Tag: Energy Audit

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Using S.W.O.T. to Help Develop a Scope of Work

Back in the early 1990’s, before I joined the construction industry, I was in college taking business classes.  I remember learning how to assess a business by using something called SWOT.  The SWOT acronym stands for strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  I’ve been developing this idea for assessing existing homes that are looking to undergo renovations.  I’ve found that working through a construction project using this theory can help in the development of the plan, the process includes pre-construction data gathering and developing and accessing a scope of work.  As far as I know, this is the first discussion of SWOT being used for analysis in the construction industry.

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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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How to Track Appliance Electricity Use

This post first appeared on the Green Building Advisor Website.

Part of my job working as an energy auditor is educating homeowners on electricity usage, reviewing and analyzing historical electricity usage is part of the process.  Checking service conductors and individual branch circuits in an electrical service panel is also sometimes needed.  This information lets me know if an appliance, motor, or other device is operating as expected.  How about electricity usage of an appliance or other equipment over time?  My visit to a home is usually under four hours, hardly enough time to figure out how often a device operates.  For this, we need tools that can record data.

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Code-Blower Door Testing a Small Home

This post originally appeared on the Green Building Advisor website.

Code compliant blower door testing of a small home can be very frustrating for both the person performing the test and the homeowner or contractor who are required to have the test.  A few months ago, I tested a 952 square foot, newly constructed home with a volume of 7616 cubic feet, one of the smallest I’ve tested.  The house had a leakage rate of 416 cfm which resulted in a 3.28 ACH50 number.  A failed blower door test (my climate requires 3 ACH50 or less).  If we take that same CFM rate but increase the ceiling height to 9 feet, which changes the volume to 8568 cubic feet, 2.91 ACH50, a passing test.  Either way, 416 CFM of air moving through the blower door isn’t much, some kitchen exhaust hoods can move more air than that.  Seems unfair to punish smaller homes when blower door testing, especially when the blower door test is testing the surface of a structure, not it’s volume.

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Types of Home Energy Audits

This blog originally appeared on the Rockwool R-Class Program website. ROCKWOOL – R-Class Builder Program – United States (English)

Energy audit, energy assessment and building diagnostics, what are the differences?

Part of my work is in a niche discipline in the residential construction industry where I test and inspect both new and existing homes for construction errors and other deficiencies that cause a home not to meet its owners’ expectations.  A home can have a comfort or cost to operate issue.  There may be moisture or indoor air quality issues that cause health problems for the occupants, or maybe there are structural durability concerns due to water infiltration.  Sometimes this testing and inspecting simply becomes an education session to teach the homeowners how their homes work.

 

There are three different types of analysis I perform, an energy assessment, energy audit and building diagnostic.  They are all related, but a little different.  The first two deal with the movement of energy in a structure, the last is usually more about the movement of moisture, but not always.  Let’s dig a little deeper into each.

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Diagnostic Tools-Monitoring Electricity Usage

Randy Williams and Travis Brungardt

This post originally appeared in the November, 2022 issue of Fine HomeBuilding Magazine.   You can read the FHB print version here:  Options for Smarter Home-Energy Tracking – Fine Homebuilding

A home’s electricity use is affected by many factors.  The efficiency of the home, the type of equipment in the home and the habits of the occupants all play a role.  Up until recently, monitoring electricity use took complicated equipment.  That’s all changing.  New technology allows for monitoring whole electrical panels or individual circuits through technology included the electrical panel or the overcurrent device (breaker).  Other technologies that have been around a while are aftermarket products that can be installed inside panels.  There are also options that include point of use metering or utility usage monitoring performed directly though the utility meter.  These electrical monitoring options can be installed in both new and existing construction. Continue reading “Diagnostic Tools-Monitoring Electricity Usage”

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Building Science-Existing Construction Improvements

This three-part series first appeared on the Green Building Advisor website and has been condensed into one post.

An unconditioned and uninsulated crawlspace, an unsealed and uninsulated forced air heating system, and an uncovered dirt floor, which by the way has a sewage leak.  If this were your home and you wanted to make improvements, where would you start? Continue reading “Building Science-Existing Construction Improvements”

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Energy Audit-Calculating Electricity Costs

Over the past dozen years of performing energy audit and assessments, I have learned there are three root causes that warrant an audit; there is a problem with the home, a problem with the equipment or appliances in the home, or a problem with the people living in the home.  Often these problems require testing of the homes electrical system and equipment to determine usage and the associated costs. Continue reading “Energy Audit-Calculating Electricity Costs”