energy calcuations

Whole House Fan Monitoring

monitoring-line-drawing

What ? The  data monitoring package “DMP” is a new feature available for AirScape whole house fans. This package of extra sensors and software allows whole house fan owners to view room, outside, and attic temperatures. Users can view the temperatures through their browser enabled devices (smart phones, computers, tablets …). Historical data will be saved on AirScape servers and will only be available by secure login.

Why is this cool ? You will be able to check temperatures in your house, attic, and outside remotely. By looking at the graphs of temperatures, you’ll be able to decide on the best ways to save utility costs. Upcoming software will be able to total your annual energy savings.

When? Available in the next 2 weeks on select models.

Cost ?  The additional cost for the 3 temperature sensors (accurate to 1 deg F) and additional embedded software will be $49. Monitoring and web access: FREE

Privacy ? Your data  will only be available to you, secured by encrypted passwords. Aggregated data that does not reveal the user’s identity may be used for research purposes.

Want to see more about how it works? Check out the DMP DEMO PAGE

monitoring-package

cheapest way to reduce co2

We have (at least) two huge problems facing us.

  • Climate Change (too much CO2 is being emitted)

  • No Money (we’re all in debt)

Logically, we should spend our limited resources to the best effect. So, what is the best bang for our buck ? The parameter to measure is Tons of Carbon Dioxide (avoided) per Dollar…. the lower the better. So, here are a few of the common things we can do to reduce energy usage.  The spreadsheet shows most of the calculations (contact me if you want to know more details), but what is missing is the usual energy savings return on investment. This figure is all about environmental good. It just so happens that environmental good is good for your pocketbook.

So, please let’s spend our money wisely. Hint: Electric cars are cool (not as cool as pluggable hybrids), but they are not the best way to spend our money if we want to reduce carbon dioxide.

* There are many other energy and carbon dioxide reducing strategies not mentioned here.

walking uphill

As I was walking up a very steep hill this morning, I devoted my remaining oxygen to calculating my energy output. Once fully oxygenated, I rechecked the numbers and came out with a work output of 168 watts.  This figure is just the energy to lift me up the 170 foot rise over 2 city blocks (10 % average slope as it turns out).

Me walking uphill

So how does this relate to energy, and its inherent value ?  If I worked at that energy output rate for 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, for 5 years, I would have produced 1,747 kWh.  As it turns out, a barrel of oil contains about 1,700 kWh of energy (if transformed at 100% efficiency).

Reference: Barrel of oil equivalent

financial value of green

How much do ‘eco improvements’ such as whole house fans add to the value of your real estate? With a little bit of math, and some financial formulas, we can figure that out. Here is an example of a homeowner who installs one of our 4.4e WHF models. Let’s take a conservative value for energy savings ($500 per year), with a desired return on investment of 8% (you could not get that anywhere else..). What we do is use the financial formulas to figure how much money would need to be invested at 8% interest in order to return $500 per year, over the life of the whole house fan. At the end of the 20 year life span, we assume (also conservatively), that the WHF has no remaining  value.

Plugging in the numbers: i = 0.08; n = 20; Savings per Year = $500, yields Present Value = $4909.

Wow! That means that if you paid up to $4,909 the return on investment would be 8%. (we don’t charge that much for the 4.4e…)

Saving Energy is a damned good investment. Who woulda thunk ?