With all the talk about rising energy costs, going green, and reducing carbon footprints on everyone’s mind. An article for cost effective energy strategies around the house is a timely topic. I have seen many attempts by homeowners dealing with these issues during home inspections that make little or no financial sense. I was watching a show recently and the paper products people argued the green benefits of their products because they do not fill up the landfills with plastic. Than the plastic people argued the green benefits of their products because they do not cut down trees, listening to all this green talk has just become folly for marketing campaigns that are shaped by companies to gain results that favor their products. To find out more about going green I took two home energy audit courses recently and discovered that most things people do around the house make little financial sense.
Here are some common misconceptions that make little or no financial sense for homeowners of a typical house.
1. REPLACING WINDOWS, it is more cost effective to seal/weather strip windows and doors plus install storm windows/doors than replace the windows as a typical house will save approximately $28 a year in utility bills and it can take 14-28 years to get a return on the investment.
2. REPLACING APPLIANCES such as furnaces/dishwashers for energy star rated equipment. A high efficiency furnace cost approximately $6000 installed, a mid efficient furnace cost approximately $3500 installed, and the total energy savings per year for the energy star furnace is approximately $168. The $2500 difference divided by $168 takes close to 15 years just to break even.
3. TANKLESS WATER HEATERS, a traditional 40 gallon water heater is rated at 35,000 – 40,000 BTU’s , it would take a tankless water heater sized at 200,000 BTU’s to provide similar amounts of hot water. A tankless water heater at 200,000 BTU’s saves approximately $2-$4 a month over a traditional water heater. The cost to install a 40 gallon water heater is approximately $600; the cost to install a tankless water heater is approximately $2000 and would take approximately 41-83 years to break even.
COST EFFECTIVE ENERGY SAVING STRATEGIES AROUND THE HOUSE
1. AIR SEALING the building envelope, weather stripping/caulking around windows/doors, sealing mechanical chases and other areas that plumbing/heating/electrical equipment penetrates flooring. Fire blocking between floor joists/framing in basements of older houses that have balloon framing. Keep in mind that if a house is sealed to tight a heat recovery ventilator may have to be installed to help prevent indoor air quality issues.
2. CEILING/WALL INSULATION to 6 inches, 90% of heat transfer is stopped in the first 6 inches of insulation and the cost to add additional insulation takes too long to recover the investment for the small difference the added insulation has on a home’s energy bill. Insulating over attic hatches and pull down stairs is very cost effective.
3. PROGRAMMABLE THERMOSTATS can reduce energy savings by programming settings to control temperatures while the occupants are sleeping or set times they are not home. It is recommended to not reduce/increase the temperatures by more than 10 degrees as a wide a temperature swing can negate energy saved as the equipment works longer to make up the difference.
4. KEEPING WATER HEATERS OFF BASEMENT FLOORS, the basement floor is typically 55 degrees and draws heat off the water heater that constantly has to keep reheating the water.I hope this information proves helpful as there are ways to Go Green without going Broke. To find out the best ways to button up your house Safe & Sound Home Inspections has a link on our website that will allow homeowners to perform a free energy audit sponsored by the US Department of Energy, a copy of utility bills will be needed.
This is just one more example of Safe & Sound Home Inspections taking charge of the home inspection industry by providing clients and the real estate industry with meaningful information to get the biggest bang for their energy buck.
Thank you for your time,
Brian Connelly,
Safe & Sound Home Inspections
providing the best customer and inspection servicesfor the great states of PA-NJ-DE
1 866 485-1991
www.asafensounhomeinspection.com
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Great to see that you guys are now blogging! This is a great article.
ReplyDeleteTerry
Where I live we have lots of victorian homes. I have been looking for green ideas that do not change the look. Do you have information on rehabing old homes green?
ReplyDeleteHello Belle,
ReplyDeleteI hope this message finds you well and thanks for the communication on making Victorian style/older homes green.
My experience with rehabbing/making older homes more energy efficient falls into a couple of different scenarios.
1) Insulation/Ventilation
2) Air Sealing/Ventilation
3) Central Heat/Air Conditioning/Ventilation
Older Victorian style homes have balloon framing on exterior walls. Balloon framing is a style of framing that has one continuous wall stud from the basement all the way to the attic. So if a house is a 2 1/2 story Victorian style the wall studs are close to 22 feet in length making for a long chase and lots of heat transferring from attic to basement and vice-verse.
Another thing to consider prior to buttoning up a house/building envelope is ventilation as older houses were built to breathe and this is an area that an experienced professional is worth/earns every penny of their bill. One of the biggest issues we deal with during home inspections is moisture/mold issues and that is because houses have been buttoned up so tight to save on energy bills that no moisture can escape the building envelope. Prior to the early 70's energy cost were low and houses were built to breathe, meaning very little insulation was installed during construction usually 3 inches in attics and walls for platform framing and none in walls with balloon framing. The oil embargo hit in the early '70's and soaring energy cost led everyone wanting to save on utility bills by insulating their houses with little or no thought to the consequences of a tighter building envelope that can prevent moisture escape. So when insulating/air sealing a building envelope make sure you or the professional you are working with understand ventilation to prevent solving the problem of improved energy efficiency and creating others such as moisture/mold issues among others.
INSULATION: 90% of heat transfer is stopped within the first 6 inches of loose filled/batted insulation. One way to retrofit insulation is to have the wall cavities filled with blown insulation as the wall studs in Victorian style houses are predominately 2 x 4's this would allow for a R-13 insulation value and an additional benefit is improved fire safety protection as each wall cavity will act as a chimney chase during a fire if left unfilled.
Having done rehabs on older style Victorian I can tell you that most of the blown insulation in walls does not fill the wall cavity and gets stuck/clogged behind the wall on broken clap boards/lathe, floor joist studs connected to balloon framing, or fallen plaster. The solution to this is have more entry points in the walls, I prefer 2 entry points for every 8 feet of walling and two additional entry points above and below floor separations(areas that floor joist intersect/connect to the wall studs) to ensure that the maximum amount of insulation is filling the wall cavities.
Depending on the area of the country you live in the code will require different R (heat resistance) values with the minimum being approximately R-38 (approximately 15 inches) for the Philadelphia/South Jersey/Delaware areas in attics. Like was stated earlier 90% of all heat transfer is stopped in the first 6 inches (R-19) and is usually sufficient, any numbers I have seen on the additional cost of added insulation versus the savings on energy bills do not support spending extra money for more insulation in attics.
One thing that can add considerable expense to adding insulation to Victorian style houses is active knob and tube wiring as the NEC(electrical code) does not allow insulation over knob and tube wiring for safety reasons as the wiring can overheat and was not designed to be modified or insulated in this manner. If there is live knob and tube wiring, it should be replaced by a qualified/licensed electrical contractor prior to insulating areas of a home that active knob and tube wiring does exist.
Here are some ways to tell if your house needs more insulation.
A) After a snowfall if your neighbors roofs still have snow cover and your roof does not, more insulation is probably needed as there is too much heat loss melting the snow cover.
B) Melting snow/drips from the roof at night when the sun is down and the temperature is still around or below freezing. Excessive heat loss can be causing the snow to melt.
C) Compare energy bills with neighbors that have similar designed houses and if your energy bills are way out of line with no reasonable explanation such as multiple teenagers or husband's power station/workshop in the garage more insulation is probably warranted.
2)The second way to make a Victorian style house more energy efficient is air seal the building envelope as well. The building envelope can be considered the conditioned spaces of a house that comes in contact with the unconditioned spaces of a house such as attics/exterior walls/crawl spaces/et cetera.
A) Contrary to popular opinion replacing good windows with more energy/insulated/low E glass efficient windows with all the bells and whistles makes very little sense to the owner of a home and very good sense to the person selling the windows. Caulk around every window both interior/exterior around framing/trim and install shades/curtains on sides that receive direct sunlight in the summer months.
B) A cheaper option compared to replacing windows is install storm windows at a much cheaper price, but this will affect the exterior appearance.
C) Install a storm door and weather stripping around all exterior doors as well as caulking the framing/trim both interior/exterior, if one does not want to alter the appearance of the exterior door ways than have an aerial way built at the front door entrance. Helps prevent drafts into the house and is a little bigger than an old style phone booth.
D) Seal mechanical chases (plumbing/electric/heating/cooling) with fire rated caulk and/or other fire rate material for larger openings for two reasons to help prevent loss of energy and improved fire safety protection.
E) If a house has hot air heat(furnace) air seal the ducts around joints/fittings as it is estimated that there is up to a 15% energy loss for heating/cooling duct work. A more modern practice is to seal/paint these areas with a mastic that is available at most home centers.
F) Treat the attic access area(s), even if a stairway as an exterior area and air seal/weather strip/insulate these areas as appropriate if the attic is unconditioned.
3) More and more older houses are installing central air conditioning and/or ceiling fans.
A) Plaster ceilings is a high maintenance relationship to begin with so when installing ceiling fans make sure that a qualified professional is installing the ceiling fan(s) in a manner that will not vibrate the framing/ceiling or you will be replacing numerous plaster ceilings that end up costing you more money in the long run.
B) When converting a heating system to cooling or installing a cooling system in an older house, make sure that there are ample returns on all floors in appropriate areas to allow the hot air/humidity to return to the air conditioning compressor. If this is not done the house will end up with an over sized compressor and higher energy bills, and/or reduced comfort levels; in addition to a potential moisture issue from the mixing of hot air with cool air creating a stack effect/dew point on all floors of the house.
We see it all the time during inspection of older houses and I just inspected a Victorian style house that added a central air conditioning compressor to a heating system without modifying the duct work to accept central air conditioning. This is an incomplete system that will cause the owner to have higher than needed energy bills as there are no returns on the second or third floors to remove hot air/humidity from upper floors, in addition the compressor was over sized=cost more trying to make up for the lack of duct work infrastructure.
C) If you still use window unit air conditioners change out the old clunkers that run on 220 circuits and replace with a more efficient units that runs on a 110 line.
White coat the flat sections of roofing to reflect the suns light during summer months can also help reduce energy costs and improve energy efficiency and should be done as needed as the reflective coat loses its reflective value when dirty/covered.
I hope this information is useful and we recommend verifying the information in this post with a qualified professional prior to attempting any of these suggestions on your own as each situation will require a solution for that particular situation as there is no blanket solution across the board. If houses are sealed/buttoned up two tight heat recovery ventilators may have to be installed to prevent indoor air quality issues as was stated earlier we do not want to solve one problem by creating others.
Safe & Sound Home Inspections has a link on our website at www.asafensoundhomeinspections.com to a free Department of Energy (DOE) energy audit that one can perform on their own home, a couple of recent utility bills will be needed to fill out the audit.
Thank you for your time,
Brian Connelly
Safe & Sound Home Inspections
providing the best customer and inspection services for the great states of PA-NJ-DE