OK, so this summer, we've got to do some remodeling of the house
exterior. New siding, new windows (we'll do what we can afford) and
maybe a couple modifications to the solar area. It would be really
sweet to bring the house up to current "Passive House" standards. It
was done right in 1984 when it was built. But it is time to replace
stuff.
Last month, our furnace croaked on us. Unbeknownst to us, it was
failing a rapid and painful death and it's only through a specific
isolation and airsource to the furnace room was that we didn't get
CO1'd to death. But while it was failing it also took a whole lot of
natural gas with it and our heating bill was over double normal.
Now that it is working properly, we have almost an entire month bill
of deep winter for our reality check. The average temperature for the
entire time period was 15 degrees. We do have a gas hot water heater
and two teenage girls in the house, so we go through at least 100
gallons of hot water a day. Clothes/dishes/showers/etc... Even with
that, our gas bill was $99 for the month. We keep our temperature set
at 71F without budging. We also run the gas fireplace nearly every
night for at least two hours as we do most of our evening living
downstairs and if the sun has shone, the downstairs tends to cool a
bit without the furnace running.
Overall, I'm quite pleased. Similar sized houses, without solar, are
experiencing $300+ gas bills this past month. And our house has drafty
windows with the seals broken.
I suspect that after the windows are replaced and a few insulation
issues addressed, we'll be able to reduce our gas heating costs down
to almost nothing. But the problem is that with the utility bill
already so low, it will be impossible to ever get our money back.
Still, being able to heat a big house for $3 per day, in the dead of a
very cold winter with marginal sunshine, is pretty good. I'm not
complaining.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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