The home performance contractor came by this morning. First he walked around the inside of our house, and looked in all the rooms, nooks and crannys. He pointed out a few things that should be fixed such as a small drain pipe that comes out of an outside wall that is open and tilts slightly upward (it goes to the garage floor drain). He recommended attaching a small elbow piece pointing downward to keep water out. He also suggested caulking a bunch of seams in the garage that would let air into the walls, and into the house (along with some carbon monoxide from the cars). Next he came back and took pictures of some different areas with a small digital camera. I noticed he mostly took pictures in some spots where the insulation was exposed. Next he hooked up the blower door on the door from our garage to our utility room.
We walked around, and he held a small smoke wand around seams, and showed me where outside air was leaking into the house. I knew some of the places and was surprised by many others. I was surprised that our fireplace leaked almost no air. So I bought the DraftStopper fireplace plug, and probably didn’t really need it. Here he shows air leaking where drywall meets one of the beams.
He pointed out some windows that had leaky seals. As I thought, our house was leaking air like a sieve. He packed up his stuff. He then went outside to measure the house. Then he was done.
I should hear from the energy consultant in the next couple weeks. I am looking forward to seeing the Comprehensive Home Assessment Report with all the recommendations, costs, and paybacks periods.
One of the CFL bulbs (100 watt equiv) I bought on sale burned out after less than month. I am hoping this is an abberation. It was on maybe an average of 2 hours a day. I calculated it used about 7.5 cents worth of electricity. An incadesent buld would have used about 27.5 cents of electricity. So I saved 20 cent in electricity. But the GE CFL bulb cost me $3 (or $2…I had an additional $1 off coupon for some of the bulbs) on sale, and I could have bought an incadescent bulb for about 25 cents (4/$1). The bulb had a 5 year warranty from GE, but the warranty requires that I return the bulb. So I mailed the bulb and stuff back to GE lighting which cost me $2.55. I figure that $2.55 is cheaper than I can buy another CFL for.
I am hoping the rest of the bulbs last longer than a month. They are supposed to have a longer life than incadescent bulbs. The bulb was used in a regular floor lamp. Nothing that would have retained heat or done anyhing to shorten the bulbs life. If I haven problems with more of the GE bulbs, maybe I will try a different brand. It could be the stuff about a longer bulb life is a bunch of crap.
I installed my new Ultra Seal Dryer Vent today. The vent came without an attached duct. I was hesitant to rip the duct attached to my current vent in case there was a problem installing the new vent. So I bought a piece of ducting at the local going-out-of-business hardware store for about a dollar. I trimmed it to 12 inches long, and siliconed it into the vent.
One thing I noticed was that the plug was not seating flush, and left a small gap through which air would leak. I thought maybe I made a mistake in buying this if it wasn’t going to seal well. Upon closer inspection I noticed that there was a small bit of ‘flashing’ on the plug piece from the molding process. I trimmed this off with a sharp knife, and now the plug seats well and there is no gap.
I pulled off the old vent, and saw there was no insulation below the vent hole. There was some above, and some to the side. So I took the time to shove some insulation in there. I also used Great Stuff to seal a gap between the dry wall and the floor. I take it this is where I have had mice coming in.
I spread a bead of caulk around the hole on the outside, and shoved the vent into place. Six screws, and the unit was mounted. 
I went back inside, re-connected the dryer hose, and pushed the dryer back into place. Done.
Afterword: My wife commented afterwards that the new dryer vent works. She said that on cold days, the inside of the dryer used to be like an ice box. But with the new dryer vent, it isn’t. Awesome!
We have been burning our wood stove almost continuously since we got it. Though our December electric usage is about half of what it was for December last year, our savings was only about $120. But I estimate we burned $200 worth of wood. So I guess switching to burning wood is not going to save us money, at least if we buy it. Our cost for electric was about 4.62 cents per KWH. If our electric costs go up dramatically than the wood may very well be more cost effective. We do have access to free wood on our property, so burning free wood would definately be cheaper than buying electricity. Back to the problem of getting the free wood up the hill. We still have wood, so will continue to burn it. Maybe we will do better this month. I have been busy sealing air leaks which will make our house more energy efficient whether we use electric or wood heat.
The wood stove will still be very nice during a power outage which more often than not happen during the winter.
We currently have four recessed can lights in our kitchen. Each is loaded with a 65 watt incandescent flood bulb. These lights are on a lot, so I would like to replace them with energy efficient fluorescent alternative. Two of the lights are eyeball type lights that focus on our island. We are looking are replacing the island at some point. As long as the island gets light, I don’t really care if light is focused on it or not. Part of me is thinking rip the wood ceiling down, and replace it with dry wall, and then I can move the lights where I want. I would rather have the lights directly over the island instead of off to either side, and aimed at an angle. Many of the lights seem to run $50-$100, which brings up the question of payback. If I pay $50+ for a light and am going from 65 watts to 13 watts or 26 watts, or something in between, how long before I save money. Of course the 65 watt bulbs burn out relatively often, and are not cheap. So I could be saving money from that standpoint as well.
So anyway, I am researching. The CFL style recessed cans are not as cheap as the incadescent type recessed can downlights.