Three "R's"

Renew, Reuse, Recycle.

       There is a terrific book called "Cradle to Cradle" published in 2002 that proposes methodology like the 3 r's and how the impact of what we do is usually much more than what we see around us. The Chamber in Knoxville has launched a Green movement to encourage its members to participate in the process. "Cradle to Cradle's" authors suggest that recycling is truly "down cycling" due to  the fact that materials usually degrade during their life cycle and do not rejoin upstream manufacturing at the same purity as the original material. (See: beer cans at Alcoa) We have talked for years about recycled beer cans going to Japan and coming back as Hondas, well not really. The high grade aluminum used for pistons and other stressed parts are not made of beer can grade alloys. 

       My point in all of this is that if we are to really have an impact on our manufacturing process and generally wasteful life style we will need to take a much closer look at how to close the loop. Annie Liebowitz's "The Story of Stuff" points out the fact that we degrade many aspects of our environment as we go through the life cycle of product manufacture, delivery and use. I applaud the Chamber's efforts to encourage the 3R's. I hope that we can dig deeper into the subject. So far our Green efforts have grazed the surface and the marketing claims touted from these positions are pretty hollow when you get down to brass tacks. I hope we can engender a culture that will take an honest and in depth look at our over-all way of doing things.

Duct demise

Yet another duct system that failed to pressure test! A very fine ~ 50 year old home in Knoxville is another example of the deplorable condition of our HVAC systems. This home fortunately has most of the ducts inside the conditioned space. Even so, the duct runs that were in the crawl-space were not particularly well insulated and leaking energy into the atmosphere.         There is consistency in the occurrence of poorly designed and installed HVAC systems in these older homes. I guess the issue is that they were never designed for central heat and air to begin with. Some systems are just worn out, many troubles are the result of compromise during installation. In any case there is a lot of work to be done to bring these homes up to current standards. I am thinking that the national energy loss through duct systems is far over the claimed 15%.

Recent Rater

Last Friday I rated two homes in Old Concord, a lovely colonial and a quasi-Craftsman. Both were double Energy Star, the colonial rated over 200! Both of these homes typify the challenge with energy savings in our existing homes inventory. The colonial is inefficient by design ( single pane, leaky windows and no insulation in walls or the frame floor ) or, as in the bungalow, losing energy through poor maintenance. I actually found a cat in the supply side of the HVAC! The potential for savings is huge and the investment is minimal compared to the value of the property. In both cases durability is part of the picture as bulk moisture and condensation are already destroying the buildings' structure.

The homeowner in this case is a good example of one of our failures as a service to the community. She is adamant in her desire to improve her energy consumption, but has had a hard time finding someone to do the work. Part of the problem is the attic and crawl-space environment where most of our energy loss occurs is a foreboding environment. Another issue is that there are several trades involved with energy loss. All the trades disrupt the integrity of a building envelope and few if any understand the consequences. Finally, the general public is pretty unaware of the problem, otherwise rater's and repairman's phones would be ringing off the hook. No demand no supply.

As demand for ratings increases the fulfilment part of this equation is a good business opportunity.