I have inspected hundreds of homes that have clear paths of travel through the insulation to work area.  Then you get to the area where they did the work and the insulation is pushed out of the way or compressed.  Not to mention the hole created to run the cables.  These holes and the displaced insulation is a large energy penalty on the home costing you more monthly to heat and cool your home.  I have seen holes drilled into the ceiling for a single wire as large as two inches.  As stated in my post on attic air sealing, these holes allow the air that you paid to condition to easily escape, costing you money.  Even the compressed or displaced insulation is affecting your utility bills.  As another in the home performance industry, Energy Vanguard wrote about uneven insulation in their blog titled “Flat or Lumpy – How Would You Like Your Insulation?”  Now of course how much it really costs you depends on the amount of holes and actual displaced insulation.  But sometimes it can be severe, actually cause comfort and durability issues.  So what may have been a rather efficient home is now full of holes in the ceiling and insulation increasing your monthly cost to operate the home. 

As a result I would grab a can of foam and a rake to seal these holes and even that insulation out so your home can perform at least as well as it did before the contractors tracked through attic.

1. Open the blinds: Some of the coldest days of the year are the clearest and brightest, so let the sun shine in and help heat your home.  There are homes designed to utilize the sun’s rays as their primary heating source (Passive Solar), so there is no reason your home can’t take advantage of this free heat source.  Just be sure at night to close the blinds to retain the heat in the home and help reduce drafts.

2. Add layers: Not only am I surprised by the number of people that live in complete darkness during the day, but how many want to keep their home warm enough to wear shorts & a t-shirt.  By wearing clothing appropriate to the weather outside can greatly increase your comfort and allow you to reduce the temperature in your home, thus saving you money.

3. Set back your temperature: The rule of thumb is you can save between 1-3% for every degree that you set your thermostat back for an 8 hour period of time while you are at work and sleeping.  The Department Of Energy estimates that you can save up to $180 a year with this simple strategy.  You can make this even easier by installing a programmable thermostat that you can have automatically adjust the temperature in the home and can have it start to heat the home before you wake up in the morning or get home from work so you do not have to contend with the cold temperatures.

4. Maintain your heating equipment: Servicing your heating units and replacing filters regularly can boost efficiency by 3-10% according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).  It is recommended to have oil-fired boilers cleaned and tuned annually, and gas systems, every two years.  Not only will regularly servicing your oil and gas fired heating equipment help improve efficiency, but ensure safety if your heating contractor performs combustion testing, in the hopes they catch high levels of carbon monoxide.

5. Seal those leaks: Excessive air leakage into the home can waste up to 25% of your homes heating and cooling costs.  Installing foam gaskets behind outlet and switch covers on exterior walls is the simplest strategy.  Sealing the gaps around window & door trim is another easy cost effective way to reduce infiltration and reduce drafts.  However sealing those air leaks in the attic is where you will get the most bang for your buck as you will trap the warm air in the home as it rises.

If you are a handy homeowner and looking for other ways around your home to conserve energy and reduce your heating and cooling costs,  follow my blog series Kill’n a Hog….an Energy Hog as my family reduces the energy consumption of our 1960’s home.

A simple explanation of what air sealing is, it is the work performed on the home to reduce the amount of air infiltration into the home by sealing small and sometimes large gaps and crevices.  I utilized the DO–IT–YOURSELF Guide to Sealing & Insulating with ENERGY STAR to perform the air sealing in the attic before installing insulation.  These holes in the home can waste approximately 25% of the typical homes heating and cooling cost and is almost always the most cost effective improvement that can be done to most homes to reduce the utility bills and increase the indoor air quality (IAQ).

Air sealing not only helps reduce your heating and cooling costs, but sometimes more importantly, air sealing helps to improve the indoor air quality and durability of the home.  Tighter homes typically have less dust because not as much gets pulled in through these cracks; they are typically more durable because excessive air and moisture does not enter the walls or attic that could cause mold and rot.

The goal of air sealing your attic is to make the ceiling as air tight as possible to stop any air movement.  Now most home owners don’t think of their attic being full of holes.  However it is full of them, plumbing stack penetrations, wires, can lights and other ceiling fixtures.  If you hold your hand over these holes, you can feel the hot or cold air from inside your home making its way into the attic, costing you money.  Because as this conditioned air leaves your home, unconditioned air is being pulled into your home through other gaps or crevices in your home, typically in the basement (more on sealing the basement in a future post).  When your home has low levels of insulation, it is easy to find these holes.  However if you have good levels of insulation, you can find these holes by looking for discolored insulation, as most insulation types are air filters and the discoloration is a sign of air movement.  So review the air sealing guide, buy a few tubes of caulk and cans of Great Stuff and seal up those holes and start saving.

Here is a video series on the Fine Homebuilding magazine website on air sealing your attic that is worth watching, or check out other attic air sealing videos on YouTube.

Loading carpet to be recylced.

The first project we tackled was removing about 75% of the wall to wall carpeting in the home.  This ended up being the main living areas, hallways, as well as our expected child’s room.  We did feel somewhat guilty for removing the brand new carpet that the previous home owner installed to sell the house.  Especially since we removed it in July, and according to the label, it was manufactured in May of the same year.  So as you can imagine, it was in excellent shape. So the larger pieces went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to be reused in someone else home.  The remainder of the carpeting found its way into a trailer on its way to get recycled thanks to a local carpet installer.

Dirt found under some of the carpet that was removed.

Our primary reason removing the carpet was to expose the hard wood flooring that runs throughout the majority of the house and was hidden by the carpet.  We had the floor refinished using Bona waterborne finish that has very low levels of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), and is very durable.  Another reason for removing the carpet was we did not want our newborn child crawling on the carpet.  So the carpet was replaced with an all natural handmade wool area rug in our living room.  The reason being is an area rug can be thoroughly cleaned where wall to wall carpet will hold onto dirt, dander, dust mites and pollutants that people track in from the outdoors, such as oil and pesticides and can never be fully removed.  A question posted after we removed our carpet here on the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) Green Home Guide website stated that the average carpet removed from a home is seven times heavier than when it was installed.  This being contributed to the fact that carpets cannot be cleaned thoroughly like an area rug can.

The second project we tackled was painting.  Like everyone else, we could not wait to make the house our home, and by adding color we were able to bring out our personality.  At the time we started painting my wife was pregnant with our first child.  So a product with low VOC’s was a must.  We used Sherwin Williams “Harmony” & “Duration Home” for its low VOC content.  Plus we are partial to Sherwin Williams because it is an Ohio based company.  Now there are a lot of other great paint products out there and the majority of manufacturers now have low or no VOC, or even non-toxic options.  So you can easily pick up a can of paint with low VOC content at Home Depot, Lowes or your local hardware store.

Now if you are not sure what to look for in terms of the Volatile Organic Compounds, you can go the Green Seal website who certifies and sets VOC limits for different products and look for the Paints & Coatings GS-11 standard or any other cleaning or finish product.  Another organization that is concerned about the Indoor Air Quality of your home or building is Greenguard.  Greenguard focuses primarily on indoor air quality—most notably for off gassing of VOCs, formaldehyde and other chemicals that can be found in furniture and other building products.  I will talk more about furniture selection in a later post.

I hope I opened up your eyes a little to show you that the Indoor Air Quality of your home is important and many products can affect it from the toxins that they may off gas.

-Josh

So let’s stick with the title and what I do not enjoy about my job.  First, 90+ degree days, it makes for very uncomfortable working conditions as the attic is 100+ degrees.  However that is a condition of the job and is only an issue of comfort.  The hardest, as well as worst part of the job is delivering news to customers as I was reminded of today.  First is the customer that already has decent levels of insulation and based upon calculated paybacks and program goals do not qualify for very attractive incentives for energy efficiency improvements through the utility rebate program that we do work for.  I get a lot of eye rolling, but that is easy to handle, just lots of additional table talk which can add a lot of time to an appointment that only allows 4 hours to inspect, test, generate a report and present it to the customer.  However the absolute hardest part about my job is telling a customer, especially an assisted customer that is getting free work done that cannot have any air sealing or insulation work done until combustion safety issues have been resolved such as back drafting water heaters, or high CO levels.  This can really tug on the heart strings when you are in a home that has little to no insulation and you can see they would greatly benefit from lower utility bills and truly cannot afford to make some of the repairs necessary, yet their income level is not low enough to qualify for weatherization assistance that would actually make these repairs.

Now let’s change pace and talk why I enjoy my job and a little about what I do.  A lot of it is the people.  Every day I am meeting new people and with over 500 appointments over the past year performing home energy audits and quality assurance inspections, I have met people from all walks of life.  Also those last couple of years working in an architecture firm, I was really focusing my educational pursuits on building science and how the structures go together as well as how they are going to perform.  So performing energy audits is putting me in the field of building science, I am seeing what works and what does not work.  Finding things in our existing homes that can not only help increase the energy efficiency but help increase the durability of our homes.  Because let’s face it, our homes started to rot once we began introducing insulation and mechanical cooling.  So there are precautions that need to be taken when building our homes and office buildings, especially when we tighten the structures and add more insulation.  So even though climbing through attics and crawling through crawl spaces is a necessary part of the job, it is an educational opportunity that is all scalable to larger commercial structures.  As my supervisor who has been in this industry since the early 90’s says, when I return to architecture I will be a much better designer.  I can only agree with him as I see shortcuts that are taken by builders to save a buck that cause the occupants to have increased energy bills for the lifetime of that building as well as homes or additions designed by local architects that have high levels of air infiltration that cannot be fixed without gutting the house.  I will be able to focus on those details that will make certain the structure will perform as designed.

So what do I do on a daily basis?  I inspect homes to find ways for home owners to increase the energy efficiency of their home and reduce their utility bill and in a lot of cases increase the durability of the home.  I test their combustion appliances insuring that they are performing to manufacturer specifications and not creating unsafe conditions in the home.  I also manage people as I deal with different personalities from the ones who could care less that you are in the house to those that follow your every move and ask questions along the way.   Also I am a salesman, as the primary purpose for the home energy audit is to get people to increase the energy efficiency of their home and to take advantage of the incentives from the utility company and hire one of our program contractors to perform the work.   Then there is the aspect of my job when I am going back to the homes to inspect the contractors work to ensure they are doing the work properly and installing the insulation to the recommended levels in addition to making sure that the house is still safe.

One question we were asked to prepare for as a panelist on alternative careers of architecture at the AIA Ohio Regional Convention that was never asked is “Do you have an interest in returning to architecture?”.  The short answer is yes, I have too much passion for the profession and love creating or altering structures and solving each problem that the clients bring that I could never fully leave it.  However I don’t think I can return to a traditional design firm, I want to have more control on how the buildings go together and the methods used to ensure that the client is getting a well designed and constructed building.

The overall convention was invigorating.  It not only re-energized my spirits, but helped show me some directions that I can take my career.  I also had the opportunity to network and talk with some colleagues that I have not seen in the past year or so, as well as meet a couple of up and coming celebrities, the creators of the popular web comic Architexts.  Therefore, until next years convention I am looking forward to getting more involved in the architecture profession again, even if it is just participating in AIA events and meetings.

Our home as it was purchased in 2005

Back in 2005 my wife and I purchased this ranch with a walk out basement.  It is/was your typical 1960′s stick built home.  Very low levels of insulation, single pane aluminum windows, with an unfinished basement and a huge backyard for the area, with lots of old growth trees.  The view out of the dinning room window was the selling point.  Some other nice amenities is that it is in a developed neighborhood with schools that are within walking distance, grocery within a mile.  The town also has a very active year round farmers market.  Plus the home was the mid point between both of our jobs at that time and is relatively close to a bus route.

The back of our home as it was purchased in 2005

However during the home inspection we found some troubling things.  There was little to no insulation in the attic, the basement walls were uninsulated.  And what makes that even worse is the fact that half of the house foundation is above ground.  Not to mention the aging heating and cooling equipment.  So we looked at this house as a blank slate, giving us the opportunity to not only renovate the home to fit our needs, but to do everything in an environmentally friendly way and to do it within our limited budget.

So this is where “Symbiotic Home” originally began.  A website to help educate others on what can be done to green their existing home.  Now with a good portion of the projects done, I will be developing this new series of posts that will backtrack and document each of the projects that we have tackled, and will even discuss future projects that we would like to accomplish.  Giving you a glimpse of what we have been doing, how we have been doing it, and why as we green this energy pig.

So follow my home renovations as I walk the walk and show that green/sustainable construction can happen on the typical working families budget and I look forward to the discussions that this may create.

-Josh

However the showcase is about more than just buildings.  There are some other great hands on exhibits featuring smart meters and electric distribution, fueling stations giving you hands on alternatives to fueling your car such as Bio-Fuels (E-85), Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electricity and hydrogen.  There were even games teaching kids about energy efficiency (Hog Busters Training Camp).  Besides the green building section, my favorite area was the home energy efficiency displays with the infrared camera, showing visitors what is behind our walls.  Of course I had my son go put his hand on the wall to show the sensitivity of the camera.

I look forward to the future expanded exhibit.  In the meantime I encourage families to go and check out the new Innovations in Energy showcase at COSI.

Energy modeling in new home design, construction and renovations can be a very effective tool to weigh the cost effectiveness of any design strategy used to improve energy efficiency in a home.  Actually most energy auditors use some form of energy modeling to show their customers what kind of financial payback they could expect when implementing any of the recommended improvements.  So why is this tool not used more within the design industry?  Energy modeling is a standard service I provide with any home design work that I do, as well as a service that I provide to other design and construction professionals.  I offer this because some jurisdictions do require an energy compliance certificate.  Granted most design professionals and builders use REScheck as their preferred method.  However, REScheck will only demonstrate compliance using the trade-off approach and the prescriptive packages approach as described in the energy conservation codes.

More advanced software packages such as REM/Design which I use takes this a step further.  REM/Design and other software packages will not only provide you with a compliance certificate, but it will provide design loads along with estimated energy usage and cost to operate the home.  This can be helpful as a preliminary sizing tool for your heating and cooling systems.  What is also valuable about this feature is it gives you the ability to weigh the cost effectiveness of “upgraded” insulation levels or more efficient systems.  The software will even break up the loads into building components, so you know where most of your energy is being lost in the homes envelope.  For instance a recent project I was consulting on, I was able to determine that the six skylights the homeowner wanted in their passive solar home were more of an energy penalty than an overall gain.  So there was a compromise and the number of skylights was reduced to 3 as a daylighting strategy instead of one for heat gain in the winter time.

In an article posted on the American Institute of Architects website (Sustainable AIA: 2031–Why Energy Models Don’t Predict Actual Energy Use), it discusses the criticisms that energy modeling does not predict the actual energy usage of the building or home.  To some degree that is expected, energy modeling simulates the energy usage of a home to determine design loads based upon your geographical region.  Each software package takes into account occupants; however they cannot take into account occupant behavior which has a huge impact on the performance of any building or home.  Of course each software package has its flaws and performs some calculations better than others.

In the coming weeks, Chris Laumer-Giddens with Energy Vanguard in Georgia who is a licensed architect and HVAC designer will tell us the basic differences in some of the more widely used energy modeling tools.

The first step is to determine your energy reduction goal by using their threshold calculator.  You have two options when it comes to determining your reduction goals.  The first option or as they refer to as Option A, which is intended for high energy usage homes, sets a 75% reduction goal based upon a recent years’ verifiable energy usage.  Option B is for low energy users and sets an energy reduction threshold based upon your zip code, finished floor area, number of occupants and a few other simple inputs.

Our home as it was purchased in 2005

So to continue the Sym-Home mission of educating others and to show that existing homes can make deep cuts in their energy usage; I will be enrolling my personal residence into the challenge.  Considering my family has made significant energy related improvements to our home to bring down our utility costs, we are at the point of pushing the envelope, looking to make those energy related upgrades that the average homeowner doesn’t even think about.  However we are considered to be a lower energy user, so we will be enrolling into the challenge and attempting to meet the energy usage thresholds of Option B.  As you can see, by our current usage and goals set, we are still looking at a 42% reduction in energy usage to meet the challenge. I will continue the blog series, Kill’n a Hog….an Energy Hog, of tracking our energy improvements and take them to the next level as we go beyond what most consider to be a DIY project.

If you are considering some major energy related improvements to your home, consider enrolling into the Thousand Home Challenge.  The first step to participating in the Thousand Home Challenge is to attend the introductory webinar to learn more about the goals, mission, and determination of one’s threshold allowance.  So if you are interested, the next webinar is currently scheduled for May 31^st.  Check out the 1000 Home Challenge website and enroll to make some deep cuts and help our country reach energy independence.