The most recent case that I’ve heard of really struck a chord with me because it happened right here in Oregon, my home state. I like to think of Oregon as being an environmentally conscious state that would embrace the idea of collecting and using rainwater to water plants but it seems that I may be wrong.

An Eagle point man by the name of Harrington was recently convicted of illegally harvesting rainwater and is expected to spend 30 days in jail plus three years probation! It seems that Harrington has been fighting with the state over his right to collect rainwater for quite some time now. This turmoil has finally come to a head and he was charged and convicted on nine misdemeanor counts of collecting rainwater that fell from the sky and landed on his property. Apparently he collected and then stored this rainwater in three reservoirs that the county has ruled to be illegal.

In 2008, Mark Miller Toyota, a car dealership in Utah made news when they were informed that their efforts to collect rainwater for use in washing cars was illegal. Since Utah is the second driest state in the nation, Mr. Miller decided to be proactive and he started collecting rainwater on the roof of his car dealership. The water was then stored in a large underground cistern to later be used in a super efficient car washing system.

Here’s a video that talks about this issue in the state of Utah:

What Makes Rainwater Collection Illegal Anyway?

Well, it seems that the issue is really one of “water rights”. People have been feuding over who has the right to use water for hundreds of years. The issue seems to be that if you are collecting water that falls in the form of rain, that water doesn’t make it into the local groundwater or rivers and streams. Since you are holding the water in a rain barrel or cistern, officials consider this to be a form of “diverting” water much the same as if you were to dam up a creek and divert the water to fill up your own private fishing pond that you dug on your property.

Let me give you an example of how this whole issue of water rights works. Let’s imagine that you are a farmer and you own 1000 acres. Since you need water to be a farmer, you likely own certain rights to use water from wells, canals, or reservoirs as part of your farming operation. Whenever it rains, mother nature takes its course and the rainwater makes its way into the groundwater, canals, and reservoirs. Since you own the right to use a portion of that water for the purpose of irrigating your crops, “technically” anyone who does something to prevent the water that you have the rights to from making its way to you is considered diverting water.

As mentioned in the video above, there are big fish and there are little fish in this game. It makes sense that diverting a large amount of water into a man made reservoir is likely going to attract attention from officials. That being said, I have a hard time believing that someone with a 50 gallon rain barrel attached to their rain gutters is going to be hauled in for questioning from the water Nazi’s.

How Can You Find Out The Laws In Your Area?

Western states such as Utah, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington have laws on the books that regulate a person’s legal right to collect and use rainwater. So, before you head on down to your local hardware store and start building your own rainwater harvesting system, you’d be smart to contact your local city or county offices to find out if doing so is going to make you an outlaw.

You may find that a permit is needed or you may find that there are restrictions on how much water you are allowed to collect. Either way, it’s better to be safe than sorry. After all, I’m sure that last thing you need is to be arrested for illegally collecting rainwater.

It might seem too good to be true but many utility companies offer rebate programs for home owners who have extra insulation installed in their home. Jeff’s parents get their electricity through Rocky Mountain Power and their natural gas through Questar and both of these utilities currently offer rebate incentives to their customers.

How The Free Insulation Program Works

Here’s how they explained how they were able to have more insulation blown into their attic for free. A licensed contractor contacted them and explained that they could add more insulation to their attic at no cost to them whatsoever. All they had to do was submit the bill to their utility company and when they received their rebate check, they just signed the check over to the contractor.

I did a little investigation into this so called “free insulation program” just to make sure that my in-laws weren’t being taken advantage of and it all seems to check out. During my investigation, I discovered that both Questar and Rocky Mountain Power do have incentive programs for adding insulation to existing homes.

It seems that Questar will pay $.20 per square foot for customers who install additional attic insulation ^[1]. Rocky Mountain Power will pay $.30 per square foot under the “Electrically Heated Homes Incentive” program and $.08 per square foot under the “Electrically Cooled Homes Incentive” program ^[2].

Did Adding Extra Insulation Actually Lower Their Utility Bill?

According to Jeff’s mother, her natural gas bill for the month of January was $161.98. This was before they had the extra attic insulation blown in. After they had extra attic insulation installed, their gas bill for February was only $137.48. That’s a savings of $24.58 in the very first month!

During the summer months, they use central air conditioning so their electricity bill goes up. We’ll have to wait and see but I’m predicting that they’ll also see a cost savings on their power bill this coming summer because of their newly super insulated attic.

In case you’re wondering if this was a fluke, as it turns out, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law also had extra insulation blown into their attic under the same program and according to Jeff’s mother, they saw about a $30 reduction on their first months natural gas bill.

Check With Your Utility Companies To See If They Have Free Incentive Programs Like This

Since I hadn’t ever heard of a program like this, I got online and checked with Pacific Power to see if we would qualify for any of these programs and I was very pleased to learn that we do.

It seems that there is a program called the “Energy Trust Of Oregon” that offers incentives for everything from adding insulation to installing alternative energy systems. Here’s a list of some of the insulation incentives that we currently qualify for:

• Attic: $0.25 per sq ft
• Floor: $0.30 per sq ft
• Rim joist: $0.30 per sq ft
• Wall: $0.30 per sq ft
• Knee wall: $0.30 per sq ft
• Duct insulation: 50% cost, up to a total of $100
• Boiler pipe insulation: $0.50 per linear ft

Who Is Eligible For These Free Energy Conservation Rebate Programs?

For us, the only requirements are that we are a customer of Pacific Power and that we heat our home with electricity or natural gas. There don’t appear to be any income limitations so you don’t have to fall into a low income category to qualify.

I can tell you that we’ll certainly be contacting some contractors to find out if any in our area offer similar programs to the program that my in-laws were able to take advantage of.

If you’re interested in saving energy, money, and making your home more energy efficient, I suggest that you check out the website for your utility company to see what programs you might be able to take advantage of.

If you would like to learn more ways to save money on your energy bill, take a minute and read this article: Ways To Save Money On Electricity.

Today I’d like to take a minute and offer my insight into this matter in hopes that it might be of use to some of the readers of BooneyLiving.com.

I’ll explain what it means to me and how my family interpreted living this lifestyle for over eight years.

First Off, What Is “The Grid”?

Whenever you hear the phrase “the grid” it’s usually in reference to “the power grid”. Technically speaking, living off the grid means that you live in a home that doesn’t get any of its electricity supplied by the local power company. That being said, many people have different viewpoints on exactly what it means to live off grid.

Let’s take a look at the most literal interpretation of what this term might mean. Some people believe that if you are truly living green, you are living in an environment with no electricity, no telephone service, and none of the other conveniences that many of us have come to rely upon so much. These are the types of people who believe that the only true way to live off grid would be to get back to basics and live such as people did over 100 years ago.

One particular culture of people that comes to mind that would fit into this category would be the Amish. Granted, they are not choosing to live the lifestyle that they live to satisfy some personal desire to be as environmentally friendly as possible. They live the way that they live to stay within their religious beliefs.

While there are certainly those individuals to embrace a lifestyle that is absent of any forms of technology, most people who live off the grid simply choose to live in a way in which the electricity that they use is generated via some means of an alternative energy source.

I would be willing to wager that the majority of “off gridders” have and enjoy using modern conveniences such as telephones, computers, the Internet, television sets, satellite TVs, and more. The main difference is that instead of paying their local power company to supply electricity that may be generated by burning fossil fuels, they most likely have a large array of solar panels on their roofs or perhaps a few wind turbines in their yards that deliver the electricity they need to supply their homes with.

Some People Have Hybrid Systems

Now that you have a basic understanding of what I believe it means to live this type of lifestyle, there are plenty of people out there who live what some might consider to be a hybrid lifestyle. In many cases, it’s not practical or even possible for people to generate all of the electricity that their home needs themselves. In situations like these, they are often connected to the power grid but they still utilize solar panels and other forms of alternative energy to provide electricity for their home.

The amount of electricity that these types of systems generate varies from home to home. In some cases, the electric grid is simply there to provide a little bit of electricity as a backup source to their alternative energy application. In other cases, the alternative energy producing devices merely provide a little bit of electricity and the bulk of the homes power needs are provided by the traditional power grid.

As I have previously explained in an article entitled, You Don’t Have To Give Up Your Computer To Live Off The Grid, there’s no reason that you have to give up modern conveniences if you want to live in a home that is free from electricity produced by fossil fuels.

Some people who choose to live off the grid do in fact make the personal decision to give up many of the conveniences that are made possible by electronic devices but most of us simply try to generate the electricity that we need in a greener way than burning fossil fuels.

Please Share Your Thoughts With Us!

Now that you know what my interpretation of this type of lifestyle is, I’m really curious to hear what your thoughts on the matter are. Please feel free to take a minute and leave me a comment in the box at the bottom of this page and share your viewpoints with the readers of BooneyLiving.com.

Today I’ll be writing about a really cute little project that I found on Pinterest not long ago. It’s an oil lamp that is made out of nothing more than an orange peel and a bit of olive oil. As most of you know, I’m really interested in anything that has to do with emergency preparedness or survival so this little project is right up my alley.

How To Make An Orange Peel Oil Lamp

All we had to do to make one of these little lamps was cut an orange in half. Then we carefully removed the edible portion of the fruit being especially cautious to avoid pulling the pith out.

The pith is the center portion of the orange and this is going to be your wick which is why it’s important not to pull it out when you’re removing fruit. Next, we used a butane lighter to slightly char the pith. Then we poured about a half a cap (note that this is CAP not CUP) full of olive oil into the bottom of the orange and we lit the wick.

Okay, I have to admit that the only oranges we had here at the house were “baby mandarins” which made doing this project a bit tricky for us. It took a few tries before we were able to get the little wick to stay lit but once it caught a flame, it burned for about an hour before my husband decided to get clever and carve the other half of the orange into the worlds smallest jack-o’-lantern. When he attempted to put the top on the little lamp, he tipped it over and smothered the wick in oil. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get my cute little orange peel lantern lit again after my husband messed it up.

What I Love About This Project

The thing that I absolutely love about this project is the fact that I was able to take something that has absolutely no value or common uses and in just a couple of minutes, transform it into a useful item that can be used to provide light during an emergency. Granted, the teeny tiny baby mandarin orange that I used for this project didn’t put off much light but it did serve as proof of concept.

Now I can’t wait to buy some bigger oranges and even a grapefruit to try my luck with! Doing this project has me wondering what other household items could be made into emergency lamps. The wheels are definitely turning so when I come up with another fun idea, I’ll be sure and let you all know about it here on BooneyLiving.com.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this fun little project! Before you head off, you might enjoy reading my article called Make a Homemade Solar Powered Water Heater. Check it out and let me know what you think about it!

So far we’ve made 12 changes to our home and our habits to reduce the amount of electricity that we use each day. This project has been really eye opening to us to say the least.

When we first started this challenge, we did like most people and started focusing our efforts on the little things that we could do to conserve electricity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to take a lot of people who are willing to make these types of little changes to result in a massive global reduction in energy usage but what we’ve learned so far is that if you really want to drastically reduce your power bill, attack the biggest offender first.

We knew all along that it was our electric furnace that used the bulk of our electricity during the winter but we started this project by focusing our efforts on little things that reduce energy consumption on a small scale.

I’ve included a chart below that shows how many kilowatts we’ve been using each day over the last 32 days. Before we started this challenge, we were averaging around 110 kilowatts of electricity used per day. Granted, we did start in the dead of winter but this is probably when most people’s power bills are the highest anyway.

You can see from the chart above that making the changes that we made early on did reduce our daily power usage. As a matter of fact, our power bill for the month of January was nearly $415. After we made the changes, our bill for February was nearly $100 less! That’s a pretty dramatic result by any standards!

After we had made all of the little changes that we could think to make, we were still burdened by that old forced air electric furnace. That is until a couple of weeks ago when we decided to bite the bullet and we installed a wood stove which effectively retired the old energy glutton.

After installing the wood stove, our average daily power usage has only been around 30 kilowatts! The first day that we started tracking, we used 103 kilowatts. Now we’re only using 30 a day! That’s roughly a 70% reduction which will mean that instead of paying over $400 each month for electricity, we’ll be spending around $100. That means that at least for the peak heating months, we’ve reduced our power bill by $300!

The Moral Of This Story

If you’re trying to reduce your electricity bill, you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck by fixing the biggest problems first. Then, you can reduce your electricity consumption even more by doing the other types of things that we’ve already done. Feel free to read about those things by clicking right here.

You can read about how much electricity the house was using before we started making the improvements here if you would like to.

We’ve already seen an impressive decrease in the amount of electricity our house is consuming on a daily basis because of the changes we’ve made and so far, we’re quite pleased with the progress we’re making.

That being said, we’ve come to the realization that if you want to make the biggest impact towards reducing your energy bill, you need to focus your efforts on attacking the appliances that use the most electricity.

For us, the main offender was our old electric furnace. When the furnace is running, the meter starts spinning so fast that it’s almost hard to believe. Considering that we were spending the bulk of our energy dollars to heat our house, we recently decided to take the plunge and make a major change.

Weighing Our Options

We considered our options and ultimately ended up deciding to purchase and install a super clean burning wood stove. We shopped around and settled on an Englander NC-30 stove that was advertised as the wood stove that is “…the cleanest burning large firebox on the market”. According to it’s specs, it only emits 1.63 grams per hour. ¹

While researching clean burning wood stoves, we learned that in order for a wood stove to be EPA certified, it must meet EPA Phase II particulate emissions standards. The current standards state that for non-catalytic wood stoves and pellet stoves, the emissions must be less than 7.5 grams per hour. For catalytic wood stoves, the emissions must be less than 4.1 grams per hour. ²

One of the things that sold us on this particular wood burning stove was the fact that the reported emissions were much lower than the EPA standards. Another major bonus was the price. We only had to pay $1298 for the stove itself which we were very pleased with – especially considering that many of the more expensive stoves that we looked at didn’t have this good of an emission rating.

Why We Decided To Go With A Wood Stove

We thought long and hard about what path we wanted to take when it came to heating our home. We considered a standard heat pump, a geothermal heat pump, a solar heater, a pellet stove, and of course a wood burning heater.

We still plan to build and install a solar heater but as we all know, that won’t work all the time because the sun doesn’t shine on cloudy days and it doesn’t shine at all during the night.

We ended up choosing the wood stove because it doesn’t use any electricity at all, we live far enough out into the country that we don’t have to worry about red, yellow, or green burn days, and we live in an area where we have an abundance of free firewood. For us, collecting firewood also feels right because for the most part we’re burning trees that were either killed by beetles or blown over in wind storms. We won’t be cutting live trees for the sake of collecting firewood.

What We Learned During This Process

To save money, my husband did all of the work that went into installing our new renewable heat source. Here are the steps that we had to go through to get it installed properly.

1. We shopped around to find a really clean burning unit.
2. We researched the installation process.
3. We obtained a building permit from the county. This cost is about $88.
4. We purchased the wood stove and supplies needed to install it. The total cost for the stove plus the supplies ended up being in the neighborhood of around $1,800.
5. We built a tile fire-proof hearth pad for the wood stove to sit on.
6. Our home had a chimney in it already so all Jeff had to do was inspect it to make sure that it was installed to the manufacturer’s installation requirements and give it a good cleaning.
7. We placed the stove in the desired location on the hearth pad.
8. We bolted the stove to the pad.
9. We ran a ground wire to the stove.
10. We installed a fresh air intake system so that the stove will burn outside air during combustion instead of the inside air that we breath.
11. We had the building inspector come out and sign off on our work. There was no additional cost for the inspection as it was included in the price that we had to pay for the building permit.
12. We installed a carbon monoxide detector. We already had a smoke detector in every room so we didn’t need to buy any more of those.
13. We burned several small “break in” fires to cure the stove.

Some Photo’s Taken While Installing Our New Englander Wood Stove

Here's a photo of Jeff finishing up the grout on our new tile hearth pad.

This photo shows the stove when we are putting it into it's final location on the hearth pad.

Here's a picture of a nice fire burning in our new Englander wood stove.

The Biggest Thing We Learned During The Installation Process

When we built our first fire, the paint that the stove had been painted with put off a foul smelling smoke. At first we were both quite panic stricken and thought that we had done something wrong while installing it.

As it turns out, all new wood burning stoves need some time for the paint to cure properly. They call this the “break in period”. From what we’ve been able to determine, the best way to cure the paint on a new wood stove seems to be to make several small fires before making a big hot fire. The instructions that came with our stove said that during the first fire, it’s normal for the solvents that are in the paint to smoke off while the stove is curing. It said not to burn a long hot fire but that’s about all it said.

An Internet search suggested that we light a small fire and let it go out and then wait until the stove cooled completely. The advice was to do this process three times to create the right conditions for the paint to cure properly.

Today is Friday, March 16th, and we’ve just completed the second “break in” fire. In a few days, I’ll update this post to show exactly how much installing our new wood stove reduced our daily electricity usage.

3-22-2012 Update: The results are in and they are quite impressive. Click here to see them: How We Reduced Our Power Bill By $300 Each Month!

If you would like to learn more about what we are trying to do here at BooneyLiving.com, I suggest that you take a minute and read about Our BooneyLiving Energy Conservation Challenge.

That being said, there are some things to keep in mind about keeping your wood stove environmentally friendly as possible. Today, I’ll share some tips with you about how you can make sure that your stove is functioning as efficiently as it can.

The main thing to keep in mind when you are burning wood as a source of heat, your stove is releasing smoke into the atmosphere. If you’ve ever seen a chimney that was billowing heavy black smoke, you’ve seen an example of what you’re trying to avoid. On the other side of the coin, the smoke from a wood stove that is functioning efficiently will often be quite difficult to see.

Start By Burning The Right Fuel

You might be scratching your head right now and wondering what I could possibly be talking about. If it’s a wood stove, you just burn wood in it, right? Well, thats kind of true but there’s more to it than that.

The first thing you need to know about choosing wood for your wood stove is to only select dry seasoned wood. Seasoned wood is generally described as wood that has been drying for at least a year. Specifically, wood that has been cut, split, and stored in a dry and well ventilated location for at least a year.

If you’ve ever heard the term “green wood”, this is referring to wood that is freshly cut and hasn’t had a chance for the moisture in the wood to evaporate. Green wood is difficult, if not impossible, to burn in a wood stove. Not only is it difficult to burn, if you are actually able to get it to burn, it will burn at a lower temperature which means heavy deposits of creosote will build up in your stove’s chimney.

Creosote is extremely flammable and one of the leading causes of chimney fires! Not only is creosote dangerous for your chimney, if the wood you are burning in your stove is producing a lot of creosote, you can be certain that it’s releasing a high level of pollution into the atmosphere.

As you know, there are many different species of wood available to burn. Not every species of wood produces ideal firewood. Typically, the best option is to stick to burning dry, seasoned hardwood like juniper, oak, or madrone. In our area, the hardwood of choice is juniper and it’s actually our favorite type of wood to burn. We really appreciate the fact that it burns hot, long, and clean.

Other Things To Keep In Mind About Burning Wood

In order for your fancy EPA certified wood stove to burn in the most efficient way possible, it’s really important that you maintain the proper temperatures in the firebox. I’m not suggesting that you over fire your wood stove as this is very dangerous. I’m suggesting that you burn wood and adjust the air flow to your stove’s firebox to achieve the optimal burning conditions.

Some people try to make their wood last longer by closing off the air flow so that they don’t have to feed the fire as much. While it’s true that doing this may make the wood burn slower, it will also result in lower combustion temperatures, soot covered glass, higher emissions, and more creosote accumulating in your chimney.

With our Englander wood stove, we know that it’s burning properly if the glass stays clear and the firebox isn’t full of dark smoke. If either of these conditions are present, we know that it’s time to open the air control and let more air into the firebox which will usually bring the temperatures up enough to burn the soot off of the glass and remove the smoke from the firebox.

There’s no reason that you have to feel guilty about heating your home with wood. It’s possible to burn wood in an efficient wood stove without compromising your desire to live a green lifestyle.

If you would like to read why we chose to heat our home with wood, feel free to take a minute and read my article called, Our New Efficient Wood Stove Has Finally Freed Us From The Clutches Of Our Old Electric Furnace!

Then I began to wonder how much space these diapers must be taking up in our landfills so I started to do some digging (no pun intended). What I found was that there is quite a bit of conjecture when it comes to this subject. Depending on which website I was looking at, I found claims that these diapers decompose in as little as 75 years to as long as 700 years.

Personally, I think the real answer is that it probably takes several hundred years for them to break down and here’s why. As I discussed in my article on composting toilets, for composting to take place, there generally needs to be the right mixture of heat, moisture, and oxygen. In a landfill, there are tons upon tons of garbage packed tightly together which wouldn’t tend to produce the ideal conditions of a plastic diaper to decompose.

Let’s Look At Some Interesting Statistics

According to one source, a single child will go through around 5,000 diapers in their lifetime. Around 2% of the trash in landfills in the United States is made up of disposable diapers. Each year, around 82,000 tons of plastic is used during the manufacturing of disposable plastic diapers.^[1]

I have to admit that I’ve never really looked at diapers in this way but now that I have, it’s got me wondering a few things. One of the things I’m wondering is whether it’s better for the environment for people to use the new so called “biodegradable diapers” or go old school and start using reusable diapers that are made from cloth.

I remember the day when washing out dirty cloth diapers was one of my daily chores and to tell you the truth, I wasn’t that crazy about doing it. When disposable diapers came around, my workload as a mother went way down which, at the time, I saw as a very good thing.

What’s The Verdict On The Cloth Diapers vs. Disposable Debate?

When I take into consideration just how long disposable diapers that are made from plastic take to decompose, cloth baby diapers seem to win hands down. Sure, there’s more work involved in using them but if only one child will go through 5,000 diapers during their young years it seems to me that making the switch to cloth would be very good for the environment.

I just read on www.marchofdimes.com that there are an estimated four million babies born each year just in the United States alone.^[2]  If we break out our trusty calculators, we can figure that each year, the birth of those babies means that an extra 20,000,000,000 (that’s 20 billion!) diapers will eventually end up in our landfills. Keep in mind that we’re only talking about the United States here. The idea of calculating how many diapers this would be world wide is hurting my brain so I won’t even try.

Are Biodegradable Diapers Really The Answer To This Problem?

It seems like the logical solution to this problem would be for everyone to switch to the new “organic diapers” that are supposed to be biodegradable. If they actually decompose like their name implies, this is a perfectly rational way of thinking but it appears that it’s not that simple.

I spent a bit of time rummaging around the Internet and there’s a fair amount of confusion over just how “biodegradable” these diapers really are. It appears that the reason these diapers are able to carry the label “biodegradable” is because they are made with natural materials like corn starch. The use of this raw material supposedly results in eco-friendly diapers that break down in a very short period of time.

One manufacturer of these new green diapers (gDiapers) claims that under normal composting conditions, their products biodegraded in 45 days. They also claim that to be in compliance with ASTM D6400 standards, a product must achieve at least 95% degradation within a 180 day time period to be considered biodegradable.^[3]

Here’s a short video from gDiapers that shows one of their diapers going through the decomposition process in what appears to be a regular compost pile.

The source of the controversy is that landfills aren’t generally considered to be “normal composting conditions” because they are compacted very tightly in order to make the best use out of the available space. Some claim that these organic disposable diapers don’t break down any faster than those of the common plastic variety.

I happen to believe that the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. I would expect that they would break down faster than plastic diapers but maybe not as fast as the manufacturers would have us believe.

What Product Should Eco-Friendly Moms Be Using?

Well, that’s a tough one to answer. If biodegradable disposable diapers really do break down within a relatively short period of time under real life conditions which would be those found in a landfill, then using these new environmentally friendly diapers would seem to be a good thing. If they don’t break down at all when they are subjected to landfill conditions then I don’t see any benefits to using them.

Here’s how I personally would rate the three products in terms of eco-freindliness:

1. Washable diapers made from cloth
2. Biodegradable diapers made from natural materials
3. Regular disposable made from plastic

Keep in mind that this is only my opinion. While we’re talking about opinions, I’d love to hear what your thoughts on the matter are. Please take a minute and leave me a comment in the box found at the bottom of this page to tell me what you think of using disposable green diapers.

If you would like to read more on the subject of composting, I suggest that you take a minute and read my article called: How Does a Composting Toilet Work To Break Down Waste.

As always, I would like to thank you for taking the time to visit BooneyLiving.com and I hope to see you all around here again real soon!

This article is going to focus on how you can start weather stripping doors to keep that expensive heat inside during the cold winter months and that expensive air conditioned air inside during the hot summer months.

You wouldn’t believe how much most exterior doors leak! As my husband and I were recently testing our doors to find the leaks in the home that we are using for our case study on making a home energy efficient, we were shocked with how many big leaks we were able to find. Absolutely shocked!

You Have To Understand The Problem Before You Can Fix It Properly

The easiest way to explain where most doors leak is to show you so I’ve created the two diagrams that are displayed below to do just that.

Cross section of door looking down

Looking at bottom of door from inside

Door Weatherstripping Types That Are Currently Available

You can see from the images above that air leaks from two places. It leaks from the gap between the door and the jamb stop as well as the gap between the bottom of the door and the door sill. Fortunately, there are some inexpensive and easy to install door weather stripping products that will seal these leaks really well.

• Metal Weatherstripping Kits – This is a product that you simply cut to length and screw to the door jamb.
• Rubber Door Gaskets – This is a product to replace old gaskets that might be torn or missing.
• Double Sided Foam Tape – This product just sticks in place.
• Door Bottom Weatherstrip – This is a product that attaches to the bottom of the door.

Before you head on down to the hardware store to stock up on new door seal weatherstripping take a close look at what is currently in place on your doors. It may be that you don’t need to buy anything at all. You may just need to do some adjusting to get the door to make a tight seal.

If your existing seals are tattered and worn, I suggest that you remove a section to take with you to the hardware store. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed with the huge selection of products to choose from and you might end up buying the wrong product for the job.

How To Install Weather Stripping Around a Door

Most of you will be using a metal weather stripping kit. These kits are very simple to install but before you remove the metal runners that hold the rubber door seals in place, take a close look to see if they were cut to the proper length when they were originally installed. If they were, all you have to do is remove the old and tattered strips, cut the replacements pieces that you just bought to the same lengths, and screw the new pieces in place.

If the old metal weather strips weren’t cut to the proper lengths when they were originally installed, you’ll want to take some measurements so that you can correct this problem when you cut the new strips to the lengths that they actually should be.

I find that it’s easiest to get everything to line up right if you stand outside with the door closed. This way, you will know exactly how the door is positioned when its closed. The metal strips that you’ll be screwing into your door jamb have elongated slots that are designed to make it easy to adjust the position of the metal runners holding the seals to ensure that you get an air tight fit.

When my husband and I were first experimenting with the best way of weatherstripping a door, we made the mistake of screwing the metal runners in place with the door open. We quickly found out that this was a bad idea when we tried to close the door and it wouldn’t shut because we had the runners set in the wrong location.

I suggest that you hold the metal runners flush up against the jamb so that they are making good contact with the outside edge of the door and position the screw in the center of the elongated strip. Doing it this way will ensure that you have the ability to adjust the fit later if you need to.

How To Apply Foam Weather Stripping to a Door

If you’re on a really tight budget and you prefer to use foam weather stripping to seal your doors, the first step is to remove any old tattered foam tape or rubber seals. Then, using a putty knife, scrape off any of the adhesive residue from the old tape that gets left behind.

Here’s a handy tip: The cleaner you can get the surface that you’ll be applying the new foam tape to, the better it will stick and the better results you’ll get.

Now that you have the old foam insulation tape removed, peel off a bit of the new tape and stick it to the top edge of the inside of the door jamb stop. Carefully unroll a little bit of tape at a time and press it in place as you work your way around the jamb stop. When you reach the end of the jamb stop, be careful to cut the tape to the proper length so you don’t end up with gaps that will leak air.

After you have installed the new foam insulation tape around the entire perimeter of the jamb stop, carefully peel off the protective paper covering to ensure that the foam makes a good and tight seal with the door.

My experience with doing this type of door jamb weatherstrip installation is that it works best if you install one full piece of tape along each edge of the jamb stop. Whenever I’ve tried to piece shorter sections together, it just doesn’t seem to last as long. I’ve found that doing it this way leaves you with a much higher chance that some of the pieces will end up coming lose and falling off.

How To Install a New Door Bottom Sweep

The bottom of your door is likely to be the area where the most cold air is leaking through. Bottom door seals tend to really take a beating and they wear out from repeatedly opening and closing the door.

The good news is that installing a new door sweep is quite easy and affordable. The one that we just purchased only cost us about $7.00. If your door has an old sweep that is worn out, just find the screws that are holding it in place and remove them. Then, measure the bottom of the door and cut the new sweep to the proper length. Next, close the door and screw the new door seal into place.

Here’s another tip: Install this product with the door closed as well. Doing it this way, you’ll be able to position it so that it covers the gap between the bottom of the door and the door sill. Once you have everything lined up properly, screw it to the door and you’re done.

I hope this article was helpful to you. If you would like to learn more about keeping your heating dollars from escaping through leaks in a drafty home, take a minute and read my article on how to insulate windows.

Dustin and his family also live in the boonies but they are off grid’n it in Upper Michigan. He said that he found out about BooneyLiving.com while researching quiet backup generators and thought that I might be interested in writing about his company’s silent solar powered generator.

I’ve been meaning to get around to building a portable solar power station for a while now. I’ve got lot’s of ideas in my head but we just haven’t gotten around to actually building one yet.

As luck would have it, Dustin’s email came at the perfect time. I was just talking with my husband Jeff about my vision for a portable solar generator that could be wheeled around like a regular generator. It seems that Dustin’s company has built something that is very similar to what I had in mind. I was envisioning something that could be wheeled around a campsite so that campers could have the luxury of electricity without the noise of a gas generator.

Let’s Take a Look At the EasySun 1500 Solar Generator

Just like I was envisioning, this product is on wheels and completely portable to make it easy to move around. It has a 45 watt solar panel that is set at an angle to maximize charging efficiencies. Inside this solar powered generator is a 130 amp hour battery as well as a power inverter for powering regular household electronic devices. The inverter operates at 1,500 watts continuous or 3,000 watts surge and there are two 110 volt outlets. It also has two 12 volt power outlets. It’s no lightweight weighing in at 125 pounds with a footprint of 29 inches wide x 24 inches deep x 36.5 inches high. You’ll need a couple of people to load and unload it from your truck if you plan to take it camping with you. Suburb solar offers a 1 year warranty on everything but the solar panel. The solar panel has a 20 year manufacturers warranty.

My Thoughts On This Product

I haven’t had the chance to see one of these units up close but I really like the concept and the overall design seems to be well thought out. At the moment, Suburb solar only has one model and it’s priced at $1,999. Since I haven’t had the chance to test one of these units and really put it through its paces, I can’t really comment on whether I think that is a fair price point or not. Maybe someday our paths will cross and I’ll get to have a closer look at this product. Until then, I can only share my opinions which are based on the technical details that I have access to.

I think it’s important to point out that while Dustin has given this product the name “solar generator”, with its stock configuration it’s only equipped with one 45 watt solar panel and a 130 amp hour battery. This means that it’s not the type of product that can effectively be used as a primary power source for an off the grid cabin.

With the solar panel only being a 45 watt unit, I imagine that under peak sunlight conditions, it will only produce about 2.5 charging amps. The website for this product doesn’t specify whether they are using a deep cycle battery but I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t. If they are using a deep cycle battery, let’s assume that the battery is drained to 80% depth of discharge; theoretically that would mean that 26 amp hours would be remaining in the battery. To charge it back up to full, the solar panels would need to produce roughly 104 amp hours. At my estimated charging rate of 2.5 amps per hour, according to my calculations, it would take nearly 42 hours of good sunlight to fully recharge the battery.

Depending on what you were using this product to power, you could burn through that 130 amp hour battery pretty quickly. The manufacturer of this product will sell you an additional 45 watt solar panel that can be connected to the existing panel to increase the charging output to a total of 90 watts. Even with the extra solar panel, if my estimations are correct, that would mean that you would be able to charge the battery at a rate of 5 amps per hour. Using the same scenario of a 130 amp hour deep cycle battery that is 80% discharged, it would take around 21 hours of good sunlight exposure to fully recharge the battery.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like what they’re doing at Suburb Solar and I applaud them for manufacturing this product. I just want people to be sure that they understand that a product like this won’t be able to keep pace with a gasoline powered generator. If you only need a small amount of power and you use it conservatively, this product might be perfect for you.

Let’s Hear From The Designer of This Product

I recently emailed Dustin to get some clarification on how accurate my predictions were in terms of the amount of time it would take to recharge the battery. I just heard back from him and he was kind enough to provide me with the answers to my questions. I specifically asked if my estimated charge times were accurate, what kind of battery is included, what brand of inverter is included, and how the product regulates the charge to the battery. I’ve included his response below:

Hi Patty,

Thanks for the email. The article looks great! I appreciate the honest feedback, as I’m sure your readers do.

We use a long-life, heavy duty, sealed, AGM, deep cycle battery. It has very thick lead plates designed to provide a long life in extreme environments. In fact, it is the most expensive, and heaviest, component in the solar generator. The battery is 90 of the total 125 pounds of the product. We continue to look at lithium batteries, because of their reduced weight, but the price is too prohibitive. Your estimations for recharge time on the current battery are accurate. It was a balance choosing the right solar panel. We wanted the most power, but also the smallest size. The 45watt solar panel is the best compromise, but does limit the recharge time. We find it ideally suited for intermittent power use (like camping), or for backup power. The large battery gives the opportunity to power larger appliances (like a full size fridge, sump pump, or furnace) for a day or two, then slowly recharge with the sun over a few days.

However, since we manufacture these solar generators in an off-grid shop, we designed them to be very expandable. We designed each of the DC ports to handle up to 300 watts of additional solar input (600watts total). This allows the solar generator to recharge in a few hours, yet still be portable by unplugging the larger solar panels. We use this feature when building generators, since we can use the solar generators to run most of our shop tools (drill presses, band saws, etc) We sell these additional solar charging panels directly They come in various size and consist of a solar panel with charge controller wired in, mounting brackets, and a 10′ cord connected to a marine grade plug designed to plug into the EasySun Solar Generator.

The EasySun Solar Generator does include a built-in charge controller, to regulate the charge to the battery. Our focus is a high quality product, so the components we use are from reputable manufactures. Our inverter, for example, is from Xantrex/Schnieder. One thing I probably forgot to mention earlier is the fact that these solar generators are built to handle any type of weather. They can be placed outside in ice, snow, rain, hail, or the desert.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. It is an honor to receive honest feedback from another off-gridder!

Thanks,

Dustin Denkins
Suburb Solar Inc.
(661)34SOLAR
www.suburbsolar.com

If you’re in the mood to read about some other cool solar technology, I highly suggest that you take a minute and read my article called: The Advantages Of Thin Film Solar Panels.