Home weatherization programs have been around for years and have provided important, if modest, energy savings for thousands of households in Northeast Ohio. Now a local group is calling for a much more aggressive approach — "deep energy retrofits" that reduce energy costs by 90 percent or more and allow homes to stay warm without furnaces.
The Affordable Green Housing Center of Environmental Health Watch (EHW) says this additional approach to retrofitting existing homes is needed if we are to make housing more affordable and secure in an era of rising energy costs. And it is absolutely essential if we are to reduce carbon emissions from buildings enough to mitigate climate change. While it's great to promote the construction of new energy-efficient buildings, about two thirds of the homes in Northeast Ohio were built before 1970.
Existing homes can achieve radically improved energy performance if they are retrofitted with super-insulation (such as R-50 walls, R-60 roof, R-20 foundation), sealed to prevent air leaks, and equipped with superior windows and a heat-exchange ventilation system. The heating load can be reduced so much that such homes can be warmed with the equivalent of a hair dryer (or two dogs running around, as some advocates joke).
"It's a myth that you need to have a furnace," says EHW's Matt Berges, who is doing a deep energy retrofit of his own home as a demonstration.
EHW also is hoping to work with the Cuyahoga County Department of Development on several deep energy reduction demonstrations. Depending on the allocation of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds, EHW will work with developers to select properties, create a plan to achieve deep energy reductions, and monitor the progress of the rehabilitation. Successful demonstrations will receive national recognition as part of Affordable Comfort, Inc.’s Thousand Home Challenge.
Vacant houses, which are abundant in cities like Cleveland, are good candidates for deep energy retrofits, since they may be ready for a new roof, siding, and windows. One objective of the demonstrations is to determine when it's cost-effective to replace major systems like roofs with super-insulated improvements — that is, where are the opportunity points on the path to deep energy reductions.
"The goal is to think differently about houses," says Mark Hoberecht of HarvestBuild Associates, a local builder specializing in energy-efficient construction using natural materials such as straw bales. "You just need to increase insulation, install better windows, and make the house airtight. Just do those three things. It's simple."
Hoberecht has been influenced by the Passive House movement in Europe, where thousands of homes have been built that require virtually no external energy. He is building two such passive homes now in the Akron area.
"Once you get to the point where you can eliminate the furnace, you can get big cost savings," he says.
For a presentation on deep energy retrofits and how they differ from other strategies to reduce home energy consumption, go here.
For more energy-saving tips for your home, go here.
Energy Conservation Service to promote housing retrofits
David Beach Says:This great idea comes from George Coder:
I would like to suggest an idea for getting our housing stock up to passive standards by 2050.
I will call this idea the Passive House Registry. It would begin by a general contractor and perhaps his team visiting a current day homeowner, inspecting the home, and drawing up a plan to achieve passive standards. The plan would list in what order and to what standards the work would be done. The homeowner would pay a fee for this service. For example, in Cleveland the plan would list first a roof with an R value of 60, then walls at an R value of 50, followed by windows etc. That plan would then be placed in the Registry and monitored. If any new technologies or products came along that would affect the plan the people at the Registry would update the plan. The Registry would also certify craftsmen that would perform the work, and perhaps banks and members of the real estate industry would be members as well. When the homeowner had some of the work completed by himself or the certified craftsmen he would notify the Registry.
The probability is that most homeowners would not be able to afford all of this work. They may very well reach the end of their days or the time to sell the house before the work is completed. A line would be placed in the deed to the house that the next homeowner would agree to carry on the plan. Houses in the Registry would have more value than those not in it. Houses with more of the work completed would be more energy efficient than those with less work completed.
By formulating a plan today and spreading the work and the cost over several generations of homeowners we could establish a goal of achieving passive standards by 2050.
The precedent for this idea is the Soil Conservation Service. When it came time for this country to save soil the SCS was established. A team of experts visited the farmer and drew up a plan for him to save soil on his individual plot of ground. Then if the farmer had to move fences or make changes the SCS loaned him the money. This is the reason we have agricultural surpluses in this country today.
Today we need to save energy, not soil. But the same plan can be employed.
If a pilot project of this idea were successful in a city somewhere, perhaps then the Government could be lobbied to form an Energy Conservation Service, and we could be on our way to retrofitting our housing stock.