black house – Rumfield Homestead

How Painting Our House Black Affected our Electricity Bill

From the moment we uttered the words, “we’re planning on painting our house black,” the questions and comments started rolling in. “I would love to go dark, but our electricty bill would be outrageous!” “You must live in a northern state where you don’t have hot summers.” “How high is your electricity bill going to be in the summer?” We took all of these things into account before we made our decision about painting the house black. We ultimately decided that it was worth it even if we ended up having to pay more for electricity in the summer. Texas summers can best be described as “hot as blazes for months on end,” so we definitely use our fair share of power in those hot summer months.

But I was curious. Even though we decided we didn’t care if we were using more energy, were we actually using more energy now that our house was black versus when the house was a pale yellow? I had to find out. I went back into the archives of our electricity bills and did some quick comparisons. This summer we’ve been dealing with record breaking heat, so I knew we would really be putting the black house to the test. Thankfully our electricity bill shows the average temperature that it was on any given month, so rather than doing a straight month to month comparison, I looked for months were the average temperature was as close to the same as possible. Unfortunately this year with our record breaking heat, I didn’t have quite an apples to apples comparison, but I still wanted to share the results of my findings.

You can see that in the first two side by side comparisons where the temperature was almost the same, the energy usage was relatively the same. The final month where our average was 101° we did use more kilowatts, but I think it is still pretty relative to the amount of kilowatts used during a month with an average temperature of 97°. So the short answer to the question of whether or not it’s costing us more to cool our house in the summer because our house is black is, nope. Not really.

Which is a welcome relief, seeing as how we had anticipated an increase and didn’t end up seeing one. But for anyone who might be considering painting their own house a dark color, I wanted to share our experience. I’m sure there are certain factors that would create differences, like how much shade your house gets (we have a lot of mature trees), or what direction it’s facing (ours is facing southwest) , or the quality of your insulation (ours is terrible). But this has been our experience, for what it’s worth.

I hope this was helpful to you, and maybe helps in your house painting decision making. Or, if you were just curious, now you know. That’s all for today friends, have a fabulous day!

August 16, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

House Progress

Our Black House REVEAL!

After almost four years of living in this house, it finally has a fresh coat of paint! It’s been a long time coming, and we are so excited to finally have it done! I talked about different ideas we had here, and shared what we decided on here.

I wish we were further into the spring season, because these photos will really pop against lots of fresh greenery. We are in the drab brown of winter still, but I just couldn’t wait to show you guys the new look!

We used Sherwin Williams Black Magic for all of the siding, Tricorn Black for the trim, and Aleutian for the porch floors and ceilings. Everything was done in a satin finish, as was recommended by multiple painters for a couple of reasons. One, it will hopefully collect less dirt and dust than a flat finish, and two, it will give some reflection against the hot Texas sun come summer time. We are anticipating some warmer temperatures from the dark color come summer, but it was a risk we were willing to take to get the look we were going for. Now, let’s get to those before and after photos, shall we?

From my best estimates, the yellow was done in the early 90’s, and routinely touched up until about fifteen years ago. The lifespan of exterior paint in this climate is about 10 years, so it was definitely past its prime.

To have this side porch finally look like a connected and finished piece of the house is so meaningful to us. In the oldest photo we have of our house (1983), the porch was boarded up with plywood. When we purchased the house, it was covered with a thick smoke colored plexiglass as a sort of sun porch. It’s barely visible in this photo below, from the weekend we closed on the house. We tore down the plexiglass and the drywall that covered exterior siding right away, but were waiting to fully restore the porch until we painted the house. It’s been an eyesore as long as we’ve lived here and it feels so good to have it back as it was intended!

There is still a bit of work to do. I need to do some work to repair the front door and give it a fresh coat of shellac (it is dryyyyyyy as a bone but I wouldn’t let the painters touch it). Come spring, I need to get some plants in the ground to freshen up the porch and bring it to life.

Overall, I could not be more pleased with how it turned out. It was certainly a bold choice, but we absolutely love it. It’s a fresh take on an old house that leaves all the historic elements intact, and that’s all I could ever hope to accomplish. Thanks for cheering me on and sharing your thoughts during the process, it’s certainly been a long road to get here. That’s all for today friends, have a fabulous day!

February 28, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield