Utility Costs
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Use
- Average Utility Costs
- Between $141 and $266 for lowest to highest states per month for gas and electric. See nice map at [1]
This means that in the design of the Seed Eco-Home, we put in the extra effort to make electrical costs less over lifetime. We can also strive to make those costs 0 up front via energy loans.
Basics of high PV profile - use 20kW.
Invest in concrete pipe (it leaks [2]) for water storage when sealed and insulated.
Connections
- Gas - $2500
- Electric - $2500
- Water/sewer - $2500
Transcending the System - Calculations
- 20kW PV - raw cost of $7k, down to $5.8k in bulk.
- Water from 59F to 110F (15 to 44) - 30C rise. For 250 gallons.
- Industry standards - 80 gal heater - 21 gal recovery rate per hour with 9kW. [3]
- Max gallons recovered with 18 kW electric - 42 gal/hr - or 250 gallons per day.
- Perhaps the large 80 gal heater is the way to go as a basic, off-the-shelf unit running on solar. Keep it on only during the hottest sun time. Heat loss of a hot water heater is 1-2.5 kWhr/day - [4]. This means that if it took 4 hours to heat the 80 gallon tank at 9kW - then it took 36kWhr, so daily loss of 2.5 kWhr means it would take 14 days for all heat to be lost? That means, we lost 1/14 * 50F = 3.5F per day? If we went to 110F, then after 3 days we are still at about 100F!
Point of Action
Make costs of the following go away with solar:
- Heating
- Cooling
- Hot water
- Cooking - induction. No problem. Energy use requirement?
- Refrigeration - easy during day - and off at night. Not a problem at all.
- Lights, computers - need them at night if one is staying up. Take typical time up to midnight, which means tha you are using X units of energy. Calculate case scenarios. Monitor - 20w abd 0.5W - [5], Ryzen 3600 65W [6], GPU - 100W - [7]
- Print cluster - needs power if running prints. This is not solved for industrial applications. Answer may be 20kW hr battery bank and smart controls for stopping printing at night and resuming during day.
- Note that this is being resolved in 2021 with Seed_Home_v2_Requirements_+_Value_Proposition#Utilities_Value_Proposition