Ten Home Improvements That Reduce Air Conditioning Costs

There is no doubt about it, the cost of electricity is continuing to climb.  We now have TOU pricing with the highest rate falling between 11 AM and 5 PM from May 1 to October 31.  Unfortunately, this covers the hottest time of the day (12 PM to 4 PM) precisely when air conditioning is needed the most.  There are several low to moderate cost home improvements that can help reduce your air conditioning costs.  Here are a few of them:

1. If your HVAC is older than 20 years the recommendation is to replace it with new, energy efficient models that use less electricity.  There are grants available in Ontario to help offset the cost of replacement if doing both at the same time. (about $7,000 to $15,000)
2. If your furnace is working fine and under 20 years old, you can replace the AC unit only. (about $2,000 to $3,000, professionally installed)
3. If your HVAC is newer than 20 years old but has the older style blower motor, it is possible to replace the motor with a new, energy efficient one that uses less electricity. (about $100 to $350, DIY)  Savings on this replace will be about $500 per year.
4. Plant shade trees strategically to help shade the house.  (about $50 to $1,000 depending on size of tree).  Larger trees will need a backhoe to plant them (about $200 for one man, 2 hours labour)
5. Plant non-invasive flowering vines (eg. clematis, climbing roses) on trellises on the east and west walls of your home.  (about $50 per trellis, $15 per plant) This will help shade the walls keeping the interior of your house cooler.  Do not plant invasive or damaging vines like English ivy or Trumpet vine on your house as both attract mosquitoes and spiders.  Both damage exterior surfaces of your house and English ivy in particular attracts rodents.
6. Install solar window film to lessen solar gain in the summer and thermal loss during the winter.  (about $300, DIY to $1,000, installed depending on number of windows and sizes).
7. Seal your house to prevent cooled air from leaking out or hot air from entering into your home.  (about $2 per tube of caulk, DIY)  Weather strip doors and windows to prevent air leakage. (about $10 to $30 per door, $5 per window)
8. Replacement windows can greatly reduce both your heating and cooling costs.  If you can't retrofit your windows with weather stripping, caulk or second pane of window, consider replacing them with energy efficient, double or triple pane windows.  Whole house window replacement (about $3,000 to $5,000) can be a DIY project or you have have them professionally installed usually in one day.  
9. Install awnings on your windows and doors.  This is an age old method of shading windows and doors.  They can be wood, aluminum or fabric and some are retractable.  You can install them on all your windows if you want a uniform look although awnings installed on north facing windows will make those rooms considerably darker, or install just on problem windows and doors like an south, east or west facing patio door.  Not only does an awning installed on a patio door shade the room indoors, it creates a shaded outdoor sitting area as well.  (about $200 per window depending on size)
10. Install a seasonal gazebo off your patio doors.  This will shade the patio giving you a nice outdoor dining or sitting area while also shading the interior of the room.  (about $400, DIY)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Ten Ways to Save on Air Conditioning

Our previous home was rural, on waterfront property with fairly dense shade cover and good cooling breezes so we only turned the air conditioning on when the humidity levels were high.  This house in in an urban subdivision backing onto a small field.  There is virtually no shade that affects the house other than when the sun hits noon and later the deck on the east side of the house gradually gets shadier.  The attached garage likely helps on the entrance level as it shades from the morning sun as while it is warm it is not a hot as the sun would be.  We have had a couple of weeks of rather hot weather with temperatures reaching a high of 32ºC/90ºF range but with the humidex feeling like 38ºC/100ºF and UV index 8 (very high) and smog alerts.  That means the air conditioning is really working over time.  Here are ten things we are doing to save on our air conditioning costs:

1. We close the window treatment on any window receiving sun until the sun is completely off the window.
2. The temptation is to keep the main entrance door open and screen door close but that lets in a lot of heat so we have been keeping the main entrance door closed.
3. We closed the HVAC registers on the lower level that is partially below grade and always cooler.
4. We have all lights turned off during the day with the exception of the bathroom as there is no natural light source but only when absolutely needed.
5. Cooking has been kept to on the outdoor grill, very minimally indoors (eg. toaster) but only if absolutely needed.
6. We have been making low or no cook meals (eg. BLTs, meal style no cook sandwiches, meal sized no cook salads)  on the extremely hot days.
7. Any home canning that has to be done (and that's inevitable) has been done on the odd cooler day, earlier in the morning when I could open the patio doors and the hot water from the BWB canner dumped immediately after processing was complete.
8. We have refrained from using heat producing appliances like the blow dryer, curling iron, clothes iron, dryer, oven and anything else that produces heat on the extremely hot days as well a very minimally during the recent heat wave.
9. We keep our thermostat set to 24ºC/75ºF which is quite comfortable without the humidity in the house.
10. We minimize opening any exterior door during the heat of the day (12 PM to 4:00 PM).

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Energy Conservation Plans for Our New Home

We have practiced energy conservation ever since we rented our first apartment as newlyweds.  Although utilities were included we paid extra each month to be able to have an air conditioner in the summer months.  Once we bought our first house, paying all of our own utilities including using AC and a pool in the summer months, energy conservation went into high gear.  As a young couple with a growing family, keeping the utility bills down was a matter of being able to afford living in our own home.  It was that first house (a duplex) that I experimented with solar heat banks, made quilted insulated window shades, learned to heat with wood and perfected using a caulk gun.   We have come a long way since that house!

We bought a vacation home in March of 2010 and we moved into our new home, our sixth purchased permanent residence in September of this year.  The primary focus of every home we have owned including the two we currently own is getting the house as energy efficient as possible as quickly as possible.  Now it is not a matter of not being able to afford higher utility bills but rather reducing our consumption to become more eco-friendly. 

I estimate it takes a good three years to achieve that goal in a house we just move into but this house likely won't take much more than six months to a year.  It's a newer home that was built in 1994 so has good insulation and a good lot position that takes advantage of the south and west walls for passive solar gain.  The biggest problem we are facing is the house is too new to warrant higher energy savers like replacement windows or new furnace and AC as the energy savings would be too low, creating a high pay back period.  In other words we would likely end up replacing what we replace ten years down the road without it ever paying for itself.  The house is too new to take advantage of the Energy Audit for grants covering a portion of any updates like windows, doors, and HVAC system.  The furnace is original but considerably newer than our old furnace and it has a heat recovery ventilation system for higher energy savings.  The windows are fairly large to take advantage of natural lighting reducing the need for indoor lighting during the day but that can mean thermal loss on cloudy days and overnight.  Our best course of action to reduce our energy usage in our new home will be considerably less expensive than in any of the other homes we have owned!

Here are a few things we have done and plan to do to conserve energy in our new home:

• sealing - The caulk gun is loaded and ready for action as leaks are detected indoors and where I see the need outdoors.  I've sealed all leaks I've found so far and will continue doing this as the need arises.  I use a paintable 20 or 25 year acrylic caulk for sealing unless silicone is warranted.  A rule of thumb is if you see a spider web there is an air leak nearby as spiders spin their web in cooler locations to keep the egg sac cool.
• insulating - We insulated all of the outside wall electrical outlets and receptacles using foam insulators and child safety plugs.  There is very little need for additional insulation in the walls or attic however, we are considering adding a bit more insulation in the attic as it may save a little money and it is a rather easy, low cost DIY project.
• lighting - We added solar lighting outside and changed most of the incandescent light bulbs indoors and outdoors to CFL bulbs.  There are a couple of outdoor fixtures that need the bulbs changed or the fixture replaced to accommodate the CFL bulbs.  I'm using timers on our energy efficient Christmas trees and will be working on our X-10 home automation system during the winter.  I plan on adding more solar lighting outdoors including a solar powered, motion activated security light.  A few of the indoor windows lend themselves nicely to using solar powered lighting as well and we are planning to install a solar tube in the main bathroom.
• heating - We are heating with natural gas using the energy efficient furnace installed when the house was built.  It has a HRV system for further savings.  On sunny days there is a gorgeous passive solar gain through the windows on the south wall.  I'm taking advantage of that.  There is also nice passive solar gain in the kitchen that faces east.  More importantly, the kitchen floor (marble) and entrance floor (ceramic tile) act as heat sinks absorbing heat from the sun's rays then releasing it back into the rooms once the sun is off the windows and patio doors.  The partial ceramic floor on the lower level creates a smaller heat sink.  I've been working on sealing any duct work I can reach using aluminum foil tape that will reduce heating and cooling loss through the ducts.
• water - When we moved in, both toilets were leaking as was the main bathroom faucet.  We repaired all three water leaks immediately.  We know our water usage will increase with a pool but feel we can be frugal with this aspect as well.  Surprisingly, many will spend more watering their yards and gardens than we will operating the pool.  We are installing two DIY rainwater fed, gravity activated water storage units for the gardens and yard, possibly three.  I'm working on a great DIY gravity fed irrigation system for the vegetable gardens as well.  
• cooking - My husband and I are very much foodies who enjoy home cooked meals the majority of the time.  That is not going to change.  We did however switch from cooking with hydro (indoors) and natural gas (outdoors) to cooking with natural gas (indoors) and propane/charcoal (outdoors).  Natural gas is one third the price of hydro here.  There is better control for the burners so less energy is needed and preliminary results have shown foods cooked with natural gas cook faster further reducing the energy needed.  This house is ideal for experimenting using solar power so I already have a couple of projects lined up involving solar power. 
• windows - We are taking the maximal advantage of our windows for daytime solar gain but at night we cover them to prevent thermal loss.  We have two half circle windows and two side windows that are a bit problematic.  I'm making quilted insulating shades for the north windows and adding insulated panels to the large living/dining room window.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Replacing An Old Central Air Conditioner

There are several things to consider when replacing and old central air conditioner unit. In our last two houses we had old units with freon as a refrigerant. However, despite having minor leaks we were told to continue using the air conditioner unit until it finally quit. Given the age of both, I'm sure this wouldn't have take very long. We knew before we move into this house that the old air conditioner unit did not work and would need replacing. That gave me a little time to do research on central air conditioner units before the actual move.

Note: We are quite competent DIYers but I would not consider installing a central air conditioner unit a do-it-yourself project. This is one we left to the professionals. Our installation took about 5 hours with them doing it and at least we can rest easy knowing it was installed properly.

Old

I'm usually very careful to take before and after pictures of any renovations we do. The air conditioner installers arrived just after 8 am yesterday morning. After a few long days of painting, unpacking and organizing I had completely forgotten to take before pictures.

The old unit was set in the corner between the front porch and house (1). I didn't even think to check for the brand or model number but the installers said it was as old as the furnace that was installed in 1983. The furnace will be our next major replacement but again we have been told to use it until it no longer works. With our luck that will be about mid-winter! As you can see, the old unit (2) while in still fairly good physical condition is quite old. It did not work and has not worked for the past 15 years. When it stopped working in 1992 the previous owners decided against a repair opting instead to use a couple of window air conditioners. The evapourating coil (3) is larger than the new one. Freon, and environmentally unfriendly refrigerated was the coolant.

New

We settled on a Carirer® Comfort™ Series with Puron® Refrigerant Model 24ACA (1) for reasons I will discuss further. This unit qualified for a $50 rebate from the company but not our provincial rebate. The unit that did would have cost us $500 more for a $350 rebate but based on our usage and space limitations, it wasn't feasible. Carrier was the first company to use this environmentally friendly, energy efficient refrigerant that won't deplete the ozone layer. We had the following criteria:

1. environmentally friendly
   
2. energy efficiency
3. size restriction
4. effectiveness
5. quiet operation
   
6. cost
   

Air conditioner energy efficiency is measured by SEER, the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. SEER indicates the relative amount of energy to operate provide a specific cooling output. Had the existing unit been operational it likely would have been about a SEER of 7.0. The new unit is a SEER 13.0 giving at least a 30% savings over the cooling season. We could have gone to a higher SEER rating but were restricted by location. The more efficient units are larger and for our use did not warrant the additional costs. Based on your location and usage and higher SEER rating may be desireable.

Our house is earth bermed on the lower level making that level a fairly consistent temperature. The house is well shaded from afternoon sun almost to a fault. We are also on the water so get the cooling effect from that. A good portion of our cooling is through the earth berm, shading, water and ceiling fans. So in terms of cooling, we could go with a lower SEER unit given that it will only be running a few days a month early June to mid September. We've estimated the unit will run about 21 days per cooling season. However, we live in a very humid area so when the temperature soars it can get quite uncomfortable. Our previous house cost approximately $350 to cool for the season without an earth berm, very limited afternoon shading and massive windows resulting in a lot of solar gain. Projected cooling costs for this cooling season is about $120 or less.

The new evapourator coil (2) is a bit smaller but higher than the old one so the furnace had to be modified (3). Once the coil was installed in the furnace, the installer cut a custom made door. When we replace the furnace the duct work will be modified to fit but the coil won't need to be replaced. The new air conditioner unit fits in the old spot perfectly (4). It is a bit quieter than the older models we've had but I don't think by a lot. I trimmed back the boxwood shrub on the side closest to the unit. While the installers said that shouldn't be necessary, one of them said a 10" clearance around the unit was desirable so I did so. Anything that impedes the air flow will result in lowered energy efficiency.

As part of the installation an energy efficient, programmable thermostat was installed (not shown). There was a $50 rebate on the thermostat even though it is stamped with the company's logo with no other documentation. Total cost was $2,980 CDN less $100 in rebates including full installation. Installation included the removal and disposal of existing equipment and re-installation in the same location, re-connection or revision of gas piping, electrical and venting system along with necessary duct work modification. It also included new copper lines and 'A' coil. I would have liked to see a little discount for paying upon invoicing that I assume to be 30 days even though I wanted to pay upon installation. Their installers are not allowed to accept payment which I don't really understand and we have to pay either cash, money order or cheque as credit card payments have a 2% surcharge. At any rate the price was well within our budget. We were very pleased with the quality of the installation as well so will be recommending this firm to our friends.

Stay tuned tomorrow to learn about our fun with electricity!

Garden Gnome
© 2007