We bought this house.  Unbeknownst to us, we got much more than we bargained for, in the bad department.  It was a fixer upper, that much we knew.  In 2004, the home inspection business was not regulated in NY state.  We hired a “home inspector” on the recommendation of the real estate agent.  When he showed up, in a beat up old van, and climbed out, I though, “This is not good.”  He proceeded to talk the talk, and made an effort to crawl around in the attic, and point out a few obvious problems, which we already knew about.

So, long story short, the trouble began soon after we started renovating.  Termite damage was extensive, and the two additions to the house had to be gutted and rebuilt.  Rather than pass our problems on to someone else, we decided to press on and finish the project.  The first 4 months were spent ripping out the entire floor system, including girder and joists, replacing the rim joist, replacing all of the doors, building a new kitchen.  Needless to say, our renovation fund disappeared at an alarming rate.

I decided then, to make the structure as energy efficient as possible.  That included adding extra insulation to all the walls.  In the attic, we added 18 inches of blown cellulose, we replaced some old single pane windows in the master bedroom and added zone heating, programmable thermostats and an outdoor boiler reset.  The effect of all this was to reduce our oil use from 800 gallons per year down to around 500 gallons.

Then, I installed a small Jotul F-100 woodstove in the living room.  This is not a full time, heat your house with wood appliance, it is much too small for that.  Rather, it is a nice warm fire on a cold night, with a nice big glass viewing area that makes in almost like an open hearth.  We use about 1 cord of wood per year, our oil use is now about 400 gallons per year.

Next came the solar hot water system.  Prior to this, our hot water came from an electric water heater.  Our electric usage was about 1,000 kWh per month, or 12,000 kWh per year.  The hot water heater reduced that by a third, making it about 8,500 kWh per year.

Installing the basement drainage system, in my opinion, is what saved the house.  Prior to installing it, we had several basement floods, some quite sever (up to 18 inches of cold, cold water at one point).  The sump pumps took care of all of that, since we installed the system two years ago, we have not had one flood.  The other result, the basement remains much dryer atmospherically as well, the dehumidifier runs two months per year vs. year round.  That has shaved another 500-600 kWh from the electric bill.

Finally, we installed the photovoltaic system this year, I expect that to generate all of our electricity annually.

Our annual energy consumption has gone from 1,521,440,000 BTU to 55,600,000 BTU or a reduction of 64%.   This is realized by the reduction of electrical use from 12,000 kWh to 0 kWh and reduction of oil use from 800 gallons to 400 gallons.  I did not calculate the wood stove contribution because it varies.

Now, there is a point of decision.  We need to fix up the front of the house and replace the siding.  My plan is to add 1 inch rigid foam installation to the outside of the house when we replace the siding, finish sealing up all the air leaks and make the house much tighter than it currently is. This project has been on hold since the economy went south two years ago.  It may take place over a two year period.  We also need to finish removing the old deck from the front of the house and replace it with a front porch.  This again has been on hold.

After that, we can either sell the house and move to a larger structure, or continue along the energy improvement process.  One thing I would like to do is to install a radiant floor heating system and tie it to the solar water heater.  Because of this, I have held off fully insulating the basement.  I believe we could get more out of our energy by installing a 95% efficient condensing gas boiler, replacing the 83% efficient oil fired boiler, which is 15 years old.  It is my dream to get down to 100 gallons or less of propane per winter.

That would make this house as near to zero energy as it can get, in my opinion.  We could possibly do a geothermal heating system, but I don’t like the complexity of that technology.  I believe using the sun’s energy directly to heat is simpler, less prone to failure, and in the long run, better for the environment (think leaking refrigerant, etc).

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