GeekPi

Awe-yeah! Expect regular updates from geekpi.com – now that I’ve fixed the wordpress backend on the site, and things are now running much more smoothly. Postings can happen again. Huzzah!

So, it’s an all-new year, and all-new energy products on the market. Over the past year, a number of life changes has happened for me: I got an additional title at work (Energy Efficiency Expert), and have been working hard at honing my energy skills and helping out commercial clients at lowering their bills. I’ve taken the family’s vacation home in Central Washington State to net-zero. And I’ve cut my home’s energy use to the max.

Next steps? Finishing taking my 1970′s era home to net-zero. Getting my LEED-AP certification. Becoming a SCUBA rescue diver, divemaster & instructor. Buying a sailboat. And traveling the world, extolling the virtues of energy efficiency and renewables. Actual bill paying work here and there. Oh, and of course posting a bunch more first-hand accounts of gadgets, know-how, and the latest on energy goodness.

Share on Facebook

The Nissan LEAF rollout is now coming along, in plan with their December rollout of their electric cars. As part of their timeline, they’re trying to get charging stations out before the car launched. Just this week, Nissan sent an ‘approved’ electrical contractor to size up the garage for the installation of their 220V home charger. Since the Federal government is trying to support a reduction in our Nation’s dependence on oil, they’re attempting to subsidize much of the cost for initial buyers (aka, guinea pigs) of these charge points. I can say I’m not pleased with the reality of the situation.

[Read more →]

Share on Facebook

After a long wait, it finally came – the reservation form to order a Nissan Leaf . . . and now it’s time for another long wait! The Nissan LEAF is now firming up their reservations for the 100-mile range Electric Car and we here at GeekPi have signed up to (hopefully) be one of the first owners.

As part of the rollout LEAF, several thousand charging stations are being put up around the greater Seattle area, which by chance, happens to be where GeekPi is. Lucky that.

[Read more →]

Share on Facebook

Some big things are afoot this month in the GeekPi household and I’m happy to say energy use is way, way down. All thanks to:

• Insulation
• Air Sealing
• ERV
• Heat-pump tune up (proper amount of refrigerant)

All of these improvements combined are really starting to add up and the difference in the electric bill and household comfort is noticeable.

[Read more →]

Share on Facebook

Seattle, we have a problem. As I’ve mentioned before, my house is part of a Northwest ductless heat pump study on the operation of the bodaciously efficient MiniSplit heatpump’s across Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. As part of this study, funded by a utility consortium, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, environmental consulting firm Ecotope has been monitoring every detail of the energy use of my home.

[Read more →]

Share on Facebook

Back in late May 2009 I gave my ‘official’ call to action against my steadily increasing energy utility bills by a minimum of 50%. I used to dread getting my monthly electricity bill, but now I look forward to it. I got my utility bill latest in my inbox yesterday . . .

[Read more →]

Share on Facebook

The Cold Hard Truth

Very chilly winter nights are now grasping the Seattle area, with the low temperatures now dipping into the single digits. Some months ago, I pledged to keep my maximum, monthly energy bill to below $100 but seeing as November was at $98.28, and the temperatures have plummeted since then, I highly doubt December is going to stay below my goal.

So far I’ve seen a 30% drop in my energy consumption over last year, which is noteworthy, but the cold weather heat loss throughout my house has been running the heat pump to its limits. I knew this when I put it in, as I sized the unit (the smallest LG makes) for a home that was well insulated. I’m waiting until after the New Year to put up any form of insulation in my crawlspace, and had to resort to firing up a key baseboard heaters to keep the house comfortable. This, combined with the heat pump de-thawing cycling has raised my daily energy consumption to as high as 60 kWh.

The Trouble Areas

To get an idea of where I need to focus on beefing up insulation around the house, I employed my work’s Fluke Ti25 IR imager. The results were very educational. After doing blower door tests this summer, I know the house is sufficiently airtight, but I wasn’t quite sure where it is the leakiest in terms of thermal loss. This is what I discovered and what I need to work on improving. [Read more →]

Share on Facebook

There’s been a lot on my plate as of late, but I thought you may enjoy this initial rendering of my next solar project/expansion of the office’s 10kw PV array.

An integrated green screen & 2.8kw PV awning system that’ll shade the building’s south face during the hot summer sun. Even more interesting is that we’ll be using Silicon Energy’s Washington State panel, and an Outback inverter – making us one of the first setups eligible for the WA state $0.54 kWh production credit. Also, a kind of fun idea, we’re looking into using hops as the ‘green’ part of the green screen. That way we can benefit from the sun’s energy on the face of the wall, helping to heat the building during the winter. During the summer, the growing vine will shade the building (when the exterior South face typically exceeds 180 degrees). I’m curious if we’d have enough hops to offer a limited, solar micro-brew. [Read more →]

Share on Facebook

Back in May, I declared an end to oppressive electric bills, never wanting to see another > $100 bill. Since then a lot has happened, and a lot more is about to be done to help reach the goal.

To give an idea of what I’m up against, I have a fairly typical 1970′s wood framed home. It’s a smaller 960 sq/ft and has only water and electric utilities. No natural gas  or sewer is available. Other than the occasional use of our wood burning fireplace, the main heat is provided by grossly inefficient baseboard electric. Even though the house has newer, double paned windows, it typically feels drafty and cold in the winter. That is likely attributed to the insulation, or lack thereof. The attic area has 6-9 inches of loose fiberglass, the walls have R-11 and the unconditioned, vented crawlspace has nothing. A lot of my heat is lost through the floor. [Read more →]

Share on Facebook

Being that I work in the Seattle/Redmond area, I have a number of friends who either work close to, or within Microsoft. Over the past few days, I’ve heard some interesting details on the clandestine ‘Pink’ phone – including from people who work within the mobile division. I’ll be interesting to see which one of these are solid, but all my sources quite well versed in the project. [Read more →]

Share on Facebook