Heating Audit

(c) 2009 F. Bruce Abel

This article in today's paper on heating audits of homes is well worth reading as we head into the winter heating season.




Energy audit discovers sneaky leaks
By Amy Howell Hirt • ahowell@enquirer.com • November 21, 2009

Sue Mackey's Loveland home is leakier than a log cabin - at least her log cabin in Michigan.

After buying the house a year and a half ago, she's had a chance to see the challenges of heating the various segments and floors of the home - originally built in the 1800s, then expanded in the mid-1900s and in 1992 - and paying the propane bill.
"I just feel like our bills are outrageous," Mackey says.
• Energy leaks hide in inconspicuous places
But she was still shocked to feel cold air rushing in through recessed can lights when energy raters Dale Dennis and Gerard Brauckmann audited her home.
"I would've never thought about that," Mackey says.
While many homeowners with older homes assume their money is going out the windows, only 10 percent of conditioned air is lost through windows, according to the Department of Energy, while leaks in the ceilings, walls and floors account for 31 percent.
That means that, as long as a home has double-pane windows in good condition, sealing a home against air infiltration will reap a faster return - in monthly bills and comfort - than other costly upgrades.
"They always advertise geothermal heating systems and new windows, but I'd rather have good ductwork," Dennis says.
Dennis' recommendations for Mackey - air sealing, adding basement insulation, upgrading attic insulation, replacing the furnace, replacing the recessed lights and running return ductwork to the second floor - could total $7,000 to $8,000, if Dennis and Brauckmann do the work, but would cut her annual utility costs in half to $2,200, Dennis estimates.
"A lot of these things are very low-cost," he says. "Air sealing is one of the best high-payback improvements you can make. Even if you hire someone (to do the work), it's a three- to five-year payback. If you do it yourself, it's a year or less."
That's immediate gratification compared with the 100-year payback on upgrading from double-pane to triple-pane windows, Dennis says.