[Greenbuilding] simple energy-less home

[LarenCorie]

From: Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>

> Cool. I'd like to see numbers, though. When you have PV
> on the roof, $240 doesn't mean that much (at least to me).
>
> My family's annual energy bills total $400 of which >half are
> fixed charges unrelated to usage and I have no PV.

Hi Reuben;

I agree..........
I use about $225 of electricity (1200kWh/yr), as my only utility,
which includes taxes and an upcharge for all of it to come from a
wind farm.      But, the utility has been charging me over $200 to
be connected, and I just got word that they are increasing that by
another 11+%  Total increases in seven years, +177%.  Instead
of penalizing the big energy wasters, they are progressively (and
dramatically) transferring their base costs to those who use very
little energy. BTW..I am in a heavily overcast, 9000HDD climate.

> From: Sacie Lambertson <sacie.lambertson at gmail.com>

> And then some people do measure happiness in dollars (:

Hi Sacie;

I do too, though not in how many I have, but instead
by how many I do not need to have.

From: Steve Satow <naturalbuilding at shaw.ca>

> In a world over-burdened by crippling debt that holds most people
> in servitude to the banks, it is very understandable that most people
> view their world through a monetary lens. While - technically - dollars
> are not a measure of energy, for the majority of people they offer a
> useful measurement, particularly when those same people have no
> idea what a Btu or KW is.

Hi Steve;

  As a designer of very economical, energy efficient, houses,
I agree, whole-heartedly, with you. My design goal is always
optimal cost-effectiveness, within my client's budget. Factors
such as efficiency of specific components, is secondary.  The
bottom line for my clients, even if they are upgrading existing
property, is money savings, not energy savings. Saving energy
is just one path to money savings and financial independence.
It just so happens that reducing energy bills often leads to
reduced expenses, but if cost-effectiveness is not paramount,
it may not be, due to high initial costs.  When there is money
savings, it frees up funds for other, less-cost-effective, energy
improvements, later.  I look at energy efficiency as an invest-
-ment with a monetary return. In my decades of experience,
more money gets saved that way, than when the focus is
primarily on energy savings, while thinking of cost as
a secondary issue.

> I would suggest that it is easier for the lay-person to subtract the
> fixed fees from their total bill in order to get an idea of the 'cost'
> of their energy use, than it is for them to wrap their head around
> kW-hours!

 Energy bills include the units, and their cost, for anyone who
wants to take a couple of minutes to actually look at their bill.
The utilities often confuse the numbers with additional charges
that are (or are not) related to the energy units, or to constant
base fees, but it is all pretty simple, once you give it a try.

   My utility says that my kWh rate is 8.6¢, but once all the
kWh specific charges (not the basic connection charge) are
included, the "real" cost, to me, is over 19¢/kWh  If I include
the connection charge, for an average month, it goes up to
over 37¢/kWh.  That is my real, total cost.

> From: JOHN SALMEN <terrain at shaw.ca>

> We have adopted mpg not mp$

Hi John;

At this time of year, six years ago, my van burned
less than 10¢/mile.    I did think in terms of ¢/mile.
Now, it is nearly double that, even though my van
gets the same MPG...,,,,,.and I need to drive 350
miles tomorrow, fortunately, without a headwind :O)

 -Laren Corie-
 Natural Solar Building Design and
 Solar Heating/Natural Cooling/Energy
 Efficiency Consultation Since 1975
 www.ThermalAttic.com  (many new
 photos and pages, coming soon)

Read my Solar house design articles in:
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www.essnmag.com

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