Ryan Shanahan

...that certifies green and energy efficient new residential homes and buildings, I’ve spent years telling people that ask about my personal home that it’s a “cobbler’s kids have no shoes” situation. Meaning my 1300 square foot 1907 bungalow in Southeast Portland wasn’t nearly as energy efficient as the new homes I worked on and felt so passionate about. I figured I simply couldn’t afford to live the net zero lifestyle I dreamed of and did my part by bicycle commuting, living a vegan lifestyle, and driving a Prius. I also figured that maybe in my retirement I’d be able to hire one of the green builders I worked with to build my wife and me a modest zero energy home, or a zero energy ADU in our backyard.

When I moved into the home in 2014, it was inefficient, barely insulated, gas heated, and cost about $2250/year in operational energy costs. It had “good bones” though, and I very much appreciated the real hardwood floors, open plan layout, double pane wood windows, and two foot eaves to protect from inclement weather and provide adequate shading in the summer time. It was also oriented east to west with south and north facing roof planes.

Since building a zero energy ADU seemed nearly impossible financially, I did what I could for our old home with the simplest upgrades like replacing all of the light bulbs with LEDs. From there, I took on replacing all of the older kitchen appliances with ENERGY STAR rated versions and found a used clothes washer and dryer pair which featured an ENERGY STAR front loading washer.

When a coworker turned me on to a great deal on a 50-gallon heat pump water heater, I made the switch from a conventional electric model in our basement. Between available Energy Trust of Oregon rebates, tax credits, and PGE’s demand response heat pump water heater pilot program, I have literally made money on the purchase, and this math doesn’t even include the operational energy savings! The heat pump water heater made our unconditioned basement a few degrees colder, but this normally didn’t matter due to the waste heat our inefficient, atmospherically-drafted gas furnace and leaky ductwork provided to the basement.

All of that changed when we upgraded to an electric ductless mini-split heat pump that included one large wall-mounted head in the living/dining/kitchen area plus a smaller head for each of the three bedrooms. We found that not only could we live comfortably in our home in the winter, but our upstairs was now usable space in the summer time (something we wouldn’t dare do on a hot summer day before). At this point, we had upgraded all of our home’s active systems to become all electric and energy efficient, but we still had no wall or floor insulation, very inadequate ceiling insulation, and hardly any air sealing. We felt paralyzed by our old knob and tube electric system, because we knew that insulating these areas would pose a significant fire hazard.

When the siding on the south side started to fail, we realized we had a significant opportunity to borrow against our home’s equity and look into our options. With the siding off, this presented opportunities to address the knob and tube electrical wiring, insulation, and to add sheathing as well as a water resistant barrier. I approached a friend who worked for Neil Kelly (Troy Zdzieblowski), and he helped us realize that if we addressed those things, that it made sense to also address the aging roof. With the roof off, we could address the electrical and insulation upstairs as well as consider an upgrade from 100 amp to 200 amp electrical, which could host a large new solar PV installation as well as adding a 50-amp outlet in our garage for a future electric car.

With the solar PV proposal in front of us, we realized we could produce 85% of our previous year’s electric load. Adding insulation and air sealing presented an opportunity to address that remaining 15% of our annual energy load to reach net zero energy. Until this time I did not realize that getting to net zero energy on an annual basis was possible in our home. We hired Neil Kelly to upgrade our siding, roof, insulation, electrical, and add a 7.15 kWh solar PV system. Troy even helped me make structural upgrades to our 2x4 roof rafters to be able to host the solar system.

We are 2 months away from the 1-year mark from when the solar PV system was turned on. We’ve generated a surplus of energy that we’ll have to work against in the fall months to see if we truly hit net zero or not. If all goes according to plan, we’ll upgrade our clothes dryer to a heat pump version and replace our electric kitchen range with an induction one. By the time my 10-year old Prius dies, we’ll upgrade to an electric vehicle with long range and an affordable price. I encourage everyone who can to vote with their dollars and use every old home “problem” as an opportunity to switch to all electric systems and consume less energy.

...when I purchased the home. I started with easy stuff like converting light bulbs to LEDs, then graduated to upgrading all of our appliances to ENERGY STAR certified models. The next step was to replace the old gas furnace with a 4 head ductless mini split system, then replace the old electric water heater with a heat pump water heater, before heading into a big remodeling project with Neil Kelly. Neil Kelly replaced our old siding, trim, and roof. While those outermost layers were off, they upgraded the old electric knob and tube wiring, upgraded our electric panel from 100 amp to 200 amp, added solar PV, insulated the walls, floors, ceilings, and air sealed as much as possible. They also added a 50-amp car-charging outlet for a future electric car.

During the remodel, we tore down our old exterior chimney and removed the gas meter to commit to going all electric. NW Natural Gas actually made me sign a form acknowledging that it would cost the next owner a pretty penny to run gas to the house again!

Our house was up and running with energy efficiency and solar PV by November of 2019. In January of 2020, we installed Sense solar + energy monitoring (which is addictive for the energy geek that is me!). As of September, we are only 200 kWh away from reaching net zero, so there is no doubt in my mind that by this November we will have achieved our goal! We've been producing a surplus of energy monthly since April.

Given that we only have 2x4 walls, 2x4 rafter bays, double pane windows, and decent (but not great) airtightness, a huge part of our success is lifestyle. There are only two of us, and a dog. We use passive shading strategies and night flush on cool summer nights. I take "Navy" showers, we use low flow plumbing fixtures, and I wash clothes w/ cold water.