I suppose I wouldn’t be so shocked if we had the heat turned to 80 degrees and had all the windows open. But with the thermostat normally set for 65 (okay, every once in a while we splurge and turn it up to 67) during the day and 60 at night, I was still shocked. Granted, this year was colder in our neck of the woods than last year by 10 degrees, but holy cow. I can’t even imagine what the bill would have been if we had the heat pump running upstairs (we have a dual-zone system, with gas heat downstairs and a heat pump in the attic): we keep the upstairs rooms warm with radiant heater panels and leave that energy hog off the entire winter. Otherwise we’d have to declare bankruptcy!

So, past the sticker shock, what’s one to do? We’ve done most of the basic stuff, like replacing our lights with compact fluorescent bulbs and programmable thermostats, and so on. But in the short term, there are a few other things that should help:

• I’m going to finish covering the garage with radiant barrier material, which reflects heat inward during the winter and outward during the summer. I’m also going to look into putting radiant barrier material in the attic, too; if I could, I’d put it all around the house, and it drives me nuts that this isn’t a standard/code practice (for some great info on radiant barriers, check out Horizon Energy Systems).
• I need to find something to block the cold air coming in from the bloody fireplace in the living room (ironic, isn’t it?), and do the same for the outlets.
• I think I’m going to make radiant barrier panels to put up in our existing traditional skylights, which are a major source of heat loss in the winter and gain in the summer. We have two in the living room and one in the master bathroom. If I had things to do over, I would’ve skipped those and gotten tubular skylights instead.
• I’m going to look into installing a timer on the hot water heater. We really only need hot water in the early morning when my wife and I take a shower, then again in the evening when the boys take a shower and we run the dishwasher. The rest of the day it’s keeping that water hot for nothing (and I already have it wrapped in a radiant barrier cover). I’m also going to get a quote this spring on a solar hot water system.
• Windows. Our windows suck, but replacing them isn’t an option: it’s just too expensive. They don’t leak, but the effect of convection results in a flow of cold air in the winter and more heat gain in the summer (although the winter’s the worst). I haven’t come to grips with this one yet, but at least the windows upstairs that we don’t normally look out of need something, even if some sort of semi-transparent insulation like bubble-wrap!

For us, I think those are the biggest problems. We’ve got fairly new appliances (particularly the refrigerator, which is brand new), so they’re reasonably energy efficient. But this sort of thing is one more reason why I’d really love to build an earthship – just think of all the other things we could do with all the money we’re spending on utilities!! Yikes!

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