Posts from — March 2010

Dear Mr. Energy,

What will give me the best return on my money: replacing my single-pane windows with double-pane low-e windows, replacing my traditional hot water heater with a solar hot water heater, or sealing my attic and adding more insulation?

–Perplexed in Pittsboro

Dear Perplexed,

Mr. Energy loves a no-brainer. For, neighbor friend, this is one of the easiest questions he’s had in a long time. Of these three possible home improvements the answer is obvious: seal your attic and add insulation. The reason it’s so obvious is in the math – sealing your attic and adding insulation is the cheapest fix of these three (even if you add in the cost of a home energy audit to help you pinpoint your air leaks) and will garner you the most in energy savings over time. The return on your investment is high.

The other two options will absolutely save you money and energy in the long run, but they cost a lot more, which means a much longer pay-off. We’re talking decades (even with tax credits and energy company rebates) as opposed to just a year or two for the attic sealing and insulation combo.

Your question has allowed me to get on my soapbox. Please indulge me for a moment. Here it is: companies that install windows or solar hot water heaters have done a marvelous job convincing the public that the best things homeowners can do is to buy their products. Marvelous.

It is absolutely true that new windows are more energy-efficient than old, and solar hot water heaters do save money when compared to the costs of heating water using traditional hot water heaters. But – dear readers – do not believe any company that promises a pay-off in a few short years for these two items. Do the math yourself. Base it on your own energy bills, energy use, and actual cost of installation.  Once you do this you’ll realize that if your goal is to save the most energy for the least cost, there are more immediate and cost-effective solutions.

Dear Mr. Energy,

My husband and I are in an argument about something. I love my whole house fan! There’s nothing like fresh air circulating through the house on a beautiful spring or fall day. But my husband says he read somewhere that a whole-house fan is a big source of energy loss when its not in use and he wants to board it up. Who is right?

–Wondering Wife

Dear Wondering,

Mr. Energy also enjoys fresh air. He, too, has a whole-house fan in his house and you’re right, the feeling of fresh air on beautiful spring or fall days is wonderful. So he has to agree with you that it’s a wonderful thing…but he also agrees with your husband in that it’s a huge source of air and energy leaks during the winter and summer months. Essentially, unless it has an air-tight cover, it’s a huge whole that leaks air in or out of your house. The bottom line is that you can keep your fan, but you’ll need some way of sealing it when it’s not in use. Mr. Energy went the D.I.Y. route and built a cover for his fan, but you can also buy commercially available fan covers that will serve a similar purpose.

Dear Mr. Energy,

My wife and I are renovating an older home and I am wondering if there is any way to get an existing structure rated “green” or “energy efficient,” etc. LEED and Energy Star only apply to new construction, right? That doesn’t make sense to me – isn’t reusing an existing structure the most “green” thing a homeowner can do?

–Renovating in Raleigh

Dear Renovating,

Mr. Energy couldn’t agree with you more. Before he became an expert in energy efficiency, Mr. Energy renovated historic homes . He also lives with his family in a hundred-old house that was built from wood cut from trees on the property and has managed to weatherize it enough so that it could, were it new, qualify for an Energy Star rating. Plus, in his work as an energy auditor most of his customers are owners of already existing construction.

Isn’t the green mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle?”

Certainly renovating an existing structure reduces, reuses and recycles.

Up until a few months ago, most programs to certify a remodel required that the home be gutted to the studs and completely rebuilt.  But now the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) Green program, which is a nationally recognized program,  can certify a remodel “green” without requiring a complete gut of the structure. Locally, Green Home Builders of the Triangle have a “green” rating that doesn’t require stripping your home to the studs.

Getting a “green” rating for you home will help you save money and resources, which will benefit your wallet, but should also add value to your home, especially as consciousness about energy efficiency increases.

Dear Mr. Energy,

Does buying Energy Star really save that much money? I’m wondering how cost-effective it is to spend $1000+ on a new washer or refrigerator to replace perfectly functional existing appliances.

–Cheap in Chapel Hill

Dear Cheap,

Mr. Energy completely understands where you’re coming from and in fact, he has mixed feelings on the matter. On the one hand, Energy Star appliances are much more energy efficient than older appliances, particularly those from the 1980s or before.  Appliances more than 20 years old should definitely be replaced and you will recoup your investment over the lifetime of the new item. If you have a newer fridge or washer that’s not Energy Star, however, replacing these is a bit less clear cut when it comes to cost-benefit. Energy Star replacement will save between $100 and $200 on energy costs for the lifetime of a refrigerator and more than double that for a washing machine. 

So the return on investment is not 100%, but the operating costs are less. Still a draw, in Mr. Energy’s opinion…until you factor in this hidden benefit of replacing old appliances, specifically your washer.

Here’s the deal: when thinking about replacing your washer you need to factor in the fact that Energy Star washers use less water. This isn’t a factor that contributes to a washer’s Energy Star rating, but it definitely impacts energy use. Not only do Energy Star washers use less water, but they are more efficient at removing water at the end of the wash cycle. This means that your dryer won’t have to work as hard. A dryer that works less hard = less energy used by the dryer. Plus, every time your dryer runs it vents to the outside, and believe it or not, this venting draws air into your home through gaps and cracks – air that either needs to be heated or cooled depending on the season.  

So – bottom line: Mr. Energy thinks it’s a good idea to replace your washer. He is neutral on replacing your fridge if it’s 10 years old or less. Older than 10 years? Replace. 

Question for you: What zip codes do you serve?

That’s an excellent question! And yes, in case you’re wondering, this is a shameless attempt to work some SEO magic for our blog + website.

Home Performance NC does energy audits, energy ratings, green ratings, and weatherization in the greater Triangle NC area. Once Cash for Caulkers/ HomeStar hits, we bring the experience, quality, professionalism and knowledge you will need to get your rebate checks! If you’ve stumbled onto this post wondering about our services, please click on the links to the right and feel free to contact us at 919-360-1570 with any questions you might have. 

This means we serve these towns:

Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Wake Forest, Morrisville, Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Pittsboro, Sanford, Siler City, Burner,  Garner, Alamance, Bynum, Saxapahaw, and Moncure. We will also go to Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Greensboro, Graham, Burlington, and Knightdale. We’ve done audits in Rougemont and Lexington, too! We’ll actually go pretty much anywhere in the state of North Carolina as long as we don’t need to take a boat to get there. 

The basic zip codes we service are: 27601, 27602, 27603, 27604, 27605, 27606, 27607, 27608, 27609, 27610, 27611, 27612, 27613, 27614, 27615, 27616, 27619, 27620, 27621, 27622, 27623, 27624, 27625, 27626, 27627, 27628, 27629, 27634, 27635, 27636, 27640, 27650, 27656, 27658, 27661, 27668, 27675, 27676, 27690, 27695, 27697, 27698, 27699.

(breathe)

27701, 27702, 27703, 27704, 27705, 27706, 27707, 27708, 27709, 27710, 27711, 27712, 27713, 27715, 27717, 27722, 27514, 27515, 27516, 27599, 27312, 27559, 27510, 27278, 27511, 27512, 27513, 27518, 27519, 27502, 27560, 27529, 27203, 27231.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a zip code here and there, but hopefully you get the picture.

I wish I could tell you that Cash for Caulkers was going to be retroactive from the beginning of this year, or even last year. I wish that the plan was a little further along in the process and we knew more details. This would help homeowners make decisions about what they can do now, and it would help us here at Home Performance NC know the best move to make to help out people living in central NC. We are hoping that it will be a retroactive plan, at least to the beginning of this year. Several blog posts on various energy efficiency/”green” blogs have suggested as much. 

In any case, if it *is* going to be retroactive from the beginning of the year then I suggest that anyone who wants part of the action contact a BPI analyst for an energy audit appointment as soon as you can. We’ve heard through the BPI newsletter that BPI professionals will be the ones performing “quality assurance testing,” which only makes sense to us. This means a complete, professional energy audit, including test in, to determine the problems in your home, then a test-out, to determine whether the work that was done will yield result.

We predict that energy auditors are going to become pretty busy in the next couple of months. This is great news for us, but for you – the homeowner – it means you’ll need to plan ahead. We don’t know how long Cash for Caulkers will go on, but people will need to plan several months ahead in order to get the audit and the work done, especially in a competitive environment. 

If you’re interested in an energy audit by a BPI analyst, please contact us at Home Performance NC. Mark, our lead auditor, is BPI certified, and has a bunch of other certifications and verifications to his name – in other words, he’s thoroughly qualified to do an audit on your home. He is happy to travel anywhere in central NC to do an audit – we’re located in Pittsboro, but he’s traveled to Lexington, Rougemont, Greensboro, North Raleigh – anywhere within a couple of hours of our home in central North Carolina – to do an audit. He’d also consider traveling further if he was doing more than one audit over a period of several days. E-mail: mark@homeperformancenc.com ; phone: 919 360-1570.

Here is the link to the fact sheet presented by the White House on Cash for Caulkers. Finally!

We’ve been waiting for this for a while. We are still interested to find out exactly how this will all go down, but the basics of the program (cut and pasted directly from the fact sheet) seem pretty good:

Rebates delivered directly to consumers: Like the Cash for Clunkers program, consumers would be eligible for direct HOMESTAR rebates at the point of sale for a variety of energy-saving investments in their homes. A broad array of vendors, from small independent building material dealers, large national home improvement chains, energy efficiency installation professionals and utility energy efficiency programs (including rural utilities) would market the rebates, provide them directly to consumers and then be reimbursed by the federal government.

$1,000 – $1,500 Silver Star Rebates: Consumers looking to have simple upgrades performed in their homes would be eligible for 50% rebates up to $1,000 – $1,500 for doing any of a straightforward set of upgrades, including: insulation, duct sealing, water heaters, HVAC units, windows, roofing and doors. Under Silver Star, consumers can chose a combination of upgrades for rebates up to a maximum of $3,000 per home. Rebates would be limited to the most energy efficient categories of upgrades—focusing on products made primarily in the United States and installed by certified contractors.

$3000 Gold Star Rebates: Consumers interested in more comprehensive energy retrofits would be eligible for a $3,000 rebate for a whole home energy audit and subsequent retrofit tailored to achieve a 20% energy savings in their homes. Consumers could receive additional rebate amounts for energy savings in excess of 20%. Gold Star would build on existing whole home retrofit programs, like EPA’s successful Home Performance with Energy Star program.

Oversight to Ensure Quality Installations: The program would require that contractors be certified to perform efficiency installations. Independent quality assurance providers would conduct field audits after work is completed to ensure proper installation so consumers receive energy savings from their upgrades. States would oversee the implementation of quality assurance to ensure that the program was moving the industry toward more robust standards and comprehensive energy retrofit practices.

Support for financing: The program would include support to State and local governments to provide financing options for consumers seeking to make efficiency investments in their homes. This will help ensure that consumers can afford to make these investments.

It’ll be interesting to see what’s required of already certified, licensed BPI analysts and HERs Raters. Hopefully not much more than what they’ve already done. A national standard exists – there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
No matter what you think about Obama, the stimulus program, or government spending, there’s no doubt that this program has massive potential for companies like ours. If this goes into effect anytime in the next couple of months by the years’ end we could see tripling or quadrupling our workforce, for sure. Good for us and good for potential employees. Especially good for homeowners who want to make long-term changes in their homes’ energy efficiency!