The Ups and Downs of Sustainability
With Felicity Stevens Australia ๐ฆ๐บ @Felicity11 and Jennifer Schnier ๐จ๐ฆ (HAB 2022-2023)
โUnlocking your thermostat can significantly reduce your emissions.โ
Highlights
Thoughts from Up North Myth
โI have to keep my thermostat locked, otherwise the guests will jack up the heatโ.
Truth
โNot allowing your guests to control the temperature, may mean your hard earned money is going out the windowโฆ literallyโ
Where is the logic in that?
As hosts we welcome guests from international and local areas throughout the globe. What is more is that as hosts we welcome people from various backgrounds, families, ethnicities and cultures.
The old saying, โDifferent strokes for different folksโ, couldnโt be truer when you consider how people sleep, live and regulate their own bodyโs temperatures.
Thoughts from Down Under
Down under we donโt say thermostat we call it air conditioning or central heating.
Most homes in Australia and New Zealand do not have the capacity to lock in a temperature for heating or cooling so it is up to the guests to switch it on and set the temperature. For many international guests they may not realize that you do not need to leave the air conditioning or heating on during the day when they are out. Many people also do not realize that for every degree that you increase or decrease the temperature the impact on your power bill can rise significantly.
I suggest you leave a note beside the controls with suggested temperatures for the different times of the year and a gentle reminder note beside the front door asking guests to switch this off when they go out.
To help guests feel comfortable do add extra cotton or wool blankets for not just bedding but also to curl up on a couch or chair, to your listing so guests will need less heating or cooling.
To help retain the heating and cooling efficiency of your home I suggest hosts do the following:
General tips for improving home efficiency
What do we want to know from you?
Let us know! Join the conversation.
@Jennifer3225
Glad you found something in my rant useful! Very gracious of you.
Yes, I find that suggesting a range works really well. In fact I recall including it in my house rules not long ago.
A lot of host have recommended the Nest thermostat. They can be configured with just about any kind of heating/ac. My main unit is also a heat pump, with auxiliary heat, for when it gets below freezing, which is very rare in my area. Anyway, it's pretty easy to install the Nest yourself. They have a step by step guide, and their technical support is very good if you need help.
Apologies again. I just just sold a 2019 vehicle because of machinable issues, and everything is also so expensive. Most of the appliances are also much more expensive, and weren't cheap to begin with. So these appliances and machines were supposed to make life easier but now are so expensive and disruptive if they break. At least as host we can stay on top of the maintenance, changing filters, etc. In fact I just purchased a kit to clean the coils. It's so humid here that the drain pipes clog up with mold.
This is the one page instructions I put under the remote. I also mention in my last message before check in the remote for the heat/ac is on the bookshelf with instructions, and later mention the guest guide also has instructions on how to operate the heat/ac.
As mentioned I tried two thermostats for the ductless mini spit but both started throwing error codes, even after contacting manufactoriors tech support. Would have been so nice to be able to set the range, but the instructions work well. If you get something like a Nest you can also monitor the temps and see how much energy it's acually using.
But these are my instructions, and try to make is as easy to understand as possible.
@Felicity11
That's a great suggestion to have more detailed info about the climate as many guest simply don't understand how much impact humidity has. I do mention in my house rules the temp range is to prevent damaging the equipment, but may seem controlling?
Appreciate the feedback about the one page instructions for the mini split. (ductless heat pump)
I should probably edit all of that again. It's kind of tricky. You would think just using the "auto" mode would be easiest, but after watching youtube instructions from pros they say to avoid it. Guest would need to raise or lower the temp over 4 degrees then it would switch between heat and cool mode. It has a built in delay up to 15 minutes to change between modes to prevent damage but guest are going to turn it off and and on, and we all know what happens when a guest can't figure something out.
I was surprised there were no instructions or guide in one of the ABB I stayed. The host had over 1000 reviews. She even mentioned that sometimes guest turned it all the up or down, and said it kind of goes with the territory, and host have to eat the cost, but as mentioned that is preventable by having the unit at an ideal temp when they check in, then have instructions.
Humidity takes a long time to extract. I would add that in but needed to keep the quick guide to one page and easy to understand, and guest guide is already long.
A lot of guest may leave doors or windows open then wonder why it feels so hot, say in Florida, and don't understand its because the humidity jumped up from 50% indoors to over 65% and feels 5 degrees hotter. In the summer the AC will bring it back down relatively fast as its running more but at night, for example, it may just stay humid because the AC doesn't run as much at night.
Tuning AC or Heat off during part of the day actually uses more energy as the unit has to run longer to bring it back to set room temp. Guest are also not familiar with all the nuances for each climate. If they turn the heat off up north in the winter the pipes will freeze, and turn the AC off down south and you get mold and feel hot, use more electricity, open doors, let mosquitos in...
I gutted my entire rental unit and added proper insulation, new windows, doors so it all very efficient. If host are earning income they really ought to properly insulate.
Now I'm more motivated to save up and add solar panels to supply majority of electricity. Just guest traveling is inherently energy intensive, as they are flying or driving.
This is a scene shot from my Nest App. You can see how much energy the main heat pump is using. This is the total run time per each day. It's Spring so hardly running at all. Notice that the AC is barely running, yet it's still very humid, so only extracts humidity when it's running during the daytime, so don't want to even crack a window or it lets all the humidity back in. Even a one inch hole lets in a huge amount of humidity. At night it hardly turns on. But if guest did want to turn AC down a few degrees it would practically cost nothing as it hardly running, and would actually save energy as its less expensive to cool the space down at night.
I also have ceiling fans which also help a lot at night.
@Mike-And-Jane0
It's called a Ductless Mini Split. You have likely seen them all over.
It has an outside unit and inside unit, just like a larger split system except no duct work.
This is the one I got.
https://www.acwholesalers.com/LG-LS120HXV2/p99989.html
There are tons of install videos on Youtube or most HVAC companies instal them.
It was a good bit work and research to install. I blocked off about 4 days and it was fun project.
The heat pump one I got was standard 110 volts another most are 220 and in US. But require vey little energy. Just a standard 20 amp breaker. They use much less than a plug in space heater.
They can heat down to say 20 degrees or so, and some even lower.
For cold climates would also need some kind of auxiliary back up.
Apparently heat pump are also used in North East. It would be running full time and when it can't maintain set temp an auxiliary heat kicks in. It's still far more efficient and cost effective. I suppose thats the direction most of Europe is going?
Apparently these are all over Europe. The advantage is that it only requires a 3 inch hole in the wall for the coolant line, drain line, and wire to connect between the outside unit and inside unit so can be installed on homes that weren't originally designed for AC.
They are also very quiet.
I'll include a few pics of mine and the thermostat I installed. Although for this one the LG it had some kind of bug and would throw a code and not work right. It would have been so nice. I'm including it because it also had the ability to configure an auxiliary heat source.
So the advantage is that it requires very little electricty, might not need to upgrade service line, panel, and relatively easy to install and no ductwork. They come in a lot of configurations.
The disadvantage is they they can be unsightly depending on the location.
For mine, because it's putting heat/AC directly into the dwelling there has been no change in electric use.
These look worse in the pic, but when standing in the yard it's fine. I've also added a little privacy fence, and the lines can be run inside the wall.
For your situation, it's possible adding these could reduce energy cost dramattialy. Each person really needs to research their own climate and how these things are configured. For my other main heat pump I always get the best and the best company to install.
BTW only the chase to the right is for the mini split. I located the outside one over the chase for the main heat pump, just to have enough room for a shrub between it and the guest doorway. I ended up installing a fence for extra privacy when they are sitting outside.
You can see it here. The portable generator is just for power outages, although the mini split does run off the generator power also. I'm considering adding another one to my space just for backup and to run off the generator during outages. But likely if power is out for more than a day guest would need to cancel, and I would stay in the rental unit that would have AC from the mini split that is connected to generator. It can be brutally hot in August.
