HOME PERFORMANCE DIAGNOSTICS is a compendium of all the tests needed to successfully pinpoint opportunities for improvement in a home, and to verify the improvements made, afterward. It features 180 pages of over 40 test methods, with 280 photos, over 30 tools, and 40 useful equations!

I hope you’ll check it out, and even if you don’t find it insanely useful for your own business, I hope you’ll refer it to your friends in the industry!

The Basics:

Over the last few years, BPI has had a surge in the number of exams administered through their ‘Affiliate Organizations.’ Therefore, BPI is currently undergoing an accreditation process under the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) ISO 17024. This is essentially a national standardized process that will oversee the certification of personnel to ensure all certifications that are awarded are unbiased, fair, and adhere to strict terms to uphold the integrity of BPI’s name.

What Changes With Training and Testing?

‘Affiliate Organizations’ no longer exist. BPI now has ‘Test Centers’ in place of  ‘Affiliate Organizations.’ Trainers can no longer proctor the students that they teach.  However, trainers CAN still proctor – but there must be clear separation between the trainer and trainee when it comes to testing. Also, all written and field tests must be video + audio taped for quality assurance and dispute resolution.

How Does This Affect The Student?

Well, for starters, it is more expensive. BPI has raised their rates on both written and field exams starting February 1, 2012. On top of that, proctors and Test Centers now have annual fees to pay directly to BPI (see below), which will probably increase the cost as well. You will have to actively seek out a Test Center to take your exams, unless the training institution has the resources in house to administer trainings AND proctor exams. Scheduling on the fly might be more difficult now that BPI has required Test Centers to pre-pay for exam credits. Also, don’t forget to wear your sexy work attire for your tests since you will now be video taped!

How Does This Affect the Training Center / Testing Center?

Well, for starters, it is more expensive. BPI has imposed an annual fee for each proctor AND one for the Test Center to be operating. Each test center is required to own a video camera that meets minimum requirements for audio/video that will film every exam taken (Yes, this includes the entire 7-hour RBE-WHALCI exams too). As mentioned, field proctors may not have any part in the students training and Trainers may not have any part in the students field proctoring. For small businesses like ours, this is definitely a challenge! Also mentioned above, we are required to pre-pay for exam credits (in increments of 10+) before giving any exams.

In Conclusion:

Hurdles. Gotta learn to run faster and jump higher! That’s all. In reality, these are nothing more than just a few restrictions and alterations to what was already in place.  BPI certifications will remain in the same format and the certifications will now have extra protection for the student in the following ways:
a) They will be treated with complete impartiality and fairness

b) The integrity of the exam will be upheld to ensure certifications are meaningful

c) The outside perspective of BPI’s certifications will be highly regarded.

So prepare folks – We have some adjusting to do as we move into the future. If you would like to take a look at out upcoming trainings, visit the Building Performance Workshop website.

Now lets face it; there is no ‘WOW’ factor behind insulation and air-sealing. No one invites their friends over to take a walk though the attic, but that wind turbine in the front yard will stop cars off the street for a quick photo shoot. Basically, the point I m really trying to drive home is that there are many simple (and much cheaper!) steps to increasing the efficiency of a house before renewable energy is effective. Key word here is prioritizing.

Recently, Mother Earth News did a brief article about green remodeling strategies. Although important, the article did not focused on paints, particle boards, flooring, and other typical remodeling-type products, but rather a prioritized approach to increasing the efficiency of your home. Now it should be noted that every home is different, and there is no prescriptive method for fixing ALL homes, but the sequence of events outlined in the article is pretty well laid out.

Let’s take a quick look at what this figure is trying to tell us:

A: Sealing air leaks and adding insulation. Often the best opportunity for improvement in any home. It pays itself off, and it increases comfort. In short; stop unwanted heat loss.

B: Improving heating and cooling systems. This measure can drift a bit around on this list, however, it is important. Nevertheless, it should ALWAYS be considered after step A. It should be noted that ‘improving’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘replacing.’ I have found 50+ year old boilers that have been well maintained and operate just fine with minimal improvements.

C: Sealing ductwork. This is very important. Yes, I may be fairly young and naive when it comes to certain aspects of home performance, but I do not hesitate to say that I am baffled by the quality of  the HVAC work that I have seen in the field. Ducts have a single job: transport conditioned air to specific locations. If ducts lose a large majority of that air (DOE estimates up to 30% in some cases!), then they are not doing there job.

D: Upgrading lighting, appliances, and water heating equipment. These items are grouped together, and in many parts of the US, so is the fuel source for them.  Sometimes this group is the ‘low hanging fruit’ of  reducing consumption, but in the big picture, they have a small percentage of overall consumption. These upgrades are easy and relatively cheap, and can pay themselves off over the life of the appliance.

E: Installing renewable energy systems. Now we’re ready! Well, there is still a lot that can be done prior to this step but you get the point. Basically, these systems will make a much larger impact if the home is ‘renewable ready.’

I think the above steps are great starting point for considering efficiency upgrades. Remember that a house is a system and that individual components alone can’t solve problems. As a last thought, take a peek at the pie chart below that breaks out typical consumption percentages in a home.  Now look again at the steps outlined above. Did we tackle the biggest chunks first?

A few months back I took the HERS exam and performed training ratings with Frank Pipal over at Home Energy Raters of Illinois, and have since performed multiple probationary ratings here at Green Dream Group with Corbett as my mentor. These mentored ratings have been both field visits and ratings from plans. Both types of ratings have presented specific challenges that can be a headache if you let them beat you down. So what are some challenges and how can we work around them? Its almost 2012, remember? Here are two examples of how I have made technology work for me to make my job easier when it comes to HERS Ratings.

Field Ratings

Recently GDG was contracted to perform a HERS rating for an older Chicago home that was rehabbed  a few years back. The takeoff was fairly straight forward until I reached the top floor: 4 separate side attics (only one of which had access), vaulted ceilings in various places, knee walls, dormers, various ceiling heights, among other strange dimensions and features. Two things that are crucial to an accurate HERS rating are volume and surface areas of conditioned spaces. So you can imagine how difficult this one probably was. A lingering aspect of my engineering education is that I like things to be extremely precise. I did do my best in the field to come up with a volume of the top floor, but I felt unsatisfied knowing that it was not as precise as I would have liked it to be. Insert Google Sketchup here. For those that are unfamiliar with Google Sketchup, it is a FREE surface modeling program provided by Google for designers to put ideas and concepts  into a 3-D computer model. So back to the strange third floor that I was speaking of: I spent less than an hour using all of my field measurements to create a model of the awkward top floor. BINGO! I now had extremely accurate values for volume, surface areas of knee walls,  attic spaces, vaulted ceilings, and exterior walls. Take a look at the screen shots to see how this looks from the NW and SE perspectives:

The gray areas are the four side attics. Since Google Sketchup is a surface modeler (as opposed to a solids modeler), I had to install a plugin to calculate volume. Surprisingly, the corrected volume was only about 10% more than what I estimated in the field! Long story short: I am going to use Sketchup much more often to when performing field ratings. It’s quick, accurate, fun, and provides good documentation to support a rating file.

Ratings From Plans

Three letters…PDF. It is terribly annoying to do takeoff from PDF files. Other jobs that I have held in the past have spoiled me because we had a plotter in the other room; so going from PDF to a full-sized scaled drawing set involved refilling my coffee and cleaning my email inbox until it was done printing. Without a plotter, its difficult to find a method to get scaled measurements from plans in PDF form. Zooming in sucks, flipping pages sucks, panning around sucks, and as a last resort,  rescaling the document and printing it on 8.5×11 paper and then having to convert each measurement to some other scale sucks even worse! Solution? Digital takeoff software. There are multiple companies that provide such software (see list below) but the one I have been using as of recently is PlanSwift. These programs work like this: Import PDF of plans, set the scale, and begin takeoff. These programs are so awesome that I can only begin to explain the basic functionality of them. Generally, these programs are used for cost estimating, but they are useful for takeoff relating to HERS also. Areas, distances, volumes, counts, costs – you name it. Each takeoff performed is automatically input as a new layer with a different color, each step is autosaved, and then it’s takeoff quantities are neatly organized in a nice summary report that can be exported with company logo’s. Additionally, you can export the images from plans with your choice of layers to visually represent exactly what and where your takeoff numbers represent. See screen shots below for an idea of how these programs look:

Here is a brief list of digital takeoff programs out there:

On Screen Takeoff

Planswift

Blue Beam

Quick Measure

Each of these should have a free trial version so spend some time using each program to see which one is best for you. Thanks for reading and have fun!

As home performance professionals, Green Dream Group gets calls periodically from homeowners who are drowning in electrical bills. Generally, the reasons for this become apparent when doing a simple inventory of electrical appliances. Plug loads, inefficient equipment, and negligence are often the culprit of wasted electricity. Just take a look at this list from the DOE that shows typical electrical capacities of common household appliances. As I heard recently from an electrical engineer at an energy efficiency meeting, “behavior is everything” when it comes to reducing electrical usage. Although changing habits or reducing day-to-day convenience (when it comes to appliances) is the most effective way to stop energy waste, homeowners generally don’t like to hear that.

Going back to our training session with Bruce, it became clear that high electrical usage in a home rarely stems from a “problem” in the configuration of the home. Therefore, diagnostic testing for electricity is more of a verification of what is already known. There are ways to locate electrical problems such as electrical arcing or reverse polarized outlets, which are both significant safety hazards. In fact, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, about 47% of house fires are caused by electrical arcing. Bruce informed us of these handy little tools that you plug into an outlet to detect whether or not the breaker is equipped with and Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI). Additionally, there are other tools that will tell you if the outlet is reversed polarized and is equipped with a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). Again, these tools won’t help pinpoint electrical waste, but are for safety testing. Bruce also discussed safety precautions that should be taken if you plan on opening up a circuit breaker box. Basically, electricity can move through you if it can’t find a way in AND a way out. Therefore, simple steps can be taken to prevent this: leather gloves and rubber soled shoes. Using a Multimeter, amperage and voltage can be measured at the breaker box on non inductive loads to give an estimate of how much electricity certain appliances draw. It was even mentioned that a Kill A Watt is very effective at doing this.

In short, our training with Bruce helped correct some misconceptions we had in regards to electrical testing. It also validated various techniques that we were already using to pinpoint electrical waste. We learned invaluable information regarding safety in the field and also for the homeowner. Next time you are looking for knowledge in a specific field, I would highly suggest calling an expert and booking a personalized training at an hourly rate; you get the exact information that you are looking for!

Minneapolis Blower Door

· Model 3 and Model 4 have six different flow capacities from fan open to ring E (I didn’t even know any rings beyond B existed). The total actual flow on the Model 3 can range from 6,300CFM to 11 CFM, with each ring having its own sub-range. Note that the DG-700 is capable of interpolating (or extrapolating) results that fall outside of this range based on pressure attained. Minneapolis recommends that the user installs the smallest flow ring applicable for accurate readings and because it increases the velocity of the air passing over the motor which is crucial to prevent the motor from overheating.

· Since we use a DG-700 with a standard speed controller and cruise control, it was easy to forget about all of the other controlling devices that exist. For example, the DG-3 and APT (Automated Performance Testing) are two common control devices. While I have never used it, the APT is connected to a software program called TECTITE that can perform various building tightness test while logging real-time results. This is very useful when conducting a multi-point test which, according to Minneapolis, are more accurate than one-point tests.

· The Model 3 has reversible fan flow, but accurate airflow can only be measured when air is leaving the exhaust side of the fan. Minneapolis does not recommend running the reverse function for long periods of time.

· Two main reasons we use ‘Depressurization CFM50′ as a standard is that back-draft dampers that are in place will be pulled shut (preventing inflated results) and any existing pressures (stack effect and wind) are mitigated due the high 50 Pa pressure induced by the fan

· Less than 1% error exists in the -45 to -55 Pa range (so fine-tuning to exactly -50Pa wastes time)

· The Minneapolis Leakage Ratio is a rarely used metric to quantify leakage. Expressed as CFM50/(Square Feet of Above Grade Surface Area)

· Discrepancies of up to 10% can be found in actual airflow due to differences in air densities at extreme weather conditions. Air density correction factors should be applied when applicable.

There is a wealth of other valuable information buried in the Minneapolis Blower Door Operation Manual. Notes on ventilation, costs associated with air leakage, and specific set-up procedures per testing type among them. I fully recommend sitting down and reading the manual for anyone who uses this device. The manual can be found here.

Retrotec Duct Blaster

· According to the Energy Conservatory, studies show that total house energy loss of up to 25% has been shown to be associated with duct leaks (yikes!)

· Retrotec recommends duct depressurization testing (as opposed to pressurization) because of the duct mask sealing the registers will be pulled tightly to create a tighter seal.

· Higher fan speeds lead to more accurate results (so install most restrictive slow ring that will still work)

· Field testing of the duct blaster is possible by cutting a hole in cardboard to a specified area, stretching the flex duct to full length, and depressurizing the flex duct WRT the ambient room and comparing the results with the calibration plate. For more specific instructions, see the link to the operation manual below.

· When placing the pressure probe into the supply register to measure duct pressure, location is key. Typically, leaky duct systems will have the lowest pressure at the furthest supply register. Therefore, placing your probe here will create a largely inflated leakage rate (since the fan will work harder to create the pressure specified). Placing your probe in the return duct or in the main supply plenum near to where the duct blaster is attached, would have the highest pressure and therefore an underestimated leakage rate. It is recommended for leaky systems that two measurements are taken in two different supply registers, and their results averaged. Tight duct systems have been found to have fairly uniform pressures.

· For testing ducts in unconditioned spaces, open the space to outdoors as much as possible to relieve any pressure buildup

· There are lots (and I mean lots) of ways that the Retrotec manometer can display leakage information (flow/area, EqLA, cfm, veleocity, etc…). I recommend finding out which metric you need for your test and setting up the manometer to display that information.

· Duct Basters can be used as a powered flow hood, and are not restrictive like traditional box flow hoods are

Again, there is an abundance of great information located in the operation manual for the Retrotec duct blaster. The manual, along with other guides for this device, can be found here.

Without digging to deep into the subject, I will briefly discuss a few concepts that home performance professionals concern themselves with on a daily basis. First and foremost, the never-ending physical phenomenon that leads to most of the comfort, moisture, and energy problems in a home is called the stack effect. In short, this concept describes the pressure imbalances in a building and how it

Pressure patterns within homes

relates to air leakage. For our climate, most of the year our upper-levels are warmer, and therefore highly pressurized when compared to our low-levels or basements. That being said, warm air is wanting to escape the top portion of our house while drawing in cold air from the bottom of the house to replace it. Other critical concepts that home performance professionals deal with are air flow and pressure, moisture, indoor air quality, and heat flow. Now, take a break from reading this for just one moment and think of several ways these components relate to air leakage and can affect one another. Truth is, they are all interconnected and therefore all work together to have our homes behave in ways we don’t want them to. So how do we cure this?

Well, firstly, a comprehensive and thorough home performance assessment will pinpoint the exact locations where air leakage is the most substantial. From there, an exact technique and methodology can be applied to the home where air leakage is a problem. How can we be assured that the home will actually be air sealed as prescribed? This is where you can be confident that the you have chosen a skilled, competent, and knowledgeable contractor because they are BPI certified as a RBEWHALCI. These contractors have been exposed to and worked with all of the most common bypasses in walls and attics and have proven that the materials and techniques used to correct the problem are safe and effective. A common and simple example of this is a recessed can light encased in a air tight drywall box. Additionally, students that take the course also learn to use a densepack insulating technique that combines insulation in walls (or other closed cavities) with air sealing. Because the demand for these professionals is increasing and there are so few of them in the workforce, the RBEWHALCI designation is a clear way to stand out from your competition. Simply letting the homeowner know that insulating is not the same as air sealing may be a concept that is entirely new to them and something your competition may not even understand.

With well over a million homes in the United States in need of various energy efficiency measures, it’s time to develop a strong workforce of individuals who are capable of completing this monumental task. Additionally, home owners need to realize that there are many benefits involving comfort, safety, energy efficiency, and if the home is to ever be sold, it will stand out in comparison to most other homes potential buyers will come across. As concerns about climate change continue to develop and energy cost become more expensive, professionals like Residential Building Envelope – Whole House Air Leakage Control Installers will become an invaluable asset to the home performance workforce.

SIPs are essentially a construction material that combines insulation with structural framing. However, in contrast to traditional framing, there is very little (if any) dimensional lumber used in a house composed of SIPs. This is achieved by sandwiching a thick, rigid, foam board between two structural boards. While there are multiple types of foam board and structural boards that can be used to create SIPs, it is very common practice to use polystyrene (extruded or expanded) foam as the insulation and oriented strand board (OSB) as the structural board. This method of construction has been in development since the 1930’s; however, it has taken decades for the practice to enter main stream residential construction. SIPs are very practical for residential construction; but due to the size and scope of most commercial projects they are limited when considering commercial application.

There are many aspects of SIPs that are attractive to someone looking to build a high performance home. Just by the nature of the material, SIPs are great insulators and air sealers. When looking from an energy efficiency or green building perspective, insulation and air sealing are two key items that must be addressed upfront. Because of this, the sizing of the heating and cooling equipment can be reduced when compared to a stick frame house of the same size. This will allow the owner to consume less energy and enjoy lower operating cost for the life of the building. Since these panels are fabricated off-site in a controlled manufacturing facility, there is a great deal of quality control that leads to tight-fitting connections with faster construction times. Again, home owner savings can be realized from the reduced labor required to construct the home. When looking at the sustainable benefits of building a SIP home, it is apparent why SIPs are admired in the green building world. First off, there is much less construction waste sent to landfills. Some estimates say that about 3-5 pounds of construction waste are generated per square foot of a typical residential building! Since SIPs are prefabricated, they are merely set into place once they arrive on site. Additionally, the panels use much less raw timber than a stick framed home which relieves our over-stressed forests. And as mentioned before, SIP homes are more energy efficient and therefore will use less fossil fuel in its life cycle. For more information on SIPs, visit the Structural Insulated Panel Association (http://www.sips.org/).

Despite all the benefits gained from building with SIPs, there are some limitations that would prevent someone from choosing SIPs for their home. Generally, the upfront cost of the home is higher than that of a standard stick framed home. This is because of a combination of many factors that are usually tied to the specialty contractors, designers, and equipment (such as cranes) involved in the construction of a SIP house. However, various sources indicate that the extra money spent upfront can generally be recovered through expedited construction schedules and lower operating costs. When considering sustainable disadvantages, the owner should be conscious of the foam material and binder in the OSB and choose products that don’t off gas any harmful compounds. Another distinct drawback to SIPs is that the embodied energy is generally much higher when compared to wall sections made of other materials.

Going back to the experience I had with the SIP home that was aiming for passive house standards, there were a few things that surprised me after I was able to explore the house. First, for some reason I expected the home to have a different look to it – almost as if it was going to apparent that it was a SIP house just by looking at it. While there were subtle indicators, overall the house appeared to look as normal as any other home I had been in. Something else that I thought was fascinating was that the air and thermal barrier extended from the subgrade basement to the attic roof since the roof was also composed of sips. Generally, in my experiences as an energy audit technician, I have yet to see a house with such a well defined and sealed envelope that extended into the attic. Once we began the blower door test, I was amazed at the results. While the house was not quite Passive House ready, it was only a few hundred CFM; much lower than any result I had ever seen. When investigating to find the main sources of the air leakage, we discovered that it primarily composed of numerous small leakage areas once we had closed the heat recovery ventilator.

I would like to learn more information on SIPs as I continue to work in the home performance industry. Mostly, I am curious to know how the panels are connected to ensure air tightness. Also, since OSB is a structural element, it must be kept dry otherwise the material loses its ability to handle any axial load. Are there additional water barriers to ensure that the OSB remains dry? Lastly, I am curious to see how electricians and plumbers perform their work with the SIPs in place. I imagine that it’s pretty tough to work with a prefabricated panel even if there are chases drilled through the foam…Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!

Tax season is once again upon us, and with it brings the search for money-saving deductions. While some deductions may be a reach, Chicago Home Performance helps homeowners secure a write-off that will pay off three-fold; making an improvement in the energy efficiency of your home could not only qualify you for the Nonbusiness Energy Property tax credit, but – along with a Comprehensive Home Energy Assessment from Chicago Home Performance – will also help make your home more comfortable and save you money on your utility bills.

The Nonbusiness Energy Property Federal tax credit provides homeowners with a tax credit of 10% of the cost up to $500 of making improvements to the taxpayer’s primary residence*. Eligible improvements include improving insulation, replacing heating, cooling, or water heating equipment, and upgrading old, inefficient windows. This incentive is in addition to others that homeowners can receive from local governments and utilities.

The incentive amount of 10% applies to the 2011 tax-cycle; if you made any of the qualified improvements listed above in 2010, the incentive amount is an impressive 30%, or up to $1500.

Chicago Home Performance provides homeowners with all the information they need in order to make their homes more comfortable and save them the most money. Our trained staff has audited hundreds of homes like yours, and through our comprehensive inspection and diagnostics process, we recommend a list of improvements that is tailored specifically to your home.

This year, the groundhog’s shadow was buried by the blizzard, so don’t wait out the long winter to find out how Chicago Home Performance can help improve your home. Book with us today!

*Tax Credit does NOT include installation costs.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR website, 23% of all new homes constructed in 2010 earned the ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes label. This number is up from 21% in 2009, 17% in 2008, and 12% in 2007.

Chicago Home Performance is part of the movement to help new home owners and builders achieve energy efficiency program certification. As a third-party verifier organization, we perform the necessary inspections, testing, and energy modeling to confirm that the home meets the required efficiency standards, so that new home owners have piece of mind that their new home will be safe, comfortable, and efficient.

To qualify for the current Version 2 iteration of the EPA ENERGY STAR New Homes program, a home must achieve a 15% reduction in energy use against the 2004 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Beginning in July 2011, the energy efficiency thresholds to meet the new Version 2.5 ENERGY STAR New Homes program will become more stringent, with homes needing to exceed the efficiency requirements of the 2009 IECC.

In addition to increasing the energy efficiency requirements of ENERGY STAR New Homes, the revamped program also includes criteria for quality design and installation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, enhanced indoor air quality, and improved building durability.

Whether you’re a consumer who is considering having a new home constructed, or a homebuilder looking to get ahead of the curve, Chicago Home Performance has the knowledge and experience to help your energy efficient new homes project meet its goals. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it today to see how we can help.