Over the course of this week we will be running a series of posts written by a good friend of DTE's. Blair Stephens is a freelance writer and marketer, homeowner, mom, wife and a new-ish green enthusiast in Central Massachusetts. In this article series, she invites readers to follow a novice approach to renewable energy to (hopefully) inspire people to know that home energy efficiency and alternative technology are available and do-able for any and all!
My Adventure in Renewable Energy: Making Our Home More Energy Efficient
Article Two- Blair Stephens
At the close of the summer, my husband and I decided we had to commit to some home renovations – mainly to that leaky sunroom. We figured we could improve our quality of life, the value of our home and we could make the house more efficient to boot. The only issue was financing – big surprise! We decided we wanted to handle all the renovations with cash. To that end, we decided to vault the ceilings, reinsulate and replace the longest wall of windows – which also happen to be on the windward side of the house.
When we took down half the ceiling to really get the lay of the land, we realized how justified we had been in making the decision. The first thing we noticed was the old insulation.
The R value of insulation measures its resistance to heat flow. The higher the R value, the better the insulation factor. Being in the Northeast, we wanted an insulation with an R30 or better for maximum effectiveness and we found R19 insulation on the floor of the attic (just above the poorly executed drop ceiling the in sun room). Therefore we saw a lot of opportunity for making the room more energy efficient just in improving the insulation.
The first thing we did was to deepen the joists of the roof – allowing for the deeper R39 insulation. We lost some height in the room – maybe 5 inches with this process, but that was of little importance when considering the potential increase in efficiency of the room. Essentially, we deepened the space that would hold the insulation from about 4 inches deep, to 8-10 inches deep. I had no idea that it was critical not to compress insulation in order for it to yield maximum benefit – but this would be one of the many things I would learn while going through this process.
The other huge obstacle to energy efficiency was the jalousie windows. They offer so much lovely light and breeze in the summer – but those benefits become their downfall in the winter months. We wanted to find a way to preserve the light, airy feel of the room while using more efficient windows that would also not break our budget.
We considered and got the prices of new windows. Consider though, that our old jalousie windows were approximately five feet high and about 16 inches wide and we had, oh, eight or so that needed replacing. That’s a lot of space. We knew we also wanted to get rid of the leaky and strangely placed door in the sunroom as well – which was more potential window space. We also knew we couldn’t just get giant picture windows because we needed air flow. The replacement windows would have run anywhere from $800.00 to $1500.00 and that would have been for one half of the wall only – and not including the labor to actually put them in.
We did some research on efficient window ratings so we’d be prepared if we came upon a good deal. Here’s what we learned!
Window efficiency is primarily rated in three ways; U-Factor, Solar Heat Gain and Visible Transmittance. U-Factor measures how much heat a window will allow to escape. This means, the lower the U-Factor, the better! Solar Heat Gain measures how well the window blocks solar heat from coming in via sunlight. A lower Solar Heat Gain ratings means less heat gain. Finally, visible transmittance measures how much light comes though the glass. The heavier the tint on a window, the lower the visible transmittance and conversely the less tint, the higher the visible transmittance.
Once we were armed with information, we started to consider our options.
First we started with sites like Craig’s List and Freecycle. Crazy? Maybe – but one of the best ways to go green is to recycle existing materials. We also checked out websites like www.bid-on-equipment.com and Angie’s List. We didn’t find what we needed, but we found some good and interesting options. The important thing for us was to find windows for that whole wall with good efficiency ratings. Did they have to be fancy and new? Not on our budget.
We also put the word out among our friends. Now, we’re in a small town and my husband is the king of Craig’s List and Ebay because of his hobbies – so his friends around town always have their ear the ground for good deals on antiques and everything else.
One of our friends had been poking around in an antique coop a couple of towns over and had stumbled into their warehouse area – which was full of new or replacement windows, doors, cabinets and more! He told us about it and we drove down there – assuming we couldn’t really find what we needed.
In an amazing stroke of luck, we were able to secure four 50x50 energy star rated windows for a fraction of the typical cost. Two picture windows and two sliders would allow for light we wanted, allowed us to keep our view of our two gorgeous flowering trees and because of the cost savings, we were able to replace all the windows and remove the door on our breeziest wall. Also, they were well rated in the mid to upper class of efficient windows, so we knew we were getting more than a reasonable bargain.
Just to put the windows into perspective according to our ratings above – the U Factor of the picture windows was .33 and the solar heat gain was .36. Since most windows have a U Factor between .20 and 1.20, we could see that the U Factor of these windows was above average. The Solar Heat Gain of most windows ranges from 0 to 1.0, so again, we could see the SHG rating was above average. Although the brand name wasn’t the greatest, the proof was in the ratings – and these were energy star rated and ridiculously prices at $70.00 per window. You couldn’t even get the glass for that much money!
So now we had the windows, we had the insulation and we were ready to begin the real renovation. While Mark got to work on the dirty jobs – I started the next phase of research – how else could we make our home more efficient and what kind of renewable energy could we incorporate as soon as possible within our budget!
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The other huge obstacle to energy efficiency was the jalousie windows. They offer so much lovely light and breeze in the summer – but those benefits become their downfall in the winter months. We wanted to find a way to preserve the light, airy feel of the room while using more efficient windows that would also not break our budget.
We considered and got the prices of new windows. Consider though, that our old jalousie windows were approximately five feet high and about 16 inches wide and we had, oh, eight or so that needed replacing. That’s a lot of space. We knew we also wanted to get rid of the leaky and strangely placed door in the sunroom as well – which was more potential window space. We also knew we couldn’t just get giant picture windows because we needed air flow. The replacement windows would have run anywhere from $800.00 to $1500.00 and that would have been for one half of the wall only – and not including the labor to actually put them in.
We did some research on efficient window ratings so we’d be prepared if we came upon a good deal. Here’s what we learned!
Window efficiency is primarily rated in three ways; U-Factor, Solar Heat Gain and Visible Transmittance. U-Factor measures how much heat a window will allow to escape. This means, the lower the U-Factor, the better! Solar Heat Gain measures how well the window blocks solar heat from coming in via sunlight. A lower Solar Heat Gain ratings means less heat gain. Finally, visible transmittance measures how much light comes though the glass. The heavier the tint on a window, the lower the visible transmittance and conversely the less tint, the higher the visible transmittance.
Once we were armed with information, we started to consider our options.
First we started with sites like Craig’s List and Freecycle. Crazy? Maybe – but one of the best ways to go green is to recycle existing materials. We also checked out websites like www.bid-on-equipment.com and Angie’s List. We didn’t find what we needed, but we found some good and interesting options. The important thing for us was to find windows for that whole wall with good efficiency ratings. Did they have to be fancy and new? Not on our budget.
We also put the word out among our friends. Now, we’re in a small town and my husband is the king of Craig’s List and Ebay because of his hobbies – so his friends around town always have their ear the ground for good deals on antiques and everything else.
One of our friends had been poking around in an antique coop a couple of towns over and had stumbled into their warehouse area – which was full of new or replacement windows, doors, cabinets and more! He told us about it and we drove down there – assuming we couldn’t really find what we needed.
In an amazing stroke of luck, we were able to secure four 50x50 energy star rated windows for a fraction of the typical cost. Two picture windows and two sliders would allow for light we wanted, allowed us to keep our view of our two gorgeous flowering trees and because of the cost savings, we were able to replace all the windows and remove the door on our breeziest wall. Also, they were well rated in the mid to upper class of efficient windows, so we knew we were getting more than a reasonable bargain.
Just to put the windows into perspective according to our ratings above – the U Factor of the picture windows was .33 and the solar heat gain was .36. Since most windows have a U Factor between .20 and 1.20, we could see that the U Factor of these windows was above average. The Solar Heat Gain of most windows ranges from 0 to 1.0, so again, we could see the SHG rating was above average. Although the brand name wasn’t the greatest, the proof was in the ratings – and these were energy star rated and ridiculously prices at $70.00 per window. You couldn’t even get the glass for that much money!
So now we had the windows, we had the insulation and we were ready to begin the real renovation. While Mark got to work on the dirty jobs – I started the next phase of research – how else could we make our home more efficient and what kind of renewable energy could we incorporate as soon as possible within our budget!
