Renovating a home to make it more energy efficient can pay off significantly with boosts for the environment and your pocketbook.
In fact, changes “will typically save $330 to $500 per year in heating, cooling and hot water bills,” said Larry Shirley, director of the N.C. State Energy office. For a typical home with a 30-year mortgage, that is a savings of $9,000 to $15, 000 over the course of the loan. With state and national tax credits for energy-efficient measures, the savings could be even greater.
Upgrades that can reduce the cost of a home’s operation include more efficient insulation, heating and air-conditioning systems and appliances. For homeowners who are considering the options, here is information on how to determine what’s right for your situation.
Energy audit options
To develop a plan, homeowners need to start with a home energy audit, which will pinpoint the areas in a home that use the most energy and will offer suggestions for improvement. Consumers can do an audit themselves, using online tools for guidance, or turn to a professional auditor for a more comprehensive analysis.
The U.S. Department of Energy offers Web sites that allow consumers to input specific information about their home and receive personalized recommendations.
• The Energy Star tool at energystar.gov states that consumers only need “five minutes and 12 months of utility bills” in order to get a plan. (Energy Star is a joint program of the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency dedicated to helping consumers save money and protect the environment through energy-efficient products and practices.)
• The Home Energy Saver tool at hes.lbl.gov is based on extensive research by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is more comprehensive. (The Energy Department science laboratory is operated by the University of California.) Consumers will need to spend time inputting home details, but the calculated results are more individually targeted.
Both tools also offer further help for consumers seeking to make the suggested changes.
Professional touch
For an even more personalized assessment of a home’s energy use, homeowners can hire a professional energy auditor. A typical energy audit starts at $150.
“We are usually there one to two hours and we like to have the homeowner accompany us,” said Craig Whittaker, Ph.D., president of Environmental Solutions Group, an energy auditing company in Greensboro. An industrial hygienist and indoor air quality specialist, Whittaker’s doctorate is in education.
Measuring a building’s airtightness is the first order of business. Whittaker said ESG starts by hooking up a blower door system to a home’s front door, which depressurizes the house, stimulates a 15 mph wind blowing against it and measures the extent of leaks in the building envelope.
Auditors take thermal pictures of the home’s interior during the process and can see where temperature changes occur. This allows exact locations of air leaks and missing insulation to be identified. Whittaker said he knows of people who have chosen to insulate without doing an energy audit first and are frustrated because they don’t see a change in their utility bills.
“It’s because they insulated where the insulation was already good,” he explained. “Thermal pictures show property owners very quickly and visually where cool air is coming in.” Audit results allow consumers to make sure their money and efforts are well spent. “We typically see customers’ bills drop from $100 to $300 a month.”
What to fix
Whether consumers do an audit themselves or hire a professional, the initial recommendation is usually the same.
“In most cases, the first step is insulating the house,” Whittaker said. “A lot of times insulation has changed over time; it is compressed or was left out by the original contractor.”
Improving a home’s insulation might involve simply sealing cracks around floorboards or actually adding more insulation in critical areas. By making this improvement, homeowners are ensuring the home’s building envelope is tight and other energy-efficiency efforts will be more effective.
Duct work should also be assessed. The Energy Department estimates that a home can lose up to 60 percent of its heated air before it reaches a register if ducts aren’t properly sealed. Duct work is sealed with tape and as a home ages, so does the tape.
“Duct work should be looked at every three years at least,” Whittaker said. Once leaks are identified, duct work can be easily sealed using mastic tape, a product recommended by the Energy Department.
Local builder Leslie Millsaps, president of DLM Builders and a Certified Green Professional, a designation earned through the National Association of Home Builders, also recommends that homeowners check the heating and cooling units to decide if improvements are needed there.
“A tendency in our part of the country is that historically we’ve not insulated homes well,” Millsaps said. Because poor insulation was a trend, contractors would overcompensate for temperature loss and put in heating and air-conditioning units that were larger than needed for a home’s square footage.
“The trend today is to be more precise,” she said. With the DOE estimating that heating and cooling a home account for 56 percent of a home’s energy use, it makes sense to make sure these units are operating at maximum efficiency.
Not only are these changes good for a family’s budget, they also benefit the environment.
“We can’t put a windmill on our homes,” Whittaker said, “but we can make a difference.”
