"Climb The Ladder" To Ensure Energy Saving Success
By Rod MacKenzie
3/29/2010
Before you make a major investment to make your home more comfortable or more energy efficient, make sure you have attended to the smaller things that can undermine your investment. I’ve heard from too many homeowners that have made one big energy improvement investment hoping to fix the cause of their high energy bills or uncomfortable rooms. With an unseasonably cold winter (here in Atlanta, GA) and so much advertising and marketing going on, it’s easy to get sucked into the hype and plunk down big money in an effort to reduce your energy bills or warm up your home.
Warning - there is NO single solution/silver bullet that will cure chilly rooms and/or high energy bills.
A home is a very complex system - there are almostalways multiple reasons why a home is underperforming. There is, however, a logical progression of activities that you can follow to incrementally improve the performance of your home and set the stage for significantly better payback from more expensive energy upgrades.
9 Steps to Energy Saving Success
Job 1 - Air sealing: Ensure all voids, cracks and openings are covered, weatherstripped or otherwise sealed to ensure you keep conditioned air inside in your living space.
Job 2 - Insulate, insulate,insulate: Make sure attics, vented crawl spaces, kneewalls and other spaces where unconditioned air enters your home are well insulated. Don’t forget to install a hotwater tank blanket and insulation on the hot water pipes.
Job 3 - Seal leaks in HVAC and duct system: Leaks in your HVAC/duct system, especially when the HVAC unit and/or ducts are in unconditioned spaces (like most attics) reduce the performance of this equipment.
Job 4 - Monitor and reduce your energy use: Install a real-time energy monitor to help you identify and eliminate wasteful energy habits.
Job 5 - Switch out lighting: Replace incandescent light bulbs with CFLs or LEDs
Job 6 - Review water heating efficiency: With federal and state tax credits available, solar thermal water heating systems are becoming cost effective
Job 7 - Upgrade to higher efficiency HVAC: I’m an advocate of running HVAC systems until they are unfixable but you may want to talk to your HVAC repairman about the cost/benefit of replacing yours.
Job 8 - Replace single pane windows: Replacing single panes with double or triple pane windows will make your home more comfortable but may have a long payback period. A cheaper option is to install storm windows as long as the windows operate properly and the window opening is not deteriorating.
Job 9 – Install solar power: Once the jobs above are complete, it’s time to consider creating your own electricity. With all the improvements in place, you won’t need as many solar panels and your investment will payoff quicker!
Before you spend gobs of money trying to solve your high energy bills or uncomfortable rooms, make sure you’ve solved the simple yet critical problems that plaque a home’s performance and delay the payback on large energy saving investments.
Energy Myth: To improve energy efficiency, just add more insulation
Energy Fact: Air infiltration must be controlled to improve a home's energy efficiency
Most people think that lack of insulation is what makes a home uncomfortable and energy inefficient. Truth is, air leaks are the leading cause of uncomfortable rooms and high energy bills. Air leaks are a common problem in homes (especially older ones) and a major pathway for home energy loss. The problem is, air leaks tend to be invisible. You can't really see an air leak - but you certainly feel the effect!
Now that we've got that straight, another misconception is that air leaks are most common around windows and doors. But a recent study by Michigan Tech University sheds more light on the sources of household air leaks. Floors, ceilings and walls account for 31% of all air leakage in a home. These areas are a significant part of what's known as the "building envelope" - the boundary of a home that is subject to losing energy. Poor construction methods and/or inadequate sealing of gaps and voids in floors, ceilings and walls are the primary reasons for the majority of air leaks in these areas.
So, it's not enough that you have the right amount of insulation in your home - you need to find and seal all major air leaks in your home to be comfortable and energy efficient. Left unaddressed, hot air/heat will find these pathways and flow into your home in the summer and out in the winter (hot air moves to cold air AND follows the path of least resistance).
Other major areas of air leakage? Duct systems (15%), Fireplaces (14%), Gaps around plumbing (13%), doors (11%), windows (10%), fans and vents (4%) and electrical outlets (2%). The good news is that there are solutions available to address the sources of all these air leaks. Contact us to learn how you can minimize the air leaks in your home and improve your energy efficiency.
A Cheaper Way to Save Energy
By Rod MacKenzie
It’s great to see people investing to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. More insulation, better windows, Energy Star appliances, higher SEER HVAC systems and other energy saving purchases are being made which allow homeowners to reduce their energy needs. And with the governments, both federal and state, offering tax credits to homeowners that invest to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, more folks are getting off the fence investing in energy reduction improvements for their homes.
But investing in big ticket energy renovations is just one method of saving energy. There is another method that is cheaper, more effective and has a better payback:
Take action to change bad energy habits!
Let’s face it we all have bad energy habits. According to industry studies, the average home in the US wastes between 15% and 25% of the energy it consumes. We all are guilty of leaving on lights,appliances and other electric dependent gadgets – unnecessarily – and are shocked when we receive sky high energy bills. Then we try to buy our way out of high energy bills by spending money on energy efficient upgrades without changing the bad energy habits that are forcing us to invest in more efficient equipment in the first place. Bad energy habits are trumping energy saving investments!
While it’s a whole lot simpler to pour money into new appliances and equipment for your home and let your investments do their energy saving magic, the end result is that we become energy LAZY. So before you spend gobs of money on household energy improvements, change some energy habits around your home. If you are having trouble identifying energy waste in your home, purchase a real-time electricity feedback monitor. Energy monitors are relatively cheap and will display how much energy you’re using in real-time so you can take action to reduce wasted energy on the spot. Independent studies performed on homes that installed real-time energy monitors showed that homeowners that saw how much energy they were using cut back on their energy waste and saved between 5% - 15% on their monthly electricity bill. In addition to helping you develop good energy habits, a real-time energy monitor will help you measure the effectiveness of future energy efficiency investments (without having to wait for the results via your monthly electricity bill).
So before you spend gobs of money on energy saving equipment, take action to change your energy using habits and live energy efficiently. Buying energy efficiency is a step in the right direction but living energy efficiently is the long term solution. And living energy efficiently is a habit we all need to fall into.
