Call me a dinosaur.

The older I become, the simpler I want things to be. My view of Building Science and the home retrofit business is progressing (regressing?) in this manner. A home is a shelter. Most shelters are some kind of a box. You can have a box that leaks or one that is airtight. Most climates prefer air tight, as do I. The best part of tight is control. Temperature, moisture, odor can be simply                   controlled in a tight box with little fuss and low cost. So tighter is better. Move the air around inside the box, provide a filtered fresh air exchange system some thermal modulation and voila' all the shelter needs are met.

Dumb House

Why are we pushing so much towards home automation? HiTech remote controls, on-line appliance controls, super-connectivity all seem over the top. A well designed new home or a safe durable retrofit doesn't require a lot of wired up technology. A majority of my clients want a plug and play home where they are safe, comfortable and entertained without a lot of unnecessary interaction on their part. I think most of us would prefer the KISS principle where we get the basics right and enjoy that, rather than constant upgrades for small changes. The concept of WhyTech has not yet taken hold of the home market. Like talking cars, maybe robot homes are unnecessary.

Goldilocks Effect?

      Seems that advances in building science have brought us to a question, how much is too much? I, for a long time, have advocated reducing infiltration to a minimum. Homes can't be too tight. I still believe that. However, I am seeing air tightness as a potential hazard when occupants get involved. Most of my clients who buy into "Make it tight, Ventilate right" are willing to be "involved" with their dwelling's operation. Unfortunately they are few and far between! Truly, if we are to be successful, a home is self sufficient; caring for its dwellers without them having to be monitoring and adjusting their environment to meet lifestyle and climate needs. That is the home's job.
     Pressure differentials with reference to the outside and humidity have to be controlled by an adaptive, user-friendly Ventilation system. In Tennessee we have a wide range of seasonal conditions, warm, cold, wet, dry at any day year round. Zone 4 is one of the most difficult environments to get right. So here's a list:
1.) Thermal comfort.
2.) Humidity control.
3.) Changing Pressure differentials with reference to outside.
4.) Efficiency.
5.) Simplicity of operation.
     Retrofit or new construction the goal is optimizing these 5 targets with a minimum of owner involvement. Set the controls and live happily ever after in a healthy, comfortable, efficient home, right? Sounds perfect. Trick is, every home has different requirements. One family of five with 2 dogs, an aquarium, house plants and a busy kitchen will not be comfortable in a home commissioned to accommodate a retired couple gone 6 months of the year to their mountain cabin. I typically provide a year's service to help find the "Goldlocks" setting for a given family. What happens to that home when it gets sold? Who helps new owners adapt to their "Used" green home? I have no answer for this other than it will be a business plan as more and more tight, efficient homes populate the market. In my world it is called continuous commissioning.
       The take away is that high performance homes won't stay that way by themselves, they need tuning and maintenance over their life cycle, fulfilling the needs of their occupants. Can it be done with a Thermostat? I don't believe so.

USGBC Weatherization Day

 A Great Weatherization Day! We had a good challenge with Jesse’s home as the test-in HERS Index was 156. My target was 100 and we nearly made it, the Post Retrofit Hers Index is 104, really good. You can do the math but this will be a positive change in comfort, air quality and energy use for Jesse, all for the better!

          Our 20 + volunteers did yeoman’s work all day and the results verify the quality of their efforts. CAC’s Jason Estes and his team outdid themselves and we would not have been able to achieve this result without their expertise, equipment and hard work. Many thanks to Lowes for donating the majority of the materials to make this retrofit possible. The SEEED team showed up early and stayed to the end. SEEED volunteers dove into caulking windows, sealing ducts and attic/basement air leaks. Many thanks to Stan, the “e-mailer” ;-) and all of the hardworking SEEED crew. Please share your videos! Special thanks to Kenny Powel of Powel Construction for the much needed HVAC tune up. USGBC was represented by Jennifer Aldrich, our Green Schools Chairwoman. Jennifer lead the “Window Team” which carefully cleaned and sealed all of the storm windows to restore them to their usefulness. Jennifer also helped with the test-out set up, TVM!

          We were done by 5 and I know Jesse was happy to have her home back. I encourage everyone to stay in touch with her and encourage her to share the value of what we did today with neighbors and friends. Many homes in her community would benefit equally from a similar effort. All-in-all, another successful USGBC Weatherization Day, congratulations to our volunteers, good work one and all. Thank you for giving your time on a Saturday, we can all feel good about what we accomplished today.

Information Technology

I use an iPad everyday as part of the TVA testing program I have been working on since March, approaching 100 homes. I collect data as required by the installed program, minimum 3 usually 4 sometimes 6 hours each site. Blower Door testing, Ducts 3 ways and REMRate driven site info.The data is supposed to be uploaded everyday to a secure server in Nashville where it is downloaded and analyzed by TVA engineers. Since spring the system has collapsed on itself for various reasons, some iPad related some from software upgrades and often failures at the server and the software they use to facilitate the data transfers. Everyone I deal with at DNV GL (through whom I subcontract with TVA) is extremely nice and seemingly competent as accountants, IT, IS, Engineers etc. Some of them are in San Diego, some in Nashville one in N. Carolina some in Holland, and some in Connecticut. They are currently in arrears with me for 6 weeks of invoices and I have not been able to connect to the triple protected server in Nashville since last Monday. What amazes me is that when I get to actually talk with them, (not texting or e-mailing) they seem chagrined and apologetic but not at all surprised by these results. I believe this is what is called “The new normal.” And this is why GM has a decade of bad, sometime deadly, ignition switches and Tanaka has supplied millions of equally deadly air bags for our cars.

Change, Change, Change!

          If you extract a lump of fossil fuel from the earth and assign to it 100 units of potential energy, run it through a typical utility, make steam, generate electricity, and run it out the grid to the meter on your home there are only 3-5 units of power left! Production waste, generation losses, switching, line loss and transformers eat up the energy. Now look at our 200,000,000 + existing home inventory and add the typical energy wasted from duct loss, infiltration and old HVAC systems (often more than 25 - 40%) and the waste factor is disgusting.
            The change we have to embrace is efficient conservation and distributed renewable energy. Homes that achieve net zero energy use and create their own juice remove the distribution losses for residential homes and negate the need for more huge, wasteful centralized utilities. DOE considers residential energy use unsustainable and climbing. We have no energy policy and the 2012 IECC Code is being slammed as unfeasible economically! Where is the common sense in all of this? Our grid is failing, we have working knowledge and experience worldwide for distributed renewable energy and yet we submit to the status quo.
            We have the tools, technology and workforce to retrofit all of our existing home to near-net zero energy use. This idea is not new, nor is it particularly controversial unless you are in senior management at a utility. There have been several home energy retrofit programs floated though congress over the last decade and they all disappear into congressional fog-land. TIME TO ACT!
             Most of our alternative energy leaders are in agreement that this is crunch time, our opportunity to get it right. If we could turn the key on net zero residential home energy use today the inertia of climate change will last 20 years. This is the time to get our act together. 2050 is my target for net zero residential energy consumption, I'll be breathing my last breaths by then and I would like to enjoy them.......

Insulation

Local USGBC meeting in East TN we were happy to listen to Jeff Christian speak on the insulation WARS. Basically we learned that thermal shorts created by studs are the biggest criminals in energy loss, metal is the worst! The solution is a continuous exterior insulation, best is foam board. Insulation should be continuous and contiguous.