Florida Building Code: Clothes Dryers must vent to outside

Well that was pretty easy to find. Yup, it does appear that our dryer vent is in violation of Florida Building Code 2004 Residential Section M1501. The first sentence of this section of the building code is:

Dryer exhaust systems shall be independent of all other systems, shall
convey the moisture to the outdoors and shall terminate on the outside
of the building.

We had hired a private inspector who caught a number of things that needed to be corrected during the construction of our home. And this is fairly common, really, since at the time there was so much construction going on and each construction manager was responsible for many simultaneous builds. It appears our inspector (with whom we are very satisfied, and will continue to recommend highly) ...missed this one item. There's so much to check, and he did find and document plenty of items. I absolutely would never purchase another home (new or used) without having the home inspected thoroughly first.

So I'll probably contact the builder on Monday and see whether this will be easy or difficult to resolve.

Sigh.

Dryer vents to open attic!

In preparation for a few things we're planning to do soon (solar water heater and some Solatubes), I was up in the attic area today to scope things out. I wanted to make sure that the areas where we'd need to be working will be accessible, and that we'll be able to position the Solatubes where we'd like to have them. While crawling around, I noticed that the vent from our dryer discharges the warm, moist air into the open area of the attic! Nice. In other places where I've lived, that is illegal. Our house is only two years old, so things should be up to pretty recent code standards.

So...I'm going to research and see what the local building codes specify and decide whether to mess with getting the builder to correct this, or maybe just add a rooftop vent myself. Sometimes one gets better quality by doing the job oneself ...even if someone else should have already done the job.

Researching solar water heating

Continuing with the effort to lessen our carbon footprint on the planet, we're exploring a solar hot water heating solution. I browsed on over to FindSolar.com, entered some data about our location and electricity and water usage, and then read about some of our options for harnessing more of the sun's energy for our needs. I would love to be generating all of our electricity from panels on the roof, but I'm afraid we just can't afford the cost. But we can afford the installation of a system that would handle our water heating.

We already have a solar system that heats the water in our swimming pool. And it does a decent enough job of it that February was the only month when I did not use the pool. So we do have plenty of sunshine to do the job. If you click the little image on the left, you'll see a representation of how a system would work to heat the home's water. One of the features that I like is that it would use a PV panel to produce the electricity needed to run the pump. So it would truly use the sun to power the whole system. The initial estimate is that our net cost would be US$1,950. The full cost would be close to US$3,500 ...but some rebates and tax credits from the state and federal government will reduce that nicely.

So I'm now waiting for some bids and more info. We may also explore just putting in a tankless electric  water heater -  more research to be done - but I'd really like to go solar. Watch for the updates :)

Litton house: electricity 100% from renewable sources

Yup, 100% of the electricity that we consume at our house is generated from renewable sources. Well, that's the net effect anyway. Our local electric company, TECO, has a program whereby one can purchase renewable energy 'blocks'. Each block costs US$5 per month and is equal to 200 kWh of electricity. Our average monthly use is currently 1400 kWh (more in summer and less in winter). So we have signed up to purchase 7 blocks per month. It's a bit silly, in a sense, that we'll be paying US$35 a month more each month for energy that ultimately costs less once one factors in the long-term costs to the planet. But that's OK. The way this program works in reality is that by purchasing 7 blocks of energy each month from renewable sources, TECO will route 1400 kWh of electricity (generated from solar / landfill gas / biomass sources) into the portion of the grid that serves our neighborhood.

My hope is that enough homes and businesses will sign on to these programs that eventually the bulk of the energy we use will be produced from renewable sources.

Shake your fanny

You can stop "normal" aging. That's the little article I read this morning in the Parade section of the newspaper. The author, Dr. Henry S. Lodge, basically states the reasons why "use it or lose it" is such an  important concept. Eons ago, our bodies would semi shut down in the winter. As a matter of survival, we would 'decay as fast as possible' during the winter to survive (since there would be little food on which to survive). Then in the springtime when we'd become active again hunting and gathering, our bodies would rejuvenate. The activity would stimulate our cells to now focus not on decay, but on growth and replenishment.

Read the article! It raises more questions in my mind. For example, given that all but a few stem cells in our bodies are constantly being replaced with new cells, why should a body necessarily retain memories that are perhaps undesirable, like 'bad' joints or even scars? Shouldn't we be able to spontaneously heal? Shouldnt' we be able to overcome ailments by offering our systems environments in which to thrive and rejuvenate?

And that's kind of the point of the article. That some of the stereotypical aging patterns needn't be so. That our bodies offer us far more potential than we often allow. Very interesting read.

So the moral: Excercise! Shake your fanny!