I've just read The Owner-Builder Book for the second time. My wife got it from the library two weeks ago. And then got a copy from Books-A-Million for an early Christmas present. She knows how I am about needing to know. Sid in Iowa, LA

Starting up

Posted to Houston-72012596 by Stan in Houston, TX on 1/21/2012

I'm working on re-framing a house in Houston. Never done it before, but have some friends who know what they are doing who are going to help. How do you figure cost for traditional "stick" framing for a 1,400 sq ft home?

Posted by Peter in Burlington, WA on 1/22/2012 Peter's Forum Posts: 18 Interview Answers: 36 Average Forum Rating: 4.32 Randomly Selected Image 1/22/2012

Well, for an Owner-Builder like yourself, I'd say that there are three major ways I can think of. 1. Draw a sketch of what you are doing, including dimensions and take it to a lumberyard you are thinking about buying from. The estimators there can do a "take-off", which is to develop a list of all the lumber and supplies you might need, including their bid on the costs. Things are slow these days, so they should be happy to work with you. 2. Develop a description of the project, including a calculation of the square footage and compare it to the average costs of doing that same kind of project in your area. Calculators of that sort exist on the Web, but I will warn you that they are usually there to get your information so contractors can contact you about the project. 3. You can find out what similar projects are costing locally by talking to people who have already done it. I presume the "friends" who are helping you are doing it for free or for pizza, etc. If you are paying them at all, it places your project into an entirely different picture and you had best figure out what is going on before there are misunderstandings and unhappiness.

Ceiling drywall started

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 1/19/2012 12:42:20 PM

We picked a rainy day to start on the drywall. Picked up in the rain, had to cover the drywall with plastic on the way back to the dome, and unload in the rain. Thankfully it was not raining hard, and the drywall stayed dry. We got three sheets placed on the ceiling. My first attempt at using a RotoZip tool was, ahem, not too accurate. The next two electric boxes went MUCH better (see pics).

We are using a backer board system for the ends of the drywall sheets called "Buttboard"made by Trim-Tex. Basically you screw both ends of the drywall to the Buttboard. Since there's a very small valley cut into the Buttboard, it forces the ends of the drywall to bend into the valley, giving you a 1/8" shallow V across the seam. When you mud over it, the seam tape doesn't make a bump. It seems to do as it's supposed to; anything to make the sheetrock easier to finish!

Photos

The first attempt at using the RotoZip cutout tool. Not so good.	Next cutout came out just fine!	The T-braces helped a LOT!
Patrick puts in drywall screws	Three panels up, several dozen to go.

Ready for drywall

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 1/11/2012 3:32:00 PM

We went through the dome and pulled extra nails, checked clearances and generally cleaned up getting ready for drywall. Got the upstairs bath fan put in and a few other items done, ready to put drywall up!

Photos

Toilet and shower drain for upstairs

Patrick painting the front door.

Sheetrock

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 1/11/2012

Sheetrock is in. What a change! Even though this structure is under 1000 sq. ft. of living space, there was a large amount of sheetrock needed to include the unheated entryway and the garage on the lower level. We're very pleased with the outcome.

Photos

Vaulted ceiling	Very nice job on the arched windows.	Sheetrock in unheated entryway. (The wall on the left is concrete)
Office area	Bedroom

Stormwater Management

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 1/11/2012

A stormwater management plan was required to accommodate the roof runoff (impermeable surface). This part of the project came in at $3,000, including the engineer's design and me doing the manual labor. Gravel-less chambers were used due to the topography of site. 

Photos

Roof drainage line.	Two 75-foot runs of gravel-less chambers.	Type-30 catch basin
After backfill

2012 January Update

Posted to Workshop by Patricia in Florissant, CO on 1/8/2012

We decided to just build a steel building. We used Red Bear Excavations, Sun Peak Engineering and Creative Concrete. Very happy with the process and the contractors.

We also managed to get an electrical easement with the Forest Service and Teller County. The electric installation (13 poles) cost us approx. $28,000. We decided against solar, since both our closest neighbors complain their systems just weren't enough power through the harsh winter season.

We are looking at Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for our first floor, walkout basement, and roofing. Anyone know of an architect, engineer, builder, SIP company to refer us too?

I have been playing with a design program, but would like help with orientation and suggestions for our lot. We have a view of Pikes Peak, but it isn't facing south and our main entrance will be facing the north side where the snow really hits.

Photos

Posted by Peter in Burlington, WA on 1/9/2012 Peter's Forum Posts: 18 Interview Answers: 36 Average Forum Rating: 4.32 Randomly Selected Image 1/9/2012	How much power will you be using? If you consider the current value of the 30% Federal Tax credit, for that outlay you could have gotten a $40,000 solar system, which is pretty substantial as the prices continue to come down.
Posted by Patricia in Florissant, CO on 1/10/2012 Patricia's Forum Posts: 2 Journal Entries: 6 Interview Answers: 15 Average Forum Rating: 3.50 Image from Patricia's blog 1/10/2012	Our closest neighbor installed the top of the line system in 2006 for $30,000. He is now thinking of connecting to our electric because his solar isn't enough and he has to rely on his generator too much.  In addition, his system has been struck by lightning twice and has been a big expense to fix. At least, if our poles get hit with lightning the electric company fixes them. It might be the cold temperatures, which can go to minus 35 degrees and the high altitude (9,200) that play a factor. You would think being in Colorado and having approximately 360 days of sunshine would be enough to generate the power you need. They moved to California and rented their home. The renters were already complaining in November that the solar wasn't enough and having to use the generator. Of course, when you are on solar, you don't put up Halloween lights. So even though you might be "solar wise", the people you rent to might not be. Also, it took them over two years to get a renter.
Posted by Peter in Burlington, WA on 1/10/2012 Peter's Forum Posts: 18 Interview Answers: 36 Average Forum Rating: 4.32 Randomly Selected Image 1/10/2012	The cold and the altitude will facilitate the output of the solar panels. Considering that the price of solar panels continues to decrease and the availability of the Federal Tax credit, you may be able to get twice as much capacity as your neighbor got back in 2006.

Progress!!

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 12/30/2011 10:06:32 AM

The stone is up on the fireplace inside. It looks great as I knew it would. Our stone guy Billy did a great job. It only took him a few days to get it complete. Cabinet hardware is on and I love it.

We went ahead and purchased the kitchen appliances. I got a great deal on my dishwasher, the year model was being discontinued, so I got the one I had really liked for about $300 less. They all look really nice. The stair treads are also installed. It took awhile to get the treads stained and sealed. Painted the risers and trim. The stair landing needs to be completed we are putting a tile mosaic trimmed in wood like the treads.

I was disappointed that we weren't in for Christmas this year, so we put up our 12-ft tree in the dome anyway!! We have yet to spend a night there, but who knows, maybe we will ring in the New Year there. Whitey has been spending some weekends at "The Camp" deer hunting. He needs time to de-stress from work and the building project. I am sure I have left something out, but now here are the pictures.

Photos

Fireplace, with flat screen mount	Cabinet hardware and Whirlpool Gold dishwasher	A look into the shower with the new shower door

Electric entrance conduit completed

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 12/29/2011

Got a few minor items done, and one major accomplishment. Our oldest dug the trench from the transformer to the house and we placed the main electric power conduit to the meter location, while the youngest dug out all around the house to expose the foundation a little, and washed and scrubbed it so we can seal it and paint it. We had a little issue with fire ants getting into the house in one corner. Although they are gone now (thanks to Amdro fire ant bait), we are going to re-seal and paint the bottom edge of the dome where the panels meet the foundation. We also had a little time to ride around on the mini bikes, have a bonfire, and fill the cracks in the dome floor with concrete sealer. Fun family day!

Photos

Matt and his cruiser	Pat in the hole. It's been almost five years since I placed the conduit under the transformer, so we had to dig around to find it. Ended up with a pretty big hole under the transformer trying to find the conduit so we could connect to it.	Pat getting ready to glue his end of the conduit.
Getting ready to place and glue the last turn on the conduit.

Posted by Mark in APO, AE on 1/21/2012 Mark's Forum Posts: 12 Interview Answers: 63 Average Forum Rating: 3.93 Mark's Selected Image 1/21/2012	Hey Brian, I'm curious to know why you are running conduit all the way to the transformer.  I just did a little research on this subject for the area where I plan to build (in Georgia) and the power company only wants the conduit stubbed down into the ground, but not run all the way to the transformer. I've enjoyed watching your progress. Mark
Posted by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 1/21/2012 Brian's Forum Posts: 86 Journal Entries: 108 Interview Answers: 248 Average Forum Rating: 3.87 Image from Brian's blog 1/21/2012	It must be a Florida Power and Light requirement. I considered asking about it, but since it was only 12 feet I decided it was cheap insurance. Plus, they provide the conduit and since I dug, they took $150 off the $400 fee for energizing. The primary side (from the pole to the transformer) is about 400 feet, and they required that in conduit as well.

Of Inverters and Backup Generators

Posted to Tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO on 12/12/2011

Bummer of a week, but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

The Inverter: As I mentioned a few days ago one of my two Outback inverters (VFX3648 models, top of the line) burned up in a fury of voltage-consuming fever. This has left me with a single inverter that can only handle 3600W, which seems like a lot until you realize that a microwave is 1500W and the well pump is another 1500W, so if they should come on at the same time while you probably have a couple of lights or a TV or something like that on--well, you may find yourself in the dark, as the inverter cuts off power to prevent an overload (they are apparently something like 10 times faster than a regular circuit breaker). Kinda a pain to deal with when you have a big house.

Solar LeRoy came up to take a gander at it and after some consultation with the kind folks at Outback (who said, "Yeah, sometimes that happens") he took it off the wall and back into town. Rather than ship a 50-pound mostly steel box across the country, Outback is sending him a new set of electronics and cards for the inverter; he'll replace them, run it through a couple of tests and then hopefully bring it back in a day or so.

The Backup Generator: We got our Ecogen what seems a long, long time ago now, (back in the heady warm days of mid October) and have been trying to get it up and running ever since. All kinds of things have interfered with getting it up and running... we had trouble getting it set up on its pad, then we had trouble getting a proper regulator for it (the first one was too small), and then the timing didn't work for Solar LeRoy to come hook it up, then when he did hook it up he had to wrestle with wretchedly poor installation instructions (to adapt it from 120V to 240V), and after all that, we had a problem getting a silly manometer before we could hook the thing up. But eventually we DID get it all hooked up, fired it up--and it stopped after about a minute with a neat looking "Low Voltage" error on its status screen.

Ooookkkkkaaaaayyyy.... what the heck did that mean?

So out comes the local Generac guy, Generac Luke. He's a great guy and real easy to talk to, and tells us all kinds of stuff about this generator. Apparently Generac came out with them because they had so many customers using their "regular" generators as off-grid backup jobs, and since they're not really built for that, having lots of complaints and problems as a result. The first generation sold out so fast that they were flabbergasted and quickly came out with a second and it promptly sold out too. Our model is a third generation, incorporating some fixes and efficiency improvements but (apparently) not any better documentation--the whole device is so new that most of the Generac techs don't even have updated installation and repair manuals for it yet. 

So Generac Luke pokes around and runs some tests, then calls Generac, then does some more tests. He finally decides that the control board is bad... and, of course, they don't have any on hand (new generator, remember?). They've ordered a couple (so they can more quickly respond to other folks in the area should they need to) and the replacement should show up in a week or so. So there's that at least.

In the meantime though we are flying without a net... no backup for the system, and carefully watching our simultaneous power usage so we don't overload our single inverter.

The joys of living off grid! The good news is I know it'll get better soon, and since we're nearly at the darkest time of the year, the daylight (i.e., power producing) hours will soon be increasing...

Yay!


Steven in Colorado Springs

We've Been Googled!

Posted to Tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO on 12/12/2011

Well, looks like Google Earth has finally found Tanglewood!

Looks pretty danged neat if I do say so myself...


Steven in Colorado Springs

Photos

Pretty danged good shot, all things considered.

Things are picking up, passed framing and insulation inspection

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 12/10/2011

Good times working with the oldest lately. Got a framing and insulation inspection and passed both. We needed one extra 2x4 in a load-bearing area of the wall (which we put in right away) and all was good. Got all the floor and corner blocking installed. I want the double 2x4's on the floor so there's more to nail to when I put up the drywall and the baseboards, too. The extra blocking will let me lift the drywall up to be 1" or more off the cement, so finish flooring will still be under the drywall. Also if I have a minor flood (clothes washer hose bursting, leak somewhere) the drywall shouldn't get wet. Now that the framing inspection is done, we can put up drywall, and finish out everything. The only thing left is all the final inspections!

Photos

Blocking on the floor plate.	Bosco decided to shake his head JUST when I took the picture...	One of the maples we planted is turning red for fall. We planted six, and four of them made it through the first year. Looking pretty good!

Inverter Down!

Posted to Tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO on 12/7/2011

Well now, this is a kick in the head...

For Pearl Harbor Day one of my inverters got bombed!

At least that's how it feels. We had just returned home from a day in town and had unpacked groceries and whatnot, starting to settle in for the evening. I fired up my laptop to check on the status of the solar system (a really neat piece of software called LogMeIn lets me watch the WinVerter readouts from my house) and saw that our power usage was a bit higher than I thought it would be, around 900W versus the 500W or so we "normally" use.

Okay, not a big deal--after all folks just got home and were turning things on, etc. It would settle down in a bit, surely...

Nope. In a few minutes it was 1,200W. Then it went to 1,700W a couple of minutes later. Then 2,200W. Then 3,400W!

Good grief! What the heck was going on? Were people nuking food in both microwaves and running the well pump simultaneously?!?

I ran around the house to check... no well pump usage, nothing unusual going on anywhere. By the time I got back to the laptop the house energy draw was a whopping 4,500W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started turning off systems in the house, trying to figure out what the heck was going on...

...and then suddenly WinVerter's power usage report plummeted back to 600W and one of the inverters was reporting "ERROR" in big, friendly red letters.

Uh oh. Pulling on my shoes and coat (it's about 10^o F out there right now) I  head up to the shed, where I opened the door to inhale the rich aroma of burning electronics....

Yep, long story short one of my inverters just died, taking about 2V of my stored battery power with it. I fortunately have two of the things (I remember when the various solar bidders I worked with last summer had tried to talk me out of that to save money... hah!) so as long as we watch our power usage so we don't have two "big draw" appliances on at once we should be okay. I doubt that there's any damage to the batteries as all of the cabling is designed to theoretically support both inverters running flat out (about 7,200W in total). Solar LeRoy is coming up to take a gander at it tomorrow but I suspect he'll basically say "yep, it's dead". Then we'll order a new one since this is under warranty.

High hassle factor, but at least I have redundancy!


Steven in Colorado Springs

DECEMBER 05, 2011

Posted to Our-simple-home by Bob in LaPorte, IN on 12/5/2011

Since the last entry, we were able to get the windows installed and Jim was able to finish the roofing. Because I had to go to work at 1 pm, the windows were a two-day project.

Mother Nature wasn't kind to Jim as he struggled to finish the roof. A cold windy day with gusts up to 40 mph challenged Jim a bit. Jim wasn't the only one who battled the elements that day, as Adam and his crew from A & T Concrete poured our 24x40 garage floor.

Friday morning we spent installing our 8-foot patio door. One of our best decisions was to go with the 8-foot vs. the 6-foot patio door. It's a better view looking out the back from the living room, plus if we need to move something large into the house, we have the larger opening. Saturday Jim spent installing the entry doors.

Today was a busy day. Plumber Nick Goodman and his crew were busy running wastewater drains, and installed the MANABLOC for the PEX plumbing. At Nick's suggestion, the PEX will be recessed into a 2x6 wall, keeping it neat and tidy.

Electrician Tom Ault was also keeping us company. He was able to put the exterior lights in. We are going with recessed lighting in the soffits along the front of the house leading to the garage and driveway. There will be a total of 6 lights along the front, three on the garage side (one above each of the two garage doors and the other centered towards the end) and two in the back of the house (one above the garage service door and one above the patio door). The lights in the back will be supplemented by four floodlights lighting up a future patio. Two more floodlights will be placed centered above the two garage doors to light up the driveway. We went with the recessed light for two reasons: 1) gives a very nice effect with good lighting coverage, and 2) after time wall-mounted coach lights seem to rust.

The neighbors have been wonderful, allowing us to either run an extension cord for electric or use of their generator for power. A very brief unpleasant sound (something similar to nuts and bolts in a blender) last Wednesday was traced to Jim's generator. A quick glance was all that was needed to determine the problem. A tennis ball sized hole in the engine case confirmed: "NASA, we have a problem." Fortunately nobody was in front of it when it went, as fragments of the case were found about 8 to 10 feet away. But things are progressing very smoothly. Thanks be to God. As you can see by a couple of the photos, we did have an unexpected visit by none other than... Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Photos

Almost ready for framing inspection!

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 11/30/2011

Got a lot done in two days again. Installed the stair risers, ripped out the tub apron and re-framed it, put in the Unistrut for mounting the outside electric meter can, and a few other things. It's getting a little cold too, so we tried out the propane heater. It's nice. The dome is very well insulated, too. We closed the windows and went to bed at 9 pm, and the inside of the house was 66°F. With NO heat at all (except the heat of two adults sleeping), the temp in the morning at 8 am was still 66°F. The low outside was 35°F that night. We LOVE our dome.

Photos

Stairs with risers installed	Stairs close up	Re-framed tub apron
Main water valves in their new box	Support Unistrut for electric meter box	The new temporary heater
Luke approves of the heater.

Posted by Tim in North Pole, AK on 12/3/2011 Tim's Forum Posts: 17 Journal Entries: 25 Interview Answers: 66 Average Forum Rating: 4.20 Tim's Selected Image 12/3/2011	Good luck on your inspection. As a fellow DIY'er, I can fully appreciate the milestone you're about to achieve. You'll be relieved, to say the least.
Posted by Peter in Burlington, WA on 12/4/2011 Peter's Forum Posts: 18 Interview Answers: 36 Average Forum Rating: 4.32 Randomly Selected Image 12/4/2011	I'm curious as to how the stairs passed inspection. Don't they have to be consistent or regular, or something like that for code?
Posted by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 12/5/2011 Brian's Forum Posts: 86 Journal Entries: 108 Interview Answers: 248 Average Forum Rating: 3.87 Image from Brian's blog 12/5/2011	The stairs are what's called "alternating tread stairs". They are not code for living space, but they ARE okay for storage/attic space. To save time and money, I am not finishing out the top floor, so it's "attic space".

Instant Driveway! (Some Assembly Required)

Posted to Tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO on 11/29/2011

Admittedly cutting it a bit close to the heavy snow, but today I got 30 tons of driveway gravel delivered for my latest "shovel ready" chore.

Glad the Gator has a snowplow blade on it... this isn't exactly what it's meant for, but it'll work a dang sight better than having to do everything by hand!  ;)

The chores never end with a new house, do they?


Steven in Colorado Springs

Photos

Long shot of the gravel piles looking up the driveway. At least he was able to dump the heavy stuff along the driveway apron... that will make things a LOT easier.	Yet another view. The larger/lighter stuff is 3/4" granite; the smaller stuff is 1/4" breeze with fines. It'll help hold the larger stones together.	Yet another view of the unsuspecting driveway and the soon-to-be-spread gravel.
At this point I think I just couldn't stop taking pictures...	Lots of gravel...	Closeup of lots of gravel...

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

Posted to Our-simple-home by Bob in LaPorte, IN on 11/27/2011

The past two weeks are a blur. I've wanted to update the site many times, but between helping Jim during the day and back to my regular 8-hour shift at work, there hasn't been much time... barely enough for sleep. Since the last posting, we've finished putting the sheathing down on the roof. Two rows of ice shield followed by 15# felt paper. Of course the first day we dealt with winds (gusts up to 40 mph) and then a brief rain. But then again, these past two weeks we've run the gamut of northwest Indiana weather... rain, snow, sleet, winds, bitter cold and sunny and warm. The shorter days haven't helped either. We've worked with a wide range of lighting conditions... the setting sun, under the dimly lit moon, DeWalt flashlight, and halogen lamps (and even my car's headlights).

Our 113 bundles of shingles were boomed up by our Big C buddies. We started shingling on Nov 17 with the last row going down this past Saturday Nov 26. A few rainy days didn't help us. But those days weren't wasted. One day was spent going through the house adding drywall nailers. A large stack of scrap lumber that was at one time bracing during the framing didn't go to waste, as it was used for the drywall nailers. Trying to use all scraps of wood as not to waste. The smallest pieces of wood that were usable made for a nice bonfire.

The housewrap is on awaiting the siding. Still trying to decide on a color. My wife Mary is very indecisive... Gave her one job... and she still hasn't completed it... Just kidding.

Our HVAC and plumber are scheduled for this week. Sad to see the framing stage coming to a close. Although there is still a little more to go. Need to frame a 2x6 wall in the basement where the plumber will recess the PEX manifold into it. It was a great idea by our plumber Nick Goodman. At a later time, we'll be able to conceal it behind doors. One other area I want to "re-frame" is in the bathroom. Never really cared much about store-bought medicine cabinets for above the bathroom vanity. It seems you can never fit a lot on the narrow shelves. What I plan to do is to make my own "cabinet" using 1x6 maple or poplar recessed between the studs above the vanity. I like to use the metal pilaster clips for the shelves. Depending on my time, I'd like to make the vanity and use the same wood for the medicine cabinet.

But that should be about it for the framing. I think we did pretty good in the planning of the house. Our builder Jim figured in for three wall changes and we had one. We originally planned for a 24-inch panty cabinet on the kitchen/front foyer common wall. Seeing how the two foot was already planned to be used, we had Jim build a 2'x5' pantry closet with the doors in the foyer area. It will be three steps farther from the original pantry door, but we doubled the pantry size, utilizing the space to get more storage area for a lower cost.

Photos

Plumbing

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 11/26/2011 9:43:54 PM

PEX plumbing

Photos

Posted by Justin on 2/2/2012 Justin's Forum Posts: 0 Journal Entries: 1 Interview Answers: 64 Randomly Selected Image 2/2/2012

Did you install the PEX? We are interested in using PEX, but it's pretty new to the Florida market... A lot of plumbers haven't heard of it and think anything new is bad... Thanks! Justin

The LED Experiment

Posted to Tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO on 11/26/2011

While we're waiting for the last little bit of a gauge hookup to arrive so we can use our new Ecogen generator, I decided it was time to tackle some of the excess power usage in the Tanglewood in the form of lights.

As most folks know (especially if you're off-grid) lighting takes up a significant portion of your power requirements, with estimates up to around 20% or so of the energy "budget". When you're off-grid that's significant, and so the most common thing for folks to do is restrict their lighting use, have a lot of windows, use task lighting, and of course put CFLs pretty much everywhere.

Which is more or less what I did with most of Tanglewood's lighting, but there were some holdouts that were mostly due to our being rushed in final few weeks of construction. The main lights downstairs are a really cool iron rose look sporting 6 halogens per fixture (total of 24--at 35W per), and there are three more just like it upstairs in the library. All of the guest bathrooms have these gorgeous track lighting fixtures that serve as accent lights, and each of them also uses 6 halogen bulbs. The apartment has a fixture that somebody put pure incandescents into during the last few days of construction (75W per), and then just for good measure the master bathroom has two fittings which have these tiny little incandescent bulbs that plug in with pins... and are 35W each. Don't forget the master bedroom with a lovely ceiling fan/light fixture that has three more 40W incandescents.

Then there's the exterior lights, four of which are carriage styles sporting two 40W incandescents per fixture while the larger pair flanking the front door each carry four 40W bulbs. Don't forget the exterior onion lights around the computer room tower and the master bedroom wing--a total of 9 fixtures, each of which has a 40W clear bulb.

All told the "old fashioned" lighting in my house totals some 100-ish bulbs with an average wattage of 35W per bulb... way more than if they all held CFLs! The average 65W equivalent CFL runs between 13W and 15W per fixture, making them far more efficient generally if I were to simply replace now that we've got some time to breathe a bit.

Of course the kicker is that they don't make CFLs for all of these fixtures, especially the weird pin and halogen ones. Pondering what to do here, I decided to investigate LED lights.

Let's be very clear--LED lights are barely mature enough as of this writing for use in houses. They cost WAY too much and the brighter ones use nearly as much energy as their equivalent CFL bulb, making them simply not worth swapping out even as replacements. But they do come in a wider variety of styles, however, and some of those looked to be perfect for my use.

So my first purchase here was to replace the three bulbs in the master bedroom chandelier, reasoning that since this was right here it would be easy for us to judge how well they worked. I couldn't locate any 40W incandescent equivalents, but did find some really neat looking 35W jobs (made by a company named MaxLite). I ordered them about a week ago and they arrived today, so I figured I'd jot down my initial thoughts.

The bulbs arrived in a hugely oversized box, nicely packaged in three individual smaller boxes. Each bulb is rather fat, but about the same length as a typical candelabra bulb, with the LEDs inside stacked on top of each other looking somewhat like little crystal block pyramids. Two of them were very cleanly set on pins inside the bulb itself, while the third appeared to be a bit crooked (as if its pins didn't set properly all the way into the bulb base) and I wondered if it was going to prove defective.

Taking out the older bulbs I screwed these new puppies in and turned on the fixture. They lit up instantly (a big advantage over CFLs) and produce a sharp white light which I like in this environment but which might annoy others (I think MaxLite offers different shades). They seemed a bit brighter when they were first turned on, though possibly I've just gotten used to them, and while they are indeed slightly dimmer than the 40W incandescents that were in the fixture before, it's not a huge difference.

Pros: Instantly on full brightness, great power usage (1.7W/bulb vs. 40W before), and a neat design with the crystal pyramids. Definitely a talking point.

Cons: Still pricey (these were $10/bulb), not quite as bright as the incandescents they replaced, and one is a bit sloppily made (not what you'd expect for this price).

I think I like 'em though. My next batch will be replacements for the halogen bulbs in much of the rest of the house--we rarely use those particular fixtures right now (outside of the bathroom) simply because we know what a huge power drain they are. Replacing all of those with LEDs will put a big dent into the energy budget of the house!

Amazing how there are still a zillion things to do around Tanglewood even after what felt like non-stop summer chores!


Steven in Colorado Springs