If you're a policymaker, a civic sustainability planner or just someone who wants to get better value out of your utility bill let me acquaint with a handy visual device which will make your life a whole lot easier.
It's called the Energy Efficiency Pyramid and like the old US style food pyramid it provides a simplistic, easy to understand visual to decode what can be a daunting process.
The originator of the pyramid was the COO of a Minnesota utility. It has ten levels and like the food pyramid should be read from the bottom up. Homeowners or policy makers who don't know where to start should simply start from the bottom and work their way up. The higher you go the less cost effective the solutions become. Keep in mind these are not set in stone, each structure faces different challenges and building science is constantly being refined. However, the structure of this pyramid is solid. The inspiration for this entry comes from this blog post at Green Building Advisor.
From the bottom up, here are the pyramid’s ten steps.
1. Home energy audit
Start with the audit. Get a blower door test and see how airtight it is. While the federal government has withdrawn its support from helping out with the energy audit process you can still use this federal site to find an auditor in your area. If you're in Alberta check out this page from Climate Change Central. It's got the skinny on how you can save money on your home energy evaluation.
So why spend the money? Green Building Advisor lays it out pretty clearly.
- When considering energy retrofit work, most homeowners prioritize the wrong steps. An energy audit provides valuable information to counterbalance misleading advertising pitches for worthless products.
- Your audit is likely to reveal unseen defects in your home — for example, thermal bypasses (air leaks) through convoluted, hidden chases, or insulation gaps revealed by an infrared camera.
- At the end of your audit, you’ll receive a customized list of the most important energy retrofit steps for your house — a list that may differ from your assumptions (or even from the recommendations of the energy conservation pyramid).
- By identifying the most important retrofit tasks for your specific house, a good audit can save you hundreds of dollars that might have been wasted on inappropriate work.
2. Low-cost to free measures to reduce plug loads
This one is easy in theory but harder in practice. It can be summed up like so, "Turn your crap off."
While it is as simple as turning your lights off you can reduce your power bill by eliminating or reducing your phantom loads. GBA again with the handy list.
- Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
- Turn off appliances that aren’t being used.
- When not in use, unplug chargers for cell phones and similar battery-operated gadgets.
- Put televisions and other “instant on” appliances on a plug strip — and remember to turn off the plug strip when the appliance isn’t in use.
3. Lighting
This is an easy one and the rate of return on lights is almost always fantastic. Simply ensure that your house is incandescent free. Use either CFLs or LEDs to light your house.
4. Air sealing
This is not caulking, in fact because caulking can trap water it can sometimes do more harm than good. You should contract an experienced contractor who will work with a blower door. Just a note as this isn't mentioned in the pyramid but if you really do seal your home tight you should probably invest in a heat recovery ventilator. Your house will need lungs as well as a way to move moist air from the kitchen or bathroom out of the house in an orderly fashion.
Blower-door directed air sealing work is usually concentrated in a home’s basement (especially at the rim-joist area) and attic (where huge thermal bypasses are often hidden under a layer of fiberglass batts). Most air leaks are best addressed with two-component spray polyurethane foam.
5. Efficient appliances
Refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer. These consume more energy than you think. If you have any appliances older than 10 years you should think about replacing them with more efficient models. Don't always trust the Energy Star label either, really look at the annual kWh number and compare it.
Remember that less is more, by sizing down your appliances you end up saving much more money over it's lifecycle. And for heaven's sake don't leave your old fridge plugged in in the basement.
6. Insulation improvements
I used to live in an un-upgraded 1950s era home in Calgary. Spend a winter in a home like that and you really realize the value of air sealing and insulation. While upgrading your insulation can be time-consuming and expensive we're already more than halfway up the pyramid. This is where cost decisions start getting trickier.
More tips from Green Building Advisor.
- In colder climates, it makes sense to install R-60 insulation in your attic — as long as the attic is accessible and roomy enough to accommodate the insulation depth.
- If your stud bays are empty, they can be filled with dense-packed cellulose insulation installed through holes drilled from the exterior.
- Basement walls can be insulated on the interior with rigid foam insulation or closed-cell spray polyurethane foam.
7. Water heating
A cool little piece of technology is the drainwater heat-recovery device. Not only are they cool, but they're cool-looking as well.
If you have an older, inefficient water heater you can replace it. There are quite a bit of options on this front.
- A high-efficiency gas-fired water heater;
- A high-efficiency electric resistance water heater;
- A heat-pump water heater;
- An instantaneous gas-fired water heater;
- An indirect water heater connected to a boiler;
- Any of the above, supplemented by a solar water heater.
8. Space heating and cooling equipment
We're almost to the top here. Replacing your heating and cooling equipment can get expensive and if you're dealing with an older house can be tricky as well. However the bonus about progressing up the pyramid is this; by the time you get to this step you're going to need much smaller and cheaper heating and cooling equipment.
If you jump to this step ahead of others you may be wasting money on oversized equipment.
9. Replacement windows
If you think about it windows are pretty amazing pieces of technology. We put giant holes in our homes and put see-through glass in them. I won't get into specifics but choosing windows can get real complicated real fast. Be sure to consult with a trusted professional.
In Alberta you should have more south facing windows than any other side of your house. Those south facing windows should have a high solar heat-gain coefficient.
10. Renewable energy equipment
At the peak of the pyramid is the sexiest and least cost effective solution, small-scale renewable energy equipment. GBA sums it up well;
There are many reasons you may want to have PV panels or a wind turbine, but saving money isn’t one of them.
Remember, it makes no sense to invest in an expensive PV system until after you have invested in all of the other measures listed on the pyramid.
Again, many thanks to Green Building Advisor for the original post.
