An Improved System for Even Faster Hot Water
I missed an opportunity. You may recall the retrofit I did in 2022 to get faster hot water at three of my fixtures. It made a huge improvement, but it could have been even better. But before I go there,…
water heating
10 Ways Your House Is Haunted
Imagine the house of your dreams. It's beautiful and laid out efficiently. You're always comfortable. It promotes health and happiness. The operating costs are low. You don't have to spend much to maintain it. You don't get a lot of…
The Plug-in Heat Pump Water Heater Is Here!
The 120-volt plug-in heat pump water heater is here! The effort to bring these things to market began in 2018, and now they're available to buy. This technology has some significant advantages over the standard 240-volt heat pump water heater. …
Preparing an Old Home for Electrification, Part 2
The electrification movement is accelerating, so let's go back to this topic again and look at how to electrify an older house. In part 1 of this series, I listed some important questions to ask. Today, I'll cover some steps…
A Year of Home Electricity Monitoring Data
A little over a year ago, I wrote about the Emporia Vue home electricity monitoring system I installed at my house. I've posted data on LinkedIn and in some other articles since then. Now, though, I've got a whole year's…
Can a Water Heater Last More Than 15 Years?
We've been trained to believe something that's just not true. Go out and ask a hundred people how long a water heater can last, and the majority probably will say it's in the range of 10 to 15 years. Where…
Can a Heat Pump Water Heater Replace an Air Conditioner?
The most common type of heat pump water heater takes heat from the air and puts it into water. Of course, that's what all heat pumps do, right? Take heat from one place and put it in another. By removing…
Faster Hot Water Can Change Your Life
We've normalized the abnormal in our homes in so many ways that most people have no idea what kind of performance they should expect. If you've never lived in a house with a good building enclosure and HVAC systems, for…
How I Got Faster Hot Water
In my last post, I told you about the plumbing work I did to begin the retrofit of my hot water distribution system. I'm bypassing the original too-long, too-big copper pipes with shorter, smaller runs of PEX tubing. My goal…
Introduction to Whole-House Electricity Monitoring
Last year I bought the Emporia Vue whole-house electricity monitoring system.* This past weekend, I finally installed it. The photo below shows my electrical panel with the monitor installed. Yes, it looks like a mess at the moment. The panel…