Insulation

A part of our house project is insulation.  Payback for Insulation is 3-5 years.  New house standards for insulation are attic:  R49-R60, Cavity Walls: R13 to R21

Holes in exterior wall ready for cellulose

Insulation at edge of attic

There are two factors in insulation, sealing any cracks to eliminate convection loss of heat thru air flow, and   the R factor, which slows the conduction loss from a warmer area to a colder area.  The fiberglass insulation, unless well sealed, will allow migration of air thru the spaces in the fiberglass.  The compact cellulose will tend to seal itself and eliminate the migration of air.
As part of our ongoing renovations, we have an energy company, Energy Savers of Syracuse, adding insulation to our house.

Attic Stairs ready for blowing in Cellulose Insulation

Two of my walls had been previously insulated with 4" fiberglass batts.  The new kitchen has fiberglass batts installed in the exterior walls.  The remaining walls are being filled with blown in cellulose insulation.The attic had previously had 5"  of fiberglass installed in the joist space under the attic floor.  The new project has approx. 10" of cellulose under the eaves behind an existing kneewall that was extended the remaining width of the house. Between the cellulose and roof is a baffle to allow air flow from the eave vents up to the ridge vent.  The main floor has an additional 1" of P2000 insulation that is a boardtype insulation.  According to their literature, one inch P2000 thermal performance meets or exceeds the performance of R-19, 5 1/2" fiberglas.   The joints are sealed with tape, all penetrations are foamed in place.  This will allow us storage space in the attic.  The space under the stairs, and the inside wall of the stair are filled with cellulose.  The attic side of the door has 1" styrofoam, and a draft stop.

P2000 Insulation Board being installed, all penetrations are foamed

The R value of the attic floor has been doubled, and it has been sealed against air flow.  In addition, all walls of the house have either fiberglass insulation or blown in cellulose insulation.

Wind Energy at the Mall

PowAIR Vertical Air Wind Turbine (VAWT)

I saw a feature on tv channel 9 news about the windmills at the Carousel Mall.  

For Newscast Click Here   

The windmills are approximately 8 ft. X 8 ft, and are mounted 10 to 15 feet above the roof.  These units made by PowAIR Sail of Syracuse.  All components are manufactured locally, within 20 miles of Syracuse.  The vertical axis windmill will turn in a wind as little as 3 miles per hour.  Because the main shaft is vertical, the windmill is not affected by the wind direction  The design goal is to furnish 10 KW of electricity per unit.

The company is also installing a windmill on top of college campus buildings at nearby SUNY ESF and at SUNY Oswego.

My wife and I drove by the Mall to see the windmills, there are currently 3 on top of the building.  The windmills are not noticeable unless you are looking for them.

Carousel Mall VAWT

Design Information

The geothermal heat pump works with both the air conditioning and the heating of the house.

The savings for the air conditioning is fairly straight forward.  The window air conditioner is already a heat pump, it takes the warm air of the house, runs it over the evaporator, which absorbs heat to a gas being circulated, and then returns the cooler air to the room.  The other portion of the air conditioning cycle, the condenser, is outside the house, exposed to ambient air temperature.  The air compressor in the unit compressed the warm refrigerant into a hot liquid.  The liquid is then run thru a radiator that transfers heat to the surrounding outside air.  At the time of air conditioning, the outside air can be 70 to 100 degree F.  As the surrounding air gets warmer, the efficiency of the condenser is reduced.
For the geothermal heat pump, instead of outside air, we are using a fluid circulated thru 55 deg. F ground. At the cooler condenser side temperature, the efficiency of the refrigeration cycle is increased, resulting in less electricity being used to run the refrigeration cycle.  The efficiency is measured by the Energy Efficiency Ratio, or EER.  It is the BTUH Output/Watts of Electricity Input. A typical window air conditioner has an EER of 8.  Our geothermal system is rated at 17.

On the heating side, the heat pump has a COP or Coefficient of Performance.  For my house this is 4.4.  This means that for every 1 unit of electricity, 4.4 units of heat are produced.  For electric resistance heat, such as electric baseboard, the COP is 1.  The COP efficiency is related to the source of heat.  For an air to air heat pump this temperature could vary from 50 degrees down to zero deg. F and below in Syracuse.  The COP is reduced as the temperature for transfer of heat is reduced.  Once again, the ground is at a constant temperature of 55 degrees for the transfer of heat to the building from the geothermal system.

In addition I am getting the optional domestic hot water preheater.  It will preheat the water to 100 deg. when the heat pump is in either in cooling or heating mode.

What are the savings?  According to the Water Saver literature, there could be up to a 70% energy savings.  I have also heard a figure of 50% energy savings.  How that will affect the utility bills, I will have to find out over the next couple of years.

Electric

What about the electric service?  Is my service big enough?

The answer for me was that I needed to get an electrician and National Grid to upgrade the line to my house from 100 amp service to 200 amp service.  The existing meter was reused, so that the electric metering was not interrupted.  The overhead lines to my house were replaced by the utility at no cost.  And a new 200 amp panel replaced my 100 amp panel.  A sub panel was added for the heatpump, it requires two 50 amp breakers in the main panel.

I had Carl Patzer at Patzer Electric do this work for $1500.  He handled the coordination with National Grid Electric and the electrical inspector.
A grounding rod was added to the upgrade of the service, per current code.
The electric shutdown was about 4 hours.  We had to postpone our 8 am shutdown at the last minute due to rain.
Fortunately, National Grid was able to schedule us for the next day.  The electrical inspector stopped by almost immediately after National Grid and Carl had tied in the new service.

Work at our house

Work at our house link

We had a tv camera at our house filming work in progress as part of an article on lead paint removal.  The contractors are working in our kitchen, the final shot is of the front of our house.  Click on the link to see the video.

Part of the challenge of the geothermal system was to coordinate with the kitchen renovation going on at the same time.  The Kitchen was "gutted" for the renovation.  This exposed plumbing and wiring to the 2nd floor bathroom above, which were added to the kitchen upgrade, along with the dining room ceiling.

Another challenge was that we are changing from hydronic radiators to a force air system.

I will deal with both of these renovations in a future post.

Domestic Hot Water

Part of the geothermal project is replacement of the natural draft gas fired 40 gallon water heater.  This eliminated a flue out of the basement chimney.  The replacement will be a 40 gallon heater with a heat exchanger from the geothermal loop, and a Rinnai tankless gas fired water heater for supplemental heat.  The gas boiler and storage water heater have been removed from the basement.  We get our hot water from the tankless water heater.  I had some discussion with the contractor about using a 95% tankless water heater, but their concern was that it was a maintenance item.  I also verified that with another plumber I knew.  And we went with the Rinnai, made in Japan.  It is listed as 83% efficient.  However, the unit has air from the outside, and turns off when not in use.  The water outlet temperature is set at 120 deg. F.  It has worked well, with a constant supply temperature when showering or bathing.  The heater is listed as Energy Star Qualified, it is the R75LSi model.  Connections are a 3/4" gas line and 3/4" hot and cold water lines.

Regrading

Our front lawn has been regraded. Piping was extended from the two geothermal wells into the house, coming into the basement about 4 feet below ground.

Our Geothermal Heat System

Though not strictly plumbing, I am having a geothermal heat system installed at our house in New York State. We have two wells drilled in the front yard, each 300 feet deep. The top 48 feet had to have casing, the rest of the well is thru bedrock, 250+ feet. It did rain during the process, but we also hit water at a couple of different times.

Top of Drill in Vertical Position

Bottom Of Drill with Mudguard

Well piping to be inserted into drilled well and grouted

35 ton drilling unit setting up

First well installed with tubing brought up above grade.  Tubing and casing will be cut down to 4 feet below grade










 After the second well was drilled.  Mud is from the 300 foot wells, and water is from water encountered below ground while drilling