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Marc Rosenbaum

Martha's Vineyard

high performance building geek

Interests: You mean there's stuff besides bikes and buildings?

Recent Activity

Year to year variations are big

One thing I learned many years ago following the energy usage of buildings I designed was that as the energy needs of the building are reduced, and the fraction of those needs supplied by solar energy increases, the variation in back-up energy from year to year increases. Let's look at... Continue reading

Posted Mar 1, 2013 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Building Energy Conference Comin' Right Up!

Forget the Oscars; forget the Superbowl; the most exciting event of the year is coming up on March 5-7th, the annual Building Energy Conference, hosted by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. I can't conceive of missing it - for over 30 years NESEA has been the place where the best... Continue reading

Posted Feb 23, 2013 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Zero Net Energy Homes Online Course starts March 11th

The Fall 2012 Zero Net Energy Homes online course had 50 students and was a great learning experience! Brian Hayden of Heatspring wrote about it here. We’re doing it again starting March 11th, the link is here. It's a packed 10 weeks, and includes a bunch of Excel calculators so... Continue reading

Posted Feb 3, 2013 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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The Minisplit in Cold Weather

I tried an experiment this week during our cold snap. We've kept the door closed to the first floor ell (bedroom and bath) and let it run cold, because the Fujitsu wasn't sized to heat that space too. I opened the door early in the cold snap, and let the... Continue reading

Posted Jan 25, 2013 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Another Tight One by Habitat

Habitat for Humanity of Martha's Vineyard is really getting the superinsulated, energy efficient home down pat. Last Saturday, accompanied by job super extraordinaire Lee Taberner, I did a final blower door test on the second house they've built at the end of Bailey Park Road. The result - 203 CFM50.... Continue reading

Posted Jan 11, 2013 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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The first Zero Net Energy Homes Online graduating class!

The first Zero Net Energy Homes Online course in the NESEA Building Energy Masters Series has finished (and the next one begins March 11th!) I had a terrific experience teaching this course. We had fifty students signed up – architects, design/builders, builders, engineers, energy auditors – almost entirely professionals with... Continue reading

Posted Jan 10, 2013 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Modem and router energy usage

I am reluctant to have anything in the house that uses energy 24/7. With 8,760 hours per year, small usages add up. One such is the exhaust fan on the composting toilet - at about 20W it uses 175 kWh/year, or 4-5% of our energy usage. Another is the cable... Continue reading

Posted Jan 5, 2013 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Variations in energy use

Last year, during November and December 2011, our net energy with the grid was 98 kWh - we imported 98 kWh more than we used. This year during the same period that figure was three times higher, 299 kWh net import. Why so different? For one thing, it was cloudier.... Continue reading

Posted Jan 1, 2013 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Two years with a minisplit heat pump

With the exception of one week in February 2011 where I switched back to the oil boiler to take some data before it went away, the Fujitsu 12RLS has now been heating the house for two years. The meter reads 2,584 kWh. So, about $250/year to heat House 5, in... Continue reading

Posted Dec 26, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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MA Construction Supervisor License

Not long ago I got a bee in my bonnet about getting my Construction Supervisor's license in MA. Working as I now do for a company that is quite diverse, but is fundamentally still a design/build company, it feels right to join a number of my colleagues, mostly but not... Continue reading

Posted Dec 18, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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One of the technologies I have tried in House 5 is insulating window shades with side tracks. I got four Ecosmart cellular shades from Gordon Clements at Gordon's Window Decor. One is translucent, and the other three are blackout shades, achieving that by using aluminum foil inside the cells. Because... Continue reading

Posted Dec 18, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Greed Ate Winter

Jill and I went out to Santa Fe for a Zen Buddhist retreat called Rohatsu, which celebrates the Buddha's enlightenment and is Dec. 1-8 every year. It was quite warm this year, and I could be outdoors in a tee shirt in the afternoon sun. My teacher, Roshi Joan Halifax... Continue reading

Posted Dec 18, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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PV and Usage Update

Continue reading

Posted Nov 1, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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House 5 For Sale!

Jill and I have taken a plunge and bought a small (1100 ft2) house about a mile away in West Tisbury. I have a couple more posts tee'd up for House 5 on window insulation and on the electric mini-boiler I've installed, so stayed tuned (I've been really busy with... Continue reading

Posted Oct 19, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Getting into Hot Water, part 4

I've now had a year with the Geyser HPWH. With the exception of the puddle on the floor in July 2011, it has performed consistently. It's performance has not been thrilling, though. In the summer, it was making hot water at about 0.13 - 0.15 kWh/gallon, with incoming water in... Continue reading

Posted Sep 19, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Article in BuildingEnergy magazine

I've written an article about House 5 in the latest issue of BuildingEnergy, the magazine of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. It's got other excellent articles, too. You can find it here: House 5 article BuildingEnergy You are a NESEA member, aren't you? There's no better community to join if... Continue reading

Posted Sep 18, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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NESEA Building Energy Masters Series Zero Net Energy Homes

I'm pumped about this. It's taking a huge amount of time - I've taken this week off to get started - but I know it will make me better at communicating this information. I've set a bar that I think exceeds most similar courses - my goal is to give... Continue reading

Posted Aug 8, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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I've been AWOL for a while, sorry about that. I'm putting together my first online course, on Zero Net Energy Homes, for the NESEA Building Energy Masters Series. You can read about it here: ZNE Homes online course Meanwhile, the House 5 PV system just passed 8,000 kWh generated! And... Continue reading

Posted Aug 8, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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One full year of usage and production data

At the end of June we had one full year of operating with the PV and taking energy usage and production data. From July 1st, 2011, through June 30th, 2012 we used 3,755 kWh, which would have cost about $700. This is below the THC target and likely meets the... Continue reading

Posted Jul 4, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Self-cleaning ovens

For the first time in my sheltered life, I have a range with a self-cleaning oven. After over a year which included roasting a number of chickens (which we've been raising the past few years) we had an oven covered with enough spattered grease to cause the smoke detector to... Continue reading

Posted Jun 19, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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One Year PV Production

Phil Forest flipped our 4.76 kW Sunpower PV system on during the afternoon of June 9th, 2011. At the end of the day June 8th, 2012, the system had produced 6,694 kWh. On the following day, it made 22.5 kWh, so take half of that for a full year's worth... Continue reading

Posted Jun 15, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Two years of energy usage at Eliakim's Way

It's now two full years since the eight households moved into their new homes at Eliakim's Way that South Mountain Company designed and built. We've continued to read the sub-meters monthly and now have two full years of data. Here's the comparison between the two years, by house and by... Continue reading

Posted Jun 7, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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Measuring stuff

Eric Sandeen asked how are all these measurements taken. The embarrassing truth is, with very simple hardware, that requires manual reading. The 240 volt loads - PV inverter output, range, minisplit heat pump, electric resistance water heater - are metered via re-manufactured old-style glass front electromechanical meters that I get... Continue reading

Posted Jun 5, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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May energy data

May was a lot cloudier than April - 577.5 kWh vs. 802.5 kWh in April. We still used some heat in May, so not quite down to the summer baseload of 200-225 kWh/month. The energy used pattern (blue columns below) is much smoother than the solar electricity produced pattern, which... Continue reading

Posted Jun 3, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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One year energy usage

One year ago today NSTAR installed a commercial meter here at my request so I could track energy delivered to my house and energy exported to the grid, in addition to knowing what the overall net energy was. When the meter was installed, it read 000,000 kWh. On a meter... Continue reading

Posted May 25, 2012 at Thriving On Low Carbon

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