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In a rare convergence of economy and ecology, the recession and mounting concerns over global warming are producing a much-needed dividend for homeowners. We may be in the midst of the worst housing slump in memory, but homeowners across the country are beginning to see "green," spurring a revolution in energy-efficient home design and construction that is signaling a bright spot in a troubled industry.
"It is the bright spot in a bad market," say Arjay West of West Properties, a general contraction firm in Northern Virginia that focuses on high-performance new and remodeled homes.
It is also a wake- up call for both home-builders and families that are planning to put their homes on the market. According to a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), three-quarters of those who responded said that energy-efficient features would most influence their decision to purchase a home. Of the more than 2300 who participated, 52% said they would pay from $5,000 to $11,000 more for a new house if they could save on their utility bills in the long run. Another 16% said they would pay even more.
It adds up to big bucks. A study from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reveals that homeowners spent $57 billion on home-energy improvements in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available.
One reason for the interest in energy efficiency is the growing awareness that even homes leave messy carbon footprints. According to the DOE, houses and office buildings are responsible for 29% of the country’s energy consumption and roughly the same percentage of greenhouse-gas emissions.
Rising oil prices and consumer concerns are also clearly involved. So, too, is the provision in the government’s economic stimulus package that underwrites, in effect, the greening of the U.S. housing market. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, homeowners who purchase insulating and sealing materials could be eligible for a 30% tax credit worth up to $1500 per year.
As a result, homeowners across the country are, to varying degrees, turning their houses into energy-efficiency labs. Some are installing solar panels with photovoltaic (PV) technology that converts sunlight into pollution0free electricity, and, and an extra bonus, are selling unused electricity back to local utilities. In some areas, savings are being realized at the foundation level: Insulated concrete forms, known as ICFs, are slowly replacing cinder blocks in new home construction. Made form recycled polystyrene, the blocks are stronger and tighter than traditional cinder blocks and do double duty as insulation.
Geothermal heating systems that tap the Earth’s constant heat are also becoming popular. And, with a different sort of greening in mind, readily renewable materials like bamboo are being used for flooring, while recycled materials such as glass bottles are being broken down and turned into countertops that resemble granite and marble.
Stopgap Measures
As a first step toward making their homes more energy-efficient, many homeowners are conduction an energy audit, which assesses how much energy a home consumes and evaluates the measures that can be taken to make the house more energy efficient. An audit is often conducted by a professional, who may employ everything from blower doors that measure the extent of leaks to infrared cameras that can detect unseen areas of air infiltration and missing or insufficient insulation. Energy audits can also be performed by home owners themselves, using products like Black and Deckers’s Thermal Leak Detector, an inexpensive handheld device that signals temperature variances anywhere in the house.
Audits make sense. The quickest and most cost-efficient way to reduce energy loss and save money, say designers, builders, and energy experts, is by improving home insulation. According to the DOE, proper insulation and air-sealing techniques can reduce a home’s heating and cooling costs by as much as 30%. In dollars and cents, a $15 investment in insulation can add up to $500 in annual savings.
“Foam insulation is a very quick payback,” say s Jack Franzen, head of J.P. Franzen Architects, a Southport Conn. Design firm that employs some aspect of green design and technology in every house currently under commission.
As luck would have it, a wide range of insulation products__ that are not only energy and cost efficient but also environmentally friendly—are on the market today. GREAT STUFF Insulation Foam Sealant manufactured by Dow Chemical Co., for example, is an energy saving product that expands to fill holes, gaps, cracks, and voids inside and outside a house. It comes in five types to plug up everything from large gaps to tiny cracks around doors and windows. As the foam expands to take the shape of the areas it fills, it eliminates airflow, reduces condensation and stabilized the indoor temperature.
“The average 2,500-square-foot house has more than half a mile of cracks and crevices that are open to wind and wind driven rain,” says Wes Dils, senior customer technical support specialist at Dow Chemical Co. “You can seal the majority of them with improved, high-performance insulation to create a relatively airtight and water-resistant house.”
GREAT STUFF is ideally used wherever there are penetrations from eh interior of the house to the exterior, or from the interior to unheated areas. The most common points for air and energy leakage are around pipes under sinks and where water, waste, and fuel pipes penetrate the foundation. Other trouble spots are dryer vents, electric outlets, air-conditioning units, and window and door jambs.
The area of a house most susceptible to air leaks—and most readily sealed in order to realize energy savings—is an unfinished basement. There, leaks are often found in the vicinity of sill plates, the two-inch by six-inch wood planks that sit on top of poured concrete foundations. Since there is always some unevenness in the concrete, there’s bound to be a gap between the top of the foundation and the sill plate, which can easily be sealed from inside the basement.
Another susceptible area is the point at which basement walls meet the floors around the perimeter of the house; any holes, gaps, cracks, and seams here can also be easily filled and sealed off. An even greater loss of heat and energy frequently results from leakage around windows and doors, which accounts for 20% to 30% of a home’s loss of heat in winter and cool air in summer. High-qualify insulation products like GREAT STUFF qualify for a 30% tax credit under the government’s tax stimulus rebate.
SMART WINDOW SHOPPING
New homeowners tend to spend money on cosmetic improvements—such as kitchen and bath remodeling and replacing wall coverings and flooring—to turn their newly purchased house into their home. Over time, however, the energy efficiency and cost of maintaining the structure come into play. “Long-term homeowners tend to focus on saving money,” says Dennis Neumann, manager of Market Insights at Andersen Windows. “The longer people are in a home, the more they tend to move to energy upgrades, including increasing the insulation, replacing windows, and doing system upgrades to save energy.”
Shawn Aherns, senior product manager at Andersen, provides a dollars-and-cents rationale. “In many instances, upgrading your home with better windows and doors can increase the home’s energy efficiency by 20% to 30%,” he says. And, “with the cost of fuel oil and propane gas continuing to climb, “this is the time to do it. In addition to energy efficiency and savings, says Aherns, home owners get the benefits of increased comfort and reduced maintenance.
Andersen is not new to saving energy and the sustainability movement. Since 1903, Andersen has pioneered many energy-efficiency innovations that have become standards of the industry, including dual-pane insulating glass, introduced in 1952, which made storm windows virtually obsolete. Andersen continues to lead the industry in energy-saving technology.
This spring, the company stepped up to the plate once again, “As homeowners and trades people began to understand that windows and doors were part of the stimulus package, and as they were trying to figure out which windows qualified for the tax credit, inquiries to our call center increased dramatically,” says Stephanie Miller, director of marketing at Andersen. “We decided to give homeowners an easy way to identify windows and doors that will provide high energy efficiency, cost efficiency, and a tax credit. Since we have one of the broadest ranges of qualifying products, we wrapped all the energy-saving features and benefits into our new EcoExcel Energy Performance package. Simply put, every Andersen window and patio door with the EcoExcel package will meet tax credit performance criteria.”
To qualify for the tax credit, a window or patio door must meet strict government specifications. Both its U-factor (the measure of how well it insulates) and its Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (how well the window blocks heat from sunlight) have to be .30 or less. The lower the rating, the better the windows perform. TO make documentation of the window’ performance easy at tax time, Andersen provides a Manufacturer’s Certification Statement for all qualifying products on its website (www.andersenwindows.com/money), where more data on the U-factor and product information can be found. The credit can be claimed on homeowners’ 2009 and/or 2010 federal tax returns.
With the cost of heating and cooling rising, high-performance windows make sense. “They are a big piece of the energy-efficiency package,” says West Properties’ Arjay West. “If your windows are in the sun in the summer, they’re extremely important. The glazing technology—the types of glass and how they’re treated—is improving all the time.”
This is one of the main reasons that all Andersen windows and patio doors with the EcoExcel package meet tax credit criteria. They feature a type of glass that lets sunlight in, hold heat build-up to a minimum, and blocks 95% of the harmful ultraviolet rays. The technology provides homeowners with up to 70% higher energy efficiency in summer and 45% higher energy efficiency in winter. Equally important, the units don’t require the expensive upgrades and add-ons that many other products do in order to meet government guidelines.
“There’s probably never been a better time for a homeowner to replace windows and patio doors,” says Andersen’s Aherns. “Essentially the government is subsidizing the purchase: You’re getting a rebate of up to $1,500 in your first year, and the benefits from energy savings as long as you live in the house. And when you sell the house, you’re likely to recoup an estimated 77% of your initial investment.”
Now that’s an offer that sounds too “green” to pass up.
- Money—August 2009 Edition