Most wish lists for a new dream home have some very similar elements: lots of light, an open plan, and a nice kitchen. If I am involved there is also some discussion about efficiency, durability, and comfort. However, I have not heard from many clients that they want a resilient home. As we move forward I do think this may be a driving factor in the design of custom homes. So is your home resilient?
Resilient design is the intentional design of buildings in order to respond to natural and manmade disasters and disturbances as well as long-term changes resulting from climate change.
A resilient home is energy-efficient and has a focus on durability, comfort, adaptability, and indoor environmental quality. It will incorporate aging-in-place design elements to help a home adapt to life changes. We ask questions about the future life our clients want to live in their dream home, for instance, what if the world shuts down and you have to do your job from home? What if school happens in your living room? What should we include in the home design to clean the air you breathe? How can we design beyond code, affordably, to manage power outages, extreme temperature changes, increased moisture in the air, and create healthy spaces to live work, and play.
This concept ofresilient design is building on our focus on sustainable design but expanding the conversation to adaptability. How can a home adapt easily over time to changing conditions, goals, wants, needs, and impacts from outside forces? What products are being created to address these concerns? I have seen major advances in heating and cooling technology, automated systems for managing a house, and for localized power generation – but I wonder what is next.
What advances in technology are you excited about? What new building products are coming to market that will make your life easier? What standards for design are shaping how we build a more resilient future?
Here are some energy-efficiency blog posts I have written over the years. I hope these will help you narrow down those vampire loads, cold room mysteries, high energy bill conundrums, and generally help you save money, live more comfortably, and improve your indoor environmental quality.
My goal in providing free energy audits has been to help people make their homes more comfortable, energy-efficient, and durable.
In 2016, I started offering free energy audits for anyone in the valley. I worked with HEC on those in the city of Harrisonburg to start with and on my own for those in the County. I wanted to help people understand their homes and businesses – the most complicated machines they will ever own. With the knowledge of how these machines run, these home and business owners (and many churches) could make changes to improve comfort, reduce energy, clean up indoor air quality, and make their homes more durable.
This morning I performed one of the last audits I will be able to do for some time – there’s just not time to run for office (www.hendricksforharrisonburg.com) and provide this service while being a single dad and business owner. Here are blog links that I hope will help you improve comfort and energy-efficiency without a full audit.
An energy-audit is a great “tune-up” for your existing home. I have been offeringenergy-auditsfor free for people in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County now for about four years. My goal is to help people reduce their monthly bills by identifying easy to correct issues in their homes. I usually don’t hear back from them on the progress they have made, but I did on a recent audit which made my day.
From the home owner via email: After the first night with increased insulation in our attic, we want to say “THANK YOU” again for your insight and time during our home energy audit. Elite Insulation was over yesterday and the improvement to the warmth is noticeable. It’s the first time we didn’t have to use a space heater during the winter!
In this particular audit I did not find any BIG issues that should be fixed right away. I did notice that the attic insulation needed some attention and gave the home owner some other easy to fix items that would improve comfort. I like to also leave a list of companies that I trust to get the work done right if they are called. Elite Insulation is always the name I give for improving the thermal envelope of a home or business. They do good work for a fair price – what more could you ask for from your insulator?
I emailed Ken at Elite Insulation to find out what they did at the house to solve the comfort issue. He tells me that they added R-30 insulation over the existing 10″that was already there. Old insulation has layers of dirt and does not perform as well as new insulation so my guess is the atticnow has around an R35 – R40 blanket on top holding in the conditioned temperatures. While they were there they also added baffles to keep the soffits functioning as designed. This will allow air to flow above the insulation without moving the insulation around. This is not Ken’s work pictured below, but shows the soffit vent in action.
I am thrilled to hear from the home owner that she felt immediate results from the work that was done. Offering free energy-audits is rewarding in that I know I am empowering people with information they can use to cut costs and improve comfort. Hearing back from someone who has done improvements really makes it worthwhile.
This time of year it is sometimes hard to get warm. Does your house have that one room that is always a few degrees colder than the rest of the house? Are there places in your home you don’t use this time of year? Look for the air leak if your house is cold or uncomfortable and seal them. This simple act will improve the comfort of the rooms in your home and cut your energy bills.
One of the most common places I find HUGE air leak are electrical outlets and light switches. Here is a thermal image of a light switch next to a window. You can see the dark area which shows cold air is 44 degrees inside the house. The way it is shaped shows that air leak is coming through the wall and around this outlet running up and down the wall.
If you remove the decorative cover plate there is a plastic box that holds the light switch in place. Use a silicone caulk to seal the box tight to the drywall or plaster surrounding the box. This will reduce the amount of air leak around the switch. There are also small insulation sleeves that you can put over the switch behind the cover plate. This will help as well, but caulk first.
Air leaks at light switches are a big cause of comfort issues in your home. There is an old saying in the construction industry that “you don’t want to build to tight.” So what window do you want to leave out of your home? The reality is leaks around light switches, electrical outlets, doors, windows, recessed lights, water pipes… and on and on are how we achieve “not too tight.” The unfortunate part is air leaks hurt the comfort in your home and impacts your monthly energy usage. It also impacts your indoor air quality.
Sealing up all the leaks is difficult to achieve in an existing home. These pictures show the drastic impact air can have around one light switch on an exterior wall. Read this post to see what fixes you can make, but if you want to save money and improve the comfort in you home – schedule an energy audit today. Give us a call at 540-437-0012 to start the process.
