Appliances and Kitchen Design

One of the things we learned on Friday was that appliances consume the largest portion of the electrical usage in large homes.  The pie chart based on “PG&E Survey 2009” showed that appliances consume 28%, pool 24%, HVAC (heating and cooling) 16%, lighting 15%, electronics 9% and miscellaneous 8%.  Well, we don’t have a large home, we don’t have a pool and our passive house design will greatly reduce heating needs.  Still, getting energy efficient appliances is a priority for us since we do need new appliances and the energy efficient ones have various rebates and tax credits. 

Another thing that I learned (that Kurt already knew) was that 2/3 of electricity generation in U.S. is wasted.  Of the 40.67 quadrillion BTU energy consumed to generate electricity only 13.21 quadrillion BTU, or 32%, is delivered for end use.  Again, this means 68% is wasted.  Isn’t it amazing?   This source is from U.S. Electricity Generation 2008 chart from Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Review 2008.  These charts were part of the workbook material used in the “Integrating Energy Efficiency and Renewables in Home Retrofits” class offered by PG&E.  Another free class offered to the public by PG&E.  To search through their class offering please visit here.

So combining these 2 pieces of information we conclude that paying attention to the energy performance of our home appliances will not only save us money on our utility bill it also can lower our carbon footprint by reducing the demand on energy generation.  Saving money and saving the planet is a win-win formula.   

OK, so we will be replacing old appliances with energy efficient ones.  But which brand and model?

We started our appliance research by visiting the Miele Gallery in San Francisco.  Why Miele?  Because that’s what Flora recommended.  Our friend, Flora, is an artist that happens to be a terrific cook and has a beautiful kitchen.  She shared with us her experience of various home remodels (about 6 previous residences) she had done and one of the things she mentioned was to go to the kitchen gallery at the design center in San Francisco and take their classes.   

On Saturday we went to the kitchen design class at the Miele Gallery.  A nice light breakfast was served before the class and Kurt got to ask questions to his heart’s content as 3 presenters covered different topics.  First, Ruth did a nice job of covering the highlights of kitchen design.  Then Rebecca covered the details of Miele appliances.  (She opened our eyes to the steam oven!)  We will be taking the master chef class at Miele in a week to learn more about this and other appliances.  Then Maureen showed examples of tiles and countertops and went into details of the different countertop materials.  Again, this class was free!  

Later we went to an appliance store in San Francisco and learned about a showroom in Brisbane that displays and hold classes for other brands such as Sub-Zero, Wolf, Thermador and Bosch.  The search for appliances will continue….

Combined Hydronic Space and Water Heating

• Simpler is better because higher complexity triggers higher cost of installation and higher maintenance needs.

• Tankless water heater is not what we want because it takes a long time (20 seconds) for the water to get warm, thus wasting water and they can’t take the pre-heated water from solar thermal system because the modulated power burner can’t modulate to accommodate a smaller temperature difference.

• Huge opportunity for energy efficiency is on the table — Even in California (state with the strictest building code) one can achieve 50% reduction in energy consumption from a house that only adheres to title 24 by doing insulation effectively and further reduce the energy consumption by half by doing mechanical system effectively.

• Generally, heating systems are over-sized for California’s mild climate.

Glass and Windows

@font-face {
font-family: “Cambria”;
}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }