Energy efficient custom home design and construction for your Winter Park, Orlando and Central Florida home.
If you live in Central Florida, you are quite aware that the climate is unique to other parts of the country. As I write this article in August, the heat and humidity this afternoon were oppressive. I truly don’t believe that Central Florida would have grown the way it has without the invention of air conditioning.
Air conditioning is the biggest energy user in Central Florida homes but don’t despair, there are several ways to design a custom home and its climate control system that will allow you to save on your electricity bill and enjoy a more comfortable home. In this article we are going to focus on the design and components of the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system.
Before beginning our list it has to be said that when a custom home is designed and built to be energy efficient, there is less demand on the HVAC system therefore some upgrades to the system may not offer the best return on investment. This may make more sense as I describe each of my suggestions.
Zoning refers to dividing the house into different zones based on the use and occupants. At its simplest level this might be, separate zones for upstairs and downstairs or separate zones for bedrooms and living areas. Zones can be created with individual AC systems or by the use of a zone damper system. My personal home has five zones that include living area, master bedroom suite, secondary bedrooms, guest suite and man cave (garage). We can adjust the thermostats to run when a zone is occupied and save money by reducing the AC in zones that are not. For instance, my wife likes to sleep under a blanket even in the summertime so we can turn down the AC in our bedroom without turning the rest of the house into a freezer. I’ll comment on this again in the final suggestion about behavior modification.
2 speed Condenser - The condenser is the outside unit of an air conditioner. In reality our systems are actually heat pumps but we will leave that for another article. The outside unit usually includes the compressor which is the big energy hog of the system. Using my home as an example, we have a 4 ton heat pump. Tonnage is an old term that refers to the amount of heat needed to melt a ton of ice and we still use it to measure AC system capacity. Energy calculations of my home determined that 4 tons of cooling would be needed to keep my home comfortable during the warmest days of the year. But what about those days that aren’t as hot or when we are only using one zone? My 2-speed system will run at half speed when the demand is reduced therefore saving energy and actually removing more humidity in the process. More on that later.
2 speed Air Handler - The air handler is the inside unit of the system. A fan inside blows air out through the ductwork around the house. Inside the unit, as the air blows across the cold refrigerant coils, they absorb heat from the air and make it feel cool. Just like a glass of iced tea, the coils sweat as they remove moisture from the air. When the air handler first turns on, it operates at a slower speed causing the air to slow down and exit the unit at a lower temperature. This also causes more condensation to form on the coils and reduces humidity in the air even further. Combined with zoning, this system will allow you to stay comfortable without running up the electric bill.
Dehumidification - “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”, is a term Floridians are familiar with. Our bodies cool themselves as moisture evaporates off our skin but when the air is full of humidity that process doesn’t work very well. During the warm summer months, the AC system runs enough to lower the humidity inside the house to a comfortable level. However, at times during the milder Spring and Fall months, the AC doesn’t run as much, especially in a well-insulated home. This causes the humidity level in the house to rise and even though the temperature is not as high as in Summer, we may feel clammy. Instead of lowering the thermostat, what we actually need to do is lower the humidity. If you are interested in saving energy and reducing your electricity bill, we may recommend a stand alone dehumidifier for your home. It can make you feel more comfortable without needing to run the air conditioning as much.
Programmable Thermostats are included with all of our homes but not everyone is using them correctly, in my opinion. Consider the daily life cycle in your home. The bedrooms need to be comfortable at night but how about during the day? During the day, is everyone at work or school? During the evening you probably want the kitchen and living areas to be comfortable. How might the weekly routine differ from the weekend? When you start to think about your daily routines, programmable thermostats will allow you to reduce the amount of air conditioning at certain times, in certain zones, and save money as a result.
Behavior Modification - When I was a kid, my dad wouldn’t turn down the thermostat until he saw beads of sweat running down your forehead. I’m not advocating that this is a behavior you need to adopt but please understand that there is an approach and an attitude to managing your HVAC system that will no doubt save you money. This first one goes to my wife: when you return home, if it’s a little warm inside the house, cranking the AC down lower than the desired temperature will not cause it to cool down any quicker. Wait, this second one goes to my wife as well: please don’t leave the back door open so that the cat can come and go as he pleases. The point here is that your behavior can have as much affect on your energy bill as some of these upgrades. The mere awareness may help you increase your efforts to save some jingle.
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Little is more meaningful and personal than a home, and the experience of designing and building your own home should be rewarding and enjoyable. Choosing a builder is difficult. The process of designing and building a home involves numerous decisions about components, systems and services selected from criteria that includes price, quality, appearance and performance. How can you possibly understand everything unless the builder is willing to share all of the information?
Allow us to introduce you to The GCH Way of building your next home. Please let us know if you have any questions. Keith Groninger