Young and Building in Maine
Colleen & Jeremy Reynolds
Efficiency More Important Than Ever…
“My husband Jeremy and I are MCES employees in the process of building our first home. We are just starting a family and want to make sure that we choose the most efficient, cost effective systems for our home. Of course, being in the industry keeps us up on the latest technology.
A New York Thermal Trinity 200 - 200,000 BTU wall hung, propane boiler was the first thing that we bought...Intentionally over-sized to accommodate any future modifications to the size of the house, the unit itself is no larger than a suitcase…that leaves so much more room in our basement for other things.. And…because domestic fuel is readily available, The price per gallon stays more stable than fossil fuel. Gas is also more efficient and cleaner to burn. We bought our own propane tank (used) which brought the cost per gallon of propane even lower.
We tried to do everything we could afford to make the house energy efficient…..A ledge, too costly to remove prevented us from facing the house South, and ended up facing East. Luckily, the Velux panels we plan to install to heat water have the ability to capture the sun at 45 degrees from South. We can still expect 93 to 95% efficiency on collection because the absorber is prismatic. Other solar panels aren’t so forgiving.
Insulation was big on our list….Until we were actually involved in this industry we never realized the importance of choosing the right insulation. After a bit of research, we ended up with R-19 in the walls. We also put it in the attic and blew in on top of it which made our attic unusable. But we had to weigh the benefits. The long term saving of having no heat escape through the roof is immense. When it snowed last winter, my mother’s roof had snow melting off, while our roof stayed completely covered- a sign of no heat loss.
Radiant heat is another thing that we did to save some money….It cost a bit more initially, but the payback and benefit of it is truly worth while. Radiant heat is the most efficient form of heat available, not to mention that fact that (and the baby loves playing a crawling on the warm wood and tile floors!!) that requires significantly less operating time to maintain the desired warmth compared to furnaces and other methods of heating keeping operational costs to a minimum. High efficiency boilers or electric radiant floor systems makes radiant heat one of the most efficient ways to heat your home...
Plumbing Fixtures…“ Even though it’s tempting to go for “big box” store pricing on popular name brand fixtures like Kohler and Moen, we understand that we were better off going through our wholesale distributor at MCES. On the surface, the fixtures look the same. But cheaper priced fixtures = “cheaper” parts and that means replacement is soon. We can’t afford to install disposable fixtures.”
Thinking Long Term…Yes, we’re young now, but we plan to be here long term, and even if we’re not, understand the resale value of installing fixtures that are easy to use by people of all ages. We installed a “comfort Height” toilet (higher than standard models) and a huge walk-in shower that could easily become wheelchair accessible if needed. One of the benefits of working with MCES is that if a system has the Mid-coast Energy Seal of Approval, you can be confident that it’s a wise investment…we’ve done the research for you. We do not carry any product, that we would not install in our own homes…”