Home Energy Checklist

Today

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• Turn down the temperature of your water heater to the warm setting (120-degrees Fahrenheit). You’ll not only save energy, you’ll avoid scalding your hands.
• Start using energy-saving settings on refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, and clothes dryers.
• Survey your incandescent lights for opportunities to replace them with compact fluorescents or LEDs. These new lamps can save three-quarters of the electricity used by incandescents. The best targets are 60-100W bulbs used several hours a day. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and LEDs will fit in most standard fixtures.
• Check the age and condition of your major appliances, especially the refrigerator. You may want to replace it with a more energy-efficient model before it dies.
• Clean or replace furnace, air-conditioner, and heat-pump filters.
• If you have one of those “silent-guzzlers”, a waterbed, make your bed today. The covers will insulate it, and save up to one-third of the energy it uses.

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This Week

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• Visit the hardware store. Buy a water-heater blanket, low-flow shower heads, faucet aerators, and compact fluorescent CFLs or LEDs, as needed. CFLs and LEDs are now sold at most drug stores and grocery stores.
• If your water heater is old enough that its insulation is fiberglass instead of foam, it clearly will benefit from a water heater blanket form the local hardware store or home supplies store.
• Rope caulk very leaky windows.
• Assess your heating and cooling systems. Determine if replacements are justified, or whether you should retrofit them to make them work more efficiently—to provide the same comfort (or better) for less energy.
• Purchase a power use monitor to learn how you use energy in your home and identify opportunities for saving.

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This Month

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• Collect your utility bills. Seperate electricity and fuel bills. Target the biggest bill for energy conservation remedies.
• Crawl into your attic or crawlspace and inspect for insulation. Is there any? How much?
• Insulate hot water pipes and ducts whenever they run through unheated areas.
• Seal up the largest air leaks in your house—the ones that whistle on windy days, or feel drafty. The worst culprits are usually not windows and doors, but utility cut-throughs for pipes (“plumbing penetrations”), gaps around chimneys and recessed lights in insulated ceilings, and unfinished spaces behind cupboards and closets, Better yet, hire an energy auditor with a blower door to point put where the worst cracks are. All the time, invisible cracks and holes may add up to as much as an open window or door, without your ever knowing!
• At night and whenever you leave your home, adjust your thermostat to save heating energy in the winter and cooling energy in the summer. Some people find it easier to install a programmable thermostat.
• Schedule a home energy assessment (ask your utility company or state energy office) for more expert advice on your home as a whole.

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This year

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• Insulate. If your walls aren’t insulated, have an insulation contractor blow cellulose into the walls. Bring your attic insulation level up to snuff.
• Replace aging, inefficient appliances. Even if the appliance has a few useful years left, replacing it with a top-efficiency model is generally a good investment.
• Upgrade leaky windows. It may be time to replace them with energy-efficient models or to boost their efficiency with weather-stripping and storm windows.
• Reduce your air conditioning costs by planting shade trees and shrubs around your house — especially on the west side.
• Know that you are making a difference!

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Best,

The post Home Energy Checklist appeared first on Michael Menn Ltd. Architecture-Construction-Excellence.

We all want to make our lives less dependent on chemical cleaners, making things greener in the process. If you can make your home energy-efficient, then you will lower your carbon footprint while at the same time making your monthly expenses smaller as well. The trick is making sure you evaluate the home beforehand, making sure you know its weaknesses and what you can do to address them and make them better. Many of these tests can be done by yourself, and often in less than an hour. While they will not really tell you everything you need to know, you will at least be able to understand what can be done to improve things. Here are some of the strategies you can use for yourself and information on what you can do with the help of a specialist.

Checking on Windows and Doors

You can begin your efforts by checking up on all your windows and doors to see whether you have any drafts in it. The way to approach this is to close all the doors and windows of your home, then lock them up. Turn on the air conditioning or heating of your home, bathroom fans, hood fans and more. This will help you spot any leaks more efficiently. Light a stick of incense and hold it near your doors and windows and notice if the smoke will flow toward them and where. If you notice a behavior like that, then it means you most likely have a leak in that area.

Paying Attention to the Signs

Take a walk around your home, both on the outside and the inside and check for any signs that your home’s energy efficiency may not be up to par with what it needs to be. Some good examples of that can be worn weather stripping, sealing and caulking becoming deteriorated and so forth. A good thing to look for would be possible gaps in between your windows and the walls, door frames and similar problems you can spot. When you look at the windows, check for ice, frost or any form of condensation on the closed window sashes. If you spot any of the aforementioned, then you will need to keep that area in mind and know that it needs fixing as soon as possible, lest you allow it to grow as a problem and maybe develop moldy spots as a result.

Comparing Temperatures

You must check different ends of your rooms and the temperatures there with an electronic thermometer, as this will allow you to spot any problem areas with greater efficiency. In most rooms there should rarely be a difference of more than a degree or two, and anything more than that could be an indication of a problem that needs solving. Poor air circulation or seals around your windows and doors, as well as cracks in the walls, or corners could be the reason for it.

Hiring a Specialist

The most thorough way of doing that would be to evaluate the home energy efficiency via a design/build specialist who who has specific knowledge and skills about the design of your home and can help you diagnose problems with energy efficiency. While this will certainly be more expensive than what you’re doing, you will have a much easier time dealing with and locating issues that need attention. There are a number of tests they can perform with tools of their own that will prove more useful and effective overall. One of them would be to use an infrared camera to take photos of your home, locating problem areas and where leaks may have occurred. They can perform an air filtration analysis, as well as using a blower to test for leaks as well.

Remember I’m always eager to hear your comments. Contact me at Michael@michaelmenn.com or at 847.770.6303

Best,

The post Evaluating Your Home Energy Efficiency appeared first on Michael Menn Ltd. Architecture-Construction-Excellence.

Big houses consume more resources than small ones. They use more wood, more carpet, more drywall and more concrete. They cover more ground and generate more construction debris. When completed, they will require more energy to heat and cool.

A house’s size has a greater impact on energy and resource use than any other factor, including insulation, equipment efficiency and windows. So here are some tips for efficiency yet maintaining style.

Space Design Savvy Tips:

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• Share space between different uses. A home office and guest bedroom is a common combination. Also consider using a hall or stairway as a library or gallery, a landing can be a reading nook, the laundry can be a mudroom. Replace individual rooms for “media,” exercise and others purposes with built-ins and storage for special equipment.

• Add double-height space. Smaller rooms need not feel “cramped.” High vertical spaces add an airy feeling.

• Fill the entire building volume. Much usable space can be lost to attics. This space under the roof can be used for visual appeal, loft space or heated storage. Cathedral roof trusses with ceiling insulation, stick framing with insulation between the rafters or structural insulated panels can all provide full insulation while embracing the volume under the roof.

• Reduce circulation paths. Shorten or eliminate hallways, unless they serve a dual purpose. Traffic patterns can cross rooms, so the extra space adds to the visual size of the room.

• Build furniture into rooms. Cabinets, bookcases, benches and eating nooks use less space when they become part of the structure. Recess bookcases or display cases into interior walls. Large storage drawers can be installed under the stairs right down to floor level.

• Remove formal spaces. Most people gather in kitchens and family rooms. Formal living and dining rooms are seldom used. So why have two spaces dedicated to essentially the same activity? Avoid showcase rooms.

• Use bedrooms for sleeping. In a well designed house, the bedrooms should be used for sleeping, dressing and little more.

• Provide ample storage. When people want a “bigger house” they may actually need more storage. Even if a house is small, careful planning and good organization can provide densely packed, three-dimensional storage.

• Enhance trim and detail. High-quality details can be a key benefit of a small house. High-quality hardware, moldings, and other aesthetic touches can draw attention away from the larger space and to the details.

• Add a focal point. Each room should have one attractive feature. This can be a building element, built-in furniture, a work of art or a dazzling light fixture.

• Invite natural light. Careful selection, sizing and location of windows and small skylights can flood a small space with wonderful natural light without increasing energy use.

• Bring in the outdoors. Locate windows and glazed doors next to decks, patios, courtyards and porches. This extends the living space past the outer walls during fair weather. Even during bad weather the visual extension continues.

• Reveal the structure. Exposed beams, posts, joists and other structural elements can define individual areas within a larger space. They also add texture or interest, and can serve as a focal point.

• Use color. Most small spaces will benefit from lighter-colored or white wall paint, because it gives a spacious feeling. Use dark or warm colors only for accent.

• Tie spaces together. Similar materials, such as flooring, wall coverings and trim, tie spaces together visually, giving the overall impression of a larger space.

• Separate spaces. Dissimilar materials set one space off from another. Instead of building a wall, change floor material and texture; expose a beam or a hang a pot rack. Changes in color and texture also help in defining spaces.

• Plan for flexibility. The design should allow for changes in lifestyle. A young couple may have children. Grown children will leave the nest. A business could be born in the kitchen and grow in the guest bedroom. Plan for these changes. Identifying a future addition is one way, but consider ways new uses could be accommodated inside the existing footprint. The upstairs could become an apartment for an aging relative. Walls could come down. Some designers suggest long-span structures so that interior walls can be repositioned with fewer structural limitations.
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Remember I’m always eager to hear your comments. Contact me at Michael@michaelmenn.com or at 847.770.6303.

Best,

The post Efficient and Beautiful appeared first on Michael Menn Ltd. Architecture-Construction-Excellence.