What I Learned After 1 Year in My Net Zero House
Summary
TLDRIn diesem Video teilt Matt Ferrell seine Erfahrungen mit dem Bau seines eigenen Hauses, das eine netzneutrale Energieversorgung erreichen soll. Er hat verschiedene Technologien wie Solarpanele, Hausbatterien und eine geothermische Wärmepumpe integriert. Nach einem Jahr zeigt sich er sehr zufrieden mit dem Ergebnis, obwohl es Herausforderungen gab, wie die Planung von Lüftungs- und Versorgungsleitungen ohne Keller. Er diskutiert auch die Kosten und Empfehlungen für effiziente Haushaltsgeräte und wird in einem zukünftigen Video über seine Erfahrungen mit der Energieerzeugung sprechen.
Takeaways
- 📝 Der Ersteller des Kanals wollte sein Zuhause so gestalten, dass es im Laufe eines Jahres so viel Energie erzeugt wie es verbraucht - also ein Netto-Null-Energie-Haus.
- 💵 Zu den eingesetzten Technologien und Methoden zählen Solarpanelen, Hausbatterien, eine geothermische Wärmepumpe, eine luftdichte Bauweise und vieles mehr.
- 📱 Es gab Erfolge, aber auch Herausforderungen und Rückschläge auf dem Weg zum Netto-Null-Energie-Ziel.
- 💲 Der Hausbau beinhaltete eine Fabrikgebäude von Unity Homes mit hervorragender Isolation und Luftdichtigkeit, eine geothermische HVAC-Anlage, eine Luft-Wärmepumpe-Wassererhitzer, einen Energiewiedergewinnungsventilator (ERV), hochwertige Geräte und Solaranlagen mit Hausbatterien.
- 💷 Es gab Schwierigkeiten aufgrund früher Bauentscheidungen, wie die Entscheidung gegen eine Kellergrundlage, was die Planung von Installationen erschwert hat.
- 💶 Ein kürzlich entdeckter Fehler bei der Dachabdichtung hat zu einer unzureichenden Lüftung im Dachraum geführt, was durch zusätzliche Sensoren und später durch Sanierung behoben wurde.
- 💹 Die Inbetriebnahme der Solar- und Batterieanlagen war schwierig und verzögerte sich, was die Energieerzeugung beeinflusste.
- 💰 Die Gesamtkosten für das Haus beliefen sich auf etwa 25% bis 30% mehr pro Quadratmeter im Vergleich zu einem traditionellen Einfamilienhaus.
- 💳 Trotz der Herausforderungen ist das Haus sehr zufriedenstellend und bietet ein hohes Maß an Energieeffizienz, Wärmedämmung und Ruhe.
- 💴 Die Energieverbrauchsdaten zeigen, dass das Haus effizienter ist als durchschnittliche US-Häuser, insbesondere in Bezug auf Heizung und Klimaanlage.
- 📰 Es gibt eine separate Folge zum Thema Energieerzeugung, die nähere Informationen über die Solaranlage und die Batterien geben wird.
Q & A
Was ist das Ziel von Matt Ferrell beim Bau seines neuen Hauses?
-Matt Ferrell wollte sein neues Haus so entwerfen, dass es einen netto-Null-Energie-Status erreicht, also so viel Energie erzeugt wie es im Laufe eines Jahres verbraucht.
Welche Technologien und Techniken wurden in Matts Haus integriert, um den Energieverbrauch zu reduzieren?
-Matt hat Solarmodule, Hausbatterien, eine geothermische Wärmepumpe, eine luftdichte Hauskonstruktion und vieles mehr in sein Haus integriert.
Wie lange ist es her, dass Matt in sein neues Haus gezogen ist?
-Es ist ein volles Jahr her, dass Matt in sein neues Haus gezogen ist.
Was war das größte Hindernis bei der Umsetzung des geothermischen HVAC-Systems in Matts Haus?
-Eines der größten Hindernisse war die Planung der Lüftungs- und Versorgungsleitungen im Haus ohne Keller, was die Installation und spätere Änderungen erschwert hat.
Welche Fehler wurden bei der Dachabdeckung von Matts Haus festgestellt?
-Die Dachabdecker haben nur an der Hauptwohnungszone eine Kammlüftung installiert, nicht aber über dem Wohnwagen oder dem Studio und Büro von Matt.
Wie hat Matt die Luftqualität und den CO2-Gehalt seines Hauses überwacht?
-Matt hat Temperatur-, Luftfeuchtigkeits- und Luftqualitätssensoren überall im Haus installiert und verwendet ein Dashboard in Home Assistant, um diese Daten über die Zeit zu überwachen.
Was war die Haupthürde bei der Installation von Solar- und Batteriesystemen in Matts Haus?
-Die Haupthürde war die Installation der Solaranlage, die erst im Oktober des letzten Jahres aktiviert wurde, und die Batterie, die erst im Mai dieses Jahres installiert und eingeschaltet wurde.
Wie viel Prozent des Energieverbrauchs von Matts Haus geht auf die Heizung und Kühlung?
-Im Vergleich zur durchschnittlichen US-Haushalts, der etwa 54% seines Energieverbrauchs für Heizung und Kühlung aufwendet, liegt der Anteil in Matts Haus bei nur 15,4%.
Was ist der größte Energieverbraucher in Matts Haus?
-Der größte Energieverbraucher in Matts Haus ist sein Netzwerkschrank mit 19,2%.
Welche anderen wichtigen Energieverbraucher wurden in Matts Haus identifiziert?
-Die anderen wichtigen Energieverbraucher sind das geothermische System (15,4%), das Laden seines Elektrofahrzeugs (12%), ein ganzes Haus-Dehumidifier (5,5%), der Wasserkocher (5,2%) und die Waschmaschine und Trockner (2,4%).
Was würde Matt bei der Planung seines Hauses anders machen, wenn er es heute noch einmal tun würde?
-Matt denkt darüber nach, ob es besser gewesen wäre, eine Keller zu haben, was die Planung der Lüftungs- und Versorgungsleitungen erleichtern und einfachere Änderungen im Laufe der Zeit ermöglichen würde.
Outlines
🏡 Ein Jahr im netzwerkneutralen Zuhause
Matt Ferrell teilt seine Erfahrungen im ersten Jahr in seinem neuen Zuhause, das auf eine netzwerkneutrale Energiebilanz ausgelegt ist. Er hat verschiedene Technologien wie Solarpanele, Hausbatterien, eine geothermische Wärmepumpe und airtight Hauskonstruktion integriert. Trotz Erfolgen und Lernprozessen hat es auch Herausforderungen und Rückschläge gegeben. Er diskutiert, was man beachten sollte, um sein Zuhause energieeffizienter zu gestalten, und ob all die Anstrengungen letztendlich sich lohnen.
🔍 Die Herausforderungen des Energiesparens
Matt Ferrell reflektiert über die Schwierigkeiten, die mit der Energieeffizienzverbesserung einhergehen, und wie man sie meistern kann. Er erwähnt, dass viele Probleme auf frühere Bauentscheidungen zurückzuführen sind, wie die Wahl für eine Sockelfundament-Grundlage, die die Installation von Klimaanlagen und Versorgungsleitungen erschwert. Ferner gibt er an, dass es Schwierigkeiten gab, die Lüftung des Daches richtig einzurichten, was zu Feuchtigkeitsproblemen führen kann. Außerdem beschreibt er, wie er seine HVAC-Systeme und den Energiewiederaufbereiter (ERV) konfigurieren musste, um eine gleichmäßige CO2-Verteilung im Haus zu gewährleisten.
📊 Die Energienutzung im Vergleich
Matt Ferrell präsentiert detaillierte Daten und Diagramme, die die Energienutzung seines Hauses zeigen. Er verwendet ein Span Smart-Elektrolysepanel, um die Energieverbrauchsdaten stufenweise zu verfolgen. Die Hauptenergiefresser des Hauses sind sein Netzwerkschrank, das geothermische System, das Laden seines Elektrofahrzeugs, ein ganzes Haus-Entfeuchtungsgerät, der Wasserkocher und die Waschmaschine und Trockner. Er diskutiert auch die Herausforderungen, die mit der Verwendung eines geothermischen Systems verbunden sind, und wie er seine Energienutzung im Vergleich zu durchschnittlichen US-Haushalten reduzieren konnte.
💡 Empfehlungen und persönliche Betrachtungen
Matt Ferrell gibt Empfehlungen für energieeffiziente Haustechnik und Geräte, einschließlich Luft-Wärmepumpen, ventloser Wärmepumpentrockner, Wärmepumpen-Wasserkocher und Induktionskochplatten. Er reflektiert über seine persönlichen Erfahrungen und überlegt, ob bestimmte Entscheidungen wie das Auslassen eines Kellers im Nachhinein besser hätte getroffen werden können. Er betont auch die Bedeutung des Abonnements und der Unterstützung seiner Zuschauer für die kontinuierliche Verbesserung seines Kanals.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Net zero energy
💡Solar panels
💡Home batteries
💡Geothermal heat pump
💡Air source heat pump water heater
💡Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV)
💡High efficiency appliances
💡Airtight house construction
💡Energy use and efficiency
💡HVAC
💡Induction cooktop
Highlights
Matt Ferrell's goal to achieve net zero energy status for his forever home.
Incorporation of solar panels, home batteries, geothermal heat pump, and airtight construction for energy efficiency.
A year of successes and setbacks in the pursuit of net zero energy.
Rapid fire list of energy-efficient home features including factory-built home, geothermal HVAC, and high-efficiency appliances.
Extreme satisfaction with the home despite imperfections and potential improvements.
Challenges faced due to construction decisions, such as choosing a slab-on-grade foundation.
Mistake in roof venting leading to humidity issues, and subsequent corrective measures.
Learning curve in managing HVAC and ERV for optimal CO2 levels.
The struggle to get solar and battery systems installed and operational.
House construction cost was 25% to 30% more per square foot than traditional builds.
House airtightness close to passive house standards with a blower door test result of just below 0.6 ACH/50.
House insulation levels with R-35 walls and R-60 or R-65 attic.
Geothermal HVAC system requires a 'set it and forget it' approach for efficiency.
ERV setup challenges in an airtight house and the solution of continuous HVAC fan operation.
Detailed energy use data revealing the top energy-consuming systems in the house.
Comparison of energy use with previous house and community averages showing significant savings.
Recommendations for future builds including considering a basement for easier modifications.
Recommendation of air source heat pumps, ventless heat pump dryers, and heat pump water heaters for energy efficiency.
Matt's personal recommendation of an induction cooktop for faster cooking and energy savings.
Anecdotal evidence of the house being comfortable and quiet, contributing to the net zero energy goal.
Transcripts
If you’ve been following my channel for a while, you’ll know that I built
my forever home with the goal of reaching net zero energy status. In other words,
I wanted my home designed so that I produce as much energy as I use over the course of a year.
To get there, I incorporated a bunch of gadgets and techniques into my plans, like solar panels,
home batteries, a geothermal heat pump, airtight house construction, and much more.
Well, it’s been a full year since I moved in. There've been a lot of successes as I’ve
worked toward my net zero energy goal, a lot of learning … and some hiccups and setbacks too.
It’s been a real watt-and-see kind of journey. So, if you want to make your home more
energy-efficient, what should you look out for and what strategies should you try? And then
there's the lingering question … was all of my effort really worth it in the end?
I’m Matt Ferrell … welcome to Undecided.
This video is brought to you by Incogni, but more on that later.
I won’t rehash the whole house build story. You can watch the playlist I’ll link to here and in
the description. In a nutshell, my wife and I outgrew our previous house and I suggested
that we try building a home using all the tech and techniques I’ve been talking about on the
channel for the past several years. Basically, I wanted to walk the walk and see how well a
lot of this stuff actually works for myself. Here’s a rapid fire list of what that entails …
A factory built home from Unity Homes with incredible insulation and air tightness.
A geothermal HVAC system for heating and air conditioning.
Air source heat pump water heater tied into the geothermal HVAC system.
An Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) as the “lungs” of the house.
High efficiency appliances like our washing machine,
ventless heat pump dryer, refrigerator, dishwasher, and induction cooktop.
And, of course, solar panels with home batteries for energy generation and storage.
Before I get into all the nerdy details of what’s happened, what’s worked, and what hasn’t,
the TL;DR for my home is that we’re extremely happy with this place. It’s not perfect,
and there are things I would have done differently, but this home has been
fantastic for us. This is also being broken up into two videos: this video is about energy
use and efficiency. The other will be focused on our energy generation and how that’s worked out.
What about the challenges? Well, most of the issues that have come up all tie back
to some of the construction decisions we made two,
three or even four years ago when this all started. For instance,
we wanted to save some money on different areas of the build so we could put that money into other
features we wanted more. We decided to go for a slab-on-grade foundation — basically, we built a
house with no basement. So, if we ever need to hide from zombies, we’ll have to get creative.
While there’s nothing wrong with slab-on-grade, it does complicate some things. You really have
to plan ahead for how and where you’re going to run HVAC ductwork, plumbing,
electrical, home networking, and so on. You want to limit how many
intrusion points you have through the thermal envelope of your house.
With a basement as part of your thermal envelope,
you have an easier time routing all of those things under the main floor … and adding on
to them later. We had to plan for all of that upfront, which does limit how
easily we can modify things later without puncturing that airtight thermal envelope.
One issue that I discovered more recently was a mistake or miscommunication between my general
contractor and the roofers when building my house. According to the construction documents
from Unity Homes, my roof should have had ridge vents along all the sections of the house. This
is important to ensure proper airflow within the attic spaces to prevent humidity build up. Hot,
moist air exhausts through the ridge vent at the top of the attic space, while fresh outside air
comes in through soffit vents lower down. Nobody wants black mold growing in their attic space.
Well, the roofer only put a ridge vent along the top of the main living area of the house.
They didn’t do it along the connector or above the garage and my studio & office. As soon as
I spotted the issue, I let our contractor know, and they’re in the process of making it right.
By the time you’re seeing this, the roofers are coming back and adding those vents. But,
in the meantime, I stuck some humidity and temperature sensors in the different areas
of my attic space and confirmed that there’s a distinct difference when there’s proper venting.
The main area of the home with the ridge vent has a smaller temperature and humidity gradient than
the other attic spaces, and it also runs with a lower humidity and temperature level overall.
There was also a learning curve around the best way to run my HVAC system and ERV to
get consistent CO2 levels throughout the house. Me being me … I have temperature,
humidity, and air quality sensors everywhere. I have a dashboard built out in Home Assistant,
so I can see how all of this looks over time.
It’s been super helpful. I’ll get into those results in just a minute though.
The biggest challenge, which I’ve talked about in previous videos about my solar and battery setup,
was just getting the solar and battery stuff installed. My solar didn’t get activated until
October of last year and my battery didn’t get installed and turned on until May of
this year. I’ll be getting into how the solar is working specifically in the followup video.
So, how do the results for the house look at a high level?
Before getting into those results, there’s another tool I’ve been using
that’s been getting fantastic results for me … and actually helped out a lot with
our move into this house. That’s protecting your online privacy with today’s sponsor,
Incogni. As my wife and I were getting our house constructed, setting up loans, getting insurance,
and everything else you have to do with moving, I saw a major uptick in the amount of spam
promotional emails I was getting. I’m sure you’ve experienced this kind of thing too. That happened
because companies sold my information to data brokers ... sometimes they sell your info to
some pretty shady people. Or they can fall victim to data breaches that leak your data to scammers.
Incogi can help with this. We have the right to request that data brokers delete our information,
but it takes a lot of time and effort. I signed up for Icogni, gave them the legal right to work on
my behalf, and then … just sat back and relaxed. You’ll see updates on your account for which data
brokers they’ve sent legal requests too and which ones have complied. It couldn’t be easier. Incogi
really has been helping me. If you want to take back some of the control around who has access
to your personal information, give Icogni a try. Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use
code UNDECIDED at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan. Thanks to Incogni and to all of
you for supporting the channel. So back to how the results of my house are looking at a high level.
I need to address the elephant in the room first, which is the cost of the house. I’m not going to
share the exact costs of building the house because real estate and building costs vary
state to state and town to town by so much. However, percentage-wise we paid roughly 25%
to 30% more per square foot than a traditional house built to code standard. It’s difficult
to nail that down specifically, though, because of when we built it. It just so happened to be
during the initial surge in pricing that we saw during the pandemic. Bad timing.
Setting that aside, the most important thing for any house when it comes to
maximizing your energy savings is its general efficiency. How good is the insulation and air
tightness of the home? For a building to hit the passive house standard of airtightness,
you have to achieve a pressure test of 0.6 air changes per hour or lower at 50 pascals
of pressure (referred to as ACH/50). We achieved a blower door test just below 0.6 ACH/50 during
a mid build test, and got very close to that again in the final blower door test.
Now make no mistake, this isn’t a passive house certified home — that was never my goal. But it
is much closer to that level of home than a “to code” built house. The insulation level
of our walls is R-35 along with triple glazed, tilt turn windows, which are super efficient.
And I believe the attic has an R value of around R-60 or R-65. To say this house feels consistent
temperature-wise would be an understatement. There’s no cold spots or warm spots.
It’s also very quiet in the house. While my wife was under the impression that this
house would be a tomb when it comes to noise, that’s not the case. We can
still hear the loudest trucks as they drive by on the road behind our house,
but it’s very muted. This is hands down the quietest house I’ve lived in.
My WaterFurnace geothermal HVAC system has taken a little getting used to.
I’m more accustomed to the standard forced air systems that you typically see here in the US.
Typically, you have a smart thermostat where you adjust timers, temperature,
and fan settings dependent on whether people are home or not, like dropping the heat if the house
is empty, or even dropping the temperature at night during the winter to save energy.
Well, with a geothermal system, you don’t really want — or need — to play the thermostat
game of “how low can you go?” It’s more of a “set it and forget it” situation,
like Ron Popeil’s rotisserie but with less infomercial flair.
It’s better to let the geothermal ground loop get equalized and just run.
My geothermal well is a single loop going down about 400 feet into the ground in my backyard.
Inside the house, heat is captured and cycled through the ground loop to cool things off
for summer air conditioning. In the winter, the warmth of the earth is cycled into the house for
heating. If you try raising and dropping the inside temps by time of day or by occupancy,
it’s going to take a longer time to ramp up to the desired temperature.
The system is most efficient when it’s running at temp.
That means you’ll be using more energy trying to race to a moving temperature setting versus
just leaving it set for longer stretches of time. It’s kind of counterintuitive. My wife
and I decided to take a “set it and forget it” approach for the first year in the house. We
set the desired temperature range to 72 to 75 F (22 to 23 Celsius) and just let the system take
care of itself. I did try setting the HVAC fan to specified run times to try and cut down some
energy use. However, our Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) setup complicated this.
One of the challenges with a super airtight house is how to control cycling in fresh outside air
while exhausting stale inside air out. You don’t want to lose all that energy you put
into heating and cooling your inside air as it leaves your house. The ERV does this by
exchanging that heat between the inside and outside air before it comes into the house.
Inside and outside air pass through little microchannels running alongside each other
to make this happen. The ERV has dedicated exhaust vents in certain areas of the house.
However, the ERV air pulled in from the outside doubles up on the HVAC system’s ductwork vents
to distribute it throughtout the house. An ERV having its own dedicated lines for both intake
and exhaust gives you a lot more control and is ideally what you want. The way mine is set
up definitely works, but some of the control is limited. What I found was that the ERV fan
running at its normal low levels didn’t have enough force to properly distribute
the fresh air consistently throughout the house. The CO2 levels in some areas of the
house would get a little higher than I’d like. I ended up setting the HVAC fan to continuous,
so it’s running 24/7 at a very low level as a baseline and it solved the ERV air distribution
issue. I was concerned about how much energy this would all use … so how did that end up looking?
Strap on your nerd hardhats, because I’m about to drop a lot of data and graphs on your head.
I found the energy use of my house absolutely fascinating, especially when I compared it to our
previous house and community averages. For energy tracking I have a Span smart electric panel, so
I have circuit-by-circuit energy use. Most of my appliances and systems also have their own energy
use tracking as well, like WaterFurnace’s Symphony app or my Rheem water heater’s EcoNet app, but I
really only used those to verify my Span panel’s numbers. I also have smart outlets and my Span
integrated into Home Assistant, which adds yet another way I can track and double-check my data.
The one caveat to what I’m about to share is that it isn’t a full year of data. It’s only
from October of last year because my Span panel setup had an issue for the first couple of months.
Basically, my two Span panels were incorrectly associated inside my app. The app thought each
panel's circuits were associated with the opposite panel. It wasn’t a Span problem,
but a problem when the electrician first set them up in the app. It meant the numbers were
all screwed up for about six weeks. That got corrected in October. Just
in time for Halloween, because nothing’s scarier than inaccurate energy data.
Let’s look at the data I do have between October and now,
or about 10 months’ worth. The top energy sinks of the house were:
My network closet at 19.2% The geothermal system at 15.4%
Charging my EV at 12% A whole-house dehumidifier at 5.5%
Water heater at 5.2% And the washer and dryer at 2.4%
The rest is made up of other odds and ends, but interestingly the ERV only accounts for 1.6%,
which is much lower than I expected. Considering the average US household has about 54% of their
electricity use going towards heating and air conditioning, my 15.4% seems REALLY low. But
what the heck is going on with my network closet? It's like the Bermuda Triangle of energy use!
That said, I would be lying if I said my network closet is normal. I have a server
rack with multiple Ubiquiti network switches, a Unifi network video recorder (NVR) with a bunch
of Unifi Protect security cameras around the outside of the house, and Qnap network
attached storage (NAS) for archiving all of my video footage used in my videos. Basically,
I run a business out of my home, so there’s a lot of gear in there that the average house isn’t
going to have. I did manage to cut my network closet energy use by 35% a few months ago,
and there’s a few other things I’m going to be trying to get it down even more. BUT … if I want
to compare my energy use in a way that’s more apples to apples to a typical house,
I need to remove my network closet and EV from the mix. If I do that, things change a bit.
Now my geothermal system is at 22.3% A whole house dehumidifier at 8.1%
Water heater at 7.5% The washer and dryer at 3.5%
And the ERV at 2.3%
My heating and air conditioning still comes in well under half the typical house. I don’t have
good data for my previous house as a comparison for a pretty dumb reason. I forgot to export my
Span smart panel data from the old house before I lost access to that panel. Like I said … dumb.
But I can do an apples to oranges comparison with just the amount of natural gas our old system used
for heating alone. We averaged the equivalent of about 500 KWh a month for natural gas heat.
My current geothermal average of 193 KWh a month for heating AND cooling (including the
electricity to run the HVAC fans) is still only 39% of my old house’s natural gas energy alone.
That’s the one-two punch of my geothermal system efficiency with a well insulated, air-tight
house. And for those of you wondering what “heat backup” is? I have no idea (yet), but I do know
that it’s not directly related to my geothermal system. It’s how it’s labeled in the Span app,
but I’m still trying to figure out what it actually is considering it’s 4% of my energy use.
What’s even more interesting to me is my hot water. It’s not only more efficient because it’s
a heat pump water heater, but it’s also tied into my geothermal desuperheater. It’s using the waste
heat from the HVAC system to help preheat water into a holding tank. On average we’re using about
65 KWh a month for hot water. In my old house we used natural gas, but you can convert gas therms
to KWh (1 Therm = 29.3 KWh). On average, we used the equivalent of 398.9 KWh per month. That means
we’re using only 16% of the energy we used in the old house to generate hot water. That’s just nuts.
What would I have done differently? Nothing too dramatic, but I have wondered if it would
have been better if we had opted for a basement. It would have simplified
a lot of the headaches we ran into trying to preplan all of the HVAC, electrical,
and networking runs. It would also have given us easier access to make modifications to that
stuff over time without having to worry about possibly compromising the air-tight envelope.
Another would-be bonus: extra climate-controlled storage space … but maybe it’s a good idea we
don’t have that. Keeps us from turning into contestants on “Hoarders: Net Zero Edition.”
As much as I love our geothermal system, it was pretty pricey. I have details on that in
my previous geothermal video you’ve probably seen if you’re subscribed. Speaking of subscribing,
I know from my YouTube analytics that a significant number of you that watch on
a regular basis still aren’t subscribed, or thought you were but actually aren’t (I hear
that a lot from some of you). Subscribing and hitting the notification bell not only helps
you not miss a video, but it also helps out the channel with the mighty YouTube algorithm gods.
As far as the geothermal cost, we were building our forever home and we’ll hopefully be here for
decades. Spending a little more upfront to get the long-term benefits was worth it to us,
but your mileage will vary there. Air source heat pumps are absolutely superb today … and yes,
they do work in the cold. I’d recommend going at least with a quality air source
heat pump setup because it’s just going to blow away any natural gas
or standard electrical system you can get. Granted, electricity and
natural gas prices will vary how much of a financial gain you’ll get in that equation,
but you will come out ahead over time. It’s just by how much that’s the open question there.
I’d also STRONGLY recommend a ventless heat pump dryer if you can find one that fits your
needs. They’re dramatically more efficient than a standard electric dryer. My wife and
I are using about 31 KWh on average per month running both our washing machine and heat pump
dryer. Dryers that vent outside of your home are ejecting a lot of conditioned air from inside your
home. Not only is it using more electricity than a heat pump dryer (~3000W vs. ~800W),
but it’s forcing your HVAC system to work harder to recondition your home. Yes,
a heat pump dryer may take a little more time to get the clothes dry as you like, but it’s
using a fraction of the energy and not exhausting conditioned air outside your house on top of that.
And, to continue my trend of recommending a “heat pump all the things” strategy,
I’d also highly recommend going with a heat pump water heater when it’s time to
replace your old one. You can check out my previous video on the ins and outs of them,
but in a nutshell … they work well and will save you a lot of energy and money.
Mine paired with the geothermal system is incredible. I’m really happy with the results.
Lastly, we’re also really liking our induction cooktop. I’ve talked about these in a previous
video too, but after living with one for the past year … I love it. It heats up far faster
than any other electric cooktop I’ve ever used. And much like cooking with natural gas, when you
turn it off … it’s off. It brings a pot to a boil faster than any stove I’ve ever used, so again,
I highly recommend it. Faster cooking means less time running and using electricity. It’s also a
great warning system for when my cat is walking across the counter. Her feet activate random
capacitive buttons as she walks across them. When we hear a random beeping, we know it’s her.
As for my goal of hitting net zero energy, meaning generating as much energy as I use
over the course of year, I’ll be getting into that in a separate video. I kind of need that to give
the final assessment of “was this worth it” — so be sure you're subscribed with notifications to
not miss that one — but from a more anecdotal point of view, this is the most comfortable
and quiet house I’ve ever lived in. I can say now that my house is super energy efficient,
so it’s definitely pulling its weight to help me achieve that net zero energy goal.
But what do you think? Do you have any experiences you can share using similar tech or approaches?
Jump into the comments and let me know and be sure to listen to my follow up podcast
Still TBD where we’ll keep this conversation going. Thanks as always to my patrons for
your continued support … you really help to keep this channel going. I’ll see you in the next one.
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