Building Science The Next Generation Of Home Improvement And New Construction

Posted by admin on September 12th, 2008 filed in HomeDecor

In a landmark survey by Cahners Residential Group in 2004, ninety-one percent of homebuyers said that energy-efficient features in a home were extremely or very important to them. The demand for old and new homes that use less energy continues to grow from a niche market into an emerging segment of the mainstream residential building and remodeling industry.

Now traditional contractors and builders can apply scientific techniques to create more energy efficient homes that provide greater comfort, durability, health and safety. Best of all, they can do it in a practical and affordable way using building performance technologies and techniques. This means looking at how all the components of the house work together including the thermal shell, heating and cooling equipment, ventilation, windows and doors, and appliances.

For those contractors who have already embraced the building science philosophy, there’s always more to learn. The industry is constantly evolving with more technologies and best practices shared among building science professionals. Thanks to ACI’s national and regional conferences and an expanding range of training and education initiatives, contractors and builders across the country are being trained to employ a “whole-house” systems approach to new construction and home improvement. That means more customers are getting a better overall home environment when builders and contractors incorporate comprehensive measures to address comfort, health and safety, durability, and energy efficiency.

Improving the performance of existing homes

Contractors nationwide are being trained and accredited in building performance, the systematic approach to improving the indoor environment by applying improvements to the whole house, not just a part of it. These contractors use performance diagnostics to evaluate the condition of a home and verify the impact of improvements. Blower door tests for building shell leakage, combustion safety tests, duct leakage diagnostics, and infrared thermal imaging are examples of diagnostic tests provided by building performance contractors to help ensure the health, safety, comfort, and durability of a home before and after improvements. Once the initial assessment is complete, the contractor will recommend how to remedy any problems they found, and can complete the recommended work for the homeowner. The end result for customers is lower energy bills and improved comfort and safety.

Building performance techniques benefit contractors as well by differentiating themselves in the marketplace. Contractors who use these comprehensive testing and installation techniques to treat the house as a system can distinguish their businesses from traditional contractors by providing their customers better, more informed solutions to common house problems, including high energy costs, uneven temperatures from room to room, moisture and air quality issues, as well as maintenance and durability. Some contractors may have access to energy efficiency programs, including Home Performance with ENERGY STAR

Share This

Comment now »

Home Improvements - Get Your Envelope In Order

Posted by admin on August 3rd, 2008 filed in HomeDecor

Whether you need heat in winter or air conditioning in summer, you run the risk of throwing away money on utilities. You need not do this by making painless home improvements.

Home Improvements - Get Your Envelope In Order

Your house is an enclosed structure designed to keep rain, cold, heat, wind, snow and so on out. In contrast, all of those things want in. If you are not careful, Mother Nature will rob you blind. Yes, I am talking about the thermal envelope of your home.

The thermal envelope refers to the protective pocket around your living space. Much like wearing gloves in the snow, you want the envelope to provide a complete insulation barrier between you and the elements. If there are gaps or weak areas, your hard earned money is flowing out of them. Upgrading or maintaining your envelope can save you a bundle.

Insulation can be a killer when it comes to your envelope. Most developers build homes to the minimum requirements because they are focused on profits. Insulation is noted by R values, a method of determining how resistant the insulation is to transferring heat. If you check the walls of your house, an R-11 value will most likely be present. This is bad. R-11 is the minimum required. Upgrade to R-20 or R-30 in the walls and R-70 in the ceiling and floor areas. The temperatures in the house will become more consistent because the heat transfer will stop. This means the house stays warmer for longer in the winter and cooler for longer in the summer. The change will be dramatic.

Windows can be a killer, accounting for as much as 25 percent of your energy loss. The answer is relatively simple. Install Energy Star approved windows and get those frames into shape.

Doors are another area that can kill you. The issue is not so much the door itself, but the framing around it. Make sure your doors are flush to the frames. Installing small seal pads along the inside of the doorstops can make a major difference because they cut off air flow. Of course, the downside is the door doesn’t make much noise when you slam it in anger, but you will just have to tough it out.

Upgrading your envelope can make a major difference in your utility bill. If you can save $100 a month, you will save $1,200 a year. If you live in the home for 10 years, that is an easy $12,000.

Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of solar energy companies. Visit us to read more solar power articles.

Share This

Comment now »

Taking Solar Into Account When Designing Your Home Improvements

Posted by admin on July 23rd, 2008 filed in HomeDecor

Using the sun to heat up a home is growing by leaps and bounds in popularity these days. To really save money with solar, the best way is to design your home or improvements with solar in mind.

Taking Solar Into Account When Designing Your Home Improvements

In this case, we are not talking about using active solar panels to heat your home. We are merely talking about orienting your home in a particular way as well as emphasizing certain features. While this may sound odd at first, it is an extremely popular and cost effective energy production method used throughout the world.

To pursue this strategy, you must pay careful attention to how you design your house or improvements. One of the biggest errors made by people is the failure to take in all aspects of home heating and cooling. This can lead to a situation where you are producing far too much solar heat and the house becomes an oven. Get it wrong in the other direction and you don’t have nearly enough heat. Here are the key issues to consider.

The first issue, the site location, is almost always overlooked. Ideally, you want unobstructed sunlight to hit the south side of the home for at least six hours in the middle of the day. Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn’t matter what part of the United States you live in. There is sufficient sun exposure everywhere, although areas heavy with fog and cloud cover may be problematic. Regardless, the home must receive the aforementioned amount of sunlight. If it doesn’t, you are not going to be happy with the results.

The second issue many people miss out on is commonly known as the axis orientation. In the Northern Hemisphere, the south wall of structures will receive the most sun exposure. To efficiently use this energy, your home must be oriented to expose the longest wall of the structure to the south. The more surface area you have facing the sun, the more heat and light you will be able to generate in the home. On the other hand, if you orient a short side to the sun, it is going to produce less heat and be harder to circulate it through the length of the home.

The third issue ties in into axis orientation. To produce heat, you must have a vast majority of the windows on the south side of the home. Unless you are using a solar capture wall, it makes little sense to orient your home correctly without letting the sunlight in. Conversely, you need minimize windows on the north side of the home or at least use super energy efficient windows to keep heat from escaping. You don’t want to create a wind tunnel from the south to north side of the structure as air temperatures try to balance out!

You may have some doubts about how much heat a properly planned structure will produce. Hyperbole aside, your home will cook. The sun is incredibly powerful. Imagine sitting in your car on a sunny day with the windows rolled up and no air conditioning. The same thing will happen with your home.

To combat excessive heat, you should include some mechanism for reducing the amount of sun coming into the home. The easiest answer is to put curtains or some such thing on the interior, but it doesn’t always work for large bay windows. To resolve this problem, you should put some type of a retractable overhang on the exterior of the home. You can install the roller under the lip of the roof. They don’t look nearly as cheesy as they used to and you’ll be happy you did so when summer rolls around.

Taking advantage of the sun for heating is not particularly complicated. If you keep the above issues in mind, you’ll be able to smile when your neighbors complain about their utility bills.

Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of solar energy companies. Visit us to read more articles on solar power and passive solar floor plans.

Share This

Comment now »