What is an energy code? Energy codes are part of the building code that regulates how heat and energy are used in a building. By now, most builders understand there are minimum insulation levels, in walls, floors and ceilings. There are also requirements in how windows and doors perform. Air tightness testing and mechanical system performance (both in space heating and water heating) are also part of the energy codes. Local jurisdictions adopt (sometimes modify) and enforce these codes. Updated energy codes are released every three years. The 2024 IECC has been released, but most jurisdictions are looking to adopt the 2021 version, which you can read here: 2021 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY CONSERVATION CODE (IECC) | ICC DIGITAL CODES (iccsafe.org)
What You Need to Know About Thermal Imaging Cameras
I purchased my first thermal imaging camera back in 2009, it was an Extech i3 (made by Flir). The $1200 camera had a resolution of 60×60, total pixels of 3,600 and shot photos only in thermal (no digital photo overlay). If you don’t understand any of those terms, that’s okay, you will have a basic understanding of how thermal imaging works by the end of this article. Oh, and by the way, you can now purchase more than twice the camera I had in 2009 with half the cost.
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What to Know About Construction Sequencing in High Performance Projects
This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor website.
I was a builder for more than 10 years before I attempted my first above code building project. There was an order in the way I built early in my career that usually kept my projects moving smoothly. That schedule went out the window with my first attempt at constructing a higher performing home.
Integrating high levels of air tightness, greater R-values, along with other elements to improve performance can result in assemblies and installation details going out of order from traditional construction practices. The easiest and most logical construction schedules often need adjustments.
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How to Prioritize Energy Upgrades to an Existing Home-Part 2
I purchased my home in the fall of 2018. I could have decided to build something new or forgo all the maintenance that comes with home ownership and rent. Instead, I chose to purchase an older home that needed updating, both in appearance and performance.
The 24’ x 32’ home was built in 1952, a Cape Cod design with the normal problems of a Cape Cod, attic knee walls that were both inside and outside the air control layer. There was some evidence of past water damage and a few old clips on the roof where a heat tape would have been placed, suggesting an ice dam issue. The high efficiency natural gas forced air furnace appeared to be from the 1990’s, the same year as the electric water heater. There was also a natural gas fireplace in the small living room. There was a weird-shaped room on the main level (behind the sun and where the sliding patio door is located, 9’ wide by 24 feet long. Two bedrooms, and a bathroom were located upstairs, a bathroom on the main level, and an area in the basement that had an egress window well that would support another bedroom. Continue reading “How to Prioritize Energy Upgrades to an Existing Home-Part 2”
Blower Door Testing for Contractors, Should You Own One?
This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website.
I had the opportunity to interview Gary Nelson, one of the founders of The Energy Conservatory and Minneapolis Blower Door a few years ago. An Interview with Gary Nelson-NorthernBuilt. During the interview, he made the comment that his hope for the blower door when it first started appearing in the market was that every contractor would own one and that testing both existing and new homes would become a common practice. That was 40 years ago.
We haven’t got there yet, but there are more and more contractors purchasing the tool and there are many online videos and webinars showing how a blower door is set up and used. In this blog, I’ll discuss how to perform basic diagnostics on a home using a blower door. Methods used to find air leaks, a short discussion on zonal pressure testing, and different tasks that the manometer can perform, all topics I think a contractor that owns (or wants to own) a blower door should be familiar with.
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How to Prioritize Performance Upgrades to Existing Homes
I’ve been performing a semi-deep energy retrofit to my home for the past 5 years, and at my current rate of progress, it will be another 5 years before I’m complete. This leads to a question; how does a person prioritize the work to be done? Are the easiest items to complete done first, or the stuff that provides the biggest return on investment a better place to start? This blog discusses my suggested priorities.
- Structural decay must be dealt with first.
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The Effects of Poorly Installed (or Missing) Insulation
I was taught many years ago by an older fiberglass insulation contractor the importance of a quality insulation job. His biggest piece of advice, FLUFF, DON’T STUFF! Poorly installed insulation can have a big impact on the overall performance of a home. In this blog, I’m going to show you mathematically how a small insulation deficiency can have a big effect in how a home performs.
This thermal image is a good example. This was a brand-new home where I was performing a code required blower door test. I ran around the home with my thermal imaging camera before starting the test and thought I might be able to use this image to show thermal bridging, which it does a good job at, but if you study the pic a little closer, we see several areas where the fiberglass insulation was poorly installed. Compressing (not fluffing) the product creates areas of cooler temperatures in the insulation batts. The dark area (at the ceiling on the right side of the photo) shows an area of missing insulation. What effect does this poorly installed insulation have on the overall (effective) R-value? We can show the results mathematically.
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Choosing the Right Vapor Retarder for Crawlspace Encapsulation
This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website.
When I first started working in the trades, back in the mid 1990’s, I was working for my brother as an apprentice electrician. We had an agreement, he would perform any work needed in attics, I got crawlspaces. Some of the work we were performing was on seasonal cabins that were being updated for use during Minnesota’s cold winter. These cabins were constructed decades earlier, built very close to the earth. Sometimes there were even stumps from the trees that were cut down to make room for the cabin that were left under the structure, in the crawlspace. More than once, I was sure the fire department was going to have to be called to extract me from under one of these cabins. Most were vented crawlspaces, some you couldn’t tell if they were vented or unvented, and very few had any type of vapor retarder or soil gas mitigation system present.
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Winnie Pretty Good House-Working with Huber’s Zip-R Sheathing
As builders and designers, we have so many ways we can improve the performance of a wall assembly. Deeper wall cavities will allow for more insulation, double wall construction gains you the ability to move the air and/or vapor control to the middle of the wall leaving the inner framing cavity free for mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) equipment. Then there’s Building Science Corporation and Dr. Joe Lstiburek’s perfect wall, with the right ratio of continuous exterior insulation to interior cavity insulation that lessens the worries of vapor control. Continuous exterior insulation can be designed in several ways, foam-based products, ridged mineral wool, wood fiber insulation, or nail base products. And then there’s Huber’s Zip System R-sheathing, what we call on the jobsite, Zip-R.
Zip-R isn’t new, I first became aware of the product back in 2014. What makes this product unique is that the continuous insulation layer is located between the exterior wall sheathing and framing. This location simplifies the installation of CI and wall sheathing compared to the traditional location of the insulation, which is exterior of the wall sheathing. And to add to the advantages of the product, in most applications, it is still a structural sheathing product when installed per Huber’s manufacturer’s instructions. (Consult a structural engineer if there are any questions or concerns on a specific design or building location.)
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Comparing Your Home’s Energy Use to Your “Neighbors”
This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website
Part of an energy auditors’ job is energy analysis, which includes analyzing historical energy consumption data to determine if usage is as expected. One method is to compare a home’s energy use to some average (the local rural electricity provider I contract with calls this “compared to your neighbor’s”). This average could be the national average, but it’s better to compare at a more local level, such as by state. There are a few sources of this information, one that I have been using is: U.S. Energy Information Administration – EIA – Independent Statistics and Analysis. This dashboard provides me with several different energy consumption metrics, expressed in MMBtu’s and kWh, broken down by state and also displays national averages for the US (sorry my Canadian friends).
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