It has been a very long time since I updated Local Fruit! - so long that I don’t even
know if the links are still connected.
But here we go with a quick update that should have occurred several
years ago.
The very green house in old Folsom was completed in October
2012, and when we moved in we started tracking utilities. Before construction began, we projected that
the intense insulation and solar system would reduce our energy usage by
30%. We would have been happy with an
actual savings of 25%. However, the
actual hard dollar savings between our prior home and the new home-both homes
of comparable size-was well beyond our goals.
The actual savings in dollars was 67% for electricity and 71% for
natural gas. The savings in kWh and
Therms was equally impressive. The
outstanding energy reduction results are a compelling case for the use of
advanced framing techniques and superior insulation methods in
construction.
The down side of building such a solid and well insulated
home is that when it warms up in the winter, the upstairs zone is overly warm. I find it occasionally too warm to
sleep at night. In the winter I like to
sleep under the weight of a comforter, which means I get too warm at
night. When it is coldest in the winter
and the furnace heats the downstairs zone to 68-70 degrees, the upstairs will
warm up to 72-74 and stay there! So
last winter when we had a good freeze, lows in the 20’s for a week, my bedroom
window was open 4-5 inches all night, every night. During a normal winter the house is very comfortable, but a during a really cold spell it is actually too warm. Such a warm little house! When I am a little
old lady who is cold all the time, maybe I will finally close that window…
We planted what little area we could plant. The historic
district lot is small at only 50’ wide which allows for a small and easily
manageable patio and garden. Located by
a river and greenbelt, the views are borrowed from nature as are the wildlife.
The landscape area outside the fence is deer territory; they regularly trim the
bushes and have twice eaten the grapefruit tree down to stubs.
Back to Local Fruit!
This blog started as a way to share the
experience of building an energy efficient home in a cool historic neighborhood
in a fun California town. Stay with me
as I expand the Local Fruit!'s footprints to add vineyard tales in northern California,
especially El Dorado and Amador counties.
The Local Fruit! adventure will
continue in 2015!
