I am now performing Home Energy Audits for Harrisonburg Electric Commission (HEC). These are base line / help you reduce your monthly electric bills / more of an air leakage test than full energy audit kind of review for your home. The advantage – they are FREE to HEC customers that have electric heat in their homes.
The kind of things we are looking for are easy things the home owner can do to lower monthly electric usage. You simply need to call HEC to schedule the appointment. It takes us about an hour to set up the blower door and walk through the house looking for air leakage patters. We use thermal imaging camera technology to see through the walls. We also have been able to catch a couple of water leaks that were not yet visible. We leave a short checklist of things for you to do to improve your thermal envelope after our audit.
Once you have done the easy things you could potentially reduce your monthly electric bills by up to 30% depending on what we find during the audit. Note, this is not an exhaustive audit. For a more complete audit you need to call Building Knowledge. However, start with the base line audit that HEC provides for free. We are proud to partner with HEC on this effort.
Flashing is a strip of impervious material used to stop water from penetrating the junction of a wall or roof with another surface.
One of the most critical design elements in a building are those keeping water out of the structural system. Flashing diverts the water and protects the building from rot and mold growth. If the flashing is not installed correctly, this can lead to damage to the building.
Flashing, while usually being a hidden element, is one that needs appropriate attention. Joints between materials expand and contract giving ample opportunity for water penetration into the structure.
Spring is a great time to do an assessment of your home. This will provide you with a priority list of things to get done before next winter to help create the most healthy, energy-efficient, and durable home possible.
1. Water Management
Check your roofing for damage – repair or replace as needed
Check your gutter for proper slope and drainage
verify your rain tanks or splash blocks are still in place and functional
Green Terms Defined: Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV)
An ERV or Energy Recovery Ventilator is part of a balanced ventilation system that transfers water vapor and heat from one airstream to another. In a mixed humid climate, it works differently in the hot season and the cold season. In hot months, the ERV works to maintain the interior relative humidity of a structure as outside air is conditioned by the ERV entering the fresh air ventilation system. In cold months water vapor is captured from the outgoing air to humidify the incoming air.
An ERV or HRV (heat recovery ventilator) provides fresh air and improved climate control while reducing the energy requirement for heating and cooling a building.
5 ways to reduce the Stormwater Fee you will have to pay in Harrisonburg
Rain falls from the sky. Buildings, parking lots, sidewalks, and streets collect and funnel the water into the storm water system. In Harrisonburg, this water all finds its way into our local creeks and streams. Walking through downtown, you see (smell) it in Blacks Run for instance.
Each year, a cleanup is organized to remove the storm debris (trash, paper, plastic…) from Blacks Run. However, this does not / cannot remove all the pollutants that get into the waterways and eventually find their way into the Chesapeake Bay. These pollutants have been flowing into the Bay for years from all over the state. So now each resident of localities that have mandated Municipal Seperate Storm Sewer System permits issued by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (Harrisonburg, Charlottesville) will pay to help clean it up.
Harrisonburg will institute a storm water fee for every home owner of $10.50 per 500 sf of impervious surface. For most home owners this will amount to $50 per year. For larger property owners, this will be a harder pill to swallow.
Here are 5 things that you can do to help (and it will reduce your fee to the city by up to 50%).
You could install pervious concrete sidewalks / driveway / parking lots to allow the water to flow through the pavement into the ground.
Every three years (or so) Virginia updates the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code (VUSBC). Virginia typically adopts a version of the International Building Code (updated every year) that is 3 years behind the current year. As of July 1, 2014, Virginia adopted the 2012 International Building Code, which will be mandatory for new buildings starting July 1, 2015. Part of that code is a subset called the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code. Virginia does not adopt it without some modification (I wish they did) so here are some things to expect.
New homes being built have to be caulked and sealed to create an air tight envelope. Virginia modified this requirement to allow for a visual test – essentially making this a worthless requirement. If you are building, you should ask your builder for a blower door test to at least meet the 2012 IECC requirements of total building air leakage.
Ducts and air handlers must be sealed with maximum leakage testing to show tightness. Once again, Virginia allows for a visual test instead of the more effective duct blaster test.
50% of light bulbs and fixtures in a dwelling must now be high-efficacy lighting. I have not designed a house in more than 10 years that did not meet this requirement.
Wall insulation requirements have increased from R-13 to R-15 or R-13+1 Continuous.
According to a report developed by the Department of Energy, full implementation of the 2012 IECC would add $215 to a home over the 2009 IECC. The projected savings the home owner would see over the first year is $388. So ask your builder to build to the 2012 IECC instead of just the worst possible thing allowed by Virginia law – the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code.
