Comments on: Good Earth Home, Garden, and Living Show

By: Lynn

Lynn — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:35:55 +0000

Very interesting blog! Sorry I’m late on posting, I’ve been beyond busy since Randy’s been in Eugene OR for the past few weeks. He’s taking care of family issues out there – his family is in Roseburg and Sutherlin & Eugene. I read that the home show was in Eugene, so that must be near where you live. It’s a small world.

Anyway, I agree with Lee’s comment about how just replacing windows doesn’t always fix the heat and air loss problems. We replaced all our windows last year, but we have such bad heat loss through the window panes and just through the walls, that it made no difference whatsoever in our heating bills. But physically the new windows look so much better, and it’s nice to be able to open the windows. We got our windows at cost because we knew the contractor, otherwise it would have cost a bundle. And the old windows had wasps living inside them & some were just falling apart, most were unopenable due to age. We still have alot to do to get our home airtight and warm in the winter.

I am seriously considering honey bees this year. My step-father had honey bees when I was young, and it was relatively easy. Of course, I was a kid and probably didn’t pay attention very well, but I loved assisting him harvest the honey, and we always had fresh honey. I remember our little garden always did very well. I just have to talk Randy into bees, he has never been around honey bees nor has he ever thought much about them. We will have to do our homework on them.
-Lynn

By: robin

robin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:22:55 +0000

Rachael, that sounds cool. I will have to see if I can find that documentary on my Netflix account.

By: Rachael

Rachael — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:03:23 +0000

Bees are so interesting! We rented a Nova documentary about bees and I learned a lot.

By: lee

lee — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:46:12 +0000

I hope to get up a post in the next couple weeks with a more detailed breakdown of what we plan to do to the house to address heat and air loss. The result won’t be as air tight as a brand new Passivhaus, but should be pretty darn good for a remodel. The other weak point in our thermal performance is the windows. On the one hand, our old house doesn’t have that many windows, but our architecturally accurate double-hung windows are only rated for R3.2. Very good for American-made windows. Not so good for German-made ones. Triple paned casement windows available in Germany can achieve between R7 and R10. If our windows really are the weak link in the house performance, I might consider building some inside storms for the winter season.

Actually, if you’re trying to go the very thrifty route, it’s much more cost effective (based on today’s energy prices at least) to restore old wood windows and add outside storms. Most payback calculators not created by a window manufacturer show that new windows don’t really pay for themselves. A single pane wood window can achieve R1 if it is properly caulked and has updated gaskets. Adding an outside storm window brings that up to R2.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:17:46 +0000

Interesting post on all points.

I’ve not heard of Passivhaus, and Dan will be especially interested in this as heating / cooling are big on our list. I will be curious about how well your remodel works toward this goal. We’ve discovered a lot of energy leaks this winter in our old house and at the moment it seems impossible to be able to address them all. Of course finances are always a factor!

You answered my question about homebrewed sweet wines too, though I’m not surprised at the answer.