Thank you for visiting the President's Corner at Benton Green Energy, where Dean Benton shares energy and money saving tips in his blog. We invite you to share this with your friends and family.
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Changing Habits & Switching Appliances to Cut Your Utility Bills
Hello everyone. Now that it's heating up outdoors, many of you will be cranking up the air conditioning inside. So how can you balance that extra energy usage and lower your electricity bill during the summer? Believe it or not, behavior can play a huge part in reducing your costs. How many of you have kids that leave the television on all night? A few months back, a friend asked us to feed his cat while he and his family were out of town. This friend had complained of several hundred dollar electric bills and I knew the source as soon as I walked into the home. Five incandescent lights had been left on. The air conditioner was still set at regular settings. There were three ceiling fans running and there was even a small radio playing. While all of us rush to get out the door at times, it's important to communicate to everyone in the family that turning off lights and appliances is a must if you want to save energy.
Another way to save energy is to upgrade to more efficient appliances. Look inside your refrigerator and see if the tag shows the date of manufacture. If that fridge is ten years old or more, you should consider buying a new Energy Star rated model. Ones with a top freezer and without a door ice-maker are the most efficient. Since the end of March, it has been a bit more affordable to upgrade. South Carolina has been doling out $3.9 million in federal funds for people to trade in energy-hogging, older appliances. You can save $50 on refrigerators, dishwashers and single-room air conditioning units. Clothes washers will be discounted $100. Central air units have a $200 rebate. The biggest rebate is $500 for heat pumps and gas furnaces and there's a range of rebates on different types of water heaters. The rebate will be applied at the register and will be available until the money runs out, which will be soon. On May 19th, the Charleston Regional Business Journal reported that there is only about $22,000 left for the program statewide.
As part of our comprehensive energy audit, we actually measure your refrigerator's electric consumption and research each one of your other home appliance's energy efficiency, so you know just how cost effective replacing them can be. So give us a call anytime for your energy savings needs!
Weatherization Works
If you live in the Southeast or Southwest United States, chances are your air conditioner or heat pump is working full blast right about now, but it doesn't have to. Cherish, Danae and I are enjoying a more comfortable (and less expensive) summer as a result of my weatherization efforts to our home this past year. The first and most important of which is the installation of a radiant barrier in our attic. I had read a little about radiant barriers in my continuing education, but the real epiphany came when I met my friend Ron White at All-In-One insulation here in Greenville, South Carolina.
I consider Ron to be a genius in his knowledge of air movement in a home. Oak Ridge Laboratory, which does a lot of research on energy efficiency, is in contact with him about his process and about the amazing results he achieves with his radiant barrier installations. Ron has a patented process whereby he seals the attic of an existing home with his radiant barrier, effectively stopping air movement out of the top of the home, while at the same time reducing tremendous heat buildup in the attic space. I applied these principles to my home and had a great learning moment when I crawled back into my attic to finish the work. Most of the work was done, except a small area of the roof decking near the attic hatch. As I crawled from that space to the finished area, I noticed what seemed to be a huge drop in temperature. This was in late spring, so the outside temperature was about 80 degrees. Out of curiosity, I grabbed my infrared camera and aimed it at the finished area along the ceiling line. It measured right at 82 degrees. When I moved the camera to the left (approximately two feet) onto the unfinished decking, it measured a sweltering 119 degrees. Needless to say, I was astonished! I couldn't believe the radiant barrier had reduced the surface temperature of the attic ceiling almost forty degrees! I checked several more times and the results were the same.
After finishing the work, Cherish and I noticed an immediate difference in the comfort level in our upstairs bedroom. Radiant barriers are a great product. They reduce heat in your attic that could infiltrate into your living area if your attic isn't properly air sealed and insulated. If your ductwork is in the attic of your home, the improvement is even more substantial because your A/C unit won't have to work as hard. If installed properly, a radiant barrier will not only reduce the heat in your attic during the summer, it will also stop the loss of warm air out of the top of your home during the winter and once again provide a less harsh environment for your duct system.
The other project I'm working on is in the crawl space area beneath our house, covering the ground with a vapor barrier and sealing the space from outside air. I am interested in doing this for a few reasons. If your crawlspace is sealed, it's cooler down there and that cooler air actually keeps the home's lower floor less warm, offsetting the need for more cooling. As I mentioned with the radiant barrier, if the ductwork is located in your crawl space and the area is enclosed and isolated from ambient conditions, the cooling (and heating) unit doesn't have to work as hard. The duct system lasts longer as well. Another reason to enclose and seal off your crawl space is to enhance the indoor air quality. Crawl spaces are full of moisture laden air, sometimes including mold. That air will likely make its way into your home and can affect your family's health.
Sealed crawl spaces can be very expensive. Are they worth it? I think so, especially when you consider your family's health. Did you know that radon is the SECOND leading cause of lung cancer in the United States? An adequately sealed crawl will eliminate radon from your home. In North and South Carolina, it is relatively common, especially in the mountains. These are all things to think about. So do yourself a favor and get a couple of quotes from people who do this kind of work, or look into doing it yourself on line.
Benton Green Energy can show you how to make the best decisions for your particular situation based on your home's unique character. As a third party to you and your contractor, we can also verify that the work has been done properly after it's finished. So let us show you how.
This has been a beautiful summer in the Upstate. Here's to a wonderful remainder of the summer to everyone out there and thanks for staying in touch.
Sincerely,
Dean Benton
Why An Air-tight Duct System Is So Important
In my last article I wrote how extremely important it is to properly air seal and insulate our homes. This is because the more heated or cooled air that STAYS in your home, the less it costs you. In this month's article, I'll go more in depth into why your duct system is just as important.
Duct systems distribute heated and cooled air throughout our homes. However, the vast majority of the homes I do energy audits for have the ductwork located outside the building envelope, typically in the attic, basement or crawl space. The mechanical heating and cooling system in a home is similar to the circulatory system in our bodies. The air conditioner, heat pump, and/or furnace is like the heart pumping warm or cool air to the air handler, which acts like a set of lungs pushing the air in and pulling it out of our home. The ducts themselves are therefore much like veins, circulating the air to various parts of your home where it is needed.
From an energy conservation standpoint the home’s duct system is probably as important as the circulatory system in our bodies. This is because if the duct system has holes in it, some of the air you pay to heat or cool is escaping into the environment and not into your home. Keeping it sealed tightly, working properly and adequately filtered will save you money in heating, cooling and repair costs.
An adequately sealed and filtered duct system will also make your home healthier by reducing the amount of moisture coming from beneath or above your home through the openings in the ductwork. The air will have less allergens when the filtration system is working properly and, most importantly for you and for our planet, you will be spending less money to heat and cool your home because air will be blown into your house and not into the attic or basement.
The most efficient homes being built today are incorporating these guidelines. Many builders have begun to place the duct system in the “conditioned” space of the home, inside the building envelope. As a result, if leakage over time occurs, the conditioned air is leaked into the home rather than into the area outside. Some of our clients have actually retrofitted their attic space or basement to close off the ventilation and bring the ductwork into the conditioned space. This can be cost effective in the sense that you might not need to replace your whole duct system, even if you have some leaks. Figuring this out can potentially save you a large amount of money. Determining exactly which measure makes the most sense (DOLLARS and sense!) is where a good energy auditor comes in. Spending just a few hundred dollars could possibly save you thousands.
Our Basic Energy Audit can tell you which of the two most important energy saving measures should be addressed first, air sealing or duct sealing. During our Basic Energy Audit we measure your home’s air infiltration with a blower door test to determine if air sealing is the top priority. While that test is being done, we will test your home’s supply vents with a procedure known as pressure pan testing to determine approximately how leaky is your duct work. Should the results of pressure pan testing show extensive duct leakage, we can switch gears and do the Comprehensive Duct System Evaluation instead of going forward with the Basic Energy Audit. The Comprehensive Duct System Evaluation determines exactly where the leaks in your duct system are occurring and whether your heating and cooling system is adequately sized and functioning properly. Our experience will determine immediately whether the basic audit or the duct evaluation would be the better choice, prioritizing your efforts and saving you money. Either of these tests is only $300.
If you want to go even further, our Comprehensive Energy Audit offers much more detail. It which includes a guideline for a making your home as energy efficient as possible. It tells you exactly which home improvements give you the fastest and greatest return on your investment. It provides you with results from both sets of tests included in the Basic Energy Audit, but also gives a list of priorities based on the results. These priorities will be ranked by how soon each home improvement will pay for itself through energy savings, giving you a scientifically based approach to saving energy.
Using less energy not only saves you money. It also means your family will have a smaller carbon footprint and the less carbon based fuel we use, the better. Hope you had a happy Fourth of July.
Our Basic Energy Audit can tell you which of the two most important energy saving measures should be addressed first, air sealing or duct sealing. During our Basic Energy Audit we measure your home’s air infiltration with a blower door test to determine if air sealing is the top priority. While that test is being done, we will test your home’s supply vents with a procedure known as pressure pan testing to determine approximately how leaky is your duct work. Should the results of pressure pan testing show extensive duct leakage, we can switch gears and do the Comprehensive Duct System Evaluation instead of going forward with the Basic Energy Audit. The Comprehensive Duct System Evaluation determines exactly where the leaks in your duct system are occurring and whether your heating and cooling system is adequately sized and functioning properly. Our experience will determine immediately whether the basic audit or the duct evaluation would be the better choice, prioritizing your efforts and saving you money. Either of these tests is only $300.
If you want to go even further, our Comprehensive Energy Audit offers much more detail. It which includes a guideline for a making your home as energy efficient as possible. It tells you exactly which home improvements give you the fastest and greatest return on your investment. It provides you with results from both sets of tests included in the Basic Energy Audit, but also gives a list of priorities based on the results. These priorities will be ranked by how soon each home improvement will pay for itself through energy savings, giving you a scientifically based approach to saving energy.
Using less energy not only saves you money. It also means your family will have a smaller carbon footprint and the less carbon based fuel we use, the better. Hope you had a happy Fourth of July.
Dean Benton
Best Ways To Boost Your Home's Energy Efficiency
I have a question for you. What is the single most important thing you can do to save energy in your home?
- Replace windows
- Replace your refrigerator with an Energy Star rated one
- Replace your old A/C or furnace with a new one
Sealing your home's "shell" stops this movement from outside in and vice versa. Of the areas to seal, you home's attic should be first priority. The space below the home is second and walls are third. The vast majority of air will escape through openings in the floor and ceiling, rather than through the walls. This is why windows tend to be poor investments when it comes to weatherization. As a matter of fact, most of the audits I have done show a faster payback for air sealing and insulating than any other measure, typically 3-5 years. The only possible exception is duct sealing, which I will cover later in this blog.
If you have a 1500 - 2500 square foot home, you can air seal it yourself for about $1,000 - $2,000, which includes the cost of the audit. Our $300 audit will show you where most of the big leaks are, so you can seal them yourself or hire someone to do it. We recommend qualified contractors for the work as part of our service. Having an audit done, air sealing and then insulating your home tends to reduce energy consumption by 25 - 30% in homes five years or older. So if you pay an average of $200 a month for your gas and/or electricity and you save $50 after weatherization, you can recoup your investment in two to three years. Keep in mind, this is tough work. Attics and crawl spaces can be full of fiberglass, insects, rodents, snakes and even asbestos. Always use a mask and be extremely careful. Better yet, hire a qualified insulating contractor to do the work for you. You might spend a little more money, but the savings from air sealing and insulating will still pay back your investment quickly. Plus, when you look at the big picture, that money stays in your community, keeps jobs in your community and puts savings in your pocket, so you can spend in your community. Perhaps most importantly, your home will put a lot less carbon into the air.
Besides sealing and insulating your home, another high priority is to properly seal the duct work in your home. Almost all of the homes I've seen have the heating and cooling system ductwork in the attic or below the home in the basement or crawl space. As a result, any leakage occurring in the duct system will pour the air you pay to heat or cool into the ambient air, rather than into your home. Our $300 duct system evaluation will determine where the leaks are, so you can stop the source of conditioned air loss. This work can be done by a do-it-yourselfer as well, but if the duct work is old and worn out, repair efforts might not yield the same amount of comfort and savings that a full blown duct work replacement will offer.
No matter which of these issues are addressed (or both), it is critical that you have a home auditor do follow up testing for indoor air quality. When a home is sealed, there may be inadequate air flow for good air quality and mechanical ventilation may be needed. Most homes are full of volatile organic compounds in the carpet, furniture, cabinets, etc. We need fresh air to keep this from making us sick. Also, when your dryer is turned on or your home's air handler comes on, the house may become depressurized after air sealing work has been done. When depressurization occurs and there is a combustion appliance in the house, like a gas water heater, there is the possibility that the flame can be drawn out into the area around the appliance potentially causing a fire. If the appliance isn't working properly, there is a possibility of carbon monoxide in the home. At Benton Green Energy, we test for these potential problems after you complete your weatherization projects and we suggest remedies. We also test the effectiveness of the work you had done. This third party, unbiased verification insures the highest quality work from your contractor, as well as your family's safety.
Here's to making all of the South GREENville! Thank you for your support.
Dean Benton
