Energy Hog – Improving the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Some of the very first projects that we did to the home even before we moved in had a great impact on our home, transforming it into a “green” machine. Now they had no impact on the energy efficiency of the home, however they have made a great impact on the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), which is a very important issue as you tighten up the home and improve its overall performance.

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.

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Why I Hate My Job

Well not much really. But let’s be honest, would you have even had interest in reading if the title was “Why I Love My Job”? So this is basically my year in review of working for Conservation Services Group performing home energy audits and to share a little more about my job that I did not get to share during the panel discussion at the AIA Ohio Valley Region convention in Dayton, OH last week.

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.

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Panelist at the 2011 AIA Ohio Valley Region Convention

Over the weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the 2011 AIA Ohio Valley Region Convention in Dayton, Ohio as a panelist for the topic “Alternative Career Paths in Architecture”. I represented myself as part of the home performance industry, performing home energy audits and quality control/quality assurance inspections. As a part of the panel, I feel that I was the furthest outside of the box from being in the traditional architectural field. Other fields or paths related to architecture that were represented were, specifications writing, historic preservation, university planning department, state architects office and web comics. The panel was moderated by Lee W. Waldrep, Ph.D who wrote the book Becoming an Architect: A Guide to Careers in Design and moderated similar panels at other conventions such as the 2011 AIA National Convention.

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.

Kill’n a hog….an Energy Hog

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

New Innovations in Energy showcase at COSI

Last week the Center of Science & Industry (COSI) introduced a new exhibit in their Innovations Showcase, Innovations in Energy. My family was invited to attend the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for this new showcase as one of my projects is featured in their Green Building touch screen display featuring green buildings in categories such as Homes, Big Buildings & Schools. The N. Twenty First Street project is currently the only home project featured in the touch screen display letting users know about the green features of each of these buildings.

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.