My 2700 sq ft house is insulated fairly well by Texas standards and I have a rather large solar array on my workshop - I run about $50 a month on an all electric house with a pool. If I had one more build in me I would have 1) a highly energy efficient house 2) geothermal 3) solar panels 4) and no damn pool that sucks energy all year round and chemicals too - I HATE bills

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

I hear that!!! Thanks for sharing

great vid, Garret! ton of additional factors that cut into your efficiency too; 4x hot showers, 4x gadgets, 4x the meal prep energy use, 4x washing/drying, plus we know your huge shop has mini split systems & a ton of lighting, and i'm willing to bet you pull a lot of amps with power tools. even the layout & positioning of your house isn't optimal for free thermal solar gain/retention, nor do you have added summer shading, fixed/picture or tight tilt/turn windows. yet your energy costs are *STILL* half or less per sqft - that's pretty good!

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

You nailed it on the head!!!

Can you share your kwh usage, not just the cost (since tht total cost can be drastically affected by the cost per kwh or therm for those using gas)

Carstairs Alberta here riding out the cold snap in a 2019 vintage 1200sq ft house on a 1200sqft walk out basement. fully conventional minimum code stick built house with triple glazed windows and upgraded attic insulation to over R60. (R50 is minimum code here). I heat with 4 Mini split heat pumps with an electric furnace backup. 12.4kw of grid tied solar...Our system gains credits all summer and I use half of them in the winter. Havent had a utility bill in 2 years and my net metering credit is $3600 after 3 years. (I will cash it out in April) We live like anyone else and even run a hot tub and a PHEV SUV. No gas line by choice for this experiment, I did the math and be danged it worked. My fancy heating system was about the same cost as a conventional system if you consider the 2k I saved on the hot water tank and I have the bonus of super AC with these split units. Love your videos

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing and congrats on your successful build!!!

@littled6698

4 ай бұрын

@Commandgate what did your solar setup cost you?

@Commandgate

4 ай бұрын

in 2019 6.2kw cost 20k all in, in 2021 I added another 6.2kw for 15k but got a grant bringing it down to 10k. so 30k total. This was all done by professionals I wrote cheques and signed permits was my only involvement.@@littled6698

80% furnaces are still the standard in new construction. Only see the more efficient models in replacement situations or custom homes.

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing. Regardless, I hope folks opt for the more efficient models.

An interesting video idea I'd love to see your take on: How much of these energy efficiency improvements will pay off when you stack them. We're planning to build a new house, but curious if you spend money on a tight envelope and insulation (icf), then will geothermal ever roi? It might not since the cost to cool/heat will already be drastically cheaper... Same situation with other high performance upgrades that usually would give a good roi.

I would love to see your energy breakdown with a emporia vue used to measure your curcuit by circuit usage.

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

Me too

Man, I've been trying to get someone to scope my geothermal setup and it's been a struggle because they all want a hot2000 report (canada). I'm doing all hydronic with ICF and you'd think someone had a calculator for that. It just seems like a chicken or the egg thing where the solar people want that report the geothermal people want that report and then nobody can make that report for ICF

2000sq foot home plus basement and fireplace in NE ohio CZ5 with 1.5 ppl living there. Blower door is a little over 1000 ACH50. 4t geothermal heating and cooling with heatpump dryer and water heater. Average for 2023 is 1624 kwh or around $200 a month. Out of the 1624 kwh 324.5 is from my plugin hybrid and 386.18 goes to my geothermal. I also have a solar system that generated an average of 820.97 kwh a month, brining my true usage to 803 kwh a month or $98.78 a month on average.

@justinherman9443

4 ай бұрын

The plan is to add 4 inches of insulation and insulate the attic more along with adding additional solar panels to work toward a net zero home.

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

Those are great numbers. Does your utility allow you to bank any over production of solar for usage later in the year, or is it like mine where it's lost at the end of each month?

@justinherman9443

4 ай бұрын

@@Challenged1 yep each month is tallied and any credits are carried over. The only thing you need to be concerned about is the overage credit does not apply to transportation. So once my net usage reaches zero the benefit decreases to only the generation portion of the bill. This leads the desire to improve efficiency of the home and not just keep adding solar.

With your current setup, I wouldn't be hooked up and paying for the base charges. I would just have a generator, in case you need it, and more solar... probably a small wind turbine, as well.

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

Without batteries, that wouldn't be possible. Batteries are the expensive part

@dus10dnd

4 ай бұрын

@@Challenged1 Agreed, but batteries are valuable either way. They provide you the ability to withstand power outages from the grid, as well.

@Cerberus984

4 ай бұрын

@@Challenged1 Goto battery hookup and you can get 96 KWh for $5760 that each module is ~6 KWh at 88.8V at 68AH. It won't be a plug n play solution requiring some research to combine into a mega pack but it's enough juice right?

Hello. I live in an old house. I am getting stinky smells in the living room and near the attic access. The living room is over the access to the crawl space. The fire department read hydrogen sulfide. Sometimes the toilet gets stopped, mainly in the mornings. Do you know what my problem could be?

@Challenged1

3 ай бұрын

Either a sewer leak or a problem with the sewer vent.

Dec 2023 1580 ft^2 ranch, typ. late 80s construction, new 25KW solar array, all electric utilities. Made much more energy than used for the month, about 500kwh extra. , $51 electric bill for distribution charges, etc. Personally I think the electric co. should pay me for all the extra free electricity I'm pushing on their grid (no battery here). they don't pay for surplus in SE Virginia anymore.

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

My utility doesn't either, which is why I installed a smaller array. Over the last three years, I've only had 1 month where I overproduced. That month I gave the utility 3 kwh.

@tryscience

4 ай бұрын

@@Challenged1 I am able to bank the kilowatt hours for other months, but as the days get longer, there will probably be much larger surpluses. However, electric vehicles will eventually become much more common, and there should be plenty of capacity to power them.

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

@@tryscience That's an excellent benefit being able to bank the excess.

Good comparison, but you have 4 people at home, thats a huge difference

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

Exactly!!!

My 1890's farm house has no insulation and a pier foundation. Wind blows in from every surface. We used 225 gallons of propane in 2 months about $300/month. But an unusual cold spell this month. Normally less than $100/mon to heat But our new house is more like yours with 2x6 walls, spray foam on every wall and ceiling on a slab. We considered heat pump and geothermal and went with propane as it is readily available and efficient. We expect heating/cooling bills to be less than $160/mon here in Texas.

@Challenged1

4 ай бұрын

Feel free to share the bills once you have some data on the new build.