Help, my house is cold! This time of year, with weather like we have been having, the electric meter gets a strong workout. Yet, often our homes are not comfortable, cold even. So what can you do to make your electric bills lower and your home more comfortable?
I am now working for Harrisonburg Electric Commission providing their clients with free energy audits. It really is a air leakage test and identification of easy to correct high energy usage issues – but energy audit sounds better. In the test we use a blower door to depressurize the house. This allows us to find areas where air is moving from outside to inside of the home. These air leaks are a huge part of the discomfort and high energy use for your home. The typical heating and cooling system in an average home accounts for 60-70% of the monthly electric usage. The typical home could easily reduce this portion of the electric bill by 10-30% by plugging up these leaks. Air leaking through the walls, from the crawl space or attic, around electrical outlets are the same as leaving a window open on a cold winter day.
Here are 10 spots that are almost always air leaks in a home and how to fix it.
Attic access or pull down stair – Seal it up like a door, add weather-stripping and glue rigid insulation to the top of the access or create a hinged door over a pull down stair
Electrical outlets / light switches – These holes in your drywall / plaster allows for an easy air path. Caulk the plastic box tight to the drywall and add insulation made for behind the electrical cover
Wall / Floor intersection – Remove the 1/2 round and caulk the drywall tight to the floor
Drywall corners – The only good way to fix this is to stop the air moving from above and below the corner. This can be done well in new construction but is really hard to fix in an existing home
Wood floor over crawl space – In our climate the crawl space should be sealed and conditioned space. This eliminate air leaking from outside.
Recessed lights – These are always a big leak, unless they are air tight cans sealed tight to the drywall. The best way to eliminate this problem is to stop air movement on the backside of the drywall (between floor joist or in the attic).
Rim board between basement and first floor and first floor to second floor – This is probably the biggest air leak in your home. It is hard to fix in an existing finished space. If you can easily access these spaces, get it filled with open cell spray foam. If it is finished space, you can fix it, but it will require drilling lots of holes or removing drywall.
Chimney / Bath Vents / Kitchen Hood Vent – Use the damper in the fireplace to reduce air leakage, install vents with dampers for all exhaust vents
HVAC ducts – A surprise to many that this is a source of outside air coming into your home. The average duct system installed in your home uses tape to seal the joints’ leaks and leaks big time. If the joints are sealed with Mastic, then you will certainly have less leaks. I know one HVAC company in town that prides themselves on duct tightness, but that is one out of 12+ in town serving the residential market. If you can access the ducts, you can seal them, but this is often not the case. The only solution that I have found for a finished house is sealing from the inside of the duct using a product similar to Aeroseal. I have not seen a before and after, but I have heard of good performance.
Doors and Windows – Make sure they have the proper weather-stripping. We also use air stopper socks at the bottoms of all our doors. These are holes that open and close, really hard to seal them tight, do your best.
If you ever have to think to yourself “Help, my house is cold!” then fix these air leaks to see a reduction in your monthly electric bills. If you live in Harrisonburg give HEC a call to schedule your free energy audit to verify the leaks so you can get them fixed. If you want a complete energy audit or don’t live in Harrisonburg, Building Knowledge – Benjamin is an expert and does a great job.
Designing a home is a complex process with many questions, decisions, and choices to be made. You need a licensed design professional to help you achieve the best solution possible. Your architect needs you to be open and forthcoming with your hopes and dreams in order to translate your wants into a design. Here are 15 questions to ask yourself before you hire an architect:
1. What do you like about your current home?
2. What do you not like about your current home?
3. What do you want in a new home that you don’t have now?
4. What style home do you love? (pictures are worth a 1000 words)
5. Is your home the place the entire family gathers for the holidays? Is it the place for the neighborhood kids to gather? Do you work from home? Do you love to entertain?
6. How much time and energy do you want to spend maintaining your home?
7. Do you want to be able to expand your home in the future?
8. Do you want low energy bills?
9. Do you want to live in this home for 3 years? 10 years? Lifetime?
10. Do you enjoy cooking meals from scratch? Baking?
11. Do family members have special needs? Mobility? Sight? Autism?
12. How much do you want to spend on your home?
13. How does your building site impact the design of your home?
14. How much time do you have for design and construction?
15. How comfortable are you making selections that mesh together for a holistic design?
If you’re looking to hire an architect for your next home, give us a call so we can help you through this complex and rewarding process.
For more questions on building your home, read this post.
WaterSense is a label program created by the Environmental Protection Agency for consumers to easily identify water efficient products. It is similar to Energy Star in that it identifies products that are more efficient. In order to qualify a WaterSense labeled product meets the following criteria:
performs as well or better than their less efficient counterparts
are 20% more water efficient than average products in that category
realize water savings on a national level
provide measurable water savings results
achieve water efficiency through several technology options
obtain independent, third-party certification
For companies to use the WaterSense logo, they must sign a WaterSense partnership agreement with the EPA. This agreement defines the roles and responsibilities of EPA and the partnering organization, as well as proper use of the label on packaging and in marketing.
The label can be found on products for the home including bathroom sink faucets, showerheads, toilets, urinals, wather-based irrigation controllers, and even new homes. Using products with the WaterSense label reduces water consumption lowering utility bills.
Projected websites from the WaterSense website:
Replacing Old Faucets – 700 gallons of water annually
Replacing old toilets – 20-60% savings = 13,000 gallons of water annually
Replacing old shower heads = 2,900 gallons annually
As you can see, this could result in some nice annual reductions in your utility bill.
Why should your new bathroom walls have plywood on them? Designing a home that can adapt over time without knowing how it will need to adapt is a difficult challenge. There are standards by which you can block for future grab bars that are designed to allow for someone in a wheelchair to use a bathroom. However, those that need to use a wheelchair late in life may not have the upper body strength to use those grab bars effectively. What if there is no wheelchair, but maybe just stability issues? Would you want to install the grab bars in different locations?
Using a plywood backer board, behind your waterproofing system allows for installing grab bars anywhere in the future. So, Why should your new bathroom walls have plywood on them? Because the future is uncertain. This strategy gives maximum flexibility to the bathroom as needs change over time. Making spaces as flexible as possible during construction allows your home to be a home for a lifetime. I know you don’t plan to need grab bars, neither do I, but it is good to plan for as many possibilities as you can while building your dream home.
Commissioning is an important step to create a sustainable project. This process, found in many green rating systems, is the verification and documentation that a building and the systems used are designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained to meet the project requirements set by the building owner.
ASHRAE Standard 202-2013, The Commissioning Process for Buildings and Systems, and ASHRAE Guideline 0, The Commissioning Process define commissioning as:
“A quality-focused process for enhancing the delivery of a project. The process focuses upon verifying and documenting that all of the commissioned systems and assemblies are planned, designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained to meet the Owner’s Project Requirements.”
The commissioning process is done by a commissioning authority. This can be the engineer that does the design or an independent authority. The Commissioning Authority creates a plan for a full review of the complex systems in the building to make sure things are not overlooked, mistakes not made, and systems are performing at the highest level. Commissioning is basically a final punch list of your systems that should be done on every project. It gives the building owner assurance that they have received the system they wanted, performing the way it was designed, and designed for the performance desired by the owner.
Commissioning benefits the building owner through improved energy efficiency, improved workplace performance, and prevention of business losses.
Ask any seasoned carpenter (that does not understand building science) and they are likely to tell you “don’t build too tight, you want your house to breathe.” This is a tried and true “because that is the way we always do it idea.”
Early in the construction industry you did not build a home air-tight so that the walls could dry out. This is a leftover from days before we insulated or conditioned a home and wanted to air them out to keep them healthy inside.
However, now we have added insulation into our walls to increase energy performance.
Now we have heating, cooling, and ventilation systems to control indoor-air-quality and make the house comfortable and healthy.
So if your builder tells you they have done anything less than make your home as air tight as an igloo cooler, ask them if they will help pay your monthly electric bills. Ask them if they will come and dust your home once a week. Ask them why they continue to build as if the house is not insulated or conditioned.
Making your home air tight is key to a healthy, energy-efficient, and durable solution. Of course you do need a heating and cooling system that includes ventilation. This is how you bring fresh air into the house – through a filter – using an energy recovery ventilator. Making your home air tight filters the air reducing the need to dust. It also reduces energy consumption. It also filters the air improving indoor air quality. Making it air tight includes sealing every connection, joint, vent, penetration, window, door, roof, and hole.
Help, my house is cold! This time of year, with weather like we have been having, the electric meter gets a strong workout. Yet, often our homes are not comfortable, cold even. So what can you do to make your electric bills lower and your home more comfortable?
Attic access or pull down stair – Seal it up like a door, add weather-stripping and glue rigid insulation to the top of the access or create a hinged door over a pull down stair
Attic access or pull down stair – Seal it up like a door, add weather-stripping and glue rigid insulation to the top of the access or create a hinged door over a pull down stair
Rim board between basement and first floor and first floor to second floor – This is probably the biggest air leak in your home. It is hard to fix in an existing finished space. If you can easily access these spaces, get it filled with open cell spray foam. If it is finished space, you can fix it, but it will require drilling lots of holes or removing drywall.
11. Do family members have special needs? Mobility? Sight? Autism?
