I’m sure you’ve already heard about LED lights, but I’m in awe how often I still see incandescent and halogen bulbs around. There are a few common reasons people give such as color, dimming, and cost – but I think they’re outdated concerns with the latest LED bulbs.
People understandably like the warm glow of incandescent bulbs, however LEDs have come a long way. The Wirecutter says the Cree bulbs “look as good as incandescents” and dim all the way to zero without humming.
I also hear people say they only use their bulbs a few hours in the evening, but when I made a calculator I was surprised to find an LED bulb will often pay for itself in the first year with just an hour of use a day. Not to forget changing out the lights in a living room alone can save hundreds of pounds of CO2 annually.
Check out the calculator below, its preloaded with some average defaults but you can also tweak the numbers to your needs.
EVs have earned a reputation for being impractical and expensive. However battery prices have fallen to roughly 1/10 of an decade ago, meaning EVs are starting to look like a really good deal.
Take for example the EV version of the VW Golf – the eGolf. The eGolf SE trim costs $22995 after federal rebate, while the gas powered Golf SE costs $24145!
Now say you drive 15000 miles a year in the NW. The electricity for the eGolf will cost about $375, the gas for a Golf around $1363 assuming gas stays at $3/gallon. Not only will you save about $1000 on fuel, but no oil changes, brake service, etc.
Admittedly the eGolf is a lower range EV, about 120 miles. So it’s definitely fine for day to day use, but not the Golf you want for a road trip. But before you dismiss it, keep in mind if you have a two car household you probably don’t need both cars to be road trip ready.
On the extra cost side you’ll also need a charger – if this is a second car for commuting you might get by with a normal 120v outlet but you may need to spend another ~$400 plus install for a 240v charger.
Besides cost why should you care about an electric vehicle? According to the Union of Concerned Scientists an EV driven in the US averages the same cradle to grave emissions as a gasoline car getting 80mpg (96 for my friends in the NW). Given that no conventional or hybrid car on the market gets that kind of MPG, its a pretty impressive improvement which will continue to get better as more utilities switch to renewable power.
Even if you’re not compelled by the eGolf, here’s what’s cool – a bit less than a decade ago the battery pack alone for the eGolf would have cost more than the whole car. Given current trends in a matter of years EVs with much larger batteries will be the same purchase price as a gas powered car while still maintaining their low operating cost.
Besides price I actually really enjoyed my eGolf test drive – its agile, well balanced, and punchy off the line. Plus it looks like a normal Golf, which pretty appealing for those who don’t want to drive around in something that looks like an alien bug.
Bottom line – if you have a place to charge, an EV is starting to be a practical reality for more new car buyers and will keep getting more practical every year.
There’s few things more American than keeping an old fridge in the garage stocked with beer. But have you considered how much beer money that fridge wastes?
Take for example a 1990 side-by-side fridge. Running that for a year costs over 500 cans of Kirkland Signature Light Beer. Even a year 2000 top freezer refrigerator costs 260 cans of Kirkland Signature Light Beer.
There’s a few simple answers – consider doing without or getting a new fridge. For example at Best Buy a 115 can beer fridge is $199 and costs just 73 cans of Kirkland Signature Light Beer to run. A larger 10 cubic foot fridge freezer costs just $299 and costs just 75 cans of beer. In 1-2 years replacing an old beer fridge can pay for itself, leaving you plenty more beer money.
Learn more about your current beer fridge’s operational cost (in dollars) at EnergyStar.
Home heating turns out to be a huge impact environmentally, heating a 2000sq foot home in the Seattle area can commonly range from $500-1700/year and 7000-17000lbs of CO2 annually. Needless to say modest improvements in efficiency can have major impacts.
While there’s huge, expensive projects you can undertake to cut these factors, there’s two simple things we did which cut our impact roughly by a quarter.
Below is a picture of our “new” (1980s) home gas use (we’re the blue line). In October things started to cool off here and you’ll notice we were running at the same gas use of an “efficient” neighbor, but since then we did just the two improvements below and now use 26% less natural gas than an “efficient” neighbor.
Home heating turns out to be an incredibly complex and regional issue – how much heating is needed, the practicality of heat pumps, and grid energy emissions vary significantly in the US. Not to forget your home variables – what services are available, ducting, current system efficiency, etc. Given that keep in mind there’s no one answer that works everywhere.
While home heating a complex and fairly mundane topic it deserves a lot of attention – some back of the napkin math suggests home heating and cooling in America is responsible for at least half a trillion pounds of CO2 annually.
We’re going to look at the three main categories of heating systems – electric resistive heaters, heat pumps, and gas furnaces.
Anyone who’s talked to me knows I’m nuts about solar power. Its cost effective, environmentally friendly, and kinda fun with the app monitoring.
Having said that now isn’t the best time to go solar. The current Washington State solar incentives have run dry – but they may soon return given Inslee’s new “green deal.”
On the flip side its also worth note 2019 is the last year for the federal 30% tax credit – 2020 drops to 26%, 22% in 2021, then after that it disappears for residential installs. Given that solar gets cheaper every year waiting a year or two might not hurt – but missing out on any rebate could cost you more.
So keep an eye out for the follow up post, the next great window for solar deals should be coming soon!
I wrote once before about hybrid water heaters but figured a follow up was in order given we installed one in our new (to us) home.
We removed an 80 gallon electric tank which was oversized for our needs and was making for big energy bills – the energyguide label estimated 4773 kWh annually, or nearly $500 a year to run. To put this amount of power into context, that same amount of power would run a compact EV for nearly 20,000 miles. Pretty crazy how much energy it takes to make hot water.
We ended up getting the Rheem hybrid hot water tank which is Energyguide estimated to use 1341 kwh annually – or about $135/year.
The hybrid water heater does this with a heat pump – it moves ambient energy (heat) into the water. The system is called a hybrid because it can still use traditional heating elements to fulfill high water demand.
But they can be even cheaper…
Energyguide ratings are based on hybrid mode. But if you can run the system in heat pump only mode you can push the power use even lower – so far we’re averaging about half the estimated power use in heat pump only mode. In case you wonder how I’d know that – the tanks have an app which reports usage. Yes, that means hot water for about $84/year on grid energy. But it’s even less for us (about $30/year) since we have solar power!
Now I’ll admit there are a few catches. The unit must either be placed in an unheated space like a garage or vent to such a space. That space must be at least 37 degrees (warmer is better) and be at least 300 SQ feet. You also need a drain or pump for the condensate.
Probably the biggest challenge is the plumbing – most tanks connect water on top but hybrids do the side because the heat pump is on top. That definitely increases the effort of install as well as requiring a bit more space.
The cost, rebates, and benefits
You’ll find 50 gallon hybrids at the big box stores for about $1300 retail, $1000 on sale. I hit up a plumbing supply for mine and got a couple hundred off retail. Be sure to check with your utility for rebates – PSE paid me a $500 rebate.
While you can easily pick up an electric tank heater for $400, at about $380/year to run a new 50 gallon conventional electric tank its easy to see that over the life of the tank you’ll save thousands in operating costs, easily justifying the up front cost of the hybrid tank.
Electric Tank
Hybrid Tank
Purchase Cost
$400
$1000-1300
Rebate (PSE)
$0
-$500
Federal Tax Credit
-$300
10 Year Energy Cost
$3800
$840-1340
10 Year Estimated TCO
$4200
$1040-1840
10 Year Estimated CO2 (PSE power)
38000lbs
8400-13400lbs
Should I Switch from Gas to Hybrid Hot Water?
This is a tough one. Gas tanks are fairly cost effective to buy and operate. Switching to a hybrid means new electrical wiring which depending on your home can be quite expensive.
From an environmental standpoint a Rheem 50 gallon gas tank will emit about 3150lbs CO2 annually (269 therms times 11.7lbs CO2/therm). A hybrid heater using PSE power should run between 850-1340lbs annually – a decent savings of CO2. On the flip side in the Midwest where coal power is heavily used you’ll have small CO2 savings doing hybrid vs gas.
Really the big win is using solar power with the hybrid tank in which case you’re basically at zero emissions. But short of that, the benefit and value will vary by situation.
Bottom Line
Hybrid hot water heaters are the real deal as far as lowering hot water cost and environmental impact when replacing a conventional electric hot water tank. For those with natural gas tanks unless you’re planning on going solar, its a tougher sell but worth considering.
Basically these are battery packs like used in EVs but for your home power. They can be used with or without solar, but the rebates only apply when used with solar.
Will Home Battery storage save me money?
It depends on your utility! For example if your utility charges time-of-use rates you can use the battery to run your house during high rate hours then charge the battery off-peak hours. Also if your utility doesn’t offer solar net metering it allows you to take full advantage of the solar power you generate.
But at least for major Western Washington utility users (PSE, Seattle City Light, and Tacoma Power) these aren’t a concern.
After many months of shopping and waiting for an install, we’re now installed! We ended up picking A&R Solar to do our system and we wanted to share why, what it costs, and the benefits.
Front half of our 11.68kw solar array (same array mirrored on back of the home)
