Staged Energy Upgrades
Posted on Sep 9th, 2009 by Doug Marsh VP, CR, CAPS, GBP | 0 Comments
Alot of our older homes have issues that impact our use of energy and our comfort. Just the regular maintenance on a property can be a little overwhelming not to mention upgrading windows, weatherstripping, insulation, AC etc. I have a classic fixer upper myself: 20+ years old, bad windows, crappy HVAC design and ducting installation. I cannot afford to fix it all up at once. However planning upgrades is a great tool for homeowners like myself. Here in Texas forced air heating and cooling is the norm and alot of energy use and issues arise out of the design and installation of this system. Luckily I am a builder and have used my Green Building knowledge to help me to develop a plan to upgrade my house over time. I have old, hard to open, and often fogged aluminum windows. I knew that all of these would have to be replaced at some point: is it a window if you can't see through the fogged glass? These days it is just not that expensive to get 1, 2, or 3 or more windows replaced with an energy star product that will operate and have the Federal standard for glazing (U factor and Solar Heat Gain Coeffecient of .30 or less). There are many companies that provide a huge selection of windows and expert installation per window if you like. So I have been replacing a few at a time myself (since I can and know how to) and eventually, over time, I will have all of them replaced. Windows are one huge part of the three main energy losses in a home (along with HVAC and attic insulation). At my house the previous Owner added an addition. At that time they redid the HVAC by putting in new ducting for the addition and replacing the furnace and compressor/heat pump. Well they had no clue about HVAC design and I ended up with hot and cold spots and a 5 ton system that was capable of blowing enough air for my 2100 square ft home but, because of the poor ducting, was only able to blow air equivalent to 1100 square feet. Well this can fairly quickly kill the equipment because it is working too hard. The eneven temperature, the deteriorating plastic ducting they tied onto in the older part of the house, and the possiblity of shortening the life of the equipment made me make a move. I thought about my budget and the future of my equipment and the condition of my attic. I knew that eventually my oversized equipment would have to replaced, my windows would have to be upgraded and that my attic needed a radiant barrier and more insulation or just spray foam insulation sprayed onto to the roof deck. I had my HVAC contractor do the Manual J calculations based on my completed upgrades which would include all new windows (even though they are not all in), new equipment (which would go in a few years-maybe 8 or so) and my revamped attic insulation and/or radiant barrier, or spray foam. The new equipment could be calculated to be downsized because of the future energy changes and so the ducting was designed for a 4 ton system. I had all the ducting torn out and repalced with new R 8 ducting to go into my unupgraded attic. It was a chunk of change to do the ducting but way cheaper than putting in the equipment now which is now blowing the equivalent of 1800 square ft of air. In the future I will finish adding the other new windows and upgrading the attic. In my case I planned the HVAC with the attic having spray foam against the roof deck (unvented attic). A friend of mine spent the time to staple up radiant foil against the rafters and dumped 18" of loose blown insulation in his attic with treamendous results- did it all himself. These are not perfect solutions but do constitue a vast improvement in comfort and energy use done as a budget and time permits.
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