Winning a War (Finally)

With four cats around, our mouse population is kept pretty much under control. I think only once or twice we've seen a mouse in the house (which didn't last long). Even so, every winter we've had mice move into the walls in one particular corner of the house. We can hear them. The cats can hear them. But they stay in the wall so we never see them. 

The problem with mice in the walls is that they gnaw on things. Thinks like electrical wiring. Not good, and not a risk we want to take, so every year Dan has diligently tried to mouse-proof the house. He's blocked off cracks and filled holes, but when the cold weather months arrive, they still get into their hidey spot in the wall. 

We're pretty sure that they've been getting in somewhere around the HVAC. 

Our HVAC when it was newly installed.

When it was installed, the new unit was set on the old oil heater's concrete pad. It overhung it by several inches, but Dan figured that framing it where it butted up to the house would seal off the crawl space. After years of trying to second guess mousy holes and entrances, Dan finally pulled it out to see what he could do to keep mice out for good.

What Dan discovered is that the unit has holes in its framework that are perfect mouse entries. That's how they were getting in. The old concrete pad was removed and Dan poured a new one to properly accommodate the unit.

The other thing he  Dan's solution to completely wall off the HVAC opening in the foundation.

That might be shocking to some, but long-time readers may recall that we gave up using the HVAC years ago. We now live with wood heat in winter and modest natural methods of keeping the house cool in summer. It's been that way for the past six years, and we've acclimated. The bottom line is that winter is cold and summer is hot and that's just the way it is! If needs must, it can always be hooked back up. Anyway. . .

Three months later, still no mice! It worked! What a relief. 

Winning a War (Finally) © December 2021

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

January kWh Report

Last month's trend continues; we used more kilowatt hours than the previous month, but significantly less than the same month a year ago. Our daily average usage is up 5 kilowatt hours from December. In January 2013, we averaged 22.35 kWh per day.

I can pinpoint the reasons for this. January was cold and rainy (over 12 inches), plus the work we're doing in the bathroom requires minimum room and surface temps. All of this meant using the space heater to keep the bathroom warm, and not being able to line dry the laundry. I don't suppose it helps, either, that my washer and dryer are old. The spin cycle on the washer doesn't spin out the water very well, and sometimes I have to run the dryer on two cycles to get the clothes dry.

To help conserve our wood supply, I have been turning on the heat pump during the day, whenever the outside temperature is warm enough to produce heat without the auxiliary heat strips. In the evening we heat the front of the house with the wood heater, and the heat pump is turned off. It's cold in the morning, but we've learned to close up the kitchen to stay warm by the wood cookstove for breakfast.

Our house was built before central, forced air heating, so all the rooms in our house have doors. Each room had either a coal fireplace or coal burning heater. The doors kept the heat inside whatever room it was wanted in. One suggestion, when we remodeled the kitchen, was to open the wall between the kitchen and dining room. At the time, I didn't entertain this because that wall was the only wall I had for cabinets and shelves, which my small kitchen needed badly. Now, I realize how much harder that would have made it to keep the kitchen warm. The open concept design is a popular modern floor plan, but this winter I realized why it isn't conducive to zone heating. Or cooling. In summer I can contain  heat generated by canning, and keep it from spreading throughout the house. The wood cookstove though, provides glorious heat and since I use it for all meals, the kitchen stays warm. The insulation and energy star windows we added help with that!

I've also been shutting the doors to my studio at night, to prevent heat loss from the rest of the house. My studio has nine, single glazed windows, all as old as the house is. Nor does the room have insulation. I love the light but it's hot in summer and cold in winter, except on a sunny day when the sun warms the room nicely. My regret is that we do not have enough sunny days! Closing the studio doors at night really help keep warmth in the living room and bedroom. Unfortunately, my desk and  internet connection are in the studio, so I often use a small radiator type space heater to keep my fingers warm enough to type.

Blankets over the windows and doors helps! Eventually
we'll replace the drafty, ill-fitting door with an energy
star one. The energy efficient windows really help too. 

Still, last month we used less than half the electricity we used in January 2012, when we averaged 54 kWh per day. Dan says next year we should do even better, assuming we get the bedrooms done. The corner bedroom, where we sleep, in particular is cold for the same reasons as my studio: old windows and no insulation. Once these rooms have better insulation and better windows, we will stay warmer with less energy output. Then, too, we won't be using power tools and space heaters to get repair and remodeling jobs done.

On a practical level I am not dissatisfied with this month's electric usage.  January's electric bill was $83, and we can live with that. We have enough alternatives that we can make choices about when and how to use electricity. The important thing is that we are learning and implementing lifestyle changes that will better suit us for whatever the future may bring.

January kWh Report © February 2013 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

November kWh Report

Earlier this year I took a preliminary look at the feasibility of us getting off-grid. Even though my conclusions were not promising, we have nonetheless continued to work toward being less dependent on our electric company, even if we can't be independent at this time.

With winter arriving, I have been curious as to how our changes will effect our electrical usage. Our first winter we froze because our newly installed wood heater (our only source of heat at the time), was located in the front of the house and was unable to get heat to the back of the house (which was poorly insulted back then). By the following winter our electric air source heat pump was installed, and I tried to figure out a way to keep costs down by using both. True, the kitchen and back bathroom were warmer, but our electric bill skyrocketed. Finally in January we got the wood cookstove installed in the kitchen.

This winter we decided to only use the heat pump occasionally, in mildly chilly weather. It becomes increasingly less efficient as the outdoor temperature drops, often blowing cold air out the registers. Then the auxiliary heat strips finally kick in, which really guzzle down the electricity. The goal is to avoid that.

The other day I paid November's electric bill and was pleased that compared to last year, our kilowatt hours had been cut by more than half. Weatherwise, temperatures were about the same but last year, November's electric use average was 33 kWh. This November, we averaged 15 kWh per day. I think that's pretty good for an all electric house.

That daily 15 kWh was for:

• electric lights, used only as needed & all energy efficient type bulbs
• 2 refrigerators (one energy star rated)
• 1 chest freezer (energy star rated)
• ceiling fans to circulate heat from the wood stoves
• fan at night for "white noise" (barking dogs & the occasional zooming car)
• 2 LED night lights with switches to turn off during the day (I got rid of the ones with light sensors)
• computer
• occasional use of power tools
• occasional use of electric dryer on rainy days
• occasional use of electric stove when I don't cook on wood cookstove, and for canning
• occasional use of toaster oven
• occasional use of bread machine 
• rare use of the electric skillet
• rare use of the little hand mixer I got for shelling cowpeas
• rare use of crock pot or slow cooker (wood cookstove is excellent at this)
• occasional use of heat pump, for mildly chilly days
• vacuum cleaner a couple times per week 
• television for watching DVDs a couple nights per week
• radio when Dan's home
• electric water heater, mostly for showers because I use heated water from the cookstove water reservoir for washing dishes when I can
• morning coffee, otherwise I keep a kettle on one of the woodstoves and use a coffee press or tea pot

Something else I've been doing is to unplug things that aren't in use (that teeny digital clock on the coffee pot is worthless anyway). We put the TV and DVD player on a surge protector, so they are easy to turn off with a flip of a toggle switch. I turn off the computer at night. Another thing that has helped, has been not having to use the electric heater in the kitchen bathroom when we shower, because the wood cookstove keeps the bathroom nice and warm as well.

We do not use home heating oil, natural gas, propane, kerosene, etc., so to me, this is a significant indicator of successful lifestyle changes. I don't mind saying that I'm mighty pleased.

See also:
December kWh Report

November kWh Report © December  2012 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Around The Homestead

It's been awhile since I've done an "Around The Homestead" post. The last one was in February. These are bullet posts of random updates, follow-ups, comments, and observations of various doings and goings on around the homestead. Seems most of my updates these days turn in to full blown posts, but I do have a few odds and ends to report on.

Thank you Eliza Faith & Sharon!

Stylish Blogger Award. Ordinarily, this would deserve a post of it's own. I'm considering it an update however, because I won it awhile back, but am honored that both Eliza Faith of Girls PWN, and Sharon, of Quilting the Farm, both have awarded it to me recently. I want to give you each a heartfelt thanks. The rules for this award say the recipient is to tell you 7 things about themselves that you might not know, and then to pass this award along to someone who deserves it. Rather than think up seven new things, I'm going to take the lazy way out and refer you to my original post, here. There are a few blogs I'd like to pass it on to. These are new for me, discovered while responding to comments. They are excellent blogs, but as far as I can tell, don't have a huge readership. I hope ya'll will go and visit.

• Broken Road Farm
• The Adventures of Noodleville
• The Weekend Homesteader
• Little Red Homestead In The Woods
• Sand Holler Farm

Fort William. Dan made a little more progress on Fort William!

Chipper & Gruffy like their buck barn

The "awning" is actually a window cover as well. It's hinged to be propped open in the summer to allow cooling breezes in, but can be closed in winter to protect from driving rains and bitter winds.

Riley on fence post, washing a paw.

Fox Sighting. While Dan was building on the bucks' shed, Riley would hang around to keep him company and patrol the woods behind Ft. William. One day while Dan was working on the roof, Riley took off like a bullet. Dan could see him chase something with a bushy red tail, and then heard all manner of caterwauling. Cat fight. A few days later, our neighbor told him he saw a fox run across the street and on to our property. Dan realized it wasn't another cat he saw, but that fox. Thankfully Riley came out without a scratch. We haven't seen any trace of the fox since, but knowing they kill chickens, we're on the alert.

HVAC. I'm going to include this as an update because after going through last summer without air conditioning, I am very thankful to have it this summer. Our typical summer temperatures are in the 90s and it's not uncommon to top 100 on occasion. Heat builds up in the house, and add to that the heat and humidity from canning, it was not fun. We try to use the AC sparingly, and I've worked out a system where I keep the thermostat set at 78 to 80, depending upon the humidity. We shut it off at night, and in the morning, the outside temp is usually in the high 60s or low 70s. I open the doors and windows until outside and inside temperatures are the same. I close everything up, and it stays that way for the rest of the day. The ouse stays fairly cool till mid-afternoon. When the house temp reaches the thermostat setting, I turn on the AC. If we think we need more, we turn on fans. I'm sure our house would feel warm to some, but we're okay with that.

Weeds. Like most gardeners, I seem to grow more of these than I want. Now that I've learned something about which weeds are dynamic accumulators, I've started pulling and adding selected ones to my compost, especially plantain, which is a calcium accumulator.

Plantain, a calcium accumulator

Amazingly they decompose pretty fast and I'm hoping in the long run to increase our soil calcium.

Compost Sifter. Speaking of compost....

My compost sifter

... Dan made me a compost sifter from materials we had lying around. I'm very pleased with it.

Sourdough starter. After managing to keep my sourdough starter alive for over a year, I lost it. It died the death of neglect. In a way this is surprising because I used it so often! I used it to replace any liquid called for in a baked good recipe. It worked beautifully with baking soda and my cakes, pancakes, muffins, etc., were always light and fluffy. I haven't started another one though, because lately I've been using whey in everything from quick breads to yeast breads. Whey works well, is always available, adds nutrition, and never needs to be fed. I do have some good recipes for sourdough though, so I'll be making another starter someday soon.

Jasmine. The hardness in her udder is almost completely gone, shrunk to the size of a small lemon. In fact, she's looking extremely lopsided these days. I'm actually beginning to wonder if she really did have mastitis. I'm wondering if the problem isn't actually "congested udder." To diagnose properly for mastitis, the milk should be tested. She never produced milk on that side, so I'll never know.

Rooster Wars: There are two more roosters in the neighborhood. We know because we can hear them in the distance. One sounds like a Bantam, (such a cute little crow), the other I've dubbed "The Ghost Rooster." I call him that because by the time the sound waves get here, his crow is eerily ghost-like, but in a comical sort of way.

Lord Barred Holland & 6 of his 7 ladies

The Ghost Rooster absolutely never stops crowing. Our neighbor across the street told Dan it's driving him crazy. Fortunately Lord B (who also crows quite a bit) doesn't bother them, I reckon because of the way sound travels. Initially Lord B got into some acoustic sparring with the Ghost Rooster, but apparently has figured out that no challenger is going to try to usurp his position. Lord B does do his share of crowing, and now with the three, I worry that someone will complain to the "authorities." We're outside town limits, but just barely. We'd hate to get into real rooster, or chicken wars with someone over our right to keep chickens.

As our economic situation and food supply become increasingly uncertain, it's not surprising others are starting to keep chickens. And as much as I don't like the feeling of being on display to passersby every time I work in the garden, I can only hope that perhaps they're looking at us and thinking, "Hey, we could do that too."

Around The Homestead © June 2011 

by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

I'm A Happy Camper

My Heartland Sweetheart wood cookstove

Look what we bought last Friday, a used Heartland Sweetheart wood cookstove. This is a "before" photo, taken before we disassembled it, brought it home, and put it in Dan's workshop to store, until we remodel our kitchen.

This cookstove had been listed on Craigslist for quite awhile. When I first saw it, the asking price was $2500. That price seemed impossible to me, but also, there was a Waterford Stanley (my dream stove) on Craigslist for $3000. That price seemed even more impossible. Still, I visited these ads often.

After about a week the price for the Waterford Stanley raised to $3500. The Sweetheart eventually came down to $2000. Sweetheart stoves retail for about $4000, and this one included a water reservoir, rear heat shield, and floor protector, all of which added another $1000 to the value.

Rear heat shield
view from side

The heat shield is a must for a small kitchen like ours, as it drastically reduces the required clearance behind the stove. Without a heat shield, a minimum 27" needs to be allowed between the stove and a combustible wall. With the shield, that clearance is reduced to just inches.

Rear heat shield, view from above
(after stove pipe was removed)

There have been quite a few other woodburning cookstoves offered on Craigslist as well. Most of them old, and listed in the $500 - $600 range. We'd looked at some of these, and though the owners thought they were in excellent condition, they had missing pieces, cracked parts, and loose fittings. They may have been lovely as antiques or decorative pieces, but they were in poor condition for functioning cookstoves.

We did research on what it would cost to repair an old stove. The most common wood cookstoves for sale in our area were originally manufactured by Atlanta Stove Works. However, that company has been out of business for a long time, so there is no way to get new parts. Welding and metal fabrication is costly, so that a $500 bargain is no longer a bargain. (If you ever consider buying a used cookstove, an excellent resource is Woodstove Cookery: At Home On The Range by Jane Cooper. This book gives you a complete rundown on what to watch out for.) The Aga-Heartland company still manufactures the Heartland cookstoves in Canada, so replacement parts and upgrades are readily available.

DH and I talked about the Sweetheart for some time. As badly as I wanted it, buying it would completely wipe out the remains of our house fund savings and then some. DH said that was what the money was for, so in the end, we decided to go see it. It was a good price for an important addition to our home. I admit that it took me several days to work up the courage to call to make an appointment. The ad was a month old, so I was pretty sure it had been sold. Lo and behold it wasn't and I made arrangements to see the stove.

As advertised it was in excellent condition. Not only did the price include the extras I mentioned above, but also all the pipe: double walled stove pipe, 12 feet of double walled insulated chimney pipe, storm collar, roof flashing, chimney cap, ceiling pipe adapter, and attic insulation shield. All of this would cost an additional $1500 plus shipping to purchase new, but was included with the stove.

The only negative is that the oven is a tad small, 13.25" wide, 12.5" tall, and 18" deep (1.7 cu. ft.). It's advertised to be large enough to cook a 15 pound turkey, but unfortunately it isn't wide enough to accommodate my 14.75" pizza stone! Reckon I'm in the market for a smaller pizza stone.

Riley discovers the woodstove

This stove though, is for more than just an appliance or a step toward energy independence. It will provide much needed heat for the back of the house. Last winter, our only heat source was our woodstove. Even with fans to blow the heat, the kitchen & back bathroom remained at about 45 F. It was such a cold winter that we ended up using space heaters in the kitchen, back bathroom, and my studio. These of course caused our electric bill to skyrocket. That was a factor in the choice we made for an HVAC system.

Until Thanksgiving, outside temps were mildly cool so we only needed occasional heat. For that we used the heat pump, because the soapstone stove takes awhile to heat up. That means it's not so good for quick or short term heat, such as taking a chill out of the air. On the other hand, it burns wood ultra-efficiently, has a damper with a hair's breadth sensitivity, and retains warmth for a long time after the fire has gone out.

Riley likes the woodstove

With colder temps since Thanksgiving, we've started using the woodstove. To keep the back of the house warmer, I'm experimenting with how to utilize the heat pump minimally, as an auxiliary heat source. Our new cookstove will solve that problem however and keep the kitchen and back bathroom comfortable.

I won't be able to use the Sweetheart until next fall. Not only do we need to re-do the kitchen floor first, but also running stove and chimney pipe up through the ceiling and roof is no little job of work. However, the cookstove is key to being able to resume serious plans for remodeling the kitchen. Everything in that room depends on where we put it. We needed the stove's measurements and recommended clearances before we could plan where to put cabinets, counters, and kitchen table. Now we can start to figure all that out. We hope to get started as soon as we finish that bathroom!

We want heat! We want heat!
Turn it on Dad, or I'll laser you with my eyes.

So. Are you all staying warm so far this winter?

Related Posts:
Getting the Sweetheart Installed
Cooking on it at last

I'm A Happy Camper © December 2010 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

The HVAC Unit Is In, But I Have Mixed Feelings

We finally made a decision about our HVAC system. Or rather, we finally found someone who showed up for the appointment, would work with us regarding our insulating the ductwork ourselves, would sell us what we actually wanted, and wasn't charging us an arm and a leg.

I confess I have mixed feelings about this.

Originally, we thought we would heat only with wood. After all, we tore down the old fireplace, bought the king of woodstoves, and built that fantastic alcove for it. Even so, we froze our behinds off last winter. There were several reasons for this. For one, there are insulation issues in this old house (which are gradually being addressed). For another, the woodstove is located in the living room at the front of the house, meaning the kitchen and back part didn't get sufficient heat (even using fans to circulate it.). There's a floor plan of our house here, if you'd like a visual of that.

When we made the decision to supplement this, I did a lot of research, and shared what I learned in these posts:

Evaluating heating and cooling
Research on systems

Like everyone else with a goal of self-sufficiency, the first things we researched were sustainable energy systems, namely solar and wind. We quickly ran into the brick wall of reality however. On a local, practical level, the bottom line is that we don't get enough of either. Where we live, solar or wind power aren't feasible for anything other than occasional auxiliary systems. We went for months without sun last winter, and we can go for months with little or no wind during the summer.

The other problem is cost. Sun and wind are touted as the perfect alternatives to oil dependence and the energy crisis, yet only the rich can afford them. Unless that is, one is willing to go into debt, which we aren't. Debt is the opposite of self-sufficiency. "Help" is offered in the form of tax credits, but let's face it, these are nothing but partial reimbursements. If one doesn't have the money to pay for it up front, a tax credit is no incentive at all. My question is, if the energy and oil crises are as bad as we're told, why aren't those in power trying to help us common folk afford the alternatives? We've all heard, "if it's important enough, you should be willing to make the sacrifice." To which I say, why does the sacrifice always have to fall on the consumer? If it's really that important, why aren't government and big business making the sacrifice? As consumers, we can only choose from what's offered to us. Why restrict our choices and then try to make us feel guilty about it?

The one realistic system (for us, or so I thought), was geothermal. We had a geothermal contractor come out and quote us $18,000 to put in a system. Well, it may as well have been 18 million. Then I ran across a site where we could purchase a geothermal system to install ourselves. We could purchase the unit and installation kit for about the same price that we were being quoted to have an air source heat pump installed. More research. One helpful site (if you're considering this as your own DIY project) is Rick's Geothermal Website. He isn't selling anything, so we felt we could take his information with fewer grains of salt. Still, one thing he said, and which we read on several consumer reviews of geothermal, is that electricity usage goes up in the winter, and that many (all?) of these systems require a supplementary heat source during the coldest months. That negates the very reasons we were considering geothermal in the first place. What was the point then? Just to say we had one?

In the end we settled for the simplest packaged air source heat pump (with auxiliary heat strips) we could find. Of course, most contractors wanted to sell us the high end units with all the bells and whistles. We researched brands that are available locally, and then looked at consumer reviews on these. A good source for this is FurnaceCompare. What we learned there, was that units less than five years old, regardless of brand, all stink. Reliable quality truly seems to be a thing of the past. Units with the highest consumer ratings (again, regardless of brand), were all older units. Folks had heat pumps 10, 15, 20+ years old still running well with routine maintenance, having needed very few repairs over the years. Those with newer models (often sold with no labor warranty) were frustrated with repeated parts failures and repairs. Price range didn't seem to matter.  High end models with more gadgets had more to go wrong with them.

So the unit is in, with a little savings still left to invest in insulating at least one of our problem areas. After that, all home and farm improvements will be on a do-as-we-have-the-money basis. There is still a little more ductwork that needs to be installed, and then we can fire the thing up for the first time. Now that the sweltering heat and humidity are nearly over!

In the meantime, Dan is working on this winter's wood supply. We traded eggs for the newest lot of wood in the foreground...

We aren't like some folks, in that we turn the heat up to 80°F (26.6°C) in winter, and the AC down to 60°F (15.5°C) in the summer. I set the thermostat high and use fans for summer cooling, and we set it low in winter and use wood. When we finally get to remodeling the kitchen, I hope, hope, hope I can find a wood cookstove in good condition, as that will help tremendously in keeping the back of the house warmer and dryer. A huge benefit of an HVAC system, will be in keeping humidity in the house down. I found mildew growing on some books and cabinetry this summer, and that's no good.

This is a huge project under our belts. It didn't turn out as we would have wanted, but we accept that and will look to alternative energy for smaller, dedicated uses, such as a solar attic vent fan (installed June 2016). As you can imagine, we are very ready to focus on something else.

The HVAC Unit Is In, But I Have Mixed Feelings 

© Sept 2010 by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com/

Progress (or lack of) On Our HVAC System

It's been a long time since I've mentioned the house or our HVAC system, over four months!  Would you believe that we're still working on this?  Not that we haven't made at least some progress.  We did our homework, which I shared in this post.

One reason we've been slow is because summer is the time for outside projects. Also Dan has been working more.  Plus the garden and harvest are the top priority this time of year.  But also, as we've been talking to HVAC contractors, we've run into some problems.

Problem #1. Dan had to remove much of the ductwork when he worked on supporting the dining room floor.  Since not all of the ductwork was insulated, our idea was to put it back, and insulate whatever sections needed it. Every contractor we've talked to has been very negative about our plan and of course, wants to sell and install all new ductwork in addition to a new HVAC unit.  We suspect that if the ductwork was still in place, they probably wouldn't mention this, but for some reason no one seems to like the idea of us doing it ourselves.

Problem #2.  Sizing an HVAC unit is a complicated business. Obviously it takes into consideration the part of the country one lives in and the home's square footage, but also the number, size, and type of windows the home has; which direction they face, their square footage, exterior wall square footage, and how much of those are either shaded or exposed to sun. It needs to know how well the various parts of the home (attic, walls, and basement or crawlspace) are insulated. Even then, most folks end up with units that are too large "just in case" they need the extra BTUs.

The reason this is a problem, is because we are in the process of increasing our home's insulation. However, the HVAC sizing formula doesn't take future plans into account. Or at least those calculating the formula don't, which means the unit recommended for now, will be overkill in the future. If money were no object, we could do everything at once, i.e. insulating and adding a new unit.  But since we only have X amount of dollars, we have to pick and choose.

In the meantime, we're working away on the ductwork.  Some of it is already well insulated, but some either has no insulation, or the insulation had been home to critters and has to be replaced.  After some reaearch, we decided to use this...


Reflectix double reflective insulation. It was reasonably priced, easy to install, and available locally.  With proper installation (leaving a 3/4 inch air gap) an R-6 insulation value can be achieved.  Basically the stuff is jut a double layer of bubble wrap, with reflective foil on both sides of the roll.  It was easy to cut and easy to tape with the proper reflective tape.

Did I say it was easy to install?  Well, maybe I should qualify that.  I'm sure it would be easy in a basement or ample crawl space.  Our crawl space however, starts at about 3 feet at the back of the house, but is just inches at the front.


It is a tight squeeze and awkward work under the front of the house.

As he's been working on this, DH has figured out what has been something that was puzzling me, i.e. why the house seemed well insulated in summer, but poorly insulated in winter. What he discovered is that there are gaps at the base of the walls in the crawlspace, which allow air to flow up in between the interior and exterior walls. In addition, the foundation under the front of the house has holes.  This explains why last winter, I could hold my hand about 8 inches from our bedroom wall and feel the cold pressing in.  The frigid winter air would blow into the crawl space under the porch, and push it's way up the insides of the walls. Obviously we need to tend to this!

So here it is, August, and we're still working on getting the ductwork back in.  As you've probably gathered, this means we've had no AC, something I had hoped we wouldn't have to live without in our hot, humid summers!  But that's how it is.  I promised myself I wouldn't complain, though I freely admit the kitchen gets mighty uncomfortable when I'm canning.  Even so, AC is only a recent luxury for us.  We have and could continue to live without it.  But we'll put it in because it's standard on all homes around here, and if we have it, we'll use it. Of course, we do keep it set pretty high, and rely on fans if additional cooling is needed.  I have to say that I'm thankful for those electric fans right now.  But I'll be even more thankful once this project is done.

Aren't you glad you're not us?

Progress (or lack of) On Our HVAC System © August 2010 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

2010 Goals: Researching HVAC Systems

As many of you mentioned in the comments to my previous post on this subject, the HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) system is only part of the home comfort/energy efficiency equation. Insulation is the other factor, and we are researching both. In this post, I'll give you the gist of my research into different types of heating and cooling systems. The ones I chose are the systems which were most feasible of us: electric, combustion based, air source heat pumps, ductless mini-split heat pumps, and geothermal heat pumps. For each one I've included links to more information at the US Dept of Energy Energy Savers website.

Electric systems include electric resistance heating and electric air conditioning. Heaters can include electric furnaces, base-board heaters, space heaters, and some radiant heat systems. All air conditioners are electric, no matter what heating system they come with. The advantage to electric heating is that almost 100% of the electricity is converted to heat, so it's efficient. The disadvantage is that not only is it the most expensive way to heat and cool, but also electricity is often produced from oil, gas, or coal generators, which are not efficient as they produce the electricity itself, not to mention they are fossil fuels.

To read more on these systems, click here.

Combustion based are your oil, gas, and propane heaters, often packaged with electric AC. These systems require an open flame to produce heat and hence a pilot light. These are of course, safety concerns. In addition to heat, they produce waste products such as carbon monoxide, requiring them to be vented to the outside. While they are less expensive to run than all electric, they require a lot of maintenance. They are less efficient, typically having an Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) of 80%. This means that only 80% of the fuel is converted to heat. To be Energy Star rated, a system must have an AFUE of 90%, and these are considerably more expensive as you can imagine.

For more reading on furnaces and boilers, click here.

Air-source heat pumps transfer heat from outdoor air, rather than create heat from a fuel source. This makes them more economical to run. While they can be efficient air conditioners in the summer, they do not work well as heaters if outside temperatures drop to about freezing or below because the air is no longer warm enough to transfer heat from. Consequently most air-source heat pumps in our part of the country are duel-fueled, equipped with a gas heater as well. Gas kicks in when the outdoor temperatures are too cold. Other alternatives would be electric heaters, or as in our case, a woodstove.

Air-source heat pumps have two efficiency ratings, the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) for the air conditioner, and a Heating System Performance Factor (HSPF). The most efficient ones have a minimum SEER of 14, and a minimum HSPF of 8. With both ratings, the higher the number the better.

For detailed info on these, click here.

Ductless, mini-split-system heat pumps are air-source heat pumps which can be retrofit to a home without ductwork. After the outdoor unit is installed, 3 inch pipes carry the wiring/tubing to indoor units, which are installed about a foot from the ceiling. They make it easy to zone one's home, but the indoor units themselves are pretty conspicuous and ugly. To me, a cooling source near the ceiling makes sense, but heating doesn't. Why? Because heat of course, rises and the ceiling is not where one wants the heat in winter! Strong blowers can help, but we had ceiling vent registers when we lived in the apartment and didn't think the heat circulated well.

For more information on these systems, click here.

Geothermal heat pumps, also work on transfer heat, but their source is either the earth or water, rather than air. They are least expensive to maintain but most expensive to install, primarily because of the several hundred feet of tubing which needs to be either buried 5 to 6 feet in the ground, or submerged. They have the least impact on the environment of all the options, and the longest service life, something like 25 to 30 years for the unit and 50 years for the tubing.

Click here for more information.

We are not considering radiant heat, as this would be difficult and expensive for us to retrofit (as in tear up all the floors). Nor solar, because we do not get enough sunlight during the winter for it to be truly useful nor worth the expense.

We were able to attend a home and garden show earlier this month and talk to a lot of both HVAC and insulation folks. The next step should be to have a variety of them come out, and give us their spiel and free estimate.

2010 Goals: Evaluating HVAC Systems copyright 

March 2010 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

2010 Goals: Evaluating Heating & Cooling

One of the items on our 2010 homestead goals list, was to make a decision about our HVAC system. The system that was in the house when we bought it was an outdoor packaged oil furnace with electric air conditioner. Evidently they had had problems with the furnace in the past, because there were oil stains and splatters on the foundation and in the crawl space. Though it passed inspection, we were told that it was near the end of its service life and that we should expect to replace it in the near future. DH didn't like it because the exhaust chimney was right under one of the dining room windows. I didn't like it because it burns oil. Neither one of us liked the residual smell.

DH pulled it out when he had to get under the house to stabilize the dining room floor. By that time we already had the soapstone woodstove in place and in use, plus being November, we no longer needed the air conditioner.

In discussing what to do, we have considered doing nothing. Perhaps if the winter had been mild and the house not so drafty, we would have just left it at that and considered whether or not we wanted air conditioning. But we had enough sustained below-freezing weather and enough draftiness, that we've had to supplement with radiator type plug in heaters for the kitchen and my studio. Then too, even if we took care of the insulation problems, the woodstove is located in the living room in the front of the house, and doesn't do a good job of providing heat to the back of the house (see floorplan), even with fans. One possibility here, is to buy that wood cookstove I've been wanting. That would provide the heat we need at the back of the house.

But then there's wood supply. As I mentioned, we have limited hardwoods on our property, which means eventually we'd be having to buy it and have it hauled in. This isn't necessarily good or bad, it's just a factor to consider.

Cooling is another topic of discussion. DH wanted to consider doing without air conditioning, and we did discuss that. If we installed a solar attic fan to draw heat out of the attic, and a whole house fan to suck heat out of the rest of the house at the end of the day, it's possible we could survive the summer, even with our usual stretch of days in the low 100sF. But cooling is only part of it . Dehumidifying is important as well. If you've ever lived in a damp, mildewy home, then you know what I mean.

On top of all that, we need to consider this -- that even though this is intended to be our forever home, something unforeseen could happen and we might need to sell it someday. We couldn't even put it on the market without an HVAC system.

Next step ... research the different types of HVAC systems.

2010 Goals: Evaluating Heating & Cooling copyright 

9 March 2010 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/