Submitted by Lara (not verified) on 8 January, 2008 - 15:24.
We're getting a house renovation done, so most of our New Years' Resolutions are wrapped up in that. We're going out of our way to outfit the new addition with state-of-the-art green appliances and lighting (at least as far as our budget will allow). For our recessed lights, we're getting an LED light called the LR6. We saw it in the store and were impressed with the light quality. It only gives off the lighting equivalent of a 75W bulb and costs $100 per bulb, but it uses far less energy than CFLs, contains no mercury, will last until our 3-year-old is in college, and is fully dimmable.
We just replaced our furnace with the Carrier Infinity 96. This has a rating of 96.6% AFUE, and boy, is it quiet and effective. All these years we thought our house was drafty, but as it turns out, we just had a crappy furnace that was too small for the house. Finally, the thermostat reflects the actual temperature in the house!
We're going to be replacing our air conditioner with something that has a SEER rating of 18; I don't know which one yet, but our contractor has some great HVAC guys who can help us.
We will also be installing a thermal solar hot water heating system. We're going to wait a few years on the solar PV panels, until hopefully the price on those comes down.
We're looking into recycled rubber matting (the same as you see in many gyms) for the storage room where the hot water tank will go.
I'm also going to be planting some native and fruit-bearing vines along the southeast corner of our house. That area gets super-hot in the summer, and some leafy vines might help cool the house down.
We're getting a house
We're getting a house renovation done, so most of our New Years' Resolutions are wrapped up in that. We're going out of our way to outfit the new addition with state-of-the-art green appliances and lighting (at least as far as our budget will allow). For our recessed lights, we're getting an LED light called the LR6. We saw it in the store and were impressed with the light quality. It only gives off the lighting equivalent of a 75W bulb and costs $100 per bulb, but it uses far less energy than CFLs, contains no mercury, will last until our 3-year-old is in college, and is fully dimmable.
We just replaced our furnace with the Carrier Infinity 96. This has a rating of 96.6% AFUE, and boy, is it quiet and effective. All these years we thought our house was drafty, but as it turns out, we just had a crappy furnace that was too small for the house. Finally, the thermostat reflects the actual temperature in the house!
We're going to be replacing our air conditioner with something that has a SEER rating of 18; I don't know which one yet, but our contractor has some great HVAC guys who can help us.
We will also be installing a thermal solar hot water heating system. We're going to wait a few years on the solar PV panels, until hopefully the price on those comes down.
We're looking into recycled rubber matting (the same as you see in many gyms) for the storage room where the hot water tank will go.
I'm also going to be planting some native and fruit-bearing vines along the southeast corner of our house. That area gets super-hot in the summer, and some leafy vines might help cool the house down.