As I go in and out of homes in Northeast Oklahoma, I realize that all homes can be constructed and built better. A very real problem facing every homeowner in Northeast Oklahoma is the continual burden of energy cost. Imagine if energy was free. And instead of every homeowner paying for energy, the utility company welcomed you to connect to their infrastructure and produce power from your own home that could be used to, not only power your home, but also power homes and businesses nearby. In this blog, I will be discussing the importance of conducting a BPI Certified Energy Analysis on your home and how the results of a BPI Certified Energy Analysis directly effects your month to month utility cost if implemented on your home.
It’s true! The utility company is willing to buy back over production of power from homeowners utilizing power production methods from gas powered generators, solar production and wind turbines. But one setback is that the utility company sets limitations on residential meters of a maximum of 25 kW per hour production. Nothing larger than that is allowed to be interconnected with the utility company infrastructure without detailed engineering. The main setback for most homeowners is the amount of kilowatts they actually use on a month to month basis. Some homes in Northeast Oklahoma use more than 4,000 kW per month. If there is only an average of 6.5 sun hours per day in Oklahoma, that means a solar system installed to produce at 25 kW per hour can only generate a maximum of 4,875 kW per month. Another problem, is that the sun is not always shining, so you can cut that by 20% to 50% as well due to shading from trees, bird poop and clouds. And lets not forget, a solar system that produces 25 kW per hour would need to be roughly 110 solar modules! Most property owners do not have enough room for that many solar modules. So, for most homeowners, achieving net zero with a power production resource is oftentimes impossible, or not economically feasible. Thats where a BPI Certified Energy Analysis comes in. A BPI Certified Energy Analysis is conducted on your home to locate deficiencies within your home that is causing you to use power. Once all of these deficiencies are located within your home, a scope of work can be developed to fix these deficiencies. When we implement the results of a BPI Certified Energy Analysis on your home, we can, often times, reduce your month to month kilowatt usage by 35% to 70%! From our example mentioned earlier, we stated some homes use more than 4,000 kilowatts per month. That same home, when fixed, could use 1,200 kilowatts or realistically 2,600 kilowatts or less per month. I tell people all the time, I produce power at my home and AEP puts money on a debit card for my over production. People usually express their desire to do the same thing and express feelings of jealousy.
One thing is for sure, it’s not easy to do. The only way to successfully accomplish this, is to overproduce 4-5 times what you are using. Otherwise, your money would be better spent on a different kind of rate structure called “net metering”. Net metering allows customers to offset their usage with production, but any overproduction is given to the utility company for free. One thing is for sure! I conducted a BPI Certified Energy Anlaysis on my home prior to doing anything. What I found was that my home could use better insulation, the ducts needed to be sealed and the home needed to be sealed as well. After foam encapsulating my home and updating all of the HVAC, I noticed that my home was far more comfortable than it used to be and my kilowatt usage went down tremenously. My home currently uses less than 250 kilowatts every month of the year and some months it uses less than 100 kilowatts. Like I said, it’s not easy to do.
So what does a BPI Certified Energy Analysis consist of? Well, the main jist of a BPI Certified Energy Analysis consists of a series of tests using analytical equipment known as a Duct Blaster and a Blower Door. Depending on what the customer is looking for depends on the equipment used.
Once we capture the leakage rate of the home by using a blower door, we test the duct system. We also do a thorough investigation on the home to better determine the insulation levels of the home. A lot of times, we find the home is poorly insulated and leaky. this oftentimes results in the recommendation to remove all of the pre-existing attic insulation to gain access to areas of the home that are leaky. We use a commercial grade vacuum to remove insulation from homes.
The removed insulation is either saved in 75 cubic foot bags to re-use or the insulation is hauled off to the dump. Once all of the insulation is removed from the home, we gain access to critical areas in need of sealing like supply and return air ducts and boxes, wall plates, bathroom and kitchen exhaust ducts, fur downs, can lights, skylights and much much more. Though there are many other areas of a home that need to be sealed, the attic is a great place to start and always our main priority. Many times, a home is in need of a better insulation. We do blow in Owens Corning fiberglass, but some homes really need Foam Insulation to better protect from excessive heat in attics caused by asphault shingles.
Another area of interest for homes that are elevated above the ground is the actual crawl space. Crawl Space encapsulation is very important and will assist in giving you a healthier home. Crawl Spaces are often very humid areas that have the ability to yield lots of toxic stuff like mold and mildew. Encapsulating the crawl space of your home helps to protect the home from these things and prevents the outdoor temperatures from infiltrating into your home.
Sealing your home and duct system is a great thing to do, but it can also be dangerous. A home that is sealed is great until toxic chemicals exist within the home. A leaky home allows toxic chemicals to dissipate through leakage, whereas a sealed home traps the toxic chemicals within the home. When toxic chemicals and biomasses like carbon monoxide and mold exist, it can cause a tremendous amount of health problems. Most of the time, we have to install new water heaters and furnaces when we seal the home because they exist within the home. Most people are used to having a furnace and/or water heater in a closet in the hallway of their home. These closets usually contain fresh air ducts that allow air from outside to exist within these closets. It is difficult to insulate these closets in a way that it will thermally protect the home from the outdoor conditions. We, very frequently, install high efficiency furnaces and water heaters. The new furnaces and water heaters have dedicated fresh air pipes that draw the air from outside rather than the air being delivered to them. All old water heaters and furnaces need to be replaced if they exist within the home. When we install new furnaces and water heaters, we can bring the thermal boundary of your home back up to the ceiling where it belongs.
At the end of the day, all of the information collected from a home is referenced back to the International Energy Conservation Code book to determine how bad the home is and what we need to do to get it right. The IECC Code sets the standards for home leakage, duct leakage, and insulation levels. It contains much more information on energy standards that exist for residential homes and commercial and industrial structures. It is our hope to make your home more energy efficient. It reduces your monthly cost of living and makes your home more comfortable. A sealed home and duct system can effectively condition the air within your home and a leaky home and duct system does the exact opposite.
I hope this has helped you to understand what a BPI Certified Energy Analysis is and we look forward to helping you achieve your goals.
Written By:
John Morris (Owner)
Morris Heat and Air
(918) 734-0040
www.morrisheatandair.net
morrisheatandair@gmail.com