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.

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.

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.

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.

During my conversations with customers I am always telling them it was an easy transition into the job because I am already knowledgeable of construction techniques and building science.  I just needed training on the equipment and testing procedures.  So for those that are interested in home energy audits, here is a great video on the basics of blower door testing that was produced by the Montana Weatherization Training Center.  Over the past year, they have produced a whole series of videos on their WXtv site, featuring different aspects of the energy auditing and home weatherization industry.

Check out the Montana Weatherization Training Centers WXtv to view more great videos geared towards training the weatherization industry.

However year after year my wife and I torture ourselves and attend the local home and garden show.  Now if you want to experience high pressure sales and be steered into the cheapest way to do things, you must attend a home and garden show.  Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good home builders and remodeling contractors out there, but I seriously doubt you will find one at one of these shows.  Because the good ones out there don’t need to attend because they get work through referrals.

With the exception of a new home energy auditing company and few insulation contractors, I couldn’t even tell you the headache I had after I left.  So many of us out there are trying to do good quality work and try and reduce our footprint on this earth.  But I couldn’t believe a conversation that I had with a remodeling contractor.  I asked if they had any experience installing fiber cement siding over 2-4 inches of foam.  Now I will give you a second to think about what his response was…….  They actually remove the foam board insulation.  Can you freaking believe it?!  My wife walked away when she saw my jaw drop.  I mean seriously?  So we hopefully improved the look of the home, but we  just removed at least 20% of the wall insulation and increased the home owners utility bills.  He continued the conversation that if you install the siding over furring strips, the siding will snap.  So I politely took his business card and told my wife, this goes in the do not hire pile.

So where does it start?  Do we continue our efforts and try and educate the home owner or do we need push harder to get people in our industry on board and bring them up to date on today’s building practices?

So how many of us actually track our utility usage beyond opening up the envelope and complaining about the cost?  How many people actually know their average month, or yearly usage?  With the increasing cost of energy, I am sure there are more that will start paying attention.  But how do we keep track?  Smart meters are starting to roll out all throughout the country which will allow us to access that information easily.  However it will take some time before everyone has one.  There are devices that we can purchase, such as the TED energy detective that can be hooked up to our meters, some complicated, others not.  However a lot of us do not want to incur that expense.

Besides creating a spreadsheet and tracking our monthly usage, what are our options?  There happens to be a few free online services that will do this for you and will generate relatively easy to read graphs showing your usage and billing history.  Most of them will even give you a score as a way to compete with your neighbors.  Therefore I would like to take the time and briefly review a few of them that I have tried.

Energy Report Card

GreenQuest is the one I have been using the longest and is the one I like the best.  It is run off the EnergyCAP platform and can be used to track any building type’s energy usage.  What I like the most about GreenQuest is the amount of information it gives you and is one of the only to allow you to track your water usage (example).  It will show you up to four years worth of utility information in its graphs, showing your monthly usage along with a trending line showing average usage throughout the year.  Unlike any other tracking services, it allows you to input projects and displays them within your Energy History chart.  So after every project, you should notice your trending line drop.  The other feature I really like that no other service does is to compare your usage to the weather.  Because let’s face it, the weather controls our usage and with the hotter than normal summer we saw this past year, it’s hard to see a reduction in usage when your demand is so much higher without doing major improvements.  GreenQuest will also compare your usage to others in your region.  However a flaw in the system is they only require 6 months worth of data to compare against others in your region.  You also have to be very diligent and remember every month to input your most recent bill to keep up to date.

My Hohm Center

Microsoft Hohm is another option available to track your usage.  Hohm is intended to act as a platform for smart meter display.  However for those of us without one, you can still manually input your utility bill information.  Holm asks for a lot of information about your home including windows, heating and cooling systems, etc.  In turn they provide a list of recommended activities/improvements to help reduce your energy bills.  One of the things I like about hohm is the easy to read Energy Cost Graph that breaks down your average yearly cost and even provides a breakdown of your costs based on the information in your home profile.  Like GreenQuest, it provides a score for your home and displays the average score in your zip code.  This online resource even will provide you with recommended improvements or changes in habit to help reduce your utility bills.  Now for us that are in the energy efficiency business their recommendations are no brainers.  But we have to remember there are a lot of people out there that do not know where to start when it comes to reducing energy usage and this information is a good start.

EarthAid Dashboard

An up and coming service that has earned the support of the United State Green Building Council (USGBC) is EarthAid.  EarthAid is now a requirement for all LEED for Homes projects as a way to track the usage of the certified homes to verify that they are performing as designed.  Unlike GreenQuest and Microsoft Hohm, EarthAid does not provide a score for your home; it solely displays your monthly usage compared to your baseline year.  However you can compare your monthly usage to the average home in the USA, your state and zip code.  For its simplicity in data display it sets itself apart in two ways.  One, when you create your account, you provide online access to your utility accounts where EarthAid will automatically download your baseline years energy usage and will automatically download each months utility bill information every month thereafter.  Every month when it downloads the new utility bill information, it sends you an email notifying you of the month energy usage comparing it to your baseline and the previous month.  The way EarthAid keeps its users interested in their energy usage and efficiency is by providing rewards.  For every unit of energy reduction each month from you baseline year, you can earn reward points that can be used to purchase goods or services from local or nationwide companies, kind of like rewards points from your credit card.  However every month your usage is higher than the baseline, points are subtracted from your total.  You can even invite friends to be a part of your network and earn additional points for their energy reduction, and it can become an online community sharing your usage information with others.  Now if you are a home performance professional or company providing services that affect the energy usage, you can create a group for your company that your customers can join.  This is the perfect way to keep tabs on the performance of your customer’s homes, whether you made efficiency improvements or built a new home.  Like Hohm, EarthAid provides suggestions for energy reduction and even provides direct links to products that can be purchased to reduce your energy usage.

Out of all three of the services, GreenQuest is still my favorite because it allows me to see multiple year’s worth of utility information and compares your usage to the weather.  And let’s face it; my wife doesn’t call me the energy nazi for nothing.  I like to see lots of information and GreenQuest fits all my needs.  However EarthAid is a close second with the ability to automatically download your data and to create groups.

So what better way to get a handle on your utility bills than by tracking, because knowledge is power and you cannot truly control your energy usage without knowing how much you actually use?  Studies show having this knowledge can easily save between 5-20%.  So take charge and start saving.