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blackrein

New spray foam home utility bills

BlackRein
10 years ago

Hi everyone!

I read this site and many others while deciding to use spray foam and other specifics with our new construction home but the one thing I was missing and not many posted were actual utility bill numbers. So I want to post the specs of my home in Dallas, Texas and some of our utility data after being in the house 11 months.
I hope this is very helpful and for all you considering spray foam, enjoy!

Keep in mind the most important thing is execution, the best products can perform poorly if installed incorrectly. We moved in beginning of July and over the first three months found our compressor was not fully charged, the downstairs thermostat controlled the upstairs zone and vise versa (so it ran nonstop), improper winter balancing etc. which have caused high bills in winter and summer but I am still happy.

3000sqft 2 story, 2 zone home, brick, concrete tile roof (29% reflectivity), advanced framing, 1/2" foam board sheathing, long axis oriented East/West, windows mostly on north side, tankless gas water heater, all electric appliances. No HRV/ERV, humidity stays between 45-55%.
4ton, 16SEER, 2 stage compressor, variable speed, 97.5% gas furnace.
Flash and fill walls with 2in OC foam, screen stapled to suds and filled with dry blown fiberglas (R 22.5), 6in OC foam covering attic roof and rafters and lowE3 windows (R 3.5). Plus I did over 40hr of dditional caulking and great stuff foam sealing after the house was foamed and the builder poly sealed!!

We keep our house at 75-77 during the summer and 73-74 during the winter

At $0.09/kWh our highest electric bill this past summer was $100 (~1100kWh with the A/C problems) with gas bills of $20.
At on average* ~$11/MCF, in the winter our highest gas bill was $67 (8MCF) with electric bills of $45.

Even with our several HVAC issues that are now finally solved, my wife and I's average monthly electric and gas bills are $60 and $35. So less than $100/mo for a 3000 sqft. home!!

Chris

Comments (3)

  • energy_rater_la
    10 years ago

    That is great Chris!

    glad to see that you are sharing your savings
    with others here.

  • jabre
    10 years ago

    Chris,

    Thanks for sharing. I'm down I-35 in Austin. I'm in the beginning of a major remodel. Well over half of my 1971-built home is in the process of being torn down and rebuilt. I'm about a month away from deciding on insulation and HVAC design. It's great to hear you're getting such good results.

    As you're new construction I'm wondering if you have any numbers on other homes in your neighborhood that did not choose foam for comparison? It would be interesting to see the difference.

    For my home the cost difference is about $2700 for closed cell foam above blown cellulose of the same R value. I'm having a tough time figuring out the ROI.

  • BlackRein
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Hi Jabre,

    Looks like you're about to see a nice drop in your utility bills. Wow that's a great price! I would have done mine and my neighbor's house for that price compared to what ours cost.

    It's interesting that you mention, I have been tracking one of our neighbor's usage that has a similar orientation and size, so it's truly a best case to best case scenario. They moved in 3 months after us so they haven't gone through a summer yet, however after 6 months (Dec-May) we have saved $400 compared to our neighbor in gas and electric bills (calculated with my utility pricing). The builder does foam sheathing, advanced framing, tile roofs and fiberglass batts standard, everything else I upgraded. However, we have our choice of tile roof/brick combinations and each one has a range of reflectivity. So naturally we chose the highest reflectivity roof and lightest brick! : )

    With their gas usage being almost 4x ours for the winter, I can only imagine what the electricity will be especially with our HVAC issues solved. I bet we end up around $900-1000/yr in savings.

    Good luck on your remodel and thanks Energy_rater_la!

    -Chris

    This post was edited by BlackRein on Sun, Jun 2, 13 at 15:44