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So I still haven't bought one but my brother bought 2 of the Airscape 1.7 Whole House Fans. He is the proud owner of a 3,400 sq ft home and a $700/month (summer) electricity bill.

Installation
After a quote for $800 for installation of one of the fans he decided he liked the idea of installing it himself. So he placed an order for the 2 fans on a Friday and received them on the Monday. I went over to give him a hand after work and by the end of that evening we had one of them installed. It took us no more than 4 hours. We like to think of ourselves as being handy but we certainly are not professionals. The installation was very straightforward. We did install it near the attic opening and an existing electrical outlet which eased the installation.

First Impressions
The fans are surprisingly compact but they certainly seam to do the job. His house was down to 72 degrees in no time. Anyone sitting near an open window complained of being cold. The fan is also very quiet and you may wonder if it is on. Certainly nothing like the ratter tat tat and rumble of other Whole House Fans. No one had problems sleeping. Stand underneath it and the draft created will let you know its on.

Does it save money?
It's early days right now. Stay tuned for another update...

Original post New generation of Whole House Fans

Like 51% of cars (TWICE Double-DIN Share Gaining) mine came with a Double-DIN sized stereo. This means that it is twice the size of the average after market stereo your probably used to seeing.


Double DIN


Single DIN

What can you stick in that hole?
If you want to replace your stereo you have 2 options. Buy a regular Single DIN stereo + an adapter that usually fills the extra space with a cubby. Otherwise find a Double DIN after market stereo. I think the space may as well be used as intended so Double DIN for me. However there is not much of a selection. You most likely won't find any in Best Buy, etc. Kenwood are the only ones I could find that had up to date features (e.g. MP3 playback rather than a Tape Deck). Kenwood has 4 models to choose from.

What did I get?
I went for the Kenwood DPX-301 as I liked the USB/MP3/WMV feature. This means I can connect any USB drive with any number of MP3 or WMV files and play them back via the stereo. As this is a digital connection the sound quality is great and I don't have to mess around with tuning in a FM radio transmitter. Also the stereo can read all the ID3 tags so that it can display the track, album, artist and genre. An added bonus is that if you fill the drive with the included software utility it also creates voice prompts. So you can navigate all that music while keeping your eyes on the road.

The Kenwood DPX-301 also has the usual features. Single CD player (surely there is room in there for a changer but with MP3's thats a moot point), Radio with RDS (displays station name etc) support for Satellite and HD radio, etc.

It can't be all good
This is a great stereo however it's not that intuitive to use. I challenge anyone to work out how to turn it on/off without the manual. Turns out you can cycle through the sources to standby or hold down the standby button to turn it off. Obvious eh?

The other problem I had was the time it takes to be ready to play from the USB drive. It was painfully long. The solution was to switch from my aging USB 1.o hard drive based MP3 player to a super fast Corsair Flash Voyager USB drive which solved the problem.

Should be easy... right? If you want something cheap you go to Target if you want something a little more durable you go to a bike store. But nothing is ever that easy.

Good luck trying to comparison shop
No two bike stores in your area will have the same brand let alone model of bike making comparison shopping almost impossible. You also won't find any "bike shop bikes" available online for sale or even a mention of the cost. So this means this must be a cozy agreement between the manufacturers and the bike shops. All this sounds like a great deal for the manufacturer and the bike shop but it's bad for the consumer. This undoubtedly keeps the prices nice and high and make research from the comfort of the home PC very hard.

But don't get me wrong I think it's great to have a local store for this kind of product. But is it really necessary to go to these lengths to protect the stores?

You saw a bike from where?
The other problem is the snobbery. Try asking a bike shop about a bike that is sold in a big box store. They won't be too complimentary. But aren't there only about 3 companies that make the components (Shimano, Suntor, SRAM I believe) for all bikes? I don't think there are many companies that actually even manufacturer there own frames. So how much worse can they be? I know they must use the lower end of the manufacturers lines but this doesn't make them incomparable.

So what did I do?
When we first decided we wanted to try biking we started out with some nice cheap ($100 each) Huffy mountain bikes from a big box store. After a couple of years of a reasonable amount of use we traded up.

We budgeted $300 each that compared to what we previously had seamed like a big step to us. We were disappointed when we visited our local bike shops to find that this would only get us one of their most basic bikes.

What we really wanted was the flexibility of a hybrid bike that has the riding position of a mountain bike but many of the components from a road bike. That would be ideal for our mostly paved trail riding and occasional light off road riding (despite being told at one store they were for old people).

However $300 doesn't get you a "real" hybrid bike but a comfort bike. We found the riding position of comfort bikes too upright and the suspension too soft. They didn't feel like serious bikes to us that we could use for getting fit but more like something to cruise around the neighborhood.

Specialized Crossroads Comfort

So we went for hard tail mountain bikes instead (no rear suspension) but with tires that have a center road ridge. We found good quality hard tail mountain bikes (Diamondback Sorrento) for $300 available at one of our local bike shops.

We very much enjoy our bikes especially once we picked up some nicer seats from www.nashbar.com But of course we don't ride them nearly as much as we should.

If you live in a warm area where the temperature drops at night you know this is a good idea as it will save you a bunch of money. But they're noisy, expensive to buy and expensive to install... right? At least that was my excuse for not having one. Well maybe not anymore. There is a new generation of whole house fan out there that look as if they fix those problems.

Noise
They've done away with the big noisy single belt driven fans and instead they use multiple smaller fans that they say are much quieter. Apparently not much more than the average refrigerator.

"In a real world setting, with the AirScape 1.7 on low speed, some effort is required just to hear it. Sound level is rated at two sones — just above a modern refrigerator (three and a half sones on high). So the unit is QUIET."

Installation Cost
Since they don't use 1 big fan the unit is now small enough to be installed between standard joists which makes mounting the unit much simpler. It also comes with a standard electrical plug so that it can be plugged into the nearest outlet. This adds up to being within the skills of the average handyman. So I DIY install saves a lot of money.

Airscape Installation

Installation Video

Fan Prices

• The AirScape 1.0 for spaces up to 1,500 sq ft is $479.00.
• The AirScape 1.7 for spaces up to 2,500 sq ft is $769.

Each one as an optional hand held remote for $69.

I'm not sure these fans are much cheaper but at least buying them direct online means there is no dealer or installer adding on a mark up. I find it hard to believe that the $1,000 + more I was quoted for was all installation.

Why don't I have one still?

Good question and I don't have a good answer. I'd better get my finger out and buy one. Stay tuned for an update when I do.

AirScape Whole House Fans

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I received a letter the other day from a company telling me I'm missing out on the California Home Owners Property Tax Exemption. For a fairly small fee they we're offering to process the exemption for me. I looked into it and found that it was not bogus.

"EXEMPTIONS HOMEOWNERS: A property owner may claim a Homeowner's exemption in California on a residence that is both owned and occupied at 12:01 a.m. on January 1; or files within 30 days of a change in ownership or new construction for which a supplemental assessment is levied. The exemption reduces your assessed value by $7,000 and reduces the tax bill by at least $70. It is the homeowner's responsibility to apply for the exemption. To receive the full exemption, you must file with the Assessor's office between January 1 and February 15, or within 30 days of a Notice of Supplemental Assessment. (A late filing is accepted from February 16 to December 10 for 80 percent of the exemption). Your exemption automatically continues each year as long as you continue to own and occupy the property as your primary residence. It is also the homeowner's responsibility to terminate the exemption when no longer eligible. Please contact the El Dorado County Assessor's office for the Homeowner's Exemption form at 530-621-5719."

El Dorado County Assessor's Office

Fair enough I thought, they brought it to my attention and if I haven't found this in the 2 years I've been a CA homeowner I probably never would have. One problem though... they need the SSN's of the homeowners. Screw that, I'm not sending my SSN to some random company. So I called Assessor's Office myself and asked them to send me the form. A very simple form arrived in the mail within days and I posted it back within weeks. I'll update when I hear back.

So if your a California Home Owner contact your county assessor's office and get your exemption sorted. If not maybe your state has something similar.

When you spend a bunch of money on something like a new TV you go to the store and test them out right? And you know what to look for? Well maybe not the latter but if you go to the store armed with a test disc you stand a much better chance of making an informed decision.

When You Can't Trust Your Eyes, Trust A Test Disc

Checking, savings, mortgage, car loan, credit cards, insurance, cable, telephone the list is endless. Too many accounts too many places to login too many passwords to forget and who has a clue what the whole picture is? Many banks allow you to link other accounts so you can view them all in one place but what if you don't bank with one of those banks? Well why not go direct to the source of who probably provides that bank the functionality in the first place?

Yodlee.com allows anyone to create an account and link up all your accounts so you can view them in one place. The only thing scarier than seeing the ugly details of all your finances in one place is the thought of someone else being able to do the same. However it looks like Yodlee can be trusted to do security right judging by the companies that use their services Yodlee Clients & Partners.

Adding accounts to Yodlee is very easy and they seam to have pretty much every company covered. Once you've done that you can setup alerts, transfer money and even pay bills till your hearts content.

I'm originally from Europe where higher energy costs and space restrictions have long since persuaded people to move over to tankless water heaters and even heating. I have often looked into doing the same thing since I moved to the USA. It still seams to be a relatively new idea here although there are many products available. But I guess that is unsurprising since energy is much cheaper and most people have a basement or garage to install those large hot water tanks. However as energy prices are rising even in the USA and with the increasing focus on protecting the environment I think they are sure to become more popular.

What are the benefits?

• A traditional water heater stores hot water in a large tank (40 gallons +). That water is kept hot 24x7 whether you need it or not. That wastes a lot of energy however well the tank is insulated. A tankless water heater heats the water on-demand so there is no energy wasted heating water that you are not using.
• When you take away the tank you greatly reduce the size of the water heater leaving you with more precious space to store those things you just can't live without.

What are the options?

• Natural Gas - If you have Natural Gas in your home this is the best option.
• Electric - If like me you don't have Natural Gas in your home all is not lost as there are also many Electric Tankless Water Heaters available.

How Much will it cost?

• Natural Gas - $800 - $1000 + installation should cover most homes.
• Electric - $500 - $800 + installation should cover most homes.

How Much could you actually save?
Tankless Water Heaters should save 10-20% in energy costs. How about looking at some real figures created by the people selling them?

"The United States Department of Energy has calculated that a family of four will use 64.3 gallons of hot water per day, not including dish washing or clothes washing. The chart below provides an approximate monthly operating cost comparison between a 40 gallon hot water tank and the TANKLESS™ Whole House Electric Hot Water Heating System."

paragraph and chart from here

That's quite a saving. If you take the middle example of 60 gallons the new Electric Water Heater should pay for itself in 2 years.

So why don't I have one yet?

If my current Water Heater goes up in smoke then this will be a no brainer. However I'm not sure I can bring myself to throw away a Water Heater that probably still has many years left in it.