in this autumn. My issue with heat pumps (or any 'A/C' for that matter) though is that they do not maintain interior air quality so my plan is to look into using the whole home ducting already present for a heat exchange system. It will have the added benefit of reducing the heat pump load.

[SageBrush]

When we were designing the system

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Now I think I follow, you mean 19 (or 11) kW of PV. I thought you were talking about load.

[Oilpan4]

Reinsulate the house which is already above code and install a ground source geo thermal then thousands of dollars worth of batteries for when the power goes out?
Nope I'm good with burning wood like a cave man.
Even if I ever did ground source geo thermal I would still use the coal furnace in winter since my free UPS can power it.

[iPlug]

There is a wide spectrum of affordability when it comes to green home electrification/efficiency improvements. Not everything costs an arm and a leg and there is plenty of low hanging fruit that is not just good for the individual but also his neighbor and the world at large.

[Zythryn]

Reinsulate the house which is already above code and install a ground source geo thermal then thousands of dollars worth of batteries for when the power goes out?
Nope I'm good with burning wood like a cave man.
Even if I ever did ground source geo thermal I would still use the coal furnace in winter since my free UPS can power it.

That is reasonable.
For me, I refuse to use coal if I have an option. For me, that is important, and as I believe in ‘walking the walk’, I put my money where my mouth is.

[Oilpan4]

Yeah you don't want to be one of those people who says they care so much about the environment and goes on about how bad everyone else is but uses natural gas for home heating.
I don't like burning coal its expensive compared to free lumber scraps.
Going closed loop on the coal furnace may eliminate the need for coal. It all comes down to burn time.
The ultimate unexpected result was the high grade anthracite coal burns way cleaner than any wood.

[SageBrush]

Yeah you don't want to be one of those people who says they care so much about the environment and goes on about how bad everyone else is but uses natural gas for home heating.

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You excuse yourself because others are not perfect. You are so pathetic.

As for my family, my PV generation is more than my home, cars and NG use. Yet I plan to put up *more* PV and conserve even more.

What is your excuse now ?