Upgraded water heating insulation

I used some left-over sissilation (aluminium foil) to double wrap the water cylinder in two layers of blanket/foil combo. That should give about as much insulation as is practical.

Heat pump installed

Just installed the answer to our heating needs. It's a cheap Chinese no-name unit I baught via TradeMe. I installed it myself and had an air-conditioning contractor "commission" it. That meant they evacuated the tube finished off the tubing connections. So it should work as well as it it able to.

It should mean lower power usage - see my daily power usage data for the results.

Peak electricity usage today

[This is a retro-posting from 19 May 2007.]

Today was the most power hungry day we've ever had. Following the new theory of heating the spaces not the occupants - we had all three electric heaters on full blast to keep us warm.

The data was: outside temp 7.6 degrees C, inside temp 21.4 degrees C, 68.6 electricity units used costing $10.49. Ouch!

Home energy efficiency audit

We had Barry from Negawatt Resources Ltd come in and do a home energy audit for us.

• Ceiling insulation is more effective if it is layed over the rafters, not between them. The rafter act as a bit of a thermal conductor.
• it's healthier for the home and it's occupants if you heat the spaces people live in rather than try to heat the people directly (by huddling infront of a heater). Ideally leave most of the interior doors open and heat all the main rooms.
  
• We should get rid of the 3 bar electric heater we were using in the lounge and buy oil filled electrix heaters with thermostats. And don't buy the small ones.
• Better to install a clothes dryer than dry cloths on a rack inside. Better still - dry clothes outside.
  

Temperature monitoring

Baught a $35 indoor/outdoor temp plus relative humidity gauge from Dick Smith today. I'll add that data to my daily power usage spreadsheet.

Underfloor insulation

Finished putting polystyrene blocks and sissilation (aluminium foil) under the floor.

It was not a fun job - but at least it's done now.

Curtains up

Got all the curtains up today.

They are double layer thermal drapes.

Ceiling insulation

Installed R3.6 Batts in the ceiling today.

Floods

About half of our suburb (Moera) was under water today due to a "100 year" flood of the Waiwhetu Stream. As it turns out - not our half.

One of the houses we put an offer on two months ago - before we got this place - was flooded.

Insulated water heater

I wrapped the electric water cylinder with a couble of old blankets. Not very hi-tech but it should help (and the blanlets were surplus).

Compact Florescent Lights

The day we moved in to the new house we brought with us a bunch of CFL lamps so we could swap out all the old incandescent lamps.