I mentioned earlier that the back door weatherization needed a bit more tweaking. I finally found the problem.

I’d been put off the scent by the presence of a door sweep screwed to the inside of the inner (wooden) door. It was new, so I figured it was A-OK. Searching for the source of the remaining air leak, I looked at the door edge-on when it was open and discovered that, just like my front door, the back door had a huge gap at the bottom edge. Again, about 3/4″.

So I says to myself, says I, “This will not do.”

For this repair, I bought two thicknesses of red oak lath, 1/4″ and 1/2″ (not sure which I’d need), and another 3-finned vinyl bottom sweep. I couldn’t build up the threshold, as on the front door, because it has one of those aluminum thresholds with a compressible vinyl “speed bump”. It’s in good shape, so removal doesn’t make sense– it’s just not doing its job because it doesn’t meet the bottom of the door. Instead, I decided to build up (or down, as the case may be) the bottom of the door itself, using a hardwood strip.

Filing away damage

First, I took the door off its hinges. The bottom was in poor shape due to water damage, so it needed some work.

The bottom edge of the center board was so weathered that you could flake it off with a fingernail, to maybe 1/4″ in some spots. The outer boards, because they’re vertically oriented and the grain is perpendicular to the threshold, were in much better shape.

I didn’t want to buy a whole new door, but also didn’t want to cut all the way through the bad wood on the center board. The goals were 1) To create a good mating surface to attach the hardwood strip to the door bottom, and 2) Accommodate the slight bowing in the floor surface, which meant the gap was thicker in the middle than at the ends.

Red oak strip in place

I used my router to cut away some of the vertical outer boards so I could attach the red oak strip all the way across the bottom. I used a half-round bastard to file away some of the damaged center wood and generally even the surface. With the new vinyl sweep, the 1/4″ strip was the best fit (I later returned the 1/2″). I had to narrow the strip by about 1/4″ to match the door, and also cut off about that much from the vinyl sweep (same on the front door).

Then I glued-and-screwed the red oak strip into place. Pretty solid, though I really out to get some weather sealant on it.

That pretty much took care of the air leak and I was able to free up the former inside sweep for use elsewhere in the building.

Placing the vinyl sweep

This fix was not expensive and, other than the router, did not require expensive tools. Cost:

Oak strip: $2.84
Vinyl sweep: $10.11
Wood screws: $1.05
Glue (on hand)
Time: Priceless

Tools: router, cordless drill, bastard, handsaw

I received my first full month’s bill for electricity at my new apartment. I didn’t bother to measure “baseline” usage; that is, before doing what I could to reduce consumption and increase efficiency. One of the first things I did in this small apartment was to replace almost all the light bulbs with CFLs. So this first bill IS my benchmark.

73kWh, or 2.43kWh per day

In my favor is the fact that heat is not from electricity in my building (except to run the furnace fan); that and living alone and being very frugal!

~Ben
AltE

The filter port, taped

Here are two photos of the taping job I did on my furnace in the basement. I’m sorry I don’t have the brand of tape that I used; I can get that later for those interested. But it is NOT plastic/vinyl duct tape. It IS metal tape; that is, it’s made of thin metal, probably aluminum, backed by a strong adhesive. It’s heavy-duty stuff and I would not recommend classic duct tape for ducting! The heating and cooling effects will wear down the adhesives and tape material, rendering it useless in short order. We’ve all seen old duct tape dropping off surfaces in brittle ribbons. Be sure to clean the surfaces where the metal tape will be applied– dust will prevent adhesion. I used a dust rag followed by a damp sponge.

I was not alone in this work. Another resident in my building helped me start work on what has proven a more substantial project than we’d first thought. The building has a few years on it and some of the galvanized ducting joints have come loose. Either they were only fitted, but never screwed, together, or screws have come loose. Some of the joints were covered in a white fabric tape that my neighbor seems to think is asbestos-based. Danger, Will Robinson! Please recognize that asbestos (no longer available) poses a serious health hazard and should be dealt with by professionals.

First two joints, taped

My neighbor and I reattached a few ducts, cleaned and taped quite a few joints, tightened hanger wires as needed, and even used a can of spray foam insulation to seal some joints. There’s more yet to be done, but I expect that, in the case of my own apartment, we’ve reduced heat loss by, say, 5-10%, maybe more.

This sort of work is an easy way to make a difference in your home energy consumption. You’ll lower your bills and reduce your carbon footprint. The cost for the metal tape is minimal (I just saw a roll online for under $3) and the time required is not substantial for a few joints.

We had an ice storm last week. It didn’t seem so bad during the storm – at least in our little house – but when we woke up to no power we knew something was amiss. Apparently there were 250,000 other people who woke up with the same issue that morning.

In reality, we were really lucky. We have a propane stove and a French press so there was coffee and a hot breakfast. The house was still pretty warm and I had my iPhone so I could connect with the outside world and find out that most of Massachusetts was blacked out along with me. We have plenty of candles and lots of cozy fleece blankets.

At first I had an instinct to escape the house with my husband and small daughter but my husband didn’t want to drive so we stayed in. He picked up his biography on Miles Davis, I started a fire and we set up our four year old with some coloring and alphabet work. I picked up my needlepoint and we sat, in the silence of our small sitting room in front of the fire, quietly occupied as a family.

Rather than being stir crazy and seeking sounds and activity, I found myself relaxing. We were warm and full and happily occupied. The rhythm of my stitching became almost meditative and the dogs and child were lulled by the sounds and warmth of the fire.

I’ve been reading and writing a great deal about the holidays for the last weeks. I’m gearing up to host 10+ for Christmas dinner after feeding 23 at Thanksgiving. Although our family doesn’t go in for the tons of presents under the tree thing, the holidays still manage to stress me out a bit and now, I think back to that morning with no power and no heat and I’m so thankful because it reminds me what a holiday should be like.

I’m always busy – working, cleaning, wife-ing, mom-ing – it takes a lot to get me to slow down, and the holidays nowadays are really set up to wear everyone out.

I think a lot of it comes down to habit. As I grew up, the holidays needed to look perfect and be perfect. Lots of decorations, lots of presents, lots of food, lots of friends – everything in excess. Some memories are fond but mostly they blur together in a red and green haze wrapped with stress and fatigue. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I actually started to break those old habits – much like forcing myself to sit still on the blackout morning.

We’ve come a long way already. I’ve exorcised the yearning for excess on Christmas morning and I’m working hard to make sure my daughter isn’t raised with those expectations or needs. We get each other a few gifts and we create a delicious meal each year. We make a great event of building the gingerbread house. We get together with friends to relax and make merry.

Since I let go of the shopping and the buying, my holidays have been much more fulfilling. My gifts are more thoughtful and take more time than money. The holiday itself becomes restful and slow and I realize that I’m offering my daughter the gift of a non-frenetic Christmas - something she’ll probably enjoy far more than the newest gizmo.

It isn’t right for everyone, I’m sure, but the more I read about the effect of consumerism on the environment and the more I see the benefits to my psyche of releasing myself from “stuff” the more I think other people should try to take a break as well.

So now my “perfect holiday” doesn’t involve the images that have been pushed on me by stores and marketing geniuses that want me to buy buy buy – it involves no electricity, no TV, no music and a simple day with my family finding creative ways to have fun together without all the noise.

My apartment’s on the 2nd floor of a 4-unit brick building. I started my work by examining the doors. The front door leads to an indoor stairwell, so it’s not as much of a heat loss risk as the back door that leads outside; nevertheless, there was a gap of nearly 3/4″ beneath the front door (not to mention the fact that the door’s main panels are made of mere 1/4″ plywood!). The doorframe is metal and is in good shape.

So I went to Lowes and bought a selection of door weather-stripping solutions, not sure what would work best. I settled on a vinyl door bottom sweep, with three fins, that I nailed to the bottom of the door; of course, that meant removing the door at the hinges. That covered about 1/2″ of the gap. Then I installed a hardwood threshold that I screwed onto the existing wooden threshold. I later stained it to match the dark wood of the door; that covered the rest of the gap, providing a fair seal for the bottom of the door. I used a roll of EPDM hollow-core weatherstrip to seal the rest of the door. It’s not airtight, of course, but it’s a vast improvement over the way I found it.

The back door leaked air something fierce. It’s a typical double door: an inside panel door of wood (glass upper panel), and an outside storm door of metal and glass. I installed a new rubberized door sweep for the outside face of the outer door (the old one had crumbled away to nothing) and I rolled out a self-stick foam rubber weatherstrip onto the inside doorjamb. Now, when the doors are both shut and I put my hands down at the lower corners, I can feel only a tiny draft of cold outside air coming in. More tweaking to do, I suppose; or get a door pillow.

Air leak at intake duct

Back in the basement, I’ve examined my unit’s furnace and noticed a couple of significant leaks: the first I found is on the intake side, at the base of the unit, where the filter slides into the galvanized intake ducting—it’s a loose fit, so lots of basement air gets pulled into the system. Given that the basement, so far in my one month’s residency, has not been cold (despite outside temperatures often in the 20s and 30s), this may not be a huge problem. But since a forced-air heating system operates on a feedback loop, eventually there will be an efficiency loss. As the apartment warms up, the return air going down to the furnace would normally tend to get warmer; cycling the ever-warming air allows the thermostat to reach its preset temperature sooner than if only outside air were pumped in. But the leak at the furnace intake is interrupting that feedback, requiring the system to run longer to heat my apartment than it otherwise would do.

Furnace out-port leaks

I found a second leak in the furnace, this one on the output side: at the very first joint, the round duct is not seated properly into its hole in the side of the furnace wall. Hot air is blowing out into the basement. That partly explains the comfy temperatures down there! I’ll pick up some silver tape patch that leak.

Next stop: the windows! There are storm windows all around, which is good. With my hands, I’ve felt along the edges of the windows and felt no obvious drafts so far. I may go as far as installing those plastic “shrink-wrap” window covering kits, but I’m not convinced I need them.

~Ben
AltE

I recently moved into an apartment in Columbus, Ohio, and, naturally enough, I’m looking for ways to save energy. Well, naturally enough for me. I’m told that not everyone thinks the way I do! Go figure!

Anyway, this four-unit building has natural gas air- and water-heating: four individual forced-air furnaces and four 40-gallon water heaters occupy a fair portion of the basement space. Of course I spent some time poking around down there, taking a look at plumbing runs and ducting. There’s a mixture of copper and Pex tubing for the plumbing—evidence of a plumbing overhaul sometime in the building’s past.

Something about what I saw there disturbed me. I traced the plumbing lines leading from my hot water heater (a standard, central-flume, natural gas-fired unit) and quickly became confused. It’s a bit complex since the plumbing is individualized for each unit and each includes a run to a separate utility sink and washing machine hookups. I don’t plan to install a washer or dryer, but still there was something very odd: it looked like the hot water run coming out of my tank was connected to the cold water supply line of the building.

Huh?!

I was temporarily stumped. I assumed I just didn’t know enough about household plumbing to understand what was going on. Meantime, I noticed that the hot water delivery to the shower was… less than ideal. You know how it is: you move into a new place and though you’ve put your outward efforts into getting the best deal and landing in the neighborhood you prefer and all that stuff, what you secretly hope for is that water pressure and temperature are good for hot showers! It’s a secret hope because one doesn’t want to be accused of being a waster of water and energy, especially when one works for a renewable energy company. Ahem! To my credit, I had already installed a low-flow showerhead with an on-off valve. I’d hoped the showerhead might improve the feel of the water stream at least, which is on the weak side. Well, the flow was acceptable, but the temperature was borderline. Personally, I don’t like a scalding hot shower; but even with the hot tap fully open and the cold off, I was not entirely comfortable.

I went back downstairs. “Hmm. Maybe I’ll just turn up the water heater’s temperature setting a bit.” Well, it was set slightly below the presumed “normal” marker. so I turned it up. The result the next day was slightly better, but still I was running all hot and no cold. I returned to the basement a few more times to stare at the pipes in bewilderment before it dawned on me what was wrong: the plumber had connected the plumbing to the hot water heater backwards. The cold water supply line was connected to the fitting marked “HOT” on the top of the tank, while the hot water line leading up to my apartment was connected to the “COLD” fitting! Doh!

“Is there a difference?” you ask. Turns out there is. The anatomy of a typical water heater tank includes a pipe called a “dip tube” that is connected to the “COLD” fitting at the top of the tank. The dip tube carries incoming cold water nearly to the bottom of the tank. This way, cold water from the building supply arrives near the (in my case) natural gas burner located beneath the water vessel. As it’s heated, the water rises by convection. This natural convection cycle assures that the hottest water in the tank is found at the top. And that’s where hot water is drawn out of the tan, from the “HOT” fitting, which has no dip tube. Except that, in my case, the opposite has been happening: I’m drawing water, through the dip tube, from the bottom of the tank, where it’s coldest, so my showers have been…. less than satisfying. The water heater, of course, doesn’t know the difference.

I put in a call to my new landlord, keeping my fingers crossed that he was willing to correct the situation (and knowing I am enough of a stickler to be willing to pay a plumber myself to get it fixed). To my joy, he was perfectly willing to send his plumber to fix the problem. The holidays got in the way, but I’m eagerly looking forward to a long, hot shower— er, to reducing my energy consumption! And after the work is done, I’ll move on to the next step: I have already bought an insulating jacket for the tank and a few six-foot lengths of pipe insulation that I will install on the exposed piping I can access there on the basement ceiling. If all goes well, I hope to engage the curiosity—and savings interest—of my three neighbors; perhaps I can get them to do the same with their tanks and pipes. And, yes, I already checked— their tanks are plumbed properly!

~Ben
AltE

Ben here. I’ve been on sabbatical for the past couple of months, taking some time to travel and visit friends and family. And though I was away from the office and the routine, it seems my mind was unwilling to join my body on vacation—wherever I went, I couldn’t help but notice details large and small about power consumption and conservation. In Dublin, Ireland, for example, I visited a “green” organization and store called Cultivate Living and Learning Centre (www.cultivate.ie), where I was pleased to learn about a growing community of sustainable movers and shakers in Ireland, as well as enjoy a store full of resources and products for sale.

In Ireland generally, there seemed to be good awareness of conservation. I got the feeling it was a matter of course for the Irish: the people have historically lived in impoverished conditions, though recently their standard of living has been rising, thanks in part, I suppose, to their membership in the European Union. Here in the U.S., though, it’s a different story. With the forced conservation of the Great Depression long in our past, the majority of Americans have become so accustomed to plenty that we routinely waste energy and resources, largely unaware of the potential for savings that is easily within our reach.

Case in point: I was staying with friends in Virginia and looked into their household energy consumption. Now, I consider my friends to be hip, savvy, progressive, and current events-aware. But they were doing almost nothing to conserve electricity, despite living on a very tight budget in an all-electric household. To their credit, they had purchased a pack of compact fluorescent (CFL) twist lamps; but they were only replacing incandescent bulbs as they burned out. While I admire the conservationist attitude behind that strategy, it seems to me that the urgency of the present energy crisis outweighs the minute savings of retaining working bulbs. Besides, they had already paid for the new CFLs and were getting exactly zero benefit from their purchase!

So I took it upon myself to set my friends on the path to lighting effiency. First, I made a detailed survey of their energy consumption for household lighting. I realized that lighting is not a major player in a house that also depends on electricity for heating and cooling (they have twin heat pumps in their 4-bedroom, 3-story house). But I figured it’s best to do what you can as you strategize other potential major changes. I recorded my survey in a spreadsheet, listing all lighting sockets in the house; that way, I could do a before-and-after comparison to account for energy savings. I recorded the lamp type and Wattage used in each socket. Now I’m not saying everyone has to do it this way, but it gave me very precise data for my comparison and it helped to educate my friends and their two young children about electrical energy use.

I broke down the lighting by floor and ran a grand total for the whole house. We purchased not only many different compact fluorescent lamps to replace incandescent ones, we also replaced a few light fixtures. As is common in their area, the house was built with many candelabra-style hanging fixtures that use those small candle flame-shaped incandescent bulbs designed for mini (Edison E12) sockets. Though there are candelabra-style CFLs on the market, my friends and I agreed that the fixtures themselves were unattractive and harder to keep clean than most standard ceiling fixtures. Besides, my friends are both very tall people and low-clearance lights can be a problem! We found inexpensive dome-style, flush-mount ceiling fixtures to replace the hanging hallway units. The new ones use standard E27 lamp sockets (2 ea.) that will fit the CFL twist lamps we bought. Here’s a screenshot of part of the spreadsheet, showing before (left) and after (right) values for one floor of the house:

Lighting spreadsheet

I was even able to conserve materials in one such replacement project (a wall sconce light at the head of the basement stairs) by using a flush-mount dome fixture I picked up at the local Habitat for Humanity Thrift Store in their town. It was a like-new fixture and small enough to remain out of the way on the stairway wall. We retired the old fixtures to the same Habitat Thrift Shop (but I have to hope no one will use them!).

After all the replacement work, the grand total reduction in lighting Wattage was almost 40%. And the project was not complete when I left: we intended to install motion sensors on the outdoor floodlights (I retired one of the four fixtures that offered redundant coverage) and there was that one remaining floor lamp in the family room that wouldn’t accept the wider base of a CFL… boy, that was a thorn in my side! All in all, a worthy project: educational and energy-saving.

I did the same lighting overhaul at my sister’s house in California (65% Wattage savings) and another friend’s apartment in Massachusetts (50% savings). My experience shows that this kind of electricity savings is easily within reach of almost all households. The quality and versatility of compact fluorescent product lines continues to increase: there are now dimmable CFLs, lamps for all common sockets sizes, and lamps that come in a range of color temperatures to suit a variety of tastes.

And if you’re interested in even greater energy savings, LED lighting is also expanding in the consumer market and promises to be the light of the future. Speaking of being the light of the future—why not take a critical look at your own household lighting and start saving energy today?

~Ben