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 HomeownersEvaluate High Performance, Energy Saving, Green Building Applications Why should all homeowners consider High Performance, Energy Conservation or Green Building Techniques when renovating, remodeling or upgrading items in their existing house? Or in building a new home? Because it is your duty as a citizen? Because gasoline costs $3/gallon? Because it feels good? Because it protects the environment? Because your children say it is the right thing to do? Face it: 99.9% of the time our decisions involving our existing home or one we are contemplating building are tempered by monetary considerations. A Cost vs. Value decision. For most of us, if it costs too much in relationship to the perceived or actual dollar value we are going to get in return, we can’t justify doing it--whether it feels good or not. All of us, when it comes to owning a home work with a budget. Budgets deal with money. The overwhelming majority of us have to justify the monetary expenditure. and Green Building Applications: Economically Justified, Energy Conservation and Green Building Applications in conjunction with life style requirements can equate to keeping more dollars in your wallet while you enjoy the superior comfort benefits. OK, this makes sense. Where do I start? Existing Houses. Energy Star, Green Building, Energy Saving House Remodeling, Insulation, Replacement Windows, Mold, Solar Energy, Heating, Plumbing, Hot Water and Air Conditioning efficiencies! Only a few of the energy saving issues we find ourselves inundated with. What’s a person to do? We would all like a cozy, efficient, Energy Star home. We all want lower utility bills. We all want to save money. We all want more money to spend. Every energy saving product announces how much money it will save you. “Use our Replacement Windows and save thousands.” “Install our Energy Efficient Air Conditioner and lower your electric costs.” How do you sort through the exaggerated claims? How do you make a common sense, rational decision? What makes economic sense? Like investing, you have to answer the question, “How much am I going to spend, and what is my return on investment?” Bob’s Homeowner Law #1: Your decision should be cost justified and save you money. The saved money is a return on investment Bob’s Homeowner Law #2: You should enjoy the benefits while you live in your home. The benefits should be enjoyed and experienced each day you live in your house. Money that earns a return every day by reducing your homes energy consumption, by lowering your Dr.’s bills and by reducing the homes maintenance costs, while you are enjoying the benefits of a cozy, healthy and comfortable home. You are doing this for yourself, not the next owner. Whether you are:
No Homework, no informed decision. What is the first thing you do? You visit the Energy Star Web Site( www.energystar.gov ) or you call Energy Star Hotline(1-888-STAR-YES; 1-888-782-7937). Why? It’s free. It’s informative. You can get a basic understanding, or a more in depth understanding of energy saving techniques quickly. This makes you less apt to make a costly, over-hyped decision. Here, if you are working with an existing house you can find out about Home Performance with Energy Star program. You can find information on Energy Star Products. You can review the headings dealing with Energy Star Products and Home Improvement. Why do we direct you there? This Web Site is dedicated to assisting you in making rational, common sense, economic decisions, regarding energy savings, which are going to save you money or make your life healthier. Review the information on line or get them to mail information to you Remember–it’s free–and the information can help you along the path to making important, economical, life style justified decisions. It can help to in preventing you from making an uninformed, expensive, shot in the dark decision. Quantifying, Measuring and Comparing: Now that you are armed with some basic information from Energy Star, it is time to take the next step. Bob’s Homeowner Law #3: “If you can’t measure or quantify it, how can you manage or compare the results?” What does this mean? Remember Casey Stengel’s quote on the Home Page: “If you don’t know where you are going, you can end up somewhere else?” This means if you don’t know where you started, how do you know you are going to end up where you intended? First, you need to know how much energy you were using, how much maintenance was costing you or what the yearly Dr’s visits were costing. Then you need to know how much or what the new improved system is going to save you. It’s like buying a stock, you evaluate it, make a decision, invest in it, and then track the results. Let’s look at a couple of existing home situations. Example 1: You know last year that you used 600 gallons of natural gas to heat your home. You are contemplating increasing your attic insulation from R19 to R38. You have been shown that this increase will save you 33% on your heating gas usage. That means you should use approximately 400 gallons this year. The job is going to cost you $1000.00 to blow in the new insulation. If you save, 200 gallons of fuel for the next year, at $2.00 per gallon, which means you saved $400.00 in the first year. Saving $400/year will recoup the $1000.00 in initial costs in 2.5 years. That is a great payback. In 30 months, you have saved $1000.00. That saves you $33/month in energy costs or reduces your bill from $100/month to $67/month. Since it saved you $400 in the first year, it paid $400 on a $1000.00 investment or 40% return. A nice return on any investment. A reputable insulation contractor would have shown you these savings before you purchased. Armed with that information before you purchased, you could have then made a rational, justifiable economic decision. Some decisions involving energy conservation are easy. Usually you can’t go wrong by putting more insulation in an attic. Some systems are not as easy to quantify and measure. You have to think of your house as a system or a team of parts working together--like a car. Think of this: You are contemplating replacing four tires on the car with new ones to help improve your gas mileage. Your engine hasn’t been tuned up in over a year. You put on the new tires. You spent $450.00 on them, but you see no substantial increase in your gas mileage. Why? You didn’t tune the engine first. A tune up should have been the first priority. Of course if you needed tires, that is a different story. Example 2: You live in a 50-year-old house. You are thinking about replacing your old, leaky drafty windows with new double pane, low e-argon filled windows. The window salesperson or contractor tells you that you will save you thousands of dollars in energy costs because these windows are more energy efficient than your existing ones. They also look good, which is the main reason you are replacing the windows. This is the best-- saving money and getting good-looking windows to boot. There is no argument that side by side the new window is more energy efficient than your existing one. This comparison doesn’t weigh proper installation or that other systems in your house, team members, may be too weak and drag down the entire concept. If you still have that R-19 insulation in your attic and the windows are not installed correctly, meaning against water intrusion and air infiltration, you are going to see minuscule if any changes in your energy bill. Let’s just say you save $10/month or $120/year after you have put the new windows in. You spent $6000.00 on the new windows. That equates to a 50-year payback. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Does it to you? Other than, you have great looking windows. What would have happened if you had spent a $1000.00 upgrading your attic insulation, as in the previous example, and evaluated your energy savings utilizing insulating glass windows, no low-e or argon, with R38 insulation. Let’s say these windows would have cost you $4000.00. Now you have spent $5,000.00 in total, received the same good-looking windows, installed correctly, albeit without low-e or argon. Now you are saving $60/month on your utility bill or $720.00 yearly. That is a payback of 7 years. You now have the good-looking windows, installed correctly, and are saving money to boot. That makes justifiable economic sense. Now let’s say you followed the steps above and evaluated the low e-argon gas filled windows, which were going to cost you $2000.00 more. They could save you another projected $5/month in Energy Costs or $60 more per year. Now you are saving $780/year, but now your expenditure is $7000.00 for the attic insulation and the windows. You have increased the payback to 9 years. Adding the low-e, argon windows increased your payback by two years. The increased $2000.00 expenditure saving $60/year is a payback of 33 years. When you weigh all this into decision, you can see where you have options, and can make a choice that is best for you and your particular economic circumstances. The examples are for demonstration purposes only. While the evaluation procedure is applicable, the numbers or savings are not to be taken at face value. You have to evaluate your own real life situations. You must look at your house as a system. Then evaluate the system (your house) as it currently exists. Armed with this information you can evaluate the economics involved relating to the potential benefits of utilizing a High Performance or Green product. Now you can rationally decide how it fits in with your life style and budget. Now you have made an informed decision. Don’t you feel good? When you quantify and evaluate Energy Conservation, High Performance and Green Building claims-before purchasing, by using your current energy usage, maintenance costs and Dr’s bills as a basis, you have taken the first step in making an informed decision. The second step is to apply “what if” thinking to the process in order to prioritize what has to be done to your home and in what order. With this information available, you have the ability to make a rational decision that can save you energy and money while improving your life style quality. Bobs Home Owner Law #4: If the energy payback is less than 3 years--do it. If it is more than 3 years, consider and evaluate your options. Your options and choices have to take into consideration how long you are intending to stay in your house. If you plan to move within 3 years, why spend excessive money on energy improvements that you will not be present to enjoy? Conversely, if you are planning to stay in your house for the next 10 years, then you should consider improvements that may not pay themselves back in their entirety for 6-8 years. Another consideration for product utilization, may be tax credit advantage. These same types of thinking have to be applied to maintenance and medical issues. If you paint your existing house every 3 years for $3000.00 and decide, you want to put on new siding that will cost you $9000.00, what is your payback period. It is nine years. If you pay $12,000.00, it is 12 years. The thinking is every 3 years you pay $3000.00. You don’t pay $12,000.00 for 12 years. There is one other bit of thinking here, does the addition of this siding add value to your home on resale. You have to look at that recapture additionally in your justification, especially if you are contemplating selling in the next 6 years Yes, the process takes some time, but you are paying yourself by taking the time to justify the expenditure. It is easy to say a 14 SEER Heat Pump will save you money compared to your old 10 SEER heat pump, but if your ducts leak 25%(Normal), then that 14 SEER is an effective 10 SEER. You have the same efficiency that you just spent a few thousand dollars for. So do your homework and minimize your exposure in making an expensive mistake. |
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