Melrose and Energy

Category: gardens and old home renovation | Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:57 pm

As I consider the near-term needs at Melrose as well as the long-term issues that will likely arise in the decades to come, one thing is starkly clear. Just as the rest of the country needs to address issues of energy use and conservation, so too, people who have old homes have got to find ways to heat and/or cool their homes in energy efficient ways. I have been trying to address this issue for a couple of years as it relates to the 200-year old house I have in eastern North Carolina, and I am depressed by the options and their associated costs available for my consideration.

While North Carolina enjoys what, by any measure, can be called a temperate climate, its summers are long, hot and humid, and its winters are short but cold. Not New England cold, but cold enough to require heat and insulation and such other common-sense measures as are called for to keep from freezing one's buns off.

Keep in mind that Melrose is generally not occupied except for the occasional weekend in the winter, so we have the luxury of having the house temp set at 50 degrees most of the time. Even doing that, however, the fuel bill can be many hundreds of dollars a month. I know that cost likely pales in comparison to heating bills in colder climes, but mine is a bill for a house that sits almost always unoccupied. In the summer, we set the thermostats at 80, and the energy bills are still significant. The one saving grace is that the exterior brick walls are 18-inches thick, providing insulation that no wood or brick veneer house could ever claim. On the other hand, it is a virtual impossibility to further insulate the exterior walls.

The point of this blog is, however, not to bemoan the cost of energy. Instead, it is to bemoan how few options are available to someone who wants to find alternative means of heating and/or cooling. As someone who remembers very clearly the energy crisis of the 1970s, it is easy to become depressed that in the intervening 30 years, we have done almost nothing to prepare for today and an infinite number of tomorrows.

I have some outbuildings at Melrose and I thought their roofs would make good locations for solar panels. But research into the cost of such panels to provide energy for Melrose only served to further depress me. The initial cost of installation would be prohibitive for anyone but the very wealthy, and even at today's energy costs it would take upwards of 30 years to reach a breakeven point.

I also thought about wind energy. But all of the literature has said that the area of the country where I live does not have the wind resources needed to make worthwhile an investment in wind energy. I confess that I take that insight with a grain of salt, because just simple observation tells me that there is wind enough to exploit. But it isn't dependable.

And again, the cost is high enough that should you already be involved in restoring an old house, you likely won't want to or can't incur yet more expense related to energy projects.

The last area of disappointment came when I looked into government incentives, tax breaks, etc. to implement an energy saving program. What I found both at the federal level and within North Carolina shows clearly that if you are looking for significant encouragement from your governments to prepare for a petro-poor future, don't waste your time. Presidents and congresses, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Bull Moosers have all shirked their responsibilities in this regard, and there is blame enough to darken the political legacy of everyone in government from city councilman to federal potentate.

The only way I can imagine either myself or the millions of others who will need to find alternatives to current dependence on oil taking meaningful action is either (1) for the cost of alternative energy solutions to drastically come down, or (2) the subsidy from governments to help make conversions to alternative solutions affordable, or (3) a combination of one or two.

I am well aware of the need to do all of the small things in Melrose, such as weather stripping, caulking windows, etc. I am focused on doing that - really I am. But those steps, as important as they are, will not result in the kind of major improvement in energy use needed in a place like Melrose. I suspect that if you just look at the subset of people who own and love old or older homes, you will find the need I am expressing here is nearly universal.

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CritterPainter wrote on Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:15 pm:

I can't even think about what might lie ahead. But if it helps at all, I and several friends have installed heavy drapes over some doorways. Come cold weather, they let me just heat a small area of the house (in my case, the upstairs turns to an ice chest in winter!). I have a friend who lives in a big old uninsulated house, and just lives in the kitchen & living room in the coldest weather. Maybe just keep the areas with vulnerable pipes heated? And I'd def. recommend a programmable thermostat, maybe one that kicks the temp. on Fri. so your weekends are comfortable...

Droopy wrote on Fri Jun 13, 2008 5:28 pm:

Ooof, I get depressed just reading about your struggle to heat and cool the place in an effective way without having to pay through the nose. We installed inverter pumps last year so we won't have to use oil for heating any more. Since lots of people are doing the same, the price of electricity went up.

DaphDaph wrote on Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:20 pm:

I'm so glad you shared this with us. My husband and I have been discussing what type of house we should purchase is we move for his work. I found a lovely old Southern house that needs tons of work. The thought occurred to me a week or so ago ...what must the electric bill be on a 5000+sqft home with lots of 107 year old windows. You just gave me an idea of what that cost would be.........