For the most people seem to brush off energy efficiency because it’s not as “cool” as wind turbines or solar panels, which are presented as a the saving grace for our planet’s health. But as it was pointed out in our article about solar panels, for those options to truly be efficient, you have to make your home efficient first.

The best part of energy efficiency is that it’s relatively simple and easier to afford than most other popularized renewable energies. Energy efficiency can be achieved by replacing light bulbs, using more efficient machinery (like refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, etc.), and using machinery more productively. All of the energy that is not produced from doing a few of the things listed above produces negawatts. In commercial buildings, energy that’s not used can be sold back through a demand response program, to help generate extra revenue.

If you’re really interested in helping saving the environment, along with money, then energy efficiency should be your first choice of energy. It will help drastically cut your energy demands, making any renewable energy sources that more efficient for you. To see how energy efficiency really affects you, check out the graph below!

Why you’re insulating and where to do it.

As discussed in the paragraph above, insulating helps to keep your home snug as a bug in a rug. I’m confident that you can probably guess that there are other reasons to insulate too! And you’re right! One of the best reasons to insulate is the money you save.

Here’s an example. You have an attic. This attic is uninsulated, or if it is, it’s poorly insulated. What this translates to is all your heat, and essentially your money, going up and out through your roof. Thus, you’d insulate your attic and the problem is solved!

Insulating helps your home retain not only your heat, but your cooling as well.  By creating a thermal blanket—or the building science-y term, a “thermal envelope or boundary”—you’re stopping drafts and keeping your home comfortable.

The key important places to insulate are shown in the diagram below. 

Most often than not, insulation is lacking in the top and bottom of homes—the attic and the basement. So if you’re looking to insulate your home, those are where you should check first.

Types of Insulation and where to put it
When it comes to choosing the type of insulation, a lot of your decision will depend on where you’re insulating.  It’s also good to know

Batts and Rolls- This form of insulation is made from one of the following: fiberglass, rock wool, plastic fibers and natural fibers. For the most part, you want to place this type of insulation unfinished walls (foundation walls included), floors and ceilings.  Batts and rolls are the easiest for do-it-yourselfers and more often than not fit between standard stud and joist spacing.

Foam board or Rigid Board- This is made polystyrene, polyisocyanurate, polyurethane. Rigid board tends to be way expensive compared to batts but, it is great for insulating unfinished foundation walls, unvented attics, attic hatches, floors, and ceilings. Considering it’s not very thick, it has a high insulating value.

Loose-fill or blown-in- This is either cellulose, fiberglass, or rock wool. For this form of insulation, you need a special set up with a machine and hoses, so it’s best to have a professional do it. You can this blown-in insulation on attic floors or enclosed, existing, walls.  This is a really good insulation to choose when you’re looking at irregular shaped places.

Sprayed foam- Sprayed foam is best used in open, new wall cavities, unfinished attic floors, and enclosed existing walls. This is another form of insulation that is good around obstacles, in irregular areas or to add on existing finished areas. For best results, have a professional install this form of insulation.

Tips for Insulating
Now that you have some idea on what kind of insulation you want to use, and where, here are some extra tips to help you out.

·      Be careful on how close you place insulation to light fixtures to avoid fire hazards.

·      Use higher R-Value insulation on exterior walls and cathedral ceilings to get more insulation with less thickness.

·      Check with a professional contractor for recommendations on where to insulate.

·      Consider hiring a professional contractor insulate your home in order to get the most out of your investment and create a more comfortable home.

Hope this is helpful in your insulation journey!

Natural ventilation is when you allow the outside air into the house via windows and doors that are opened.  With natural ventilation, the air is exchanged because of temperature differences between indoors and outdoors and wind. Whereas mechanical ventilation utilizes exhaust fans, air handling systems.  This means that you don’t have to go around your home opening and closing windows to have ventilation.

A well ventilated home is a healthy home. Homes that aren’t well ventilated can have problems with indoor quality and humidity. Without proper ventilation, your home can develop a high humidity level. A high humidity level means you’re creating a breeding ground for mold and mildew—which are a dangerous pollutant to have in a home. Dust mites also enjoy a highly humid environment. A growth in a dust mite population can lead to dust mite allergies down the road.

Without proper ventilation, your home can also suffer from low humidity. Low humidity generally leads to throat problems and dry skin along with wood materials shrinking and cracking.

A good way to make sure your home is well ventilated is by having ventilation in the standard places such as: kitchens, bathrooms, clothes dryers, and fuel burning appliances. But remember, over ventilation can carry an energy penalty. You want to be comfortable but also efficient. 


best,
danielle p.

One of the more important thing that comes from making your home energy efficient is comfort. Tightening up your home doesn't only make it less drafty, but it significantly increases your home's comfort. A comfortable home is something we all want. It's just going to make your home that much more alluring to potential buyers.


Now, there are other benefits to energy efficiency than lower energy bills and comfort. For instance, updating and making your home to be more efficient can make an older home seem new and more modern. It shows a prospective buyer that as a homeowner that you care and have taken care of your home. In the end, it's always the little things that make or break a possible deal.  

Updating and making a home more energy efficient can be costly. It's a well known fact. That's probably why so many people seem adverse to it. Still, many homeowner's who are trying to sell their home are pleasantly surprised by the increase in resale value after the energy efficiency changes have been made. 

best,
danielle p.

Dehumidify basements or underground rooms. As forewarned in our previous blog post, moisture in homes can cause some serious damage. Since the spring and summer months are know for being damp, clean your dehumidifier and start running it.

Dust off your lights. Light bulbs and fixtures get rather dusty through the course of the year. Give them a good dusting over and put in CFL’s or LEDs if you haven’t already.  Cleaning off your light fixtures can make a huge difference in the lighting surprisingly.

Wipe down your walls.  Have any spots or discolorations on your painted walls? Take a wet cloth to them. If that doesn’t work, put a bit of dish soap in a bucket of water. Then wipe down your walls. Cleaning your walls can revive the color.

Clean your windows. Before you put screens back on your windows, it’s best to clean them inside and out.  Cleaner windows help to let more light in.

 Prep your A/C. If you have window A/C units, you should go over it with the brush attachment from your vacuum,, sucking out all the dirt that gets sucked in.  Also, take out the filter and wash it, making sure it’s dried completely before putting it back in.

Use green cleaners or make your own. Whether you use green cleaners or just make your own, it helps to create a healthier environment. If you’re a business, it could also help you look better.  More and more Americans are choosing greener companies over non-green competitors. 

Want some more information on green spring cleaning? Check out these links.
Good
PSEG

Hope these help you in your spring cleaning!

best,
danielle p.

     There are some unpleasant side effects of mold in homes. Since mold is spread via spores, that seriously aggravate health problems, like asthma or allergies. Even worse, mold can cause health problems like toxic pneumonitis, immunosuppression and pulmonary hemorrhage. 
       The root of mold problems in homes though isn’t warm temperatures, it’s moisture.  Moisture in homes is responsible for 90% of all building material failures. It also invites a whole bunch of other unpleasantries into your home besides mold, such as: insects, wood rot, and household bacteria. It also tends to be on the expensive side to repair the damage done
         Luckily, there are things you can do to easily prevent moisture damage (therefore no mold, bugs, or wood rot) in your home.  Make sure there’s ample drainage, for instance. Drainage will divert water away from the building, which is important when 2 inches of rainfall equals 1 gallon of water per square foot of your roof surface. Another way to easily control moisture indoors is by making sure all of your exhaust vents discharge to outside world. If they don’t then all that moisture is just going back into your home somewhere.
       Just doing a visual look over of your home is a great start. Looking for signs of mold, wood rot, or water stains is a good indication of moisture problems. From there, contact a contractor or home auditor, they can give you a more thorough and in-depth analysis along with solutions to whatever moisture problems there are. 


best,
danielle p.

While the sun has an infinite source power, solar panels are only 14% efficient. Meaning, they only turn 14% of usable sun power into actual power. Therefore have an energy factor (EF) of .14. Though with recent improvement, they are claiming to reach 19% EF. Compare that to a tank less water heater with an EF of .92 or 92% efficient. Thus, you need more solar panels to get the same effect. This translates into a larger investment that is scalable as per the size and load of a building. .

As an example, you could purchase a solar array system for $52,000, reduced to $40,000 after federal subsidies, to power your wasteful building. On the other hand, you could just invest $25,000 to reduce your energy waste and increase your efficiency with a much better ROI factor. Keep in mind that adding solar panels does nothing for the health, safety, comfort, or air quality of your home or business. Having an energy audit performed and retrofitting your home or business does though.

 In fact, you add hidden costs installing solar array systems as now you have to maintain and insure them. Neither of which are never mentioned in their alluring advertisements. If you add battery banks to the system, you’re adding more maintenance costs and creating pollution hazards that are derived by maintaining batteries that have short life cycles.

Now I’m not saying that solar is not a bad agenda either. What I’m saying is that now may not be the time for it. After you have completely minimized your energy load, then it is best to use an alternative energy source to power your actual energy requirement. That’s when solar or wind power makes economic sense. With a robust economy, alternative energy sources could easily be afforded without government subsidies and should be explored at that moment in the energy life cycle. In fact, it can even be modeled into the equation before you do any work. Just have a professional energy audit and energy model done on your building. It works!

There are millions of talented building scientists that are struggling due to the fact that we, as a country are missing the boat with our allocation of funding directed at items that are viewed as an alluring, easy pill that will fix all of our issues – in fact it is the opposite. If we start with the problem—our energy wasteful buildings—we as a country can make alternative energy useful and successful. 


-Rob Ross

1.       Fiber a Plenty.  Eating plenty of fiber helps to flush out most of the nasties. So eat lots of brown rice, beets, radishes, seaweed, artichokes, and broccoli.

2.       Drink More Water. Seems easy enough but most of us confuse being thirsty with hunger. Make sure to stay well hydrated, at least 2 quarts daily, especially if you’ve been staying out late or just on an unhealthy streak.

3.       Take Vitamin C. It helps the body produce glutathione. It’s a liver compound that drives away toxins.

4.       Dry Brush Your Skin. In most of these detoxes, we forget our biggest organ—our skin. Dry brushing allows us to remove the nasties that have gathered in our pores. It renews the skin cells and improves how you skin looks and feels.

5.       Eat Bitter Foods.  And yes they do have to taste bitter. Eating bitter foods like dandelion greens, watercress and arugula, stimulate the liver, making the detox more effective.

 Five super simple and hassle free ways to incorporate a little detox into your daily life. Nothing too harsh, but you still get the benefits of ridding your body of all the nasties it collects.

best,
danielle p.