I attended a seminar recently presented by Sam Rashkin, Chief Architect, Department of Energy on the Department of Energy’s program Zero Energy Ready Home certification in Harrisonburg, Virginia. A DOE Zero Energy Ready Home is a high performance home which is so efficient, that a renewable energy system can offset all or most of its annual energy consumption.
This program, once called Challenge Home, focuses on conservation strategies to reduce energy load and prepping the home for solar PV panels. It includes a certification for the Zero Energy Ready Home program and also Energy Star and Water Sense. The basis of the program is a sound understanding of building science. From thermal envelope to efficient HVAC, windows, and water heating system the program helps you know which solution will contribute to efficiency. The difference in this program and others I have seen comes from being a performance based certification instead of points based. However, for us, as long as the right tests are performed at the close of construction, the certification is only valuable for resell.
Technology is changing faster than anyone can keep up with these days in the construction industry. Companies are printing houses, growing insulation, and painting on solar panels. So of all these new innovations, are any of them actually on the market, affordable, and able to actually make your life better? Earlier this week I wrote about some cool new products that have come to the residential home market. To check them out go here. Here are some more that I think may be solutions that help.
A web enabled slow cooker would certainly help in my life. I am sometimes entrusted with remembering to turn up / off / or down the slow cooker when I get home from work. There is a 50/50 chance that this action will be remembered before I hear my wife’s car in the driveway. So here is a solution that can solve all of her problems, simply pull out your phone and do it yourself. With a touch of your phone you can adjust cooking time, temperature, and turn this device on or off. It still does not actually put the ingredients into the pot – but I am sure that is also in the works in the future.
So simple, why did I not think of that? This humidity control is simple and straight forward – it turns on your ventilation system when humidity gets too high in a space. So no more reminding the kids to turn on the bath fan, this Leviton solution takes care of your problems. Now if only it would remind the kids to wash behind their ears!
Ever forget to charge your phone? What if the counter at your favorite coffee shop could charge your phone? Well, you don’t have to go out to charge your phone anymore, your kitchen counter can now be a phone charger using a DuPont Corian Countertops. There are no cords involved and the counter looks normal – only difference you can have a phone that is all charged up.
There are always those kids on the block with the coolest toys. So if you want to be the coolest kid on the block, think about getting some of these toys for your home. I have not tested these yet, but hope to do so soon – maybe someday that will make me cool!
Home security is always a top concern for anyone considering home automation. The canary might be a good answer as it not only allows you to monitor your home – it alerts you when patterns change. The device monitors temperature, humidity, noise, and air quality and allows you to check in on your phone from anywhere in the world. It also features a HD video feed to allow you to take a look to see for yourself how incredible your home looks when nobody is home – everything neat and in the right place before the kids get home. However, if someone is walking around during the workday when nobody is usually home, Canary sends you a notification and starts recording the activity. Even better, if you are home sick and don’t want to be bothered, Canary knows your phone and senses you being there turning to privacy mode.
Have you ever pulled out of your driveway, driven a few miles, just to think back – “did I put the garage door down?” Well now there is a solution for that – your smart phone can control your garage door. There are several on the market that allow this technology, but the one I found most interesting is the MyQ-enabled garage door opener. This system will send you an alert when the door is opened or closed and allow you to check to see if you closed it without turning around and going back home. Sounds so simple – why did I not think of that?
Nest has done it again, made something boring cool and a must have for those looking to create a smart home. The Nest Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm looks good and takes that old fashion noisy alarm and kicks it in the teeth. First it tells you everything is OK by turning the light ring green. At night when things are going well it acts as a nightlight. If you see yellow, you might have some burnt toast, or you might need to check things out. It it is red it alerts you of danger and tells you where the emergency is in the home. Not at home, that is ok, it is Wi-Fi enabled so just check your phone for peace of mind. If something goes wrong, it sends you a notification to your phone. Think it is time to change the batteries, check your phone and it will let you know before that annoying chirp in the middle of the night that we have all experienced.
As the season turns to colder weather, comfort issues can impact your daily life. A draft coming down an outside wall or around a window is a common issue for homes in our area. There are also areas in the home that you might overlook that impact comfort like attic access, electrical outlets, kitchen cabinets, tubs on outside walls, and basements / crawl spaces.
Sealing up the leaks in your home will increase your comfort all year, but most notably during the colder months. Finding the leaks and stopping them is a relatively easy thing to do in most cases but not all. In existing homes using caulk at key points, weather-stripping around doors, gaskets at electrical outlets, and foam insulation in the attic and basement / crawl space can get the job done. The harder leaks to stop come from missing insulation inside of walls, insulation installed incorrectly inside of walls, leaky HVAC ducts, and leaks behind tubs and kitchen cabinets.
Take these simple steps to reduce your energy bills, increase comfort, and improve indoor air quality.
1. Insulate around wall and ceiling penetrations – recessed lights, electrical outlets, medicine cabinets, and light switches.
2. Plug up the leaks – attic access, doors and windows, crawl space, and basement
3. Foam the gaps – band board is a huge area of leakage
4. Inspect dirty insulation in the attic and make sure there is not an air path coming into your home.
5. Install storm windows
6. Make sure your fireplace flue it closed tightly when not in use.
7. Install seals / sweeps at the base of all exterior doors
8. Get an energy audit to verify you corrected all the issues.
The Solarize movement is strong in both the Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville. The cost of Solar PV has dramatically dropped over the last few years and with this group buying power, the cost has never been lower.
So now a big decision needs to be made, do you sell your RECs or not. A Renewable Energy Certificate (RECs) is the environmental attributes of your green power that are sold separately from the electrons that makes up the electricity. RECs is essentially the selling of the creation of green power to another entity that is not actually using that power in order to give them credit for green power usage.
So why is this a big decision? It can make your cost of Solar PV lower as it now generates a small income while also providing you with clean power. However, the entity that is purchasing your RECs continue to rely on fossil fuels for their power source. So if you are converting your electric usage to clean energy for environmental reasons, it is a hard decision to make. It may make it affordable so you can install the solar array in the first place, but it does not reduce our national dependence on fossil fuels.
An infrared camera is a tool that can help identify water issues and air leakage in a building envelope. Specifically the device allows you to see radiation or temperature differential on a surface making it visible light. The camera image looks like it is glowing in areas that have a range of temperature.
I was able to test drive a Flir camera from Ivy Tools to perform an energy audit a couple of weeks ago. Using the camera and a blower door we were able to identify many locations of air leakage in the thermal envelope of the building. Sealing these leaks could cut energy usage by up to 30% for the homeowner. Some of the more advanced cameras allow for saving and viewing images.
For those hoping for a more technical definition: Thermal imaging cameras don’t actually see temperature. Instead, they capture the infrared (IR) energy transfer from an object to its environment and produce a real-time image in a color palette where hotter objects appear brighter and cooler objects appear darker. IR energy is generated by the vibration of atoms and molecules and behaves similarly to visible light where it can be reflected, refracted, absorbed and emitted. The more these atoms and molecules move, the higher the temperature of the object.
This program, once called Challenge Home, focuses on conservation strategies to reduce energy load and prepping the home for solar PV panels. It includes a certification for the Zero Energy Ready Home program and also Energy Star and Water Sense. The basis of the program is a sound understanding of building science. From thermal envelope to efficient HVAC, windows, and water heating system the program helps you know which solution will contribute to efficiency. The difference in this program and others I have seen comes from being a performance based certification instead of points based. However, for us, as long as the right tests are performed at the close of construction, the certification is only valuable for resell. 
Home security is always a top concern for anyone considering home automation.
Want to make getting in your home easier when you have your hands full, this lock may be for you. 
Nest has done it again, made something boring cool and a must have for those looking to create a smart home. 
