Americans Don’t Know Jack About Saving Energy

by Shana Fong on August 19, 2010
TAGGED WITH  • • • • • • •

In this illuminating post by Grist, we learn through a recent survey by The Earth Institute at Columbia University that Americans really don’t know jack about saving energy.

The largest group, nearly 20 percent, cited turning off lights as the best approach—an action that affects energy budgets relatively little. Very few cited buying decisions that experts say would cut U.S. energy consumption dramatically, such as more efficient cars (cited by only 2.8 percent), more efficient appliances (cited by 3.2 percent) or weatherizing homes (cited by 2.1 percent).

About 2.8 percent of those responding said they could save energy by sleeping or relaxing more, compared with 2.1 percent who said they could do so by insulating their homes (can you guess which is actually more effective?).

Jonathan Hiskes of Grist asserts:

The theme of the confusion was that participants tended to name steps that involved doing less or using less of things — turning off lights, turning down thermostats — rather than solutions that allow them to get the same amount of light and heat through less energy (via insulation and LED bulbs). That gets at a key difference between conservation and efficiency. The first means using less; the second means getting the same results through more intelligent use of resources. Both have a place, but it’s a problem if people understand all of efficiency as “sacrifice.” A home retrofit that cuts $500 off your heating bills for the year isn’t a sacrifice — it’s a financial and environmental win.

Review: The Metlund Hot Water D’MAND System

by Adam Winter on August 17, 2010
TAGGED WITH  • • • •

Cold water that goes down the drain while your customers are waiting for hot water to reach sinks and showerheads is like money flowing through their fingers. Here’s a relatively simple and affordable fix that can help most American homeowners save thousands of gallons of water every year – and take a slice off their energy bills to boot:

The Metlund Hot Water D’MAND System
http://www.gothotwater.com

  • A fast on-demand recirculation pump diverts ambient-temperature water in hot water pipes back to the water heater until hot water reaches the tap.
  • Water moves more rapidly from the hot water heater to the point of use, so your customers won’t have to wait long for a hot shower.
  • D’MAND pumps may be activated by wired-in buttons, motion sensors or wireless remotes.
  • Can use the existing cold water line as a return line, so special plumbing is not required for retrofits.
  • Less heat radiates from water pipes than with timed or continuous recirculation systems, potentially saving homeowners $50 to $300 a year in energy costs alone.
  • Can extend water heater life by enabling lower thermostat settings and reducing sedimentation in the bottom of the hot water tank.
  • Unlike timed or continuous recirculation systems, D’MAND does not void most tankless water heater warranties (check with the heater manufacturer to confirm)
  • D’MAND pumps are available in retrofit and new construction models.
  • Multiple pumps may be required in homes with complicated plumbing loops or additions.

According to Metlund’s own calculations, a typical household that saves 20 gallons of water a day by installing a D’MAND system would save anywhere from $151 to $242 a year in water, sewer and energy costs (depending on the type of hot water heater). For every year of its 15-year lifespan, the system would take a 7,300-gallon load off of local water and wastewater treatment systems, and prevent about a ton of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Our take: On-demand recirculation pumps can be somewhat less convenient for homeowners than timed or continuous pumps, but Metlund’s system provides a highly effective and economical solution to water waste for homeowners who use it properly. Just be sure to educate your customers and set appropriate expectations before installing.

Note: Recurve does not endorse this or any other product. We encourage qualified Home Performance contractors to gain hands-on experience with products profiled in this newsletter before making their own assessments.

Furnace Oversizing Facts

by Trey Muffet on August 16, 2010
TAGGED WITH  • • • •

Oversizing of mechanical equipment has been a standard of installation for many years, but thanks to a growing emphasis on building efficiency and home performance, oversizing is (hopefully) seeing the end of its days.

Common reasons for oversizing include failure to perform the proper load calculations; compensating for leaky ducts; or contractors protecting themselves from callbacks during extreme weather. Whatever the reason, oversizing is always a no no—even for high-efficiency equipment. But there are many misconceptions floating around about why oversizing is bad, and many people lack a clear understanding of what’s really at stake.

Recent studies show that furnaces with an Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating above 0.75 can be sized up to five times the load without a significant drop in efficiency. (Keep in mind, however, that the average load throughout the year is much lower than peak loads calculated by Manual J.) For example, let’s look at a 95% two-stage furnace. In second stage, the 60,000 BTU/h furnace will operate at steady state 95% efficiency when loads reach as low as 12,000 BTU/h. First-stage capacity of 39,000 BTU/h can operate efficiently for loads as low as 7,800 BTU/h.

Though efficiency may not be affected by oversizing, here are a few reasons why oversizing is still an issue:

1. Furnace prices increases with size, so installing the smallest possible unit will reduce the initial cost.
2. A furnace that is too large for the home will cycle on an off frequently, making the home less comfortable than an appropriately sized furnace.
3. Temperature swings from cycling may cause the homeowner to turn up the thermostat, which will result in higher energy bills.
4. Incorrect sizing can put stress on the system and shorten equipment life.

The bottom line: Sealing leaky ducts and using load calculations to choose the smallest possible furnace will assure maximum comfort and efficiency for your customers.

HOME STAR Legislation Idled Until Fall as Energy Bill Stalls in the Senate

by Shana Fong on August 6, 2010
TAGGED WITH  •

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on Tuesday that he will postpone a vote on the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act of 2010 until after the August recess. Reid told reporters that the scaled-down energy bill, which includes the proposed HOME STAR retrofit incentive and financing program, lacks enough votes to pass this week. Here’s how Politico summed up the situation:

It initially appeared that the slender offshore drilling package was a “must-pass” bill with political momentum, but it became evident during the past week that Reid lacked the votes within his own caucus to force the issue as the Republicans held firm against it.

Central to the offshore drilling reform bill was a title to eliminate the $75 million liability cap on damages oil companies must pay in the case of spills and other disasters. Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska), both close allies of the oil industry, made clear they opposed that provision.

The deeply partisan atmosphere in the Senate ensured that there would be no opportunity to amend the bill with a scaled-down compromise liability title. Reid’s staff had made clear that if the bill were to come to the floor, it would be subject to a only straight up or down vote.

Supporters of the HOME STAR legislation are now focusing their efforts on a renewed push to get the law enacted in the fall when Congress is back in session.

Read the full Politico report here: www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/40597.html.

ACI 2011 is coming to San Francisco

by Shana Fong on August 2, 2010
TAGGED WITH 

Plans are starting to take shape for the next ACI National Home Performance Conference. This time, it will be held in Recurve’s hometown, San Francisco, from March 28 – April 1, 2011.

The 2010 conference in Austin was proof that the time has come for the home performance industry. Click this link to stay up to date on the conference so you don’t miss out on all the amazing educational and networking opportunities this event will offer.

Policy Updates

by Matt Golden on July 19, 2010
TAGGED WITH  • •

HOME STAR endorsements continue to grow, now includes U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Support continues to grow for the bipartisan Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010, which passed the House of Representatives in May and now has 25 co-sponsors in the Senate. Meanwhile, the United States Chamber of Commerce has added its highly influential voice to the growing call for swift passage of the HOME STAR legislation; in a letter to Senate leaders on June 22, R. Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s Executive Vice President for Government Affairs, said:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region, supports S. 3434, the “Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010,” which would provide a solid framework for a worthwhile, incentive-based program that would create American jobs while saving energy.

The home retrofit industry is a uniquely American industry: the vast majority of windows, doors, and insulation for these retrofits are manufactured in the United States. Since 2006, this industry has been decimated, with more than 650,000 jobs lost. The incentives provided by S. 3434 would create good, living-wage jobs for American workers, while providing homeowners the ability to make a substantial dent in their overall energy costs.

The Chamber supports S. 3434 and hopes this important legislation is considered by the full Senate in the near term.

Visit www.efficiencyfirst.org/home-star to learn more about the proposed HOME STAR incentive program, and about how you can join the trade association Efficiency First and other national organizations in supporting this important legislation.

A free Webinar recording at www.utilityexchange.org/webinar/20100701 will help your shop get ready for HOME STAR’s performance-based GOLD STAR incentive with a road map to BPI accreditation.

PACE programs stalled by federal mortgage regulators
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing programs across the country have been suspended following recent actions by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored corporations that back most home mortgages in the United States. The problem is that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie and Freddie, doesn’t like the idea of PACE liens taking precedence over mortgages in foreclosure proceedings—despite the fact that energy improvements typically increase the value of a home, and the potential financial impact on the mortgage industry is comparatively small.

PACE programs, which allow property owners to pay for a wide range of energy improvements with loans attached to their property tax assessments, have been lauded as an innovative, transformative financing model for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. But in May, Fannie and Freddie started spreading the word among commercial lenders that properties with energy improvement liens that are senior to mortgage debt would not meet FHFA underwriting standards. The FHFA confirmed the new policy on July 6 when it issued guidelines that have effectively made it impossible for homeowners to get approval for mortgages on homes with pace liens attached. (A grandfather cause exempts PACE loans issued before July 6.)
That leaves homeowners and contractors caught in the crossfire as most PACE programs have stopped making loans, projects are being suspended, and $150 million in federal stimulus funding allocated to PACE financing is being diverted to other programs. However, at least one prominent PACE program—the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program (SCEIP) in Northern California—has announced that it will continue to issue energy improvement loans in defiance of federal mortgage regulators, “predicated on the SCEIP providing full and complete disclosure about program participation to any potential applicants and ensuring the public fully understands the consequences of participation.”

PACE advocates around the country are pushing for a judicial or legislative solution to the impasse. California Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed suit in United States District Court seeking reversal of the FHFA ruling, and on July 15, Rep. Mike Thompson and 29 other members of Congress introduced the PACE Assessment Protection Act of 2010, which would force Fannie and Freddie to adopt underwriting guidelines that support PACE lending. But for now at least, most homeowners will have to find other ways to finance energy improvement projects.

A Bird in the Flue is Worth … A Stainless Steel Intake Cover

by Trey Muffet on
TAGGED WITH  •

Simple proactive measures can prevent hours of head-scratching and time wasted trouble-shooting problems that could have been avoided in the first place. But unfortunately, we can’t always predict the scenarios might diminish the performance of installed equipment—or even render it useless, as happened to us on a retrofit job we completed last summer. In this case, we learned the hard way that putting stainless steel mesh covers on intakes is a pretty good idea.

The job in question involved installation of a 95% sealed combustion furnace as part of a performance package. After installation, the furnace was tested for combustion safety and commissioned. A few months later, when outdoor temperatures began to drop, the client turned up the heat. Nothing. The inducer motor was running, but the blower wasn’t kicking on and the furnace wasn’t firing. After much deliberation, we found that the inducer motor wasn’t creating enough pressure, so we replaced the bad inducer motor. After that the furnace worked fine.

Why would a perfectly good inducer motor that worked flawlessly upon installation fail in a matter of months, even though the furnace had been sitting idle the whole time? The answer became clear when further inspection revealed a sparrow’s nest in the intake, which was blocking the flow of air to the motor. And that’s not the only time we’ve seen evidence that intake and exhaust vents can be attractive hiding places for curious critters. A similar situation lead us to find a stash of acorns in an intake (the elusive squirrel was never found).

Now our standard practice is to install mesh covers on all external vents—a quick and affordable fix that can save us and our clients a lot of headaches in the future.

Recurve Software Update

by Justin Sears on July 16, 2010
TAGGED WITH  • • •

When we presented Recurve home performance software at the 2010 ACI Conference, we introduced a next generation application.

  • Recurve offers one-of-a-kind home performance software built for contractors, by contractors.
  • The software has a no-nonsense interface that’s easy to learn and can be used anywhere (with or without an Internet connection)
  • Recurve users get audits done faster and they collect more valuable data than they did without the software
  • High quality, personalized reports help homeowners understand why they should retrofit their home
  • Recurve’s solution engine creates scope items that calculate the price of the work and the building performance improvement caused by each one

In case you haven’t seen it, check out our software demo: http://software.recurve.com/demo

Since we introduced Recurve software at ACI, our developers have been hard at work on additions to the software that will allow our users to:

  • Show estimated annual dollar savings for each solution package
  • Comply with local and national rebate programs
  • Calibrate audit findings to the homeowners utility bills, to draw a comprehensive detailed picture of how the home’s appliances use energy

Interested in learning the latest on Recurve Software? Register for our next webinar on August 11 at 9-10AM PDT: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/487007865

Duct Diagnostics: Locating Leaky Duct Runs Without a Duct Blaster

by Trey Muffet on July 12, 2010
TAGGED WITH  • • •

Here’s something to bear in mind the next time you reach for your duct blaster: At Recurve, we’ve found that using a duct blaster to diagnose leaks isn’t always time well spent. And we all know that in the Home Performance business, time is money.

The problem is that you can spend hours in cramped spaces sealing ducts only to find that there’s little real improvement in leakage levels, and using a duct blaster to locate leaks is a slow process. The alternative? Using a pressure pan in conjunction with a blower door can help you quickly zero in on leaky duct runs that need the most attention, so you can achieve good results in much less time.

Assuming you’re already running a blower door on most of your projects (or have one easily accessible), a pressure pan can take the place of a duct blaster for determining the highest priority areas to seal. With the house prioritized to 50 Pa by the blower door, record the pressure drop with the pressure pan when it covers the register. A large pressure drop (3-6 Pa) indicates that significant leakage is occurring close to that location. A small pressure drop will indicate there is no leakage in that duct run, or that the leakage is far away.

Don’t get us wrong—duct blasters are essential equipment in situations where you need to perform a rigorous leak test. But this quick pressure pan test can save an hour or more compared to taping off the registers and running a duct blaster test, and anything you can do to achieve the desired results in less time will benefit both you and your clients. The bottom line: Knowing where to focus your energy to save your clients’ energy can give you a real competitive advantage.

Turn More Audits into Sales: The Basics of Selling Home Performance

by Jason Bowers on July 9, 2010
TAGGED WITH  •

At Recurve, we’ve found that every technician who performs home energy audits is also a sales person. And the first rule of sales is, “When you’re talking, you’re not selling.” In other words, if you’re not a good listener, you won’t truly understand your customer’s needs and concerns.

When I first started at Recurve, I was so excited about building science that I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm. I found myself talking nonstop to customers about some pretty technical stuff—like the complex physics behind duct leakage, or the finer points of buoyancy forces and the stack effect. But over time, I realized that all of my lecturing about building science wasn’t motivating many customers to buy. It became clear to me that most customers buy retrofits to address specific problems they are experiencing with the comfort, energy efficiency or indoor air quality of their homes—not because they’re worried about pressure differentials in their heating ducts.

To accelerate sales, you need to do what I did: Stop talking at your customers and start asking more questions. And bear in mind that not all kinds of questions are equally effective. Asking open-ended questions (questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”) is the best way to gain trust.

Here’s an example of the kind of closed question we avoid asking our customers:

Q: Is your home uncomfortable in the winter? A: Yes

An open question goes more like this:

Q: How would you describe your comfort level during the winter? A: It’s terrible! We’re all bundled up half the time, and the house is very drafty, but we don’t like to run the heater too much because the heat doesn’t seem to stay inside anyway.

Notice that with the open-ended approach, you’ll end up gathering a great deal of information that can be used later to support your recommendations to the homeowner. “We’re going to seal up and insulate your attic. What that’s going to do is cut down on the drafts you told me you feel in the winter, and help your home hold the heat longer. You’ll be more comfortable, and you’ll save on your heating bills.”

The more you can get your customers to open up, the more you’ll learn about their real motivations. We’ve found that the majority of homeowners will tell us at the beginning of the process that they want to achieve X, and end up making a decision to buy because of Y and Z. The key to getting to these “real” motivating factors is to ask open-ended questions that will reveal more about what the customer is experiencing. We have found that linking one open-ended question to next in a natural, conversational tone builds trust—and trust leads to good relationships.

Are you listening yet?

Older Posts »