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Gordon and Jennifer Fay had good reasons for entering an energy makeover contest sponsored by Colorado Springs Utilities and Colorado Energy Science Center. Their energy bills were a painful $450 per month, three times more than their neighbor's bills. The Fays have to maintain a comfortable living environment for Lauren, 15, a special needs child who is very sensitive to temperature differentials. Entering this contest was their last hope for keeping their house.
Although the Fay's did not win the contest; it was evident that there were some very serious thermal issues with the home. Darrell Allen, owner of Atlantic Heating & A/C did a quick "walk around" of the house, just like the other homes included in the contest. He found some huge problems right away:
• The cantilever had large gaps on the underside and was a big air infiltration problem.
• It was evident that some cavities did lack proper insulation.
Darrell decided that Atlantic Heating was going to donate the labor and materials necessary to properly diagnose and fix the problems in the Fay home. Atlantic Heating is a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR contractor, meaning that they are trained to use diagnostic equipment to determine a whole-house approach to fixing energy problems.
The Fay's couldn't be more thrilled. "We had a home inspector look at the house before we bought it," Gordon Fay explained. "But, the inspector didn't notice any of the energy-related problems in our home that our family suffers with every day."
Atlantic Heating went to work diagnosing the problem and found:
• 40% of the problem was due to the original construction and poor practices with the insulation strategy. Although the insulation was present it did not perform.
• 60% of the problem was due to an electrician removing insulation to add lighting in the house in multiple areas.
Diagnostic equipment was used to measure the energy performance of the home:
• A blower door test, which measures air leakage, showed a problematic 3000 cubic feet per minute (cpm) leakage rate.
• An infrared camera revealed serious thermal problems in the attic and cantilever.
• The inspection process uncovered high static's on the return system resulting in poor performance of the heating system.
With the problems properly diagnosed, Atlantic Heating went to work. Here's what they did:
Cantilever
• Removed some siding, reattached the cantilever assembly, air sealed it and then dense packed all the cavities with cellulose. The R value is now approximately an R-40 from basically nothing.
Attic
• Fixed some convective loops which were interior walls connected to the attic by air sealing.
• Sealed all can lights and installed air barriers around cavity insulation. |
BEFORE PHOTOS
Above: An infrared camera shows
big thermal problems in the home.
The blue areas show where cold
air is infiltrating the home.
Below: The insulation was not doing
the Fay family any good as installed.
AFTER PHOTOS
Above: Properly installed insulation
has greatly improved
this home's performance.
Below: The new infrared readings
show an impressive reduction in
air infiltration, which translates to
lower energy bills and better home
comfort for the Fay family.
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• Encapsulated the knee walls by building a foam box and dense packing cellulose between the rigid foam and sheetrock.
• Evened out all existing insulation and then added about 10" of cellulose for an approximate R value in the attic of R-45.
Other
• Replaced the weather stripping around the garage door, air sealed the garage to house wall.
• Air sealed the French door at the back of the house.
• Added a return to the duct system.
• Sealed all accessible air ducts.
The results were impressive:
• Blower door test showed a reduced air leakage rate of 1600 cfm.
• Successfully lowered the static pressure in the return increasing the performance of the heating system.
• Re-scanned the house with the IR camera; results were obvious. (See photos)
• Checked house pressures to insure that no safety problems were created by tightening the envelope.
And the ultimate compliment came from Gordon Fay, "Everyone at Atlantic Heating was phenomenal. All I can say is 'thank you', and it doesn't seem like enough. This donation from Atlantic Heating just shows me that there really are good people doing good things every day in this world." Gordon also learned a tremendous amount about how a home performs and how to look for big energy problems, "Before, our heater always stayed on in the winter. Now, it actually shuts off and we're much more comfortable. For the first time, I'm actually looking forward to seeing my next energy bill!"
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