Energy Audit

I had my first energy audit. It's a prerequisite to receiving free electric company money, so why not? I felt strongly that I pretty much knew my weaknesses and strengths. But a little independent verification couldn't hurt right?

First a little background. I had contacted a "guy" who's small company (him) performed thermal imaging audits. $500 for my house! I couldn't imagine getting a return on that investment. So I bought a $100 dollar infrared remote temperature sensor and did my own audit.

As I become more home energy savvy I realized that air leaks, missing insulation etc were all interesting, but if you have a forced air furnace or AC, you really don't know how much you are losing every minute it's on through air leakage. It could be huge and you wouldn't know. So it was clear to me that having this tested was a primary need.

So I began contacting companies with that in mind that were on our electricity provider's list. Energy audits come in many forms but Oncor, our provider, has prerequisites for an audit. They include:

• Blower door test to find leaks with a smoke stick and test the overall tightness of the house.
• Duct Blaster test to determine the duct leakage.
• Thermal imaging to view all of the heat (or cold) spots in the home's envelope
• Test all the windows for low-e coating and note double or single pane
• Inspect attic insulation levels and venting
  
• Confuse homeowner with lots of gibberish

The particular auditor I chose doesn't sell anything other than audits. So they write up my audit and also fill out the Oncor forms to submit it to them. All for $399! (Oncor has up to $1500 available per home!)

Now I would argue that I pretty much knew everything I learned from the audit except, my ducts leak like crazy. I'm losing over 37% of my expensive air out of my duct system! Ouch! But it also explains why I am an Energy Star zero.

Of course it also showed me in living color how bad those can lights are, and we did test a few areas around my fireplace that were leaking that I wasnt aware of.

So my last question to the auditor was...Is there a contractor out there who can do my whole list? His answer was no...up north there are plenty, but here in Texas we make energy, not save it! (That last part was mine.)

Bottom Line - My list in order of potential payback:

1. Seal ducts
2. Fix can lights
3. Add Radiant Barrier in attic
   
4. Rework attic insulation, (add some and redistribute)
5. Seal around the fireplace

I have chosen a contractor (busy week) and will cover that next.

Disposing of batteries properly

Someone gave me a published list of all the ways to properly dispose of batteries. There was so much data on it I couldn't possibly use it. I had no idea we had so many different types of batteries and disposal methods. I am going to try and make the rules simple.

We have regular throw away, regular recycle and hazardous waste. California is always different but I am excluding them.

This list has nine (9!) battery types.

Throw away -

• Carbon Zinc, (old style standard household battery).
• Alkaline, or rechargeable alkaline. None can be recycled, none are hazardous waste.
• Alkaline Manganese - rechargeable, non-recyclable, non-hazardous
  

Recycle -

• Lithium Ion. They are non-hazardous waste and can be recycled.
  
• Nickel - Cadmium (Ni-cad) rechargeable, they are hazardous waste but recyclable.
• Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-li or Ni Hydride) - rechargeable, non-hazardous, recyclable

Note: These batteries are generally in your consumer electronics that use special batteries.

Hazardous Waste disposal -

• Button Batteries (yep all those little batteries that are round and flat)
• Sealed Lead Acid - used in scooters, some power tools, UPS's etc.
• Silver Oxide - Consumers can throw away but non-consumers must dispose of them as hazardous waste??? These are in greeting cards!

Bottom Line - Little ones are bad, big ones are bad, the regular household batteries are either recyclable or not. Probably ought to avoid Ni-cad, as cadmium is a highly toxic and carcinogenic. Avoiding the throw aways' seems prudent (the carbon Zinc ones are the most likely to leak anyway) but the alkalines' are what we all buy in 9v, AA, AAA, D, C, etc. The Lithium Ion are also available in those sizes as "higher performance batteries" but keep them in the fridge.

My personal opinion, soapbox deployed

I am reading the green section in the NY Times this morning (online of course). There is a blog about how a large number of environmentalist groups are coming together against oil sands pipelines from Alberta Canada to the US.

The head of the Sierra Club is asked what are the alternatives and his answer is, and I quote “There’s a lot of conventional oil to buy on international markets,” he said. “We don’t need this oil.”

That's when the top of my head blew off...

There are so many things wrong with this I don't know where to start. Let see, economic security, military spending, American death toll in Middle East conflicts, huge transfer of our wealth to countries that dislike us, funding terrorists, Hugo Chaves, energy caused recessions etc.

Did you know we IMPORTED a tanker of Liquid Natural Gas from Russia?

Does the Sierra club, in light of a global problem called Climate Change, really have any business deciding where and how we get oil domestically? Where were they when the oil fields of Kuwait were burning en-masse?

Don't get me wrong, oil sands is nasty business, but you cant be an American and advocate "other sources". You're turning a blind eye to our position on the world stage. Don't they realize when we say democracy, human rights etc to all middle eastern countries what they hear is blah, blah , blah, we need oil? Don't they realize that's what makes us infidels? Our two faced posture toward oil rich countries?

It's a ridiculously expedient argument to say, "get your oil elsewhere" just so you can kowtow to your contributors all up in arms about Alberta Canada's oil business.

All right, back to regular programming.

My sewer costs are ridiculous!

I am in shock! I was just reviewing my water bill which includes sewer, storm water and garbage/recycling charges. My Sewer bill is higher per gallon than my water bill!

In my defense, my bill was artificially low last year so it never caught my attention. This year they re-rate in April and now it has my attention.

I immediately called the city to ask what's up with that? How can the sewer bill be higher per gallon than the water bill?

You may already know that the city bases your sewer use on four winter months of water usage to, in essence, filter out your sprinkler use since it doesn't go down the sewer. This is relatively new but that's why the rates change in April.

But back to the problem, this last month I used 18, 900 gallons and that cost me $61.98 or $.0032793 per gallon. My sewer is rated at 10,800 gallons which cost $45.25 or .0041898 per gallon! It's 22% higher than clean water? So which pays for water treatment? They both do because we don't treat the water from the sewer for drinking here in the US. So we pump water from the reservoirs, treat it, store it and pump it to your home and we take the sewer water, let it flow to the treatment plant, treat it and then dump it in a stream or river.

In Singapore for example, they treat the sewage water making it into drinking water again because they don't have enough fresh water.

So somehow we can build giant reservoirs, huge long pipelines, treatment plants, build and maintain pipes to all our homes cheaper than dealing with the sewer water?

Its also worth noting that storm sewer is a different thing and we get billed $10.16 for that too. Some municipalities combine the two and end up with big costs for treating the stormwater after rains.

So, why do I care? Because my water use bill is really double because my sewer bill is included in a per gallon calculation. If I can cut water use I can cut sewer costs. But more importantly, my in-home water is really twice as expensive per gallon than what my sprinkler water costs.

I also care because I was recently looking at our city budget that is 120 million in the hole and water treatment is a huge number....I now want to know more!

I have green electrictiy!

I finally did it, made the big leap. I changed electricity providers to an all wind power renewable energy plan. And I saved money!

Here in Texas we deregulated electricity. There are four (I think) non-competing companies that deliver the stuff and about a million who sell it. Given the competition etc our rates are higher than most??? I can't really explain why but I would guess that deregulation has so many regulations that each seller's costs are higher than a single large company.

But, the good news is we have clean renewable energy choices! For a long time there was one company, Green Mountain, that really touted clean energy. There wasn't much competition so they were always 3 - 4 cents higher per KWH. Their energy mix was 20% wind and 80% hydroelectric.

But yesterday I was pleased to find at least six solid companies offering 100% renewables plans. I shopped them, built a spreadsheet to consider fees added to rates for my average usage and picked a couple leaders. I called and attempted to negotiate an even better deal but couldn't. I tried competitive rates etc but everyone manning the phones didn't have any authority to match rates.

A couple of additional things spurred my decision. First, my new green plan is cheaper by far than my old "brown" plan. My rate is 11 cents a KWH and my old rate was 14.24 cents per KWH! I also fixed that rate for 12 months as I believe natural gas prices aren't going to stay this low and that also affects coal prices. So I locked in now prior to the main summer cooling season.

Being able to do pure wind was a bonus. Having seen all the windmills in western Texas I am a big proponent, and, I want my money to go to building more of those rather than more dams.

It's also worth noting that a penny per KWH for me is $165 a year, based on last year's usage.

Bottom Line - Now is a great time to lock in rates and they are low enough to go renewables and still save money!

But now I have green energy. Can I stop being electricity use conscious? I guess, in a way, I could. But my conscience wouldn't be clear. I am using electricity from the grid regardless of source but my money goes to the wind provider. If I now used more electricity there would be more demand on the grid overall and to supply that, there has to be more generation built. But what we want is to have them decommission coal plants while building more renewable energy.

If we can all just cut 30%, regardless of source, we can get there. If we use too much energy, just because its green, we actually defeat the bigger purpose of transitioning all energy to renewables.

I hope the wind is blowing in West Texas today, I have ice cream in the freezer!

A window to watch your expensive energy dissapear

Windows are bad. Sure our lives would suck with out them but were trying to go green here...

But wait, if we have lots of glass and the associated natural light I can keep my lights turned off. Just think of the savings! Except at night, or when there are temperature differences outside etc. Oh well. never mind.

Windows are bad.

If you live in a new, well insulated house, your walls will probably have a high R-value. They will perform well right up to the window. And, in newer homes we insist on lots of natural light so they have lots of windows. In fact, even in my 1965 home I have walls that are way more glass than wall.

These designs grew out of cheap energy and a "don't care" attitude about pollution, climate change etc. It will be interesting to see how architecture changes as we become more sensitive to these issues.

Or maybe we can whip this with technology. Maybe we will get to where a window is as good as a wall. Of course it will cost you more than a small nuclear reactor, but it will be greener! Or we could wait around for solar panels that are reasonably priced to generate our energy so we don't care how much the windows lose. We're 30 years and counting so far.

When you're looking at making your home energy efficient, the windows are a primary concern, but they are also a big expense if you want to change them. Generally, it's really hard to cost justify window changes, but there is lots you can do in the mean time.

It's worth noting that a window, or maybe more accurately, a piece of glass that's built into your wall that doesn't open can be replaced much more cost effectively. In fact, in my home, it was cheaper than blinds. There is no frame, locks, mechanisms etc, it's just a glass sandwich. Costs for a triple pane low-e glass unit can be pretty reasonable, they usually install easy, and they make a big difference. And lastly they are eligible for tax credits if they are certified.

But, the easy thing to do on all windows is make sure they don't leak. Weather stripping and caulk are usually the answer. Next we need to just blanket the window. Heavy curtains, blinds etc all help a lot. One has to remember to use these items when there are considerable temperature differences from inside to out. You also don't want to have openings at the top and bottom of the coverings or you will have just built an air convection heating (or cooling) machine.

One can also install clear plastic (from 3-M) to the windows inside to build an air gap and seal the whole thing. These work reasonably well and make a huge difference, for just a little time and money.

Bottom Line - Standing in any room, your likely largest energy user is the window(s). They are worth the time to make them energy efficient and there are good price options from plastic all the way up to new windows (that should probably still have coverings).

How important is the attic to our heat and cooling bills?

I like this question, because it asks, why do I care, about something so tried and true.

If I stand in the middle of a room in my house, how much is ceiling? In a 12 x 12 room, the ceiling is 144 sq ft of area to be concerned about. If the ceiling is vaulted, it's even more.

In that room, each wall is 12 foot long, and let's say 9 feet tall. That wall is 108 square feet. If it's on the outside of the house we care, if it's on the inside, we don't. So how many walls are on the outside per room? In my house it's one or two per room typically. (Corner rooms are two.)

So if its one wall, it's 108 square feet -vs- 144 on the ceiling. If it's two, then its 216 vs 144 square feet of ceiling. No matter what, the ceiling is a big percentage of any room sitting under the attic.

Now, to be accurate, much of those exterior walls are penetrated by windows. Big chunks of square feet are actually glass. If you super insulated an exterior wall, but left a big single pane window in the middle of it...you will have missed the point.

But back to attics. In a single story home, all the rooms have ceilings touching the attic space. Simply put, a 3000 square foot home has about 3000 feet of ceiling touching the hot attic! A full two story would be about half that.

The most important reason to focus on attic is because we can actually do something about the problem pretty easily. Attics are accessible, the inside of your exterior walls aren't, (without serious deconstruction.) Blowing insulation, radiant barriers, and venting are all pretty easy, there are lots of contractors to choose from and it doesn't disrupt our lives...much.

Bottom Line - Attic is very important and easy to deal with.