November 25, 2008
Reducing your energy use isn't so cut-and-dry, even when you "know what you're doing"
So, for years I've worked on programs and with companies who promote strategies and processes to reduce energy use in homes. I'm about as familiar with what you need to do to drive those utility bills down as any reasonably-technical person. But then we started energy-retrofitting our own house.
The bottom line is that it's not as simple as we'd all like to make it seem. Insulate, air seal, replace equipment for the most part, right? Right. That's what we did. But here are some of the things I'm finding a bit hinky.
1. No one tells you where you can look for tax credit information, or for rebates. In order to maximize our savings (initial investment) I've had to track down every manufacturer, mire through loads of information that's not so easy to interpret, search federal and state web sites, and even then - after the fact I got this nifty note from my utility company saying that I could recoup up to half the cost of energy improvements by submitting for their rebate program. Not that I'm complaining - I'm DELIGHTED in fact, but now I'm going to be rifling through invoices and manufacturer paperwork again until I get what I need to submit to the utility. Someone needs to write a guide to doing this before you start, I think.
2. It's confusing once you've done the work to interpret your utility bills, particulary if you've added on to your home whilst doing energy upgrades (i.e. our house). We added home offices at the same time that we swapped out the aging furnace and water heater for a new combined heat and hot water system. Last year this month (with the old system and only one very energy-miserly occupant) we were using the same amount of gas that we are this year (with three not so energy-miserly occupants, read this as water-loving two-year-old and two work from home parents). But the electic usage is triple the prior year. Is this because we use the lights too much? I just replaced all of the incandescents with CFLs, so we'll see if that makes a difference. But perhaps it's the electric needed to run pumps on the new heating and hot water system? I'm still struggling with how to iron this one out.
3. It's never done, and I'm not sure where to stop. Next step is to better run and seal our ductwork, but then do we really want and need to airseal the attic further? Our air changes were already pretty low - do we want to go lower? Then we end up with the conundrum of needing mechanical ventilation and oh yeah, heat recovery...
The bottom line is that I APPLAUD those of you without any background in energy efficiency who are retrofitting your homes. Even with my background, I find myself lost and confused...
Posted by Stacy Hunt at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 21, 2008
Getting your mind around 2009
The seasonal slow-down in work is the perfect opportunity for home builders to catch up on the latest technologies and expand their capabilities. With 2009 just around the corner, now is the time to plug into trade shows, conferences, and green building organizations that are eager to help builders reach the next level.
Some of the standard heavyweights like the International Builder's Show (you might want to turn the sound down before clicking that link) continue the recent trend of offering green building education courses. If you are going to be in Las Vegas in January, check out the "Green Building Products: Can They Perform as Promised?" class. This session will look at the latest products on the market and should offer a few tips on how to use technical methods for sniffing out potential problems. The session also promises to offer legal advice for builders so that they can get better product warranties for new technologies and reduce their liability risk.
Or if you are looking for something a little closer to home, and happen to live in Florida...
The International Code Council (ICC) was founded on the idea that homes should be built to a higher, or at least consistent, standard, thus creating safer cottages for all. ICC is starting to address green building in their own way, and regional events are sprouting up everywhere. If you are a builder in Florida and looking to beef up your educational credits, you might want to pre-register for the Green Building Safety Institute. The learning event is geared for those ready to pick-up the technical knowledge of how the I-Codes support green building and highlights the skills necessary to assess green building practices.
Finally, if you just can't get out to attend any sessions or educational events in the next few months, then you probably missed the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo this week up in Boston. I missed it as well. But the extremely good news is that the key note speaker's presentations are all free to view on the web. If nothing else, check out Van Jones presentation on the most important tool in fighting climate change, the caulk gun. Jones is president and founder of Green for All and is worth watching for his humor and common sense approach to going green.
Now is a great time to get engaged in green building, get an education, and get a jump start on 2009.
Posted by Andrew Hunt at 12:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
November 13, 2008
Research homes - what happens to them?
So here's a question that's always plagued my oh-so-geeky mind. There are a number of excellent buildings research programs, publicly and privately funded (see a list of interesting ones below). They build research homes, like this one in Yuma, Arizona that I worked on years ago. A neat little house that's replicable, and was intended to be replicated - by the scads - to provide U.S. Army housing. But what happens to them once the research is done? Who lives in them, and most importantly - how do they perform over time?
I don't know, do you? :)
Really, this is simply a question posed - do researchers keep track of their research projects, and is the actual performance after say, 10 years of weather, equipment and occupancy degradation ever get recommissioned again? Again, are they tested to see if they perform over time?
Does anyone know?
Bueller?
A few good buildings research programs:
U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Program
National Research Council Canada
University of Minnesota - Center for Sustainable Research
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Posted by Stacy Hunt at 3:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
