Make Any Home an Energy Miser

With energy costs rising, it's a perfect time to improve your home's performance with these easy-to-implement (but often overlooked) ideas and products.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that Americans will spend 20 percent to 25 percent more in heating costs this year. But while alternative energy systems such as solar and wind hold allure with buyers, it's easier and more cost-effective to save energy than to create it.

The list of energy-efficient ideas is enormous, from specifying LED and CFL lighting, to right-sizing your HVAC, to specifying ENERGY STARŽ appliances. But keeping energy in is a lot easier if the home was built with that goal. Here are some things for builders to keep in mind.

Run quality ductwork — and seal it.
Properly detailing this lowly, behind-the-walls product is the easiest way to raise home energy performance, according to Dale Dennis with Home Energy Checkup in Cincinnati. "HVAC is the engine and ductwork is the transmission," he says. "I was in a house yesterday that had all the ducts in the attic and was leaking almost 500 cubic feet per minute." That's more than a ton of capacity on a three-ton system being used to heat leaking air.

He also notes that some builders are still using drywall and studs as return ductwork, which leaks throughout the house. Flex duct is almost as bad. "Don't do either. Hard pipe the whole thing," says Dennis. Many manufacturers advise builders to use mastic tape above all other methods to seal ducts.

A new product builders should consider is the XJ 85 by Georgia-Pacific (www.gp.com/build), which is the first engineered I-joist with precut openings that enable you to run ductwork in conditioned spaces.

Know your insulation and install it correctly.
Whichever insulation you choose, install it strictly to the manufacturer's specifications. A 1/8-inch gap in the insulation can lower your R-value by 50 percent.

While spray-foam insulations are getting a lot of attention these days, they can be expensive. Dennis tells builders trying to hit high R-values while keeping costs in check to go for cellulose. "Cellulose delivers the best insulation for the dollar," he says.

Pay extra attention to the attic and basement.
"Always seal the top of the house first," says Dennis. He points out that many people don't insulate the attic door, but sealing the attic entry with a gasket and seal is an easy step to save energy. Manufacturers also offer an array of attic entry doors with weatherstripping and insulated caps. For instance, Owens Corning (www.owenscorning.com) has a product called PinkCap Attic Stair Insulator, which reduces heat loss through attic doors.

Basement walls are another big source of heat loss. "It's amazing how many basements I see with minimum code insulation," says Dennis. "You can lose 20 percent of your heat this way."

One product to consider is CertainTeed's T-Roc Thermal Laminate Foundation Insulation System (www.certainteed.com), a paperless gypsum board permanently laminated to a high R-value expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam insulation. It's placed inside the concrete formwork when the basement walls are poured and stays in place after the forms are removed. It eliminates the need for stud frame-out, batt insulation and drywall in a basement.

Stop venting crawl spaces.
By building unvented crawl spaces, you can pick up at least 22 percent in energy savings. "In the vented crawl spaces I've seen, you're getting a lot of heat loss through the vents, and they use cheap vapor barriers — 4 mil — which get torn up and are in shreds by the time I see them," says Dennis. He recommends a 14- to 20-mm-thick vapor barrier that is bonded to the walls. "It gets rid of that earthy smell, humidity, increases indoor air quality and reduces the heating bill."

Consider a new framing system.
Framing choices abound. Insulating concrete forms and structural insulated panels are gaining market share nationally, but if they or other alternative building systems don't work in your market, advanced framing is a choice that doesn't require completely retraining the labor pool or changing suppliers.

That's what the Sacramento Municipal Utility District used in its "Home of the Future" last year. The home boasts 2 x 6, 24-inch on-center stacked framing, which was panelized off-site to reduce waste. The structure was insulated with blown-in cellulose insulation and two layers of Icynene foam on the outside of the studs.

On top of that, the builder added two layers of half-inch foil-faced rigid foam on the outside of the house, with Hardiplank siding on top of that. "The result is an R-30 wall," brags Bob Walter, president of RJ Walter Homes. "We added R-8 for about $8,000," says Walter, noting that the cost would be lower if he was building in production mode versus custom.

Use the sun.
A hot water heater can burn as much as $10,000 worth of energy over its lifetime. But right now, says Dennis, there are generous government tax incentives for solar hot water heaters. Plus, the new panels are attractive and look like skylights, so they're accepted in most neighborhoods. For a list of local, state and federal incentives for solar hot water and other energy-saving techniques and products, visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency at www.dsireusa.com.

Dennis believes that costly technologies such as solar PV and wind power will find their places in the building universe eventually. But today, most builders' best bet is sticking to the basics. "If I lay a tube of caulk, an insulation batt, a furnace and solar panels out in front of a builder and ask which one will save the most energy, which the least, the right answer is to go in the order I laid them out. You should only consider the energy savers that cost money after you've addressed the smaller things."

Proper insulation of basements can reduce a home's energy loss by more than 20 percent. The T-Roc Thermal Laminate Foundation Insulation System by CertainTeed provides insulation and eliminates the need for stud framing, batt insulation and drywall.

Georgia-Pacific's new XJ 85 I-joist product helps you keep duct runs where they belong: in conditioned spaces.

Don't lose energy to poorly insulated attic openings. Products like Owens Corning's PinkCap keep air from escaping to (and from) the attic.


© 2009 Moen, Incorporated. All Rights Reserved	Privacy Policy \| Unsubscribe
	Need Help? Call 1-866-900-MOEN