Or my house is. I went to the Energy Star site to baseline my residence. They ask some pertinent question about my electricity and natural gas use along with the size of my home etc. This data is then compared to the rest of the US and you get a score. In my case a very bad score. From zero to a hundred...I got a zero!
Why I ask myself? Why does my home use so much energy? How am I ever going to get solar hot water or electricity to pay off if I am pouring that energy into an inefficient house? Given my experience with the sprinkler system, I am feeling pretty positive I can have a big effect without a lot of money. I have got to fix my energy hog of a house, or connect to my neighbor's utilities.
A quick analysis of my bills says that I use twice as much electricity as I do gas, in dollars. (I haven't found a reason to convert all that to BTUs.) That means cooling my home is the primary culprit. I think. (I can't find any electricity leaks...where its pooled up and overflowing into the driveway.)
Btw, we heat with gas, including food, and water.. We cool with electricity including two refrigerators. We dry the clothes with electricity. We turn the lights off, dim them, or we have put in CFLs to conserve on lighting. We also have a lot of daylight in our home because of all the windows....uh oh. Could it be the windows?
When I remodeled the home I put 12 inches of insulation in the attic, I have attic turbines (that work). I put in a 13 SEER AC unit. All the windows I changed I put in high quality wood framed double pane. The house itself has insulated walls (to what degree I don't know).
But I do have a lot of glass. In addition, I have quite a bit that's still single pane and a lot that is double pane in aluminum frames. Many don't even have curtains or blinds. Is that my Achilles heel?
The problem here is how do you know? Are my ducts leaky, the floors too cold or warm? Are the doors leaking, or is the insulation in the walls too poor? Or is my neighbor connected to my utilities? What makes me a zero?
I saw a show on TV where they called in a guy with an infrared camera. This device shows every minor temperature differential in your home. Walls, ceilings, wall plugs, windows, etc etc. So I track down a guy here in Dallas that does exactly that, he takes pictures of the trouble spots and afterward you have a report on where you need work...for $500. Question is, what's my payback? Well obviously, if he discovers some big problem I may get that money back pretty easy. But if there is a big problem, I should be able to figure that out.
Next, I buy online, a temperature reading infrared and laser device for $89. It basically reads out temps at whatever you point it at...instantly. The cat, 78 degrees (well insulated). So I go around looking for big problems...I see some small ones, I am going to have to seal up my electrical outlets on exterior walls, add some foam insulation in a couple small places etc. No big payback.
So by now I am beginning to believe it's just windows. That's the big problem. Now I know that traditionally you can't make window replacement pay off in energy bills. But, so does the government! They now have some really good tax credits to help the process and the new windows do a lot more! So I find a guy who builds custom, highly energy efficient windows, here in Dallas.
But what if my ducts are leaking? What if I am pouring hot or cold air into my crawl space or attic? Well, there are guys that come out to your house, close up all the ducts and then pressure tests them to see if there are any leaks. They isolate any ducts that are trouble and tape them up. I don't know what this costs are, or the likelihood that I have this problem...how would I know? I may need to do this...
Another way you can try and sort out this problem is to have a company (guys) come in and seal up your house and pressure test it to see how much leakage you have around doors, windows, can lights etc etc. I don't know what that costs either.
Bottom Line #1 - There are three things we are looking for in a home or business. One, how much heat or cold is transferred through materials (including glass). Two, how much hot or cold air, that I paid to produce, is leaking out of my ducts? Three, how much outside air is leaking into the space around the doors, windows etc.
So far that looks like three different guys, can that be right? And I wonder who else I have to call in to fix stuff? But there is more. What if, I have too hot of an attic? Or what if I have too much sun on my windows in the summer, are my floors too cold...in other words, what external temperature concerns should I have?
It looks like this is going to be a multipart blog due to the complexity of it all...but I am not going to be a zero forever!
Bottom Line #2 - Energy, both natural gas and electricity, are at the center of our challenges with the environment. Other than transportation, this is where we can make the most difference. Whether it's the specter of global warming, pollution, strip mining, drilling expansion, pipeline expansion, utility profits, mining accidents, acid rain, mercury in fish, or just the size of your bill, its worth looking at and minimizing your contribution.
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