Heat Loss

josephny

I wonder if the information on the attached graph is enough to determine how poorly insulated my 2 story house is (electric panel heat in most rooms; 1 ecobee on the first floor, another on the 2nd floor, each controlling all the electric heaters on each floor respectively):



Thank you.

Jamie Hall

No, sorry. Without knowing anything about the actual electrical usage (kilowatt-hours), it's no help at all.

josephny

Jamie Hall said:

No, sorry. Without knowing anything about the actual electrical usage (kilowatt-hours), it's no help at all.

Does this help:

Jamie Hall

Um... it would, if I could believe it. Where are you located? 4 KWh -- which is your steady consumption except for the two odd glitches -- is only 14,000 BTU for a day. Or to look at it another way, only 2 75 watt bulbs left on all day... something is wrong.

Ironman

You would need a lot more than just a snapshot of one or two days. The whole heating season compared to the actual degree days would give a fair estimate, but you'd have to subtract out the electric useage for everything else in the house.

josephny

Okay, I’m slowly getting it. 

So, the 1st floor has used 15,531kwh (about 1200 kWh/day) in January so far.   I would say 95% of that is for heat (lights are led, no dishwasher, etc.). 

I’m in zip code 12763.  I think my ave degree days in that time period is around 34.  

Gman66

Jamie Hall said:

Um... it would, if I could believe it. Where are you located? 4 KWh -- which is your steady consumption except for the two odd glitches -- is only 14,000 BTU for a day. Or to look at it another way, only 2 75 watt bulbs left on all day... something is wrong.

Brother J; might the chart suggest that the energy consumption is 4KWH per hour, such that the BTU consumption would be 14K BTU per hour? If so, that sounds like a more credible number. Still a long way from answering how good or bad the insulation is, but getting closer.

josephny

Gman66 said:

Jamie Hall said:

Um... it would, if I could believe it. Where are you located? 4 KWh -- which is your steady consumption except for the two odd glitches -- is only 14,000 BTU for a day. Or to look at it another way, only 2 75 watt bulbs left on all day... something is wrong.

Brother J; might the chart suggest that the energy consumption is 4KWH per hour, such that the BTU consumption would be 14K BTU per hour? If so, that sounds like a more credible number. Still a long way from answering how good or bad the insulation is, but getting closer.

My Good Gman66: Yes indeed, I believe you are right. Electric usage averages just over 4KWH/hr, or about 110KWH/day (375,000 BTU/Ht).

Jamie Hall

Now it's making more sense. 375,000 BTU per day, or about 15,000BTUh for your heat loss. Which is actually pretty decent. As @Gman66 said, doesn't tell you much yet about your insulation, since we don't know the dimensions of the structure nor the actual temperature for that particular heat load, but getting there.

josephny

Jamie Hall said:

Now it's making more sense. 375,000 BTU per day, or about 15,000BTUh for your heat loss. Which is actually pretty decent. As @Gman66 said, doesn't tell you much yet about your insulation, since we don't know the dimensions of the structure nor the actual temperature for that particular heat load, but getting there.

Yay, progress!

So the 15kBtuH is for the 1st floor.

The second floor uses about the same amount of electricity.

I keep the temp at 70*f.

The 1st floor is approximately 1800 sq-ft. The second floor is approx 850 sq-ft.

Jamie Hall

And that usage was on a day when the average temperature outside was around 40? Giving about 32 degree days, which you quoted?

There are still a lot of loose ends to be able to really answer you question, which I recall as being basically how good is my insulation? but just based on that -- I'd venture a guess as somewhere in the pretty good -- not great, not bad -- range.

ethicalpaul

Jamie Hall said:
No, sorry. Without knowing anything about the actual electrical usage (kilowatt-hours), it's no help at all.

Does this help:

It made me laugh...you asked for it, you got it @Jamie Hall -- That will teach you

josephny

ethicalpaul said:

Jamie Hall said:
No, sorry. Without knowing anything about the actual electrical usage (kilowatt-hours), it's no help at all.

Does this help:

It made me laugh...you asked for it, you got it @Jamie Hall -- That will teach you

I think that's a shot at me, which is totally fine, but I do wish I understood....

Is it because I provided data that was either incomprehensible, useless, or yielded more questions than it answered?

(;-)

Jamie Hall

No, not really, @josephny . @ethicalpaul and I like to poke at each other, and I have a bit of a reputation at taking minimal data and playing with it...

Ironman

The HDDs for your locale is 6031 for the year.