I am writing an article for the local paper about ways to save on energy in the home this winter. Now I know that I could just provide some “boiler plate” answers but I want to find as many ways as possible. Of course there is always adding insulation to the attic, weatherstripping, waterheater jackets, pipe insulation, foaming around gaps and those weather stripped outlet covers.
I am not really interested in suggesting an entire house of replacement windows or a new high efficient heat pump, even though they may payoff in the very long run. I have been doing mostly new construction insulation for 6 years and things have slowed way down so I am going to try the energy conservation route. I think with soaring heating costs this may be a timely niche.
Also, do you think that it may increase my business if I take credit cards? I think that the average homeowner may like the ability to pay with plastic since a complete insulation upgrade could cost in excess of 1000.00. I can run the cards through paypal and it will cost me roughly 3% per transaction but it may be worth it.
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I think that doing blower door and duct blaster testing are great diagnostic tools for figuring out where exactly a home is losing efficiency via air infiltration. I'm sure they've gotten more expensive in the past couple of years, but at a couple hundred bucks, it's money well spent.
If your work is that slow, consider becoming a HERS rater and marketing find-and-fix jobs where you test a house then make the fixes. Could dovetail well w/ insulation work.
http://www.southface.org/web/programs&events/courses&training/HERS/HERS-training.htm
That Southface site looks interesting. Thanks for the link. Have you had any personal experience with this system?
We used a guy who'd gotten HERS certified to do a blower door test before we remodeled. He then did the Manual J and Manual D calc.s and laid out the ducts for our new HVAC system.
We then fought with the HVAC guy our (hack) GC used to get what was on the paper. Had our rater test the install via duct blaster and fought about fixing all the leaks (>1 ton on a 3.5-ton system). It made me suspect that the vast majority of installers out there aren't doing systems that are all that tight.
Between my doing a lot of air sealing while we remodeled and fixing most of the duct leaks after the fact, we ended up with a tight system that doesn't cost all that much to operate, even in a 60+ year-old house.
Our consultant actually works for Southface full time now. And I can't say enough good things about what they do, as well as about Dennis Creech, the director. They've pretty much pioneered the green building certification system (Earthcraft) that's used for homes in GA, SC, and NC (I think).
We then fought with the HVAC guy our (hack) GC used to get what was on the paper. Had our rater test the install via duct blaster and fought about fixing all the leaks (>1 ton on a 3.5-ton system). It made me suspect that the vast majority of installers out there aren't doing systems that are all that tight.
And the HVAC guy that does install the system right rarely gets a job because the price is too high.
That probably won't change until there are licensing requirements in place, along with more stringent inspections.
I'll admit to going with the low bidder. But I also made it clear to the HVAC contractor ahead of time what the expectations were. There was a nice train of e-mail about the testing and what the leakage criteria would be. He had the chance to adjust pricing accordingly before he even started work, and I wouldn't have argued.
When the system failed the test, he went straight to full-on-weasel about how he didn't have to meet the leakage criteria. I could have later put a complaint in against his license- in addition to this, I figured out that he bait-and-switched us for a new-old-stock heat pump that'd been out of production for almost 2 years. At that point, we'd suffered through a lawsuit with the GC (attempted extortion after he walked off the job). And I was just broke, worn out and didn't want to tempt someone else to try to drag us into court.
I ended up hiring the next-lowest bidder to finish and start up the system. Then I went back myself on weekends and went through lots of pookie tape finding all the holes and fixing them.
Aeroseal was an option, but it was cheaper to spend a bunch of my time and a couple hundred in Hardcast tape, etc, than to pay someone else to fix the problems.
So was the "work to be performed"... ie: specifications... outlined in the bid, or, was the bid just a number and you hoped the contractor would do the job right?
Seems like a catch 22...
No one will pay for a detailed proposal, yet there is no other way to justify why ABC Contractor's cost is different from XYZ Co.
Then you have the jerkoff homeowners that will take the detailed info to their hack buddies that are cheaper.
It is too bad that HVAC systems will usually "kinda work" when they are installed poorly.
We had a drawing (schematic layout of ductwork overlayed on scaled floor plan) w/ notes on the requirements, including 3rd-party testing after install. We had scope in the specs, including system sizing based on Manual J calcs. The sub based his cost on that, even asking questions about mods to the duct layout (we OK'd one or two and none of the rest) and about the testing.
My 20-20 hindsight opinion is that he was used to doing blow-and-go flex duct installs and really didn't know what he was getting himself into. He still had good references. He bitched about getting the rigid duct, bitched about his guys falling in my attic (like HVAC techs never work in attics). His guys rifled through some stuff we had stored up there, breaking a few things, rather than just asking me to move it during the 7-day hiatus they took a couple days into the job.
Oh, and he also quoted me on the gas line work, then shrugged and said "dunno" when actually getting it installed cost $1,200 instead of $500. My bet is that someone got a kickback there.
After the ducts leaked miserably, he was going to argue to the end of the earth about why code and everything else meant he didn't have to do anything.
Oh, and stupid me bought them a couple cases of local beer as a "thank you" because I knew it was a hard job. That was before testing it a few weeks later.
Anyway, whether it's energy prices, codes, or whatever, I'm hoping we're pushing the folks that do this type of work to raise their game. We definitely aren't in GA yet.
"That probably won't change until ...."
It will not change, ever. Construction quality is the lowest ever. And people still want to cut costs. IMO, the cheapskates get exactly what they deserve. There is always the option to demand and pay for excellence. Houses that included vinyl siding don't count. I even see it in so called "high end" houses. These mainly include a lot a bling and underneath it all have the same shoddy construction. Look at the newest subburban sprawl west of the blow-hard city (otherwise known as Chicago), better yet, pick one of those "estate" developments, where McMansion abound on fenceless lots, 5000 sf monsters with three car garages anf vinyl on three side. 9/10 times you'll see b-vents coming out the roof, if not more.
Its impossible to educate the average person (when asked in a survey, 2 in 10 people could name the manufacturer of their air conditioner, most said "Honeywell") and impossible to legislate quality. Most people can name every major auto manufacturer on the planet, all of the cell phone and computer companies but cannot name two funace/air conditioner makers.
The inspectors are over worked, under paid an in almost every circumstance, way under trained/experienced to begin to catch all the hacks out there.
Right on ... sounds like you approached things a little scientifically and had some objective support to back you up. Duct leakage is a huge thing. In commercial construction, it is often sealed well (the ductwork) with duct mastic as it is installed. As you eluded to ... this isn't often the case in residential work, slap it together practice ... and it should be the norm, not the exception. No reason not to seal [especially] new ductwork nice and tight. Poorly sealed ductwork can be a big energy loser and it can really screw up the pressure balance of the house ... I think I'm preaching to the choir ... I guess this is for the other readers.
IMO - not doing a good tidy job on new ductwork is simply unacceptable. Assembling ductwork w/ mastic sealant is relatively easy and inexpensive to do. Not doing it borders on irresponsibility and is simply poor craftsmanship. This is a simple requirement that the owner can request and even w/out a ductblast ... you can test and determine if there are problems ... assuming you do it before it's covered. It can be easy to hear a leak in an otherwise sealed system (I've detected one at 50+ ft across a large mechanical room in a commercial application). A duct blast test is definately a good option if you have that. Sounds like you have good support from [public?] or non profit orgs to support this cause ... that's great!
Are you aware of the relatively new product that is an aerosol duct sealant made specially for retrofit situations? Spray it in and the material seeks out the holes ... even large ones and seals them. The newest next thing since sliced bread I understand (it has been scrutinized by critical minds, I think). It doesn't 'coat' the duct ... somehow the material simply finds the hole and gathers only there.
I've heard that permits for furnace replacements around here require (or soon will require) testing of the ductwork.The story is that PG&E doesn't want to pay rebates for a high effeciency HVAC system tied to duct system on the verge of collapse.
I agree with the earlier poster..
as for credit cards a 3% cost is trivial compared to the potential increase in sales..
One very small think that I did when I had my house built was to have the plumber add a "loop" to the hot side of the hot water tank. The "loop" was just 4 90's and a few short pieces of pipe. The thought was that the heat continued to rise in the pipe and the heat lose in the water heater caused it to fire up again. With the loop, the heat would be stopped at the top of the loop.
I don't know how much it saved, but the pipe above the loop was a lot cooler than below the loop.
There is a product that you don't have to do that ... two 6 inch pipe studs w/ one way valves in them that prevent convectional water circulation. They are cheap and can be bought at the Big Box stores. I was skeptical at firtst until I understood how they worked. They are inexpensive, too ... maybe 12 bucks for the pair of stubs.
I am not really interested in suggesting an entire house of replacement windows
While not suitable for some applications, dual pane vinyl replacement windows can be a real energy saver, one of the best bang for the buck deals going, top of my list for a modest budget home.
I replaced all the fifty year old wood frame double hungs in this house with http://www.milgard.com units a few years ago. Not only have they saved big on energy, they were easy to install and the price per unit was only about $200.
Other advantages are their ability to deaden noise, by about 70%-80%, and their nearly zero maintenance.
Where traffic noise was once a continuous distraction, it is now more like waves breaking, off in the distance.
Having sanded, re-glazed, primed and painted the old windows myself, I'd say that the cost per unit for that service is currently about $100, maybe more. The vinyl replacement windows reduce the labor for painting this house by at least 50%.
Edited 10/9/2008 4:26 pm by Hudson Valley Carpenter
I sure can't argue that vinyl windows are not a good upgrade. I am very glad that I installed them in my old house. I am thinking with the way the economy is right now, people may be a bit reluctant to turn loose of a significant amount of money especially in my area. But who knows, I will suggest it and see if there is any interest.
Of course right now I will not pass up any type of work for a good client. Mainly I am interested in adding insulation to attics but want to offer as many services energy related as possible. I am interested in gathering as many good tips as possible that the homeowner may be able to undertake themselves that I can put in my article for the newspaper.
I am interested in gathering as many good tips as possible that the homeowner may be able to undertake themselves that I can put in my article for the newspaper.
If I were writing the article and hoping to get some referrals from it I'd definitely suggest vinyl replacement windows as a great home improvement and a DIY possibility. It's a legitimate suggestion and one which could end up bringing you business.
If you can generate interest you'll have planted a seed, one which can only come back in a good way.
I'd also call Milgard to see if you can qualify as a dealer for their replacement windows. There's got to be another 25% or more, buying at that level.
I would like to find my customers email address and send them monthly newletters and remind them to change their filters on their furnaces. And other monthly items. Cleans the coils on frig, clean the inside of dryers, check smoke batteries, etc. And give them advice on lamps for greater efficiency, and other tips. And also give me a call type notice if I can be of help in bigger planning projects, etc. This would allow you an in without having to be in.Just a thought...dan
Using compact fluorescent lamps produces a significant savings.
The kits of double-stick tape and clear plastic for covering drafty windows do work, and are a good idea in older homes.
Something as simple as a rolled-up old towel placed along the sill of a drafty exterior door can make a significant difference.
Some sort of fireplace cover can prevent drafts through unused fireplaces. Can be as simple as a piece of cardboard cut to fit. (Corrugated plastic political signs are ideal for this, and many other insulation jobs.)
Close curtains at night. Open them when the sun is shining.
Oil furnaces need to be tuned up regularly for optimal efficiency. (Gas furnaces not nearly as often.) But changing air filters regularly makes a big difference with any forced-air furnace.
Using compact fluorescent lamps produces a significant savings.
I agree that CFL's will save energy in the summer when you are trying to cool your house. But in the winter, any heat given off by regular bulbs is not wasted energy....except maybe for recessed fixtures.
But in most parts of the country electric resistance heating is the most expensive heating option.
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. --Ambrose Bierce
Yes, you are right ... but electric heat is more expensive and light bulbs focus heat in areas you really don't want it ... the heating systems job is to DISTRIBUTE it where it is supposed to go.
Here are two novel ideas to save $ on the hot water bill. Not DIY but worth considering and I bet most home owners don't know they exist.
http://gfxtechnology.com/contents.html#selection
http://www.airgenerate.com/
If they have HVAC they should consider this:
http://www.aeroseal.com/
Here are two things for the DIY:
http://www.windowsaver.com/index.html
http://www.energyfederation.org/consumer/default.php
Thanks for the really great links! I thought the windowsaver was a good idea and I was intrigued by the device that went on the water heater. The more that I read about these things the more I realize that if you can educate the public on these things you can potentially make a very good living "upgrading" energy systems in homes.
Here are some more.http://www.eere.energy.gov/http://www.builderonline.com/energy-efficient/between-the-gaps.aspxhttp://peswiki.com/index.php/Main_Pagehttp://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4460-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B000RGF29Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1223646985&sr=1-1
This is an article to promote your business?
Well, sort of. I will be writing the article and cited as the source of the tips. The article will only mention my name and company name but I also will have a paid advertisement in the same paper.
Respectfully, may I ask why you are asking us your question, then? It comes across as a novice asking the audience what he should be doing for his [current and active] business. Maybe I didn't get the tone right.
To answer the question ... food for thought: don't forget water savings: 1.5 gpm shower heads, faucet aerators, low and/or dual flush toilets. Some of this is water savings only while some is water/energy (showerheads).
Retrofit of existing ... do a blower door test to determine the magnitude of your collective hole and where those biggest 'holes' are. Sometimes you find some huge holes you didn't realize you had before. Air leakage is often the single biggest energy loser in a house (do the calcs and it will show you).
Since you are in a cooling climate ... focus on ways to cut solar gain. It can be simple. For unprotected windows ... window film is an inexpensive option. Landscaping to minimize solar gain on [unprotected/unshaded] east/west windows is a good way to enhance the yard and provide shading and improve the microclimate around the house. Unprotected south windows ... awnings work well as do other 'eaves' ... they don't have to be wide to protect windows.
Advise your clients considering installing that 'great' skylight to be ware of the associated problems and offer them som alternatives to minimize the solar gain while still accomplishing their intent. People often ignore the ramifications of poor skylight placement. Their irrational need and narrow mind set usually trumps anything anyone can say.
Renovations spell opportunity when it comes to energy. Reassess window areas; protection for windows (e.g. new eave designed appropriately).
Hope this helps round out some thinking a little.
I asked these questions merely to pick the collective brain of the posters. Most of the feed back I got I already knew. I did pick up some new ideas though and some excellent links.
Clew, have you ever noticed that some of the most intelligent people seem to ask the most questions? I learned from my father that you can learn something from everyone. A person that does not continually seek knowledge is doomed to a life of ignorance. Like many I could just forge on assuming that I know it all. To quote Socrates: "The truely intelligent man realizes how little he knows".
I totally agree. I constantly ask questions at work ... it wears everyone out ... but that is my job ... to be nosy and understand a lot of stuff I don't understand then mix my expertise in to solve problems. Another point of view will often even trigger a new thought ... that's always gold! ... but I don't consider myself overly intelligent, really.
Edited 10/14/2008 9:23 am ET by Clewless1
I'm not sure of the HVAC practice in your area but in my area, Illinois, it is common to use the stud bays between two walls as a cold air return. They do this of course on the interior walls but the problem is that the hvac guys come in and lay out their system and locate their returns. then the plumber or electrician or stereo/video guy comes in and drills holes through the bays. These runs of plumbing or electrical can eventually lead to an exterior wall or to the attic. In effect, everytime your HVAC system comes on it is doing its best to draw in air from the outside through all these runs.
Don't think it is anything to worry about? I had a pipe freese in the MIDDLE of my heated basement two floors away from where the cold air return was finding its path to the outside. The longer the furnace ran to try to make up for the cold air coming in, the more cold air it brought in until the pipe froze.
Simple solution is to cut 2x4's to fit between the studs and drive them in above the cold air return. A line of caulk around it and you are done. No need to even nail it if you cut it right (tight). The only exception to this would be in a mulitstory house if the HVAC guy used the same bay for two returns. Driving in the blocking would then shut off the second floor.
If I missed this posted previously, then never mind, but has anyone suggested the obvious, Programmable Thermostat? Depending on the system and the use habits of the occupants, a programmable thermostat (PT) will not only save enough energy the first year to pay for itself, but with a little thought and trial/error you can program your system to heat/cool more or less as you desire.
I personally prefer my house cooler at night whether it be winter or summer. If you live in an area or the season is such that the outside summer air temps aren't that high but the humidity is, setup properly, a PT will create some extended run time on the AC and wring a little more moisture out of the air instead of overcooling (this works best with an unoccupied house during the day so that you can let the temperature rise without discomfort).
A word of caution - not all systems are suited for programmable thermostats/night setback regimes. A "right sized" furnace on design day type of temperatures may never "catch-up" after a setback. Based on my own experiences, I learned this on the hard way. I designed and sized my system for my planned construction (R-30 walls, R-60 ceilings, sealed penetrations) and ASHRAE design conditions, which is basically -10 degF outside and 65 (my preference) inside. I had a 5 degree setback on -20 night and the furnace took 16 hours to make up the lost temperature (before I had completed of of my envelope sealing and insulating projects). I sized my furnace for the finished version which works out to about 20 btuh/sf, not an oversized heating system by any means. When I have subzero temps, I keep the stat set at about 63-65 on "hold". Some older hot water systems and most residential steam systems are not well suited for setbacks.
Most homeowners could save a lot of money with a coulple of cans of Great Stuff. First real good cold snap, go aroung the perimiter of the basement and/or the attic and feel for cold spots. Seal where necessary. Wall top plate penetrations are notorious air leakage areas.
The blower door and duct blast tests are realistically, useless for the most homeowners, who wouldn't know what to do with the results anyways. Most so called professionals are pretty clueless in that regard as well. If the ducts are inside the conditioned envelope, leakage is of little consequence. Gross leakage is a differet issue, but doesn't take sophisticated testing to determine. Read the books by James Duley (sp?). They are small, concise and can provide more energy saving strategies than most will have the energy or will to implement.
This won't save much, but it's an effortless way to save a little:
When using the microwave to heat up a cup of coffee, skip the '1 minute' button, and try 55 seconds. If that's plenty warm, try 50 seconds next time.