Enjoy our latest cold snap? When it is below freezing out the first thing that we notice is how uncomfortable our homes if they have not been built or tuned up. You will see many commercials telling you to either upgrade your insulation, fix your HVAC or change out your windows. The claim is that if you make any of these improvements you will see 50% or more off of your energy bill.

This could be the case, however each home or building is different and these types of savings are based on how bad the house is in the first place.

Confused? Well- you should be. Most contractors don’t even know where to start.

If you are talking to and HVAC contractor (that only does HVAC- not home performance) they will sell you on the latest and greatest equipment.

If you got one of those “free audits” for you home- you will get sold some insulation.

If you call a window replacement company- you will get sold some super insulated vinyl windows that will be 25% less if you sign now!

Not that these products do not work (this was an intentional “double negative”), however if they applied in the wrong order, you will end having to spend the money twice or may not get the full benefit of the improvement immediately.

What is the solution? The best thing to do is do everything at once with a home performance contractor. They will do full diagnostic assessment to see where the problems are on your home and will give you a prioritized list based on safety concerns and return on investment.

Typically, you will see the ROI in this order.

1. Fix the holes Any holes in the exterior of your home is costing you money every day.  Whether it is an actual home where air or water is coming in/ going out or if it is inadequate insulation allowing for heat to be lost in the winter or gained in the summer.  This applies to foaming holes around the windows, air sealing around outlets, adding insulation to areas that do not have it (after you seal the holes), replacing windows that leak, and fixing duct work that leaks.
2. Upgrade the HVAC This needs to happen after the house is weatherized.  If not, the HVAC will be sized according an inefficient house.  Once you make it efficient, then the HVAC will be over-sized for that house.  Over-sized HVAC systems do not run long enough to pull the moisture out of the air and this can cause indoor air quality issues.  If you are going to upgrade the insulation and windows (just not now) then size the HVAC for the more efficient house.  It will just have to run longer to condition the house, but it will condition it.  Also, make sure that you fix your ductwork at the same time.  If not, you just spend tens of thousands on a system that is 10-30% more efficient that you old one (unless you are going with geothermal) and your duct system could be leaking 50% of the air to the outside.  Fixing the ductwork is a fraction of the cost and yields a faster ROI.
3. Renewable Energy-
   1. Geothermal HVAC should be considered whenever you are looking to replace or add HVAC.  Since geothermal costs more,, you need to make your house as efficient as possible by upgrading your insulation to spray foam and adding good windows.  This will decrease the size of the geothermal unit and saze you on installation and operational costs.
   2. Solar Thermal- I like heating water with the sun since the sun’s energy is currently free.  Solar Thermal is also not dependent on insulation, windows etc.  You can upgrade to solar thermal at any time as long as you plan currently for the number for bathrooms that you have in your house and how many people will be using the water at once.

PS- Whatever you do for the winter will help lower your summer bills as well!!

For more examples on Building Performance Solutions visit Fresh World

There are so many new companies out there trying to jump on the green bandwagon by offering green products as a result of the stimulus plan. There are also many established companies that are trying to jump on the bandwagon as well by pretending that they actually care about green now since it is popular.

So how is the consumer to know who to choose?

We get asked this all of the time. We have taken our experience and green leadership for granted and have not made a big deal about it, however in this economy experience and longevity are some of the most important factors in our client decision making process.

Here are some important factors to consider when making a green upgrade on your home or business:

How long has the company been in business?

Our renovation division SawHorse has been “The Sign of Renovation in Your Neighborhood” for over 30 years.

What kind of green experience to they have?

Our team helped start the EarthCraft renovation program and were the first general contractor to be part of the Home Performance with Energy Star program.  We have more EarthCraft renovations and Home Performance audits to our name than any other contractor in the program!

Are they a product or solutions provider?

If they are just an HVAC contractor, insulation contractor, solar contractor or window and door contractor- guess what their solution is going to be?  THEIR Product!  Since we have an HVAC license, do our own energy audits, and design our one solutions- you are guaranteed a solution tailored to your house.  Most other companies are going to tailor their proposal based on just HVAC or insulation.  This will cost you more in the long run especially if there is not a long term plan for additional upgrades.

Recent example:

A contractor friend of our asked us to help him with the solar design on the house.  Unfortunately, solar was not going to work so we suggested geothermal HVAC for the whole house.  With this HVAC solution- we could heat the water for their domestic use as well as the pool!  Not only did we design an efficient HVAC system, we designed an insulation plan to help reduce the cost of the HVAC install and operational cost of the HVAC.

I can guarantee that a solar contractor would have tried to make solar work regardless if it was not the best solution.  What about an HVAC contractor?  They would not have offered to upgrade the insulation so the HVAC system could be designed to be smaller- saving the consumer money on the upfront costs.

Since we offer solutions as a home performance contractor with experience- Fresh World is the obvious choice.