Thursday, October 23, 2014

CenterPoint Energy - home energy audit

In “My Carbon Footprint” blog, I made several pledges.  The most obvious pledge to select first was the energy audit with the goal of finding out where am I wasting energy.  So last week, I called CenterPoint Energy to set up an energy audit and was happy to hear that it could be down within a week.  That day is today.  CenterPoint Energy sent Kevin to conduct the energy audit on my house.  Kevin arrived in a small SUV with the cargo space completely filled with equipment and tools.  He unloaded the equipment and tools in my mudroom for use over the next two and one-half hours.  We chatted and I found out that this was his second job, with his primary job being a fireman.  He recounted some of his fire experience and how the some of the equipment was used in search and rescue.  That was incredibly interesting and helpful in understanding how the pieces of equipment measured air flow and heat.  He understood the movement of air, hot or cold, through the house, probably better than anyone.  That was reassuring.

He began his analysis with a series of questions about the size of the house, number of occupants, type of lighting, type of heating, etc.  He went into each room with a digital distance meter to measure the area and volume of the rooms.  This data will be plugged into a program to calculate the volume of air turnover to heat or cool a house.  This data will be coming in the form of a report.

He went outside and toured the perimeter of the house, looking for any cracks in the foundation or other potential egresses (heat escape routes)/ingresses (cold entrance routes) for movement of air.  He checked the siding, door jams, flashing around the windows and doors, and looked for moisture problems.  I, meanwhile, began typing this blog.

When he returned, he went into each bathroom with a box and measuring meter and measured the draw of the fans.  This allowed him to tell whether or not the fans were clogged or efficiency reduced by too much moisture from the steam generated by hot shower water.  The fans checked out as being consistent relative to each other and relative to a new fan, based on their specifications.

After measuring the fans, Kevin installed the blower test.  Here, the door into the garage (opened) is affixed with an expandable frame, which seals the doorway opening with the blower installed.  All of the doors and windows were checked to make sure that they were closed.  The blower was turned on>  The idea is to create a vacuum or negative pressure within the house.  Kevin then took the thermal imager on a trip around the house with me in tow.  We checked all of the windows, doors, vents, air returns, and lighting plates and outlets for leaks.  We also checked the walls and head joists for insulation quality.  I had two rooms that I was concerned about, but there was nothing. 

Lastly, he checked the hot water heater for CO emissions when the three bathroom fans, cooking fan and dryer were all operating.  As Kevin described it, when the hot water heater is on, the CO moves up into a conical flue above the hot water heater and then is vented out of the house.  When the above fans and dryer are operating, it causes a back draft on the hot water heater venting, thereby allowing the CO to flow back into the house.  Obviously, this is unsafe.  This in unlikely to happen in our household during the weekday, as, at most, do we have two people taking showers and the dryer is on at the same time.  However, on a weekend, we could be showering, frying bacon and doing the laundry, thereby creating trouble.

Conclusion:
This is one of those service calls/visits that you will want to be around for and ask as many questions as you can.  The amount of information that you will pick up is well worth it.  Take it seriously and use it as your starting point to reduce your energy consumption and begin to lower your carbon footprint. 

CenterPoint Energy will be sending a comprehensive energy audit, which will outline what to do to start reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.  One of the recommendations will be replacing incandescent light bulbs with LED light bulbs, of which I will cover in the next blog.

Hours the energy audit was conducted:
2.5 hours

Cost:

$100

Monday, October 20, 2014

What I have been up to since my last blog

Since my last blog, I have been busy putting together historical data from my household from water usage, sewer usage, and electric usage to natural gas usage (the last two years, of which last year was the coldest in decades and on some days record cold temperatures for Minnesota).  I have been setting up statistical spreadsheets and attempting to set up templates that you could use to replicate what I have done.  Here is a list of completed tasks (see my task list below this):

  • I have counted the number of electrical outlets and light. 
  • I have contacted CenterPoint Energy for a home energy audit – that will occur this Thursday (cost $100).
  • Coincidentally, the day that I called for the energy audit; I received an email from CenterPoint Energy offering customers three free faucet aerators and three free water savings shower heads.  I have ordered them and expect them in 8 weeks (cost $0).  I have also ordered the winterization kit (cost $25).
  • I have purchased a hot water heater insulation kit (cost $25) and called the plumber to disconnect one of the two linked hot water heaters (cost TBA). 
  • I have also replaced six ceiling lights which each had four 40-watt incandescent light bulbs (160 watts per ceiling light) with six 60-watt equivalent LED ceiling lights (cost $260 for 22 LED 60-watt bulbs and 6 LED 60-watt ceiling lights).
  • I have purchased the Nest Thermostat (cost $249).
 
I will be discussing each of these in more detail in ensuing blogs.  My goal is to show how each of us can reduce our energy usage by investing in technology.  I will be re-calculating the carbon footprint after the implementation of each of these changes.  Mind you, that is all theoretical savings in carbon, but I can demonstrate energy savings through the statistics that I am accumulating.


Task List