Eye On Weather: Is Your Home Energy Efficient?
BOSTON (CBS) – After a robust pre-Thanksgiving snowfall, there was a 7-week spell of benign and rather balmy weather last December into mid-January before reality hit hard. It turned into a once in a century winter.
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Boston's 30-day snowfall ending on February 21, 2015 was an astounding 94.4" which decimated the previous record of 58.8" for a 30-day period ending on February 7, 1978. February 2015 was the second coldest month on record behind February 1934. It was snowmageddon in a deep freeze and that is a recipe for ice dams which, for many homeowners, became damaging and costly.
An ice dam indicates the home is NOT energy efficient. Heat escaping into the attic melts the underlying roof deck snow which runs down to the colder eaves and freezes into a ridge of ice. As melting snow continues, water puddles up behind the ice and goes up underneath the shingles and subsequently floods down into the attic, the exterior walls, ceilings and electrical fixtures.
EVERSOURCE'S MASS SAVE PROGRAM
You are wasting heat and money and, in most cases, this is a problem you can eliminate or at least mitigate through Mass Save.
"Eversource is a proud sponsor of Mass Save which is a collaboration of energy efficiency services sponsored by all of the utilities in Massachusetts, gas and electric, and energy services providers," said Bill Stack, an Eversource energy efficiency spokesman. "Mass Save offers a vast array of programs, rebates, incentives and recycling opportunities for the homeowner. On every utility bill, there is a small surcharge that funnels into the Energy Services Fund and out of that money, we are able to sponsor these programs."
Stack said there is no reason customers shouldn't take advantage of the programs.
"So people should take advantage of these programs because, quite frankly, they are paying into them each month and it's like having a savings account and never taking any money out of that account," Stack added.
You can find your monthly cost of the program under Energy Conservation Charge or Energy Efficiency Charge.
HOME ENERGY SERVICES
The flagship program of Mass Save is the Home Energy Services Program where a free Home Energy Assessment is offered to eligible customers. The first step is to visit MassSave.com and call 866-527-SAVE. An energy specialist will come to your home and figure out how to make it more energy efficient, comfortable and safe.
He will do this by talking to you about your home and inspecting it top to bottom for drafts, the amount of insulation and the efficiency of your heating, cooling or water heating equipment. Dependent on your electric utility company, the assessment includes installation of no cost energy products such as LEDs, faucet aerators, efficient shower heads, smart power strips and wireless enabled and programmable thermostats.
In your report, you will also receive personalized recommendations combined with available rebates and incentives to help improve the home's energy performance. You may be eligible for an instant incentive of 75% up to $2,000 toward weatherization improvements like adding insulation and additional rebate offers on replacing refrigerators and heating and water heating equipment. If you are interested, the energy specialist will guide you through the steps needed to take advantage of the program and upgrade your home.
CHOOSING A CONTRACTOR
The next step is to chose a certified home performance contractor or independent installation contractor to do the work.
For the No. 1 way to make your home more energy efficient, Nicholas Leblanc of Polar Bear Insulation Co, Inc. says, "What you want is heat loss to stop".
This is crucial for any time of the heating season - not just when ice dams and damaging water are occurring. Nicholas and his father were the contractors providing the Mass Save work at the home recently purchased by Melanie and Ryan Fung.
"The house was built in the late 50s so we knew chances were there was going to be little or no insulation in that entire house so during our home inspection, the inspector recommended using the Mass Save Program," Melanie said.
There are a lot of renovations and updates taking place there to make it energy efficient.
"We've slowly been taking our projects, one by one, so the Mass Save Program was a great step that we took so we can keep going," Melanie added.
Before any insulation is added to the house, air leakage locations must be found and sealed first.
STOPPING AIR LEAKAGE
This is accomplished by the Blower Door Test which is comprised of a calibrated fan mounted on a special door which is affixed to the front entry and a manometer which measures the air pressure in the house as the fan is blowing air into the house from outside with all other windows and doors closed.
The blower door test measures the amount of air needed to keep the house at an elevated pressure of 50 Pascal. As it is running, the blower door test exacerbates the natural infiltration occurring in a house making air leaks easier to find on an IR camera as air forced in shows up as a different color. Once air-sealing is performed, the blower door test is repeated to compare measurements before and after sealing.
"So what you do is just air seal tops of all the walls, the attics, wherever you find air is escaping from- that's including the doors too with weather stripping," said Leblanc.
Air can be leaking around plumbing vents, recessed lights, wiring holes, etc. The goal is to eliminate the flow of warm air from the house into the attic.
Once all of the air-sealing is completed, additional insulation is added to increase the R-Value which is a measure of the resistance to heat flow through a given thickness of material. The higher the R-Value, the larger that resistance. In our zone, attic insulation should have an R-Value of R38 to R60.
HOME IMPROVEMENTS
Through Mass Save, independent installation contractor Peter and Nicholas Leblanc of Polar Bear Insulation Co, Inc. did some great work at my home back in late 2011. In my attic that included constructing insulated removable thermo domes over the large built-in summer exhaust fan and the attic access pull-down ladder door to eliminate heat escape.
Additionally, they vented the bathroom fans vertically up to roof flappers. In many cases, venting the air horizontally out between the joists to the soffit can lead to the warm, moist air flowing right back in through the soffit vents resulting in the potential of not only adding unwanted heat to the attic but also encouraging the formation of mold.
Also in my attic, they performed the air sealing, then added insulation to increase the R-Value to R40+. With the added 8-10" of blown-in cellulose insulation over the fiberglass batts, it was necessary to install baffles or propavents at the base of every bay between each roof rafter. The vertical wall plates are covered with ample insulation and the baffles prevent the leakage of cellulose out onto the perimeter seamless soffit vent.
STOPPING FLOW OF COLD AIR
It is paramount to have an adequate flow of cold air in from the soffits up through the rafter bays and out the ridge vents providing an adequate flow of cold ambient air with the heated air in the house trapped below by the air sealing and insulation. It is imperative to stop the loss of heat into the attic. The goal is to not waste heat and money which can lead to costly ice damming.
With my setup, there will never be an icicle dangling off my roof eaves. With the added cellulose insulation in my attic, I constructed a large platform comprised of 2X8s and plywood over the joists for purposes of storage and getting access to areas for any maintenance.
There is one caveat here: the style and construction of certain specific homes present significant challenges in preventing ice dams but there are ways to reduce the threat.
I'm all set now and you can be too. Visit MassSave.com and call 866-527-SAVE. By making your home energy efficient, you will not only save money going forward but also save much money in the process.
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