The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Every evening my local news channel flashes a pie chart on screen that gives the results of some type of viewer’s poll. If the subject of the poll interests her my wife will often say something like “Wow! Can you believe that? People are stupid! What were they thinking?” And while I will admit that it makes me take a second look myself, I quickly dismiss it. Results from a poll like this mean absolutely nothing. I love it when they show the pie chart with the little blue slice that tells you that 33% of the callers are in favor of something that you think is crazy. The part that they don’t tell you is that only three people responded to the question-2 against it- 1 for it. How scientific does that sound?

I think of this today after an online discussion (if you want to give it that much credit) that I had with an individual about weatherization. They commented on a picture I posted of an HVAC duct system that was full of trash. Pencils, barrettes, gum wrappers and other household junk that a little kid might play with were inside the duct…and it was filthy. The conversation quickly jumped from finding a contractor to clean their system to why the government would buy lazy people cellphones and duct cleaning. I personally don’t know if the government does either, so I jumped out of the loop. What I do know is that for the last two years the government has assisted low income citizens with the energy efficiency of their homes. Has it worked perfectly with no abuse? What do you think…it’s a national program?

Here is what I do know; of the 15,000 homes weatherized in Georgia I have only personally viewed about 200 in 20 of the 159 Georgia counties. There was a group of roughly 25 monitors hired by The University of Georgia that scrutinized 10% of the total amount of work done by the government. We talked to the homeowner, looked at the work done, and looked at their complete file. Did I see some abuse? Sure. Did I see some life changing results? Sure. Did I see a study with enough participants to be considered meaningful and scientific? I believe I did.

I am as guilty as the next person of condemning the typical recipients of government assistance. The people we all imagine are straight out off of the People of Walmart website; they are people that want something for nothing. But this is not what I saw. I saw elderly widows heating their homes with a gas oven that you could only stand to operate with the batteries from the Carbon Monoxide detector removed. I saw children of single mothers studying for tomorrow’s algebra test with a coat on and blankest nailed over door openings to keep the heat from a small electric heater inside the un-insulated room. I saw wheelchair bound husbands at home with the kids while the wife worked two jobs. I saw people without enough to eat that had two years ago had paid income tax of five figures. I saw someone with a Lexus in the driveway. I saw all of this in only 20 counties of 1/50^th of the United States.

So we want to know what works and what does not. There are several ways to find this out, but let’s look at two:

Bring up the level of insulation, air sealing and heating in people’s homes to modern standards using conventional fuels (gas and electricity). Study the results and determine what give the greatest payback. The homeowner saves money on the operating cost of their home for the life of the home. Pass these results to the average person that wants to save money.

Give billions of dollars to companies that want to manufacture expensive solar panels in the United States. If they fail, they simply file bankruptcy and you have nothing to show for money spent. Well you do have a pile of solar panels that maybe you could sell to the Chinese? I doubt it…give maybe.

We put men on the moon by trial and error; we didn’t just borrow the money and shoot them straight up there. By weatherizing homes and studying the results we accomplished two things. We brought many homes into the 21^st century and we found out what works and what does not. We completed our study and gave the gift that keeps on giving!

About this blog

The purpose of this blog is to bring a practical understanding of energy usage. Usage=money. To me it's that simple. You can't stop using energy completely, and I don't think any of us want to anyway. I love all of my gas and electrical appliances and toys and have no intention of not using them. But what I want to avoid is spending money unnecessarily to operate and enjoy them. Saving the polar bears and the ice caps can be just an added benefit...I want to save money!

This is a highly technical and polarizing subject. I have taken hundreds of hours of classes on this subject and I don't pretend to understand all of it; I'm not that smart. But I do know that even a little knowledge will save you money. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If replacement windows cut your power bill in half, you must have left them open year round. Closing them would have cut your bill in half. Even if they did cut your bill in half, would paying $3000-$5000(or more) to save $100 a month be a good idea? It would if you had money to throw away; but to most of us...no. The quickest savings will come when you spend the least amount of money. This may sound stupid, but what if a $5.00 tube of caulk saved you $5.00 on your first power bill. That would give you 11 months of profit! I know this is a small amount, but it adds up.

There will be times when you have to spend large amounts of money; nothing lasts forever. When you have to replace those windows or HVAC, this is the time to save. Getting a new HVAC unit for a tax break and a reduction in your power bill might not be the smartest idea. If it still functions you should consider making sure that it is functioning at it's highest level. Low efficiency can be compensated for (somewhat) by a good delivery system; the duct work. If you are losing half of your conditioned air to duct leakage all of the SEERs known to man won't save you that much. Sealing your ducts is do-it-yourself friendly and cheap. Insulating them is slightly tougher, but not much. The pay back on this one is fast and it will only compound itself when you have to replace the unit!

I would like to add one final and important note; don't let your politics keep you from saving energy. Don't do it for them, do it for yourself and your pocketbook! The government is full of ideas-some good and some bad. Ideas good-application bad. Buying a $40,000 electric car that essentially runs off of coal anyway is not very smart; the payback on that one is the day after...never! But I don't want to get started on these topics, I just want you to save money and use common sense at the same time! Don't be sold by a contractor and don't be sold by the government. Once again, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is!

Attic stairs

Insulating and air sealing the attic is of utmost importance here in the south. R-38 insulation is recommended in both flat and vaulted ceilings, but it won’t do much for the air infiltration/exfiltration that takes place between your attic and your living space. Blown cellulose does air seal slightly because of its weight, but it will not truly define the thermal envelope of your home. Top plates of walls, knee walls and HVAC penetrations are big culprits for energy loss, but one overlooked energy drain is the attic access. The photo below is of an uninsulated attic access taken with an infrared camera.

Many older homes here have a small (24”X24”) attic hatch that is often hidden away in a closet. These are relatively easy to deal with by weather stripping and gluing batt insulation to the attic side of the panel. If they are too light to fully compress the weather strip, adding another layer of drywall or plywood to the back side will help. The large pull down stair cases or “disappearing stairs” as architects like to call them can be tougher to deal with, but when properly sealed will make a tremendous difference.

Most builders or insulation companies will simply place an R-13 batt between the stairs and the cover panel. This makes little sense when you have an R-38 attic, but it is common. There are several commercial options available to seal and insulate the access that work very well, but some are rather expensive. An attic tent is good for providing an air tight seal, but has little R value. There are foam options that both air seal and insulate, but you want to be sure that what you install is tall enough on the attic side to hold back 13 inches of blown insulation (an insulation dam). If you are the least bit handy, building an attic “coffin” is the cheapest and easiest approach. One sheet of cheap plywood or OSB will do the job and you will find that it is much more rigid than the commercial options.

The coffin is a simple 5 sided box with a lift off lid. The weight of the top is heavy enough to compress the weather stripping and give a good seal. Be sure to make the sides of the box tall enough for the stairs to fold up in! This may sound like common sense, but it was my first mistake. Once you have sealed the attic hatch you can proceed with air sealing and insulating the remainder of the attic.