urbanMSP

Thought I'd start a discussion about ways to reduce our impact on the climate. I'm assuming as a baseline that most of us try to walk/bike/transit/recycle/weatherstrip/LED/etc. where possible. What are the other things people are doing or considering? I'm looking at an individual level, things we can all control directly. If normal political processes aren't going to work, how do we collectively tackle the climate change problem?

Things we've done/started:

We get electricity from Xcel's WindSource program.

We bought an EV February of last year and it has worked really well for us.

We'll be installing solar PV in about a month and keeping WindSource for when we need to draw from the grid. We're going with Applied Energy Innovations.

Things we've thought about (mostly dreams at the moment):

We need a new garage. Find someone to design one to maximize solar PV are and install more panels. I'm assuming we'd need an architect. Anyone have experience with custom garage work?

Geothermal. Apparently things are (barely) good enough that you can attach a system to existing radiator systems, even big cast-iron ones. It won't necessarily work for the really cold days but you can supplement with a standard boiler. Anyone have experience with contractors in MN or geothermal in general?

Efficient boilers. We need to get a new one in several years. I looked at combined boiler/water heater systems a few years ago but was told they're not quite up to snuff yet. Anyone have information on options for boilers/water heaters?

Some questions I have:

Appliances. What's the future here? Yes, we can buy efficient but are there interesting systems on the horizon that go beyond?

How do people (esp. families since that's our situation) make a go of it with more bike/transit? We've frankly not been as good at this as I think we can be. I feel like we still drive too much for things like large grocery runs because it feels inconvenient to carry that stuff home, especially with a kiddo in tow. It's kind of a hassle to haul the bike & trailer out of the basement every time we want to make a run.

Are there any better options for cooling? We use window units which really don't work well for the lower floor. We have ceiling fans which also helps. We looked at installing central air (high-velocity or conventional) and it would take up our whole attic, which we were planning to finish into a master bed or studio or kids bedrooms or something. I thought maybe finishing the basement would give us a cooler living space in the summer. Mini splits might also be an option though I think they're pretty ugly.

I don't know much about SFHs or, indeed, families, but there is something related I've been thinking about a lot lately. If you, we, everyone, want to actually make a go at decarbonization, we've got to electrify absolutely everything. The power grid is the low-hanging fruit, with transportation close behind, but if we went 100% wind and solar, with fast-charging, 400-mile range cars in every garage (and clogging the freeways)... that's still not enough if basically every single building has its own natural gas furnace merrily polluting away all winter. So, with the caveat that I have no idea how they integrate into existing radiator systems, I think you should really look into seeing what you can do with a heat pump or geothermal setup, even if you still need a supplemental boiler and/or furnace for when it gets really cold. Just my 2 cents.

So, one big thing that can help with your ecological footprint is your diet. Going vegetarian is commonly cited as an option, though easier steps/changes like substituting chicken for beef also make a big difference. Raising chicken takes 1/4 the resources of raising beef. Cooking/eating more veggies (and grains and legumes) and eating less meat in general, while not abandoning meat, is good for one's health, pocketbook, and the environment.

For your question about cooling, you could get these for your house and mount them outside your windows.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11 ... lar-blinds

In addition to providing a bit more solar power, they keep your house cooler. Mounting them outside (as opposed to inside) your windows provides something like 40% more energy because a decent amount of the energy in sunlight is lost when passing through windows. And aside from directly shading the inside of your home from the sun, the waste energy discharged from the solar blinds discharging outside instead of inside your home also helps keep your air conditioning energy use down.

On appliances...

We've tried the front loading washer, when ours gave it up we went back to the top loading. We were told that front loading had a chance to develop mold around the front seal and we did.

Otherwise we've gone in on efficient appliance every chance we get and our next appliance replacement looks like it will be the refrigerator. I’m not enthusiastic about true energy efficient refrigerators. Energy star ratings around fridges seems like a game to make people who purchase monster refrigerators feel better. So I’m just resigning myself to living with an energy hog in the house. But I’m surprised there isn’t more being done around trying to recapture some of the heat thrown off by these things and use it productively in the house.

It’s my goal to try and piecemeal retrofit our home to gradually get as close to passive house as makes sense for a 1940s story and a half. When it was time to reroof, we had closed cell insulation sprayed in. When our siding and windows are next up for replacement I’ll be getting the closed cell insulation there too. At that point we’ll need to bring in mechanical air exchangers. We’ve got our electric bill down to around 250 kWh per month for a family of four.

David, any chance you're considering an ADU when rebuilding your garage? I know a few folks currently working on ADU plans including an architect who worked on the ADU code a few years ago, and am considering consulting with a GC friend of mine to help him start an ADU-building practice.

that's still not enough if basically every single building has its own natural gas furnace merrily polluting away all winter. So, with the caveat that I have no idea how they integrate into existing radiator systems, I think you should really look into seeing what you can do with a heat pump or geothermal setup, even if you still need a supplemental boiler and/or furnace for when it gets really cold. Just my 2 cents.

Yeah, that's basically exactly the train of thought that led me to look at geothermal. Replacing our entire radiator system might be cost-prohibitive (and bad for space in a smallish house) so I got really interested when people starting talking about integrating it into existing hot water systems. From my understanding, it's still a new and evolving technology but it's something people are actually doing now.

So, one big thing that can help with your ecological footprint is your diet. Going vegetarian is commonly cited as an option, though easier steps/changes like substituting chicken for beef also make a big difference. Raising chicken takes 1/4 the resources of raising beef. Cooking/eating more veggies (and grains and legumes) and eating less meat in general, while not abandoning meat, is good for one's health, pocketbook, and the environment.

That's a really, really good point. We're trying to go vegan for the health benefits but learning about the environmental benefits has been a huge motivator. We're not there yet but we have drastically reduced out meat consumption.

For your question about cooling, you could get these for your house and mount them outside your windows.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11 ... lar-blinds

Thanks for the link. I have a lot of questions about these, the first being, how much energy do they actually produce? I'll have to do some research.

It’s my goal to try and piecemeal retrofit our home to gradually get as close to passive house as makes sense for a 1940s story and a half. When it was time to reroof, we had closed cell insulation sprayed in. When our siding and windows are next up for replacement I’ll be getting the closed cell insulation there too. At that point we’ll need to bring in mechanical air exchangers. We’ve got our electric bill down to around 250 kWh per month for a family of four.

If there's one thing I hate about our house, it's the attic. Some previous owner did spray foam but did it completely wrong. It basically does nothing for insulation because it's a "hot roof" and there are air vents cut into the roof and insulation.

It's gonna be hella expensive to clean all that out and redo it properly. We'll do it when we finish the attic but it's just a damn shame.

We had a heat loss study done and our walls are pretty good. This was confirmed when we re-did the siding. You could see where holes had been cut and patched to spray insulation. It's cellulose but our CEE advisor said it was not worth it to add foam -- it wouldn't do much given the cost.

Of course the windows and doors were leaky. We weatherstripped, added door sweeps, etc. But I just could not give up the historic look of rope and pulley. I feel guilty about it but I just couldn't fill those cavities and alter than jambs. We're making up for it in other ways. If I ever give up this window fetish, we can always go back and retrofit later.

David, any chance you're considering an ADU when rebuilding your garage? I know a few folks currently working on ADU plans including an architect who worked on the ADU code a few years ago, and am considering consulting with a GC friend of mine to help him start an ADU-building practice.

I am *definitely* interested in doing an ADU. Current prices have really soured me on the idea. A quarter million dollars for a basic ADU is outrageous. I know that you're looking into that and trying to improve it. I hope you do!

Now that I think of it, it would be useful to know what we can do during the solar trenching process to make things a bit easier if we do an ADU and need to connect utilities later. Maybe nothing and the timeline may not allow for a lot of adjustment to the current plan. Any guidance here would be helpful.

Another thing we're planning to do is add living space in the basement and attic, including possible expansion of the attic by adding a larger dormer, which would also increase the area available for solar. That way the house will be more ready for when the city returns to allowing more than family members to live in a dwelling. It's ironic, because I looked back at the census and there were people renting rooms in the house during the Depression. In fact there are elements extant in the basement (sink, shower, remnants of walls, etc.) that probably date from that period.

David we should talk about your roof. I have an idea for you, that I did on my house. Build your roof UP! Full venting, full thermal bridging. Keep the spray foam you have, but do more on the outside. R-46 on my 1926 house, baby!

This was posted in another thread:

http://www.startribune.com/with-more-el ... 433519453/

This caught my eye:

"Since most charging happens at home, utility companies like Xcel Energy are offering special plans to make it more cost effective. The company will install a second electric meter for car charging, for example, and bill at a discounted rate for using it overnight — when wholesale electricity prices are cheaper. Another option is to pay peak and off-peak rates for the whole home’s energy usage."

I was under the impression that off-peak metering isn't available in Minneapolis. When I looked a couple years ago on Xcel's website, there was information about it for the suburbs but not the city. Has that changed? Obviously, we'd look into this if it were available.

David we should talk about your roof. I have an idea for you, that I did on my house. Build your roof UP! Full venting, full thermal bridging. Keep the spray foam you have, but do more on the outside. R-46 on my 1926 house, baby!

Ooh, I am definitely interested in learning more! Cool, this thread has already borne fruit!

I feel like we still drive too much for things like large grocery runs because it feels inconvenient to carry that stuff home, especially with a kiddo in tow.

I don't know how net green it is, but if you build a bigger garage and can keep your cargo-carrying capacity ready to go, it's easier to do more grocery and other shopping by bike. That said, I don't take Tiny Baby with me to get any quantity of stuff because her car seat takes up pretty much all of the cargo box, but she will graduate to a kid seat soon which will free up a lot of space.

This was posted in another thread:

http://www.startribune.com/with-more-el ... 433519453/

This caught my eye:

"Since most charging happens at home, utility companies like Xcel Energy are offering special plans to make it more cost effective. The company will install a second electric meter for car charging, for example, and bill at a discounted rate for using it overnight — when wholesale electricity prices are cheaper. Another option is to pay peak and off-peak rates for the whole home’s energy usage."

I was under the impression that off-peak metering isn't available in Minneapolis. When I looked a couple years ago on Xcel's website, there was information about it for the suburbs but not the city. Has that changed? Obviously, we'd look into this if it were available.

I think it was just being trialed in a limited area before, but as I understand it, Time-of-Use metering is now available for all Xcel customers. Looks like the whole-house option has a higher daytime surcharge and deeper nighttime discount than the EV only separate meter, and might be a better bet if your solar production covers most or all of your daytime needs. I'm no rate-plan expert, though.

Am I correct in saying time-of-use metering for residential was not statutorily allowed until recently (2014? IIRC). That would explain the recent trial, which likely helped Xcel figure out a good rate structure. Of course, as solar becomes more widespread, daytime charging may be incentivized as well, allowing your car to act as renewable grid storage while connected and to have enough charge when you get home to help feed the grid with clean energy for the evening peak (then recharge again overnight).

EDIT: yeah 2014 seems right https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/?id ... &year=2014

After seeing the federal credits for solar will begin scaling back, and hearing Xcel could advocate reducing their price paid to new rooftop solar installs ... (and with my good fortune at my neighbor’s bad fortune of their garage burning down and taking out their backyard trees)...

I’m having solar installed on my garage roof in early spring next year. Plus, our energy use has been reduced so much that our panels will produce 105% of our needs.

That’s awesome man! Thanks for doing that

The Star Tribune posted a story on how individuals are making to live greener.

http://www.startribune.com/some-minneso ... 498797431/

Solar panels and solar gardens, taking transit or working from home, electrifying as much as they can, reducing meat consumption, getting rid of gas mowers...

Only slightly surprised downsizing from monster homes or living in dense neighborhoods where a lot of needs can be walked to wasn’t on the list.