Date and Time: July 19, 2011 at 6:00pm
Presenter: Dan Dean
Greenland Energy Dynamics
Dan’s presentation centered on residential energy efficiency.
Possibilities for energy reduction in a home include:
- Insulation (wall and roof)
- higher efficiency (duct work insulation and HVAC system)
- windows
- home audit
- lighting
- plumbing
- paint your roof white
- building envelope
- solar thermal
- PV
- Geothermal
- Wind
To plan for a ‘Net Zero Energy’ home you need to consider:
- The orientation of the house
- The thermal envelope
- An integrative design approach
- The home’s load schedule
- Greatest energy use in a home:
- Air conditioning is biggest load for a home in DFW
- electric clothes dryer is also large load
- use a high efficiency or gas dryer
- water heater (as much as $800 per year in energy costs)
- refrigerator (less energy use now due to energy saver models)
Dan presented a strong case for the efficiency of a geothermal system for HVAC. This type of system can save up to 90% of the A/C load on a home. The system has an SEER rating as high as 37. Standard units have SEER’s of 13. The cost of installing a geothermal system is between $7,000 and $11,000 per cooling ton (700 to 1100 square feet per cooling ton). Conventional units cost between $2,000 and $3,500 per cooling ton. The federal government tax credit for this system is 30% of installed cost.
A 5 ton geothermal system would cost around $40,000. With a tax credit of $12,000 the net cost would be $28,000. System savings really depends on your current energy utilization. Dan went on to say that in a well insulated 2400 square foot home the energy costs could be as low as $600 per year with such a system. The system costs are ½ as much as solar electric.
Following is a link to Greenland Energy Dynamics:
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