- #1
Hepth
Gold Member
- 464
- 40
Making your home more "green"?
So we're closing on a house in about a week though we don't plan on moving in until the beginning of January. It was built in 1986 so it's not that old. The windows are fine (Except one in the garage), and we have to put more insulation in the attic.
2 -Story Cape Cod (3 bed 2 bath, 1500sqft) located in Michigan (so it gets cold and snowy in the winter, and hot in the summer (high 90's, possibly over 100).
As we're buying all new appliances, etc. I was wondering it there are any things I can do to make the home more "Green" while its basically gutted.
One big thing is some sites recommend a tankless water heater. As it happens, the water heater tank needs to be replaced, but I'm worried that an in-line or whatever it is called wouldn't be able to put out as hot of water as a tank would. I don't need water to be blazing hot, but nor do I want to be forced to take luke-warm showers. Does anyone have any experience with tankless hot water heaters?
I plan on getting a VERY good home thermostat. Or possibly building one myself. I figure it can't be that difficult, and I could probably save money as the better ones are $300+ while an arduino set is much cheaper and I've actually programmed thermo-controls both in Assem. and LabVIEW before.
I plan on replacing MOST bulbs with CFL (though there are rooms where I like incandescent as having anything with a dimmer switch and CFL creates a horrible buzzing sound below 100% current)
I've oft wondered about modifications such as adding light switches to control the actual outlets used in the house. There's no reason that when I'm at work the cable-box/TV/microwave/etc. need to be plugged into an actual current source and pull ANYTHING. Especially for things with DC converters, sometimes i forget to unplug this reading lamp i have and it has a transformer that just burns even when its off. I'm surprised most new houses don't do this.
Obviously solar power is an option, but more expensive than what I'm willing to do right away.
I'm going to put a bit of research into the Refrigerator to find an efficient one I like.
Are there pros/cons to gas ranges vs electric vs inductive stoves etc?
We also have a gas fireplace, though I wonder if it'd be better to make it into a natural one. Wood is readily available in Michigan and cheap.
While I know that most of these things I could just look up online, I feel PF is a great place to gather some unique and unconventional ideas, even if they're do-it-yourself. We do not lack in skill for pretty much anything. My girlfriend has a MS in Electrical Engineering, I was a EE as well though now I am a theoretical physicist. We can both program in MANY languages. So nothing is "too difficult" merely "too expensive" :)
Thanks!
So we're closing on a house in about a week though we don't plan on moving in until the beginning of January. It was built in 1986 so it's not that old. The windows are fine (Except one in the garage), and we have to put more insulation in the attic.
2 -Story Cape Cod (3 bed 2 bath, 1500sqft) located in Michigan (so it gets cold and snowy in the winter, and hot in the summer (high 90's, possibly over 100).
As we're buying all new appliances, etc. I was wondering it there are any things I can do to make the home more "Green" while its basically gutted.
One big thing is some sites recommend a tankless water heater. As it happens, the water heater tank needs to be replaced, but I'm worried that an in-line or whatever it is called wouldn't be able to put out as hot of water as a tank would. I don't need water to be blazing hot, but nor do I want to be forced to take luke-warm showers. Does anyone have any experience with tankless hot water heaters?
I plan on getting a VERY good home thermostat. Or possibly building one myself. I figure it can't be that difficult, and I could probably save money as the better ones are $300+ while an arduino set is much cheaper and I've actually programmed thermo-controls both in Assem. and LabVIEW before.
I plan on replacing MOST bulbs with CFL (though there are rooms where I like incandescent as having anything with a dimmer switch and CFL creates a horrible buzzing sound below 100% current)
I've oft wondered about modifications such as adding light switches to control the actual outlets used in the house. There's no reason that when I'm at work the cable-box/TV/microwave/etc. need to be plugged into an actual current source and pull ANYTHING. Especially for things with DC converters, sometimes i forget to unplug this reading lamp i have and it has a transformer that just burns even when its off. I'm surprised most new houses don't do this.
Obviously solar power is an option, but more expensive than what I'm willing to do right away.
I'm going to put a bit of research into the Refrigerator to find an efficient one I like.
Are there pros/cons to gas ranges vs electric vs inductive stoves etc?
We also have a gas fireplace, though I wonder if it'd be better to make it into a natural one. Wood is readily available in Michigan and cheap.
While I know that most of these things I could just look up online, I feel PF is a great place to gather some unique and unconventional ideas, even if they're do-it-yourself. We do not lack in skill for pretty much anything. My girlfriend has a MS in Electrical Engineering, I was a EE as well though now I am a theoretical physicist. We can both program in MANY languages. So nothing is "too difficult" merely "too expensive" :)
Thanks!