Category — ducts

A while ago I wrote a post outlining Progress Energy’s rebates for energy efficiency projects. It’s one of the most popular posts on this blog, and I wanted to make sure that everyone reading this knows that while I wrote that post in January, the rebates offered through PE are still going on.

The way that Progress Energy’s rebates relate to Home Performance NC, our company, is that as certified PE contractors, we can apply the $60 duct-testing rebate towards our comprehensive energy audit. If you have 2 units the rebate will be $90. For a full audit that works out to 20 – 30% off the total price of the audit. If we discover that your ducts need sealing in the course of the audit, duct sealing will also qualify you for a rebate  - up to $120, or half the price of the repairs. And if it’s also determined that you’ll need your attic sealed, you can also get a generous rebate for that as well – $ .0375/sq. foot.

Nice.

For full details on the Progress Energy rebates, click here.

And to make an appointment for an energy audit, please e-mail us or give us a call: (919)360-1570. We happily travel throughout the greater Triangle area for our audits and weatherization services.

Dear Mr. Energy,

You are always going on about sealing this, sealing that. Seal your ducts! Seal your attic! Seal your escutcheons (whatever those are)! Is it possible to seal too much?

–Wondering in Wendell

Dear Wondering,

The answer to your question is no, it is not possible to seal too much. But it is possible to get a house so tightly sealed that no outside air comes in, which is a bad thing. Sounds contradictory, right? Not really.

Here’s the deal:  sealing a house keeps energy from leaking out or leaking in. You want that. It’s a good thing.  But a certain amount of fresh air has to circulate in order for the house to be safe. So it’s a balance. If your home is super-sealed (including the escutcheons, which are the little plates that surround where your plumbing enters your home), you need to install appropriate ventilation to make sure the home’s inhabitants get the air changes they need to be healthy.

Which is why it’s very important to enlist the help of a professional building scientist if your home is approaching super-tight status. Building scientists see the house as a whole system, and possess the appropriate skills, knowledge, and equipment to make sure that in addition to creating a very energy-efficient home, you are also creating a safe home.

You can find a building scientist by looking at the list of accredited analysts on the Building Performance Institute’s website: bpi.org. And yes, Mr. Energy is one. How else would he know everything he has been telling you?

Up until now we’ve been telling you that an energy audit and subsequent weatherization will pay for itself in 2-3 years. We have years of data from Energy Star and the Low Income Weatherization program to back this up. But now it’s time to give you real examples of ways that our clients have saved and will save money from applying the results of an energy audit to make their homes more energy efficient.

Real world example #1: Joe Suburban Homeowner Guy from Cary

The client in this first example owns a 3200 square foot home in one of the most densely populated suburbs of Raleigh, built in the 90s. It’s one of many in a neighborhood of homes built at the same time. These homes were not built to Energy Star standards and probably went up very quickly. It’s unclear if one builder built all of them or if a number of builders participated in this subdivision.  If you live in the greater Raleigh area you know that there are many neighborhoods like this in Cary, Apex, North Raleigh, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, and other suburban pockets.

We did a comprehensive home energy audit and were also contracted for follow-up weatherization. This customer’s energy company is Progress Energy, so he qualified for the duct testing and duct sealing rebate.

One of our suggestions for weatherization was to seal the home’s HVAC ducts. We did some other weatherization as well, but for this case study I want to focus on the duct testing and sealing.

Here’s what the homeowner paid for the audit + duct sealing, minus the rebates from Progress Energy:

$570

Plus, he’ll also get a $30 tax credit from the federal government. 

We calculate that his heating and cooling costs were $2600/year.

When we tested his HVAC ducts we found that they had 26% leakage. That’s right – 26%. What this means is that 26% of the heated or cooled air wasn’t reaching the house.  Every time the heat pump kicked in – either to heat or cool the home – only 3/4 of what should have been going in was going in.

Unacceptable, right?

Believe it or not, most homeowners experience 20-30% leakage in their home’s HVAC ductwork, and some research even puts it as high as 43%. So our homeowner, at 26%, was experiencing average energy loss through his ducts. But who wants to be average? Especially when it comes to wasting energy!

After sealing this homeowner’s ductwork, we re-tested his ducts for leakiness and found that we’d reduced the leakage to 4%. 74% capacity to 96% capacity. Not perfect, but darn close.

From his ducts alone, he should save, very conservatively, at least 10% on his  energy bills. We’ve looked at many reports that state duct testing/sealing can save more like %20-%30 on heating and cooling costs. 

We estimate that with the money this homeowner will save in energy costs from his HVAC system alone he will have a 100% return on his investment in the audit and the duct sealing within two years. This doesn’t count the other energy efficiency work that we did on the home, and it’s using today’s energy costs. If rates go up, the return on his investment will be even faster.

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that we’re using the savings on the duct work to calculate the pay back for the price of the entire audit – an audit that pointed out many other ways the homeowner could save money. 

A win-win for the homeowner, no?

In my last post I focused on Progress Energy’s rebates for duct testing, which can be applied towards a full energy audit done by one of their approved contractors, like us. This post will outline how Progress Energy helps its Carolina customers follow up an energy audit with weatherization to improve a home’s energy efficiency.

Basically, PE provides rebates for weatherization in the areas of duct sealing (covered in the last post), air sealing, and insulation. They will also help homeowners replace their heat/AC systems if you replace them with high efficiency systems. And finally, they offer rebates on window replacement. We don’t happen to think that replacing your windows is the best way to use energy efficiency dollars, but in case you disagree with us or have other compelling reasons to change our your windows please take advantage of this rebate.

Here are the details on PE’s rebates for air sealing and insulation:

They will give you a rebate of $.375/sq. ft for air sealing your attic and improving your insulation levels up to $375, if…

• You are improving your insulation from less than R-19 and going up to at least R-30. (For more information then you’ve ever wanted to know about “R” values and what they mean, please go to this website).
• AND you have a centrally ducted Heat/AC system
• AND you have the work done by someone on their contractor list (and YES, we are on that list, too)
• AND you are a Progress Energy customer.

That last one seems a little dumb to have to add, since we are talking about Progress Energy, but I guess they get enough non-customers asking for their rebates that they had to put that in the description.

Anyway, this is a really, really great deal for homeowners. But here’s the kicker: do not, I repeat, DO NOT do the easy thing and just hire an insulation contractor to dump a bunch of insulation on top of what you already have. No sirree! Be sure to have your audit first so you can show your contractor where you have leaks in your attic, then SEAL THE ATTIC (!!), then add the insulation.

Seriously. Dumping more insulation on top of an unsealed attic is like…I can’t think of a good analogy right now – but it’s not a smart thing to do. Sealing the attic is the #1 most important thing in this whole equation.

Seal it. First, have an audit (and get your rebate for duct testing). Then seal your attic…then, and only then, increase your insulation.

Please.

Dear Mr. Energy,

Do I really have to change my home’s air filters every month?

–A little bit lazy

Dear Little bit,

Yes. You do. Quit being lazy! It’s not very hard to do and it’s pretty cheap, and your home’s HVAC system will thank you for it. The air filters control the quality of air your family breathes – isn’t that worth the 15 minutes it takes each month?

By the way, we recommend the cheap disposable polyfil filters over the more expensive pleated kind or the reusable ones. The reusable ones, over time, retain dirt and can blow around your house, and, if not absolutely dry, the reusable ones can grow mold in your system . The pleated kind –the kind advertised for those people with allergies – can actually cause most conventional home HVAC systems to work harder. This can shorten the HVAC unit’s life and in many cases can also block air flow in and out of the house. If you have significant allergies you should talk to a HVAC technician, because in many cases your home’s air ducts can be reengineered so that they can accommodate the pleated filters.

Dear Mr. Energy,

I want to make energy efficiency improvements to my house, but I have less than $1000 to work with. What can I do to make the biggest impact?

–Champagne tastes on a beer budget

Dear Champagne,

You’re in luck! Between rebates, tax credits, and basic maintenance to your home’s systems, you can accomplish quite a bit with a budget under $1000. Provided your home doesn’t need a new HVAC system, which can run in the several thousands, most people can make significant improvements to their homes that will yield about a 30% improvement in their home’s energy bills.

The first step in making energy improvements is getting a professional home Energy Audit. An energy audit, done by a qualified professional (one who is a RESNET-HERS certified energy rater and a BPI Analyst) using specialized equipment, will pinpoint exactly the areas where your home is leaking energy. If you know where your home leaks, you will know where you’ll need to spend the money to seal it up. Some of the leaks, like those around doors or electrical outlets, cost very little to stop and are ones that the homeowner can do for him/her self. Others may be a bit more expensive to fix, but air sealing is not typically a huge expense and is well worth the savings in the long run.

In addition to checking the air leakage in the living space of your home, an energy audit will also investigate leaks in your home’s HVAC’s air ducts. Even new HVAC systems may not be operating with complete energy efficiency, so it’s always worth it to have your ducts tested. Once tested, ducts can be sealed fairly inexpensively. Industry experts estimate a 20-30% savings on most homeowners’ energy bills through duct testing and sealing alone. And the great news is that if you live in North Carolina (which is where we’re located) and are a Progress Energy customer, you can get a significant rebate on both duct testing (part of the Energy Audit) and duct sealing if you use someone from their providers list: up to $90 for air duct testing (applied towards the Energy audit) and up to $240 for duct sealing.

The best thing about using your hard-earned money to get an Energy Audit and following up on subsequent improvements is that within a year or two the money you’ve saved in your energy bills will have paid for the Audit and weatherization. This is really a no-brainer!

If you have Performance Energy as your power company I’d like to take a minute to break it down to you how much money you can save by getting a professional Energy Audit (which includes duct testing) and then having your ducts sealed.

The prices I’m listing below depend on the house, the number of HVAC units, and the condition of your ductwork, but here’s a general roundup:
Energy Audit: $300-$450
Duct sealing: $250-$400
Progress Energy rebates:
Energy Audit: up to $90
Duct sealing: up to $240

If you have a BIG HOUSE and 2 HVAC units your price for the audit and sealing will be in the $800 range…but your rebates will be $330. So the whole shebang will cost you $470. And since industry experts estimate that sealing your ducts can save you 10-20% on your home heating and cooling bills…you do the math. How quickly will you earn back that less than $500 payout? Not to mention that you’ve also had a full energy audit done, so you’ll know exactly where to put other money to get the best return.

If you have a smaller house with only one unit, your costs will be more like $550. You’ll be eligible for a $180 rebate, which puts your costs around $370 or so. Again, how soon will you earn your money back if you’re saving 20% on your heating and cooling bills? With a year…then after that the savings go in your pocket.

For a list of Progress Energy approved service providers, go to their website. I’m sure you’ll see that our company, Home Performance NC is one of those listed!

Mark, our energy auditor, recently did an audit on a fairly new, 3500 square foot house, whose owners reported unusually high energy costs. He did the audit and found that the house was pretty tight – HVAC ducts had fewer leaks than normal, and the attic was tight, as was the rest of the home’s envelope. There was no reason for their bills to be so high…except that they hadn’t changed their air filters since they moved in, a year and a half ago.

Because the air filters were clogged the HVAC system had to work extra hard to get any conditioned air into the home. In fact, the first thing he noticed before he even began testing the home for leaks is that a lot of noise was coming from the air returns. He could literally hear the resistance of the air getting into and out of the home.

Most homes will have energy inefficiencies above and beyond something so simple as dirty air filters, but it’s worth emphasizing that this is an important part of energy efficiency in the home – changing out your air filters is cheap, simple, and can have big impact on energy use and air quality.

There are basically three kinds of air filters available on the market right now: reusable, washable filters; pleated filters that block a lot of air but trap more particles – often advertised as helping people with allergies; and thin, less expensive, fiberglass or polyfil filters.

You would think that since we have a green business we’d tell you to get the reusable filters – but you’d be wrong! Although we are all for reusing, reducing, and recycling, in this case there are a couple of reasons not to use the reusable air filters. First, for them to be effective you need to clean them every single month. For many people this won’t be an issue, but for those who aren’t systematic about things like this the particle build-up on the reusable filters if they’re not cleaned every month can cause your HVAC system to work harder than it should, and it could be a health and safety hazard, depending on how long you let it go on.

Second, when you wash them they need to be 100% dry before you put them back or you could be spreading mold and mildew throughout your home, which is the opposite of what these filters are supposed to do. Washing them also doesn’t get rid of all the contaminants – obviously defeating the purpose of air filters once again.

For most people, too, we don’t advise the pleated filters, largely because most homes’ HVAC duct systems are designed using lots of flex ducts, which forces the HVAC unit to work hard to push air through. Add a pleated filter to this situation and the HVAC unit’s life can be shortened.

If you have a lot of allergies and you want to use the pleated filters, you should talk to an HVAC technician to see if your home’s ductwork will work with these filters. You may have to have your ductwork redesigned so that the filters can be effective.

So what’s left? The cheap fiberglass or polyfil filters (purchased through a HVAC supply company, like C.C. Dixon) are what we recommend. They are inexpensive, provide good filtration, but not too good (thus blocking air flow and causing your HVAC system to work hard), and work with all homes’ HVAC systems.

The downside is, of course, that they’re disposable, not biodegradable, and thus add to our trash problem. As someone who composts and recycles everything she can, I have a problem with basic wastefulness – but at the same time, there’s no really good alternatives on the market right now. It’d be great if someone came up with a biodegradable air filter – we’ll be happy to test this product when it comes on the market – but for now we have to stick with recommending old school air filters…as long as you remember to change them!

As I mentioned in my last post, several local utilities are offering rebates and other incentives for becoming more energy efficient. The very best program available to people living in central North Carolina is through Progress Energy. We’re hoping that Duke Energy will follow (right now they’re offering rebates for heat pumps and AC units, which is great if that’s what you need…), as well as the electric cooperatives (the owners of Home Performance NC are customers of Central Electric Cooperative, ourselves, and are NOT eligible for any rebates for energy efficiency upgrades at this time – boo!) but for now, if you have Progress Energy you are in LUCK. They are offering cash rebates for:

• 50% off for air duct testing ($60 for 1st unit; up to $30 for additional units)
• 50% off for duct repair (up to $120/unit)
• Attic insulation/leak sealing ($375)
• High-efficiency heat pump ($300) and central AC ($300) or Geothermal Heat Pump ($300)
• HVAC maintenance ($45)
• Replacement windows ($30/window, up to $450)

Home Performance NC can help you get your Progress Energy rebates because we are on their list of approved contractors. We’ve been to the training, we know how to do the test, and we can submit your information so you can get the cash. Here’s what we can do:

1. Super basic level: we can test your ducts for leakage. We’ll do this using the gold standard of duct testing: the Duct Blaster. If we do this for you, you will be eligible for the full rebate, which is half the testing price (1 unit: $60; 2 units: $90). This is very basic, however, and it’s our expert opinion that you’d be better off with:

2. A Full Energy Audit. This will include the duct testing and will qualify you for the full rebate from Progress Energy (see #1), but will also include a Blower Door Test accompanied by Infrared Camera imaging. This will show you and us ALL the spots in your home where you have air leaks…AND…

3. Will help you determine whether or not you have attic leaks and/or need attic insulation. Which, if you have us do that for you as part of our weatherization work, will qualify you for the attic insulation and leak sealing (which they’ll give you up to $375 in cash!! for doing. I say “up to” because I can’t tell you how much it will cost until we test for leaks and see what you need. It might cost less than this, or possibly may cost more. Each house is individual).

4. The Duct Blaster test (see #1) or the Full Energy Audit(#2) will also help you decide whether or not you need your ducts sealed. If you do, and you have us do it, you will get up to $240 back for having your ducts sealed (for 2 units). Again, I say “up to” because I don’t know how much work your particular ducts will need. Progress Energy is going to give you half of the total cost, and most people’s ducts can be completed for $240/unit.

All in all, this adds up to $705 back from Progress Energy, all for doing things that will save you WAY MORE THAN YOU”LL PAY FOR THIS in the long run. By sealing up your home’s ducts and making sure your attic is air-sealed and well insulated, you can save from 20% to 50% on your home’s energy bills, depending on how leaky your house was to begin with. Think about it. Spend now (and get up to $705 back)…save forever.

For more information on the rebate program contact Progress Energy: http://www.progress-energy.com/

For more information about our services, please see our main website: http://www.homeperformancenc.com, or e-mail Mark Bashista, our owner: mark@homeperformancenc.com. He can also be reached by phone at (919) 360-1570.

Um, yeah. It does.

Here’s the deal: a huge amount of energy is lost through leaking duct work, but leaking duct work is probably the most ignored when people think about making their homes more energy efficient.

• You don’t see ducts, so you don’t think about them.
• You figure the guy (or gal) who installed them knew what they were doing.
• The media/vendors/whoever promote other products as being the do-all be-all for making your home more energy efficient (e.g. replacement windows, compact fluorescent light bulbs).
• Who wants to mess around in the crawl space, anyway? It’s icky down there.

All true! But in reality, the typical homeowner is losing 20-30% of his/her energy bill through leaky ducts. Why not burn money? Or better yet, throw it into your crawl space, because that’s where your heat and air are going.

And while your heated or cooled air is leaking out…nasty stuff from your crawlspace and attic are being drawn in.

Gross.

The good news is that most ductwork doesn’t need to be replaced, it just needs to be repaired and/or insulated to work properly. Which, in the scheme of things, isn’t very pricey when you compare this kind of home improvement to, say, replacing all your windows.

The best way to figure out if your ducts are leaking? Hire an anergy auditor to do a duct blaster test. This will show how much they’re leaking and will also show exactly where repairs need to be made.

Here is a kind of dry website (though very thorough) from the U.S. Dept. of Energy that shows how leaky ducts affect a home.  Here’s a slightly more readable site, although not as thorough.

And here’s a great visual of how leaky ducts can let the heated/cooled air out and the yucky air in, compliments of the Department of Energy: