Photo from the NY Times article

The NY Times reports on a German study which indicates that LED lighting requires 1/5 the energy of incandescent bulbs over their life cycle–that includes manufacture and disposal in addition to the obvioius electricity consumption while they’re being used for lighting.  Just another sign the LED lighting will likely play a big role in our future.  (And some LED lighting is ready today.)

Thanks,
Mike

Smart Strip LGC3 energy saving power strip

This requires behavior change, though.  There are a new breed of “smart” power strips that hold great promise.  The feature a “control” switch and subordinate switches.  When the equipment plugged into the control outlet is turned off or in the case of a computer goes to sleep, power is killed to everything plugged into the subordinate outlets.  The strips also have “always on” outlets, so you don’t have to worry about your router or TiVo getting powered down inadvertantly.  And the strips provide surge protection for the equipment, too.  A simple way to chip away at electricity use.  There are different makes/models out there.  We like the “Smart Strip“

Thanks,
Mike

Earlier this month, EPA announced that its Energy Star program passed a major milestone with 1 Million Energy Star Homes having been built in the United States.  Good stuff–with families saving energy, money, and being more comfortable.

This type of performance isn’t limited to new homes, however.  With a comprehensive approach, existing homes can be retrofited to perform better than many newly constructed homes–even exceeding the Energy Star standards!

Thanks,
Mike

I just touched on insulation and air-sealing in a few recent posts. And we’ve noticed a big increase in the last few weeks on people asking about icicles and ice damming. It’s probably time for a quick refresh and retread of an earlier post.

What is Ice Damming?
Big icicles and ice dams are typically caused by poor or missing insulation and air leakage from your house into your attic.  In the winter, this warms the roof and causes the snow to melt. The melting snow then moves down the roof slope until it reaches the cold overhang, where it refreezes.

The process forms icicles and can actually create a dam that eventually forces the water to back up under the shingles and sometimes into the ceiling or wall inside the home. In addition to roof and water damage, ice dams can cause structural decay and mold and mildew to form in attics and on wall surfaces. 

Big icicles themselves, like those shown here, are obvious signs that you’re at risk.

But snow melt patterns can also indicate a problem of too much heat loss. In this photo below, you can see snow melting off the roof at different rates, driven by heat loss from the house. 

Uneven snow melt also is a sign that something is awry

The townhome treated by GreenHomes loses heat more slowly through the attic and thus snow melts slowly and doesn’t accumulate as ice out at the eaves.

This town home has not been treated and the wasted heat melts snow quickly. In the right temperatures, the melted snow would refreeze and create ice problems--bad news. And in any event, this folks in this building are spending a lot more on energy than they should.

The Fix
Fortunately, you can dramatically reduce damage from ice damming by sealing the holes connecting your heated living space and the attic, as well as properly insulating your attic. There are different techniques to stop air leaking through recessed lights, leaky heating ducts, attic access doors, and plumbing and electrical penetrations. Sealing these leaks keeps warm air in your house were it belongs. Together, with adequate levels of insulation, this greatly reduces the chance of ice damming and large icicles.  You do NOT just want to add more insulation before sealing the air leaks—this can actually create additional problems that can also damage your roof.  You can’t eliminate icicles completely.  Small icicles are normal.  And some roof architecture–especially big valleys draining to a small corner–are especially challenging.  But if you have long icicles or thick heavy ice you should act quickly to prevent damage.  (And this means preventing the ice from forming in the first place, not risk life, limb, and your roof trying to chip off ice that’s there.)
 
 Do it right.  Find the important leakage points and seal them up.  Then add a lot of insulation.  And afterwards, as with any time you change the way your house works, have your combustion appliances tested to make sure they’re operating safely and efficiently.

An added benefit to this, of course, is you’ll save energy, save money, and be more comfortable in your home, too!

Save the ice for your holiday cocktails!

Thanks,
Mike

P.S.  The added insulation can qualify for the $1,500 federal credit.  Save money while you save you roof!

Right in the middle--Tom Reynolds, circa 1977

Pictured here in 1977 with the Dallas Tornado, goalie Tom Reynolds later led the ASL with the lowest goals allowed average.   You couldn’t get anything by him.  Now, as a GreenHomes production manager in Syracuse, he still doesn’t let anything by–and that means top quality for our customers.

Whew!  You never know what you’ll stumble across on the internet, including 30 year old pictures.  But here’s to Tom, then and now!

Thanks,
Mike

OK, I’m stating the obvious. When it gets cold out, you want to close your windows to help keep the heat in. What many people don’t realize is that air leakage throughout their home can add up to the equivalent of having a window wide open all winter long.

The many air leaks in a home can add up to the same as leaving a window wide open all winter long.

Sometimes the holes are big as in the case of this wide open chase. But all of the little holes add up, too. One hole for an electrical wire in your attic isn’t much. But you might have dozens of these. Add to them gaps at interior partition walls, around chimneys, flues, recessed lights, and other locations where somebody has left a hole open, and the typical home has an enormous number of ways for air to leak out. As show in this simple example from one of the GreenHomes Syracuse crews, we can seal these leaks and help keep the heat in.

By themselves, small holes don't seem like much. But collectively, they can add up to a big problem in homes. Fortunately, a good audit can find these problems, and a good insulation crew can seal the holes BEFORE adding insulation to your home.

Air-sealing helps you close that hidden “window” and can make a huge difference in your comfort and utility bills. And it’s very important to air-seal BEFORE you add additional insulation—insulation doesn’t work well if you allow air to air to move through it.

Thanks,
Mike

P.S. Important Note: After insulating and air-sealing, it is very important to make sure that your combustion equipment—furnaces, boilers, water heaters, etc.—are operating safely and venting properly.  Most homeowner don’t have the equipment or skills to do this, so I won’t describe it here.  Your fuel company, a home performance specialist, or a good heating contractor should be able to do this for you.  As I’ve mentioned previously, carbon monoxide is not something to take lightly.

It might be interesting to show some of the conditions we encounter in the field every day to help illustrate home performance.  And I’ll randomly kick off this thread with something Daniel–an Advisor with Air King, our Simi Valley location–came across this week.  He visited a home where another insulation contractor had already come by.  Well, not all insulation contractors are equal.  It’s clear some don’t understand the importance of air-sealing.  Or not filling the water heater closet with insulation.  (Or cleaning up after the work was done.)

Thanks,
Mike

Here’s great idea from, Laura Reedy Stukel, an enlightend real estate agent in suburban Chicago.  New home buyers can parlay the new homebuyer tax credit into energy-efficiency improvements, and squeeze out up to an addtional $1,500 in home improvement tax credits–and gain a more comfortable and energy-efficient home in the process.

Thanks,
Mike

OK, so you what to make your home more efficient, but you need bathroom makeover–or a new bathroom altogether–and you need it now.  There are still things you can do that will have an immediate impact and improve your home’s overall performance and energy-efficiency.  Here’s a real example from a project being wrapped up right now.

We’d like you to start by taking a look at the whole home’s performance.  At a minimum, you’ll want to look for thermal deficiences–air leaks and poor insulation around the bathroom iteself (and we always want to look at combustion safety before and after!).  Key spots include areas behind tubs and shower enclosures–often ignored and left wide open when building a home.  Of course, you want to make sure you have adequate insulation in the walls–in this case the walls were completely empty and needed to be dense packed with cellulose.  Replacing the tub also allowed easy access to make just the critical air-sealing was done.

One of the early parts of a project is making sure the plumbing in in order.  This particular project required new supply and drain lines–and this opened up a few big opportunities.  First, the water heater (actually an indirect storage tank fed by a 96% efficient sealed combustion boiler) was moved directly under the bathroom, about 40 feet closer to the bathroom.  This is a big deal from both an energy and a water efficiency perspecitive.  The closer your hot water is to the bathroom, the less time you wait for hot water for your shower, the less water that goes down the drain, and the less heat lost as water left in the pipes after you’re done cools down.  

On a related point–and one that’s likely to require some wrestling with the plumbing inspector–you can use smaller diameter pipes (IF you’re using low-flow faucets and shower heads so you still get sufficient supply–this is a big deal, but too complicated to go into hear.  (Google ”structured plumbling”.)

The other opportunity on the drain side is “drainwater heat recovery“, using a device which lets you capture heat going down your drain and using it to preheat incoming cold water–saving the amount of heat you need to dump into the incoming water and saving you energy and money.  This is hard to do in a one-story house with no basement or crawlspaces, but makes sense for a lot of homeowners.  The less water you need to heat, the less energy you use.

EPA has kicked off a “WaterSense” program to help identify water efficient products and practices.

There are many choices.  This particular toilet by Toto uses 1.28 gallons per flush, and it works!  Unlike the low-volume toilets of several years ago, the better ones have been designed specifically to work at lower volumes.  And they do.

New shower heads also use a lot less–and still deliver a comfortable shower.  In this case, the 1.6 gallon per minute shower head hasn’t arrived yet, but the one in place uses a reasonable 2.5 gallons per minute.  Again, less water over all, and the less hot water you use, the less you pay to heat it.  The are a variety of shower heads that will take you even lower–with good results.  Personal preferences come into play here, but most people should be able to find a 1.6 gpm low-flow fixture that works for them.  And many are happy with some even lower flow heads.

You didn’t expect me to leave this topic without talking about electricity, and I won’t!  Using efficient bathroom lighting can chip away at the electic bill.  CFLs have come a long way, and can provide excellent quality light.  Dedicated CFL fixtures are available in a wide variety of styles ranging from basic to high-end designs.  In this example, the sconces on either side of the mirror have a bright, instant-on lamp, in a warm color that avoids the sterile flourescent look that some find ghastly.  As you can see in the inset picture below, the fixture is a dedicated CFL fixture, and only accepts CFL lamps, no screw ins.  LED technology is evolving, it not ready for prime time in lamps intended to send light in all directions, and it wouldn’t yet be a good fit for these scones.

While LED lamps aren’t ready for sconce applications, they excel in recessed can fixtures.  I’ve written on the CREE and HALO recessed can LEDs before.  Both are great choices today.  In the case, the HALO fixtures were used because they come with a trim kit rated for wet locations.

You’ll also notice in the picture an ENERGY STAR labeled Panasonic bath fan.  It’s quiet and efficient and really gets the job done.  In this particular project, it will eventually be replaced by a heat recovery ventilator, but it along with the Renewaire bath fan are excellent fan choices.

As an aside, I often make light fun of bamboo as a green choice.  This isn’t really a condemnation of bamboo or any other sustainable material.  My beef is that people focus on materials before they consider they overall performance of a home–comfort, safety, durability (what good is it if you let greener materials rot in a poorly designed home?), and energy-efficiency.  Having said that, when you’ve got the performance issues ironed out, it’s great to look at materials, too.  And in the picture above, I really like the bamboo used on the ceiling.  There, I said it! 

Of course, at the end of this project, having added ventilation fans and done insulation and air-sealing, we need to again check equipment for combustion safety, and check pipes for gas leaks!  The combustion safety is a bit easier since the project included switching over to a sealed combustion boiler.  But this is an important step not to be ignored.

Even in a bathroom remodel, you can apply home performance concepts and wind up with results that make you happier–less waiting for hot water–and not running out of hot water! and eliminating drafts, condensation, and moisture and mildew problems.  And you save energy, to boot.  Good stuff!

Thanks,
Mike

HALO LED Recessed Lighting

Halo lighting has some  recessed LED lighting available.  It’s good stuff, and I wouldn’t hesitate to install it (in fact, I have installed it my own home).  Right now, I do like the CREE product better, but part of that is personal preference.  Some quick observations:

• The HALO product is available in a 3000K temperature with a CRI in the low 80s.  The light isn’t quite as “warm” looking at the CREEs (the 2700K product), and the color rendition doesn’t seem quite as good to my eye.  And, personal preference, I prefer the warmer look in a residential setting.
• The HALO LED isn’t quite instant on.  I experience a slight delay after flipping the switch before the light turns on.  It’s not a big deal, but again, the CREE product holds on advantage.
• One important HALO advantage:  it is currently available with a “wet location” rating that you’d need in shower enclosures, for example.  CREE does not yet have product for this application.
• The HALO products does offer a broader range of trim options than CREE.  If you need a particular style, HALO may be the way you need to go.
• The HALO product–with trim purchased separately–was more expensive the the CREE at local suppliers.

My bottom line:  I like the CREE product better, and would chose it in most instances.  However, I wouldn’t hesitate to use the HALO–and it’s got to be HALO in wet locations right now.  I like either of them better than similar compact flourescent products.