Infrared Camera Scan today

EnergyLogic out of Berthoud came today to do an infrared (IR) scan of my house. Scott Peters and Scott B. came. Set up the blower door to depressurize the house first (same as you'd do for an infiltration measurement). This helps you see the leaks in the house by making a condition that's like a 15 mph wind blowing on all sides of the house.

Mostly we saw what I'd expect...cold areas (insulation flaws or air leakage) at the roof peak, at cantilevers, ducts, switch boxes on exterior walls. In the previous test, we learned that the entertainment center over the fireplace was not air sealed. We expected to see the space above the fireplace as a cold spot. But instead that looked okay, but the gas fireplace showed up as a bright blue spot (cold). So, having a fireplace in your living room makes a cold spot in the living room that you can warm up by turning on the fireplace. Does that make any sense??

This photo shows colder areas (blue) in corners and the supply air register in the entryway. That means that construction details and the ductwork are both weak points in my house.

Gas & Elec Bills: $1000 per year

After thinking I was never going to get through the corporate machine, in the same week I received a phone call from a customer service agent and two copies of the bills I requested. Now I have two years of monthly gas use and cost! This is good stuff.

Good news, bad news. The total annual cost last year was just under $1,000...great, pretty low bills. But with the utility bills averaging about $85 per month, there's not much room for projects to pay for themselves.

But with the lower level so cold, the improvements might help us gain more use out of the entire lower level...and that's definitely worth quite a bit!

Infrared Camera search

It's been surprisingly challenging to find an infrared camera operator to come scan the house. When I worked at Fort Collins Utilities we had one we could use for our customers.

I checked the auditors working under contract to the Center for Resource Conservation, the City of Longmont Power & Communications, and a few others I know in the business. A few people have cameras but the access for a project like this is limited. For example, the City's camera is used for inspecting safety of electrical power lines and isn't available for residential scans. At a value of around $10K, I can understand wanting to be careful about these, but they give such good information and provide such a rich visual picture of what's happening, it seems a shame that they're so few and far between.

Finally I found a couple leads:
Alpine Inspection in Golden
EnergyLogic in Berthoud

If not us, if not now

I've been thinking about how we need to ask the right questions. If we don't we get waylaid and mired in answering the wrong questions.

Today I saw on a coffee cup (I know, was this an MLK quote?)...
If not us, who
If not now, when

Getting gas bills...harder than you'd think

I've been trying for a couple days now to make some progress on getting the gas bills (or at least the cost and use history) for this house. The problem is that I need 12-months, or better 2 or more years, of data to give us a good idea of how the house uses gas. I've only been here since August so only have a handful of gas bills.

I got the previous owner's signature on a release authorization form. Here's what I've done so far:
Jan 16
- I called Xcel Energy and they said due to a higher than expected call volume, they recommended calling another time.
- I looked in the phone book for a local office. Couldn't find any address other than Minneapolis (though I know there are offices in Denver.)
- Found a 'contact us' section of their website. Sent an inquiry asking for two years of history, and offered to fax the authorization. Received an immediate notice saying I'd hear back within three days
Jan 17 9 pm
- Got an email response from Xcel. Thanks for your inquiry. We'll initiate a request. We can only send you data for the time you were in the home. AAAARRRRRGGHHH! I already have that info.
Jan 18th
- I sent a reply to that e-mail restating (with some pomp and urgency) how the previous owner was happy to cooperate, how I'd paid for two energy audit programs, and how this info was needed urgently.

Six years of electricity bills...woohoo!

Today I finished entering data for a total of six years of electricity bills. It didn't take too long and gives us the long view on how the house (and occupants) use electricity.

It took me getting a signed release from the previous owner, and two trips to the Longmont Power & Communications office, but I now have all the electricity history details I need.

Heating up downstairs

I attended a talk by Rich Moore hosted by the Boulder Green Building Guild yesterday. Rich's explanation of stack effect, and how some new homes are being built gave me some ideas about my house.

What's really uncomfortable on these cold days is how the main floor (with bedroom, family room and bathroom) stay a good 8-12F colder than the upper floor (kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, bathroom). Rich talked about new homes that provide heat to the crawlspace in order to alleviate the temperature and pressure difference that drive stack effect.

I cranked the thermostat up to 80F to try to get the downstairs into the 60's. It's been hovering around 52F ever since it cooled down when the furnace was last off. Given what I now know about how that space is over a vented crawl space, with no heating equipment or ducts in the crawl space, and supply air registers on the ceiling of that level, that helps explain the cold. But still, it seems crazy that this is such a problem in a relatively new (12 year old) McStain home in Boulder County.

The previous owner asked if I'd figured out a way to solve that problem, so I know it's been an issue for a long time, probably since day one.

Hot surface ignitor replaced and MLK inspiration

This time when the heat failed, it wasn't my fault, really. The furnace just stopped working last night. Comfort by Design happened to be in Boulder in the morning, so they stopped by and diagnosed the problem. They installed the new part and we had heat that afternoon.

This makes me think again how dumb it is that we build houses that can't coast comfortably through a couple days without a fully functioning gas or elec system.

At the Martin Luther King Human Rights fair today, they gave out bracelets....It's always the right time to do the right thing.

E-amp fuse

Charlie Richardson talked me through some troubleshooting steps this morning on the phone. The house was freezing! Figured out that I had blown the secondary fuse on the furnace circuit board (when those wires had touched with the power still on). Looked like a special kind of fuse.
"Does it have any markings on the fuse?", Charlie asked.
"It says 'E'," I said.
Hmmm, what was this?
Until I saw a note on the circuit diagram that said 3-amp automotive blade type fuse.
Sure enough, when I flipped it over, suddently it said '3'.
I bought the fuse, plugged it in and we were back in business.
I'd like to say I turned the power off before I took out the old tstat and rewired the new one, but I don't want to lie. (Besides, I had spare E-amp fuses :-)

Installing new thermostat...no heat...bad mom

I got the Hunter Set & Save thermostat from Lowe's. And I didn't read the real directions...just kinda looked on the packet. Anyhow, I skipped reading the part that said, turn off power to furnace. It didn't occur to me that it was an issue because the thermostat is low voltage. But the spark reminded me that maybe I should care.

When I got the new fancy thermostat wired in, nothing. No heat. Now the temperature was about 5 degrees. So, I gave up after awhile and rewired in the old thermostat. Still, nothing.

What kind of a mom takes a perfectly functioning heating system and messes with it, then disables it before the few days of 0 degree weather hits? Nothing to do until morning.

The digital thermostat shows 70F and the logger shows 68F. I have no way of knowing which is more accurate :(

Refrigerator...smarter tstat...measuring design heating load

Charlie Richardson, came by today. He's doing the technical audit portion of a city-subsidized energy audit I signed up for through the Center for Resource Conservation. Since I'd already had a blower door test done yesterday, we brainstormed some other ideas.

Refrigerator energy use
- based on the values that my Kill-a-Watt meter showed, my refrigerator is using about 431 kWh per year. Charlie directed me to a website that lists published energy usage for most models. At the Kouba-Caballo Associates website, we entered the refrigerator model and found predicted energy use of 561 kWh per year. Either way, it's surprisingly efficient.

Design heating load
- Charlie had a brilliant idea that had to do with the upcoming weather.The next few days were predicted to have 0F temperatures for multiple days. When you're sizing a heating system, you need to know how much heating you have to provide for these worst case days. People may use 5F or other similar numbers for Front Range locations. By reading the meter at 24 hour increments, and logging the temperatures inside and out, we could do a measurement to show actual heating energy use for days that had the actual design conditions. Another piece is the Hunter Set & Save thermostats (available from Lowe's) that Charlie said will track the amount of time the furnace runs (hours and minutes) for the current day, previous day, current week and previous week. This could give us another look at how close the current heating system is sized compared to the design load. Whoa....this is exciting!

As Charlie left he said, so you think you can get that thermostat installed this weekend? Oh wait, I have to actually do something?

Brainstorming Zero Energy...bad news about rebates

It was a great experience to sit for a few hours with Eric Doub of Ecofutures to see just how you put pencil to paper to start laying out options for what exactly should be done, what kind of heating and electric loads the house has, and where photovolatic (PV) and solar thermal panels could go. Should we convert the furnace to a heat recovery ventilator? Is there space for a large storage tank? What's the value of a specialized system vs. something that's less agressive but could be duplicated in more homes?

One sad note that I can't believe I didn't think of earlier. Since I'm not in Xcel Energy territory for electricity, there are no rebates for PV. While the City of Longmont offers net metering, in essence, allowing the meter to run backwards to credit the homeowner for electricity produced, there is no rebate that would pay for roughly half of the system. When a PV system runs in the $40-$50K range easily, that's a big deal.

Funny though, Eric also noted that the electricity rate was really low...just about 6 cents per kWh compared to about 10 cents per kWh for Xcel.

Home Performance with Energy Star tests today

Comfort by Design (our of Fort Collins) was here before 8 am this morning. Tony (left) and Eric (right) spent the next five hours performing diagnostics on the house...testing the furnace, water heater, oven, air infiltration. Using carbon monoxide monitors, gas pressure gauge, blower door, puffer.

Interesting finds...
- though the foundation feels like it's a freezing slab, it's a crawl space (with vents to outdoors). No, the secret door in the closet doesn't go to Narnia, as our videocameraman Christian, proposed.

- high carbon monoxide readings from the gas burners and oven. No CO from the gas fireplace.
- flame rollout observed at the furnace...something is making the gas pressure float and when it drops too low, the flames roll out, then the furnace turns completely off.