Wissahickon Growing Greener
Let's Promote and Educate RESIDENTS about a Sustainable Future for OUR AreaWissahickon Growing Greener and the ECLA PA
Go BEHIND THE RED-GREEN DOOR and save energy dollars
July 30th, 7:00pm
Tonight’s speaker was Larry Menkes: 215.328.9128 or soundsynergy@comcast.net
Summary:
Having a home energy audit is going to be the best way for you to reduce energy use in your home. A certified auditor will come to your home, use a blower door test combined with an Infra Red camera to identify energy-leak problem spots in your home. Certified auditors will supply you with a computerized report categorizing the most cost-effective ways to make your home comfortable, energy efficient and less costly to operate. They will be also able to direct you to contractors that can do the recommended work. Once you have reduced your energy use, you can look into other ways to heat/cool and power your home, such as solar, geothermal and pellet stoves. These may be pricey options, but combined with less need for their usage AND current incentives, you might be able to afford them. In time, however, they will be far less costly than fossil fuel or radical conservation.
Home Energy Audit - $450 to $550 for an average sized house without unique problems. Your auditor will check:
1) The Building Envelope - walls, roof, floor, foundation, doors, windows, insulation, tightness of everything
2) Contents - HVAC, water heater, lighting, appliances, entertainment equipment, treadmills, etc
3) Practices & habits of users
You can call the Pennsylvania State Attorney General (888-520-6680) to see if your auditor/contractor is GreenHome101 certified. Be sure to ask you proposed auditor to show you a valid copy of his certification. The two most common certifications are BPI and HERS.
http://www.bpi.org/content/consumers/find.php
http://www.natresnet.org/bpi/audit_standard/default.htm
$$ BONUS!!!! Energy efficient homes are selling for a premium over conventional homes, and more readily then those that are not. $$ The highest standard in the US at this time is Passive House (Passiv Haus) and info is available at http://www.passivehouse.us/ The European Union will soon adopt that as their minimum standard.
Some people get concerned about homes being too sealed. If your home is AIR Tight, you will need to make sure you have an air-to-air heat exchanger for air-quality/safety purposes. Your auditor will suggest whatever is appropriate.
Don’t forget, you can check out a Kill-A-Watt meter from the library system: Plug in your device/appliances and see how much $$/energy they really use.
On-line resources:
EnergyStar.gov provides a summary of home energy audits and a series of short videos you can watch at home: http://www.energystar.gov/
There is also another video here: http://www.pahomeenergy.com/resources.html
Auditors to call (there are others!):
Montgomery and Bucks County: Domaine LLC (George Mullikin) at: 215.598.5588
Philadelphia (Germantown) Hap Haven Solar: 215.438.4242, http://www.usgreenhome.com. There is a great tutorial on the website if you DIY.
Skippack: Sun Power Builders (Jon Costanza) 610.489.1105 http://www.sunpowerbuilders.com/
Magrann http://www.magrann.com/
Sean Crane, Home Town Green: 610.627.HOME, http://www.hometowngreen.net/
Ron Celantano: http://www.energywisepa.org/contractor/celentano-energy-services
http://www.pahomeenergy.com/resources.html
Energy Coordinating Agency's Smart Energy Solutions: http://www.ecasavesenergy.org/ses/sesindex.html
Todd Nixon Ecocentric Energy Solutions, (267) 812-1360 office, (267) 228-8652 mobile
Web links to check for tax and money credit options:
Keystone HELP® Energy Efficiency Loan & Rebate Program: http://www.keystonehelp.com/
Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency: http://www.dsireusa.org/
US Department of Energy: http://www.energy.gov/
US Green Building Council: http://www.usgbc.org/
PECO Natural Gas Energy Efficiency Rebate Program: http://www.exeloncorp.com/ourcompanies/peco/pecores/natural_gas/energy_efficiency_rebate_prog/default.htm
Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index
Check out a WGG member’s blog: http://sensiblygreenrealtor.com/
American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy: http://www.aceee.org/
Books:
Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings* by Amann, Jennifer Thorne (in the library System)
Home Owners Handbook to Energy Efficiency: John Krigger & Chris Dorsey (Saturn Resource)
Natural Capitalism: creating the next industrial revolution by Hawken (in the library System)
Collapse: Why Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail (Jared Diamond)
Peak Everything (Richard Heinberg)
Post Carbon Cities: Preparing Municipalities for the Uncertainties of Peak Oil and Global Climate Change (Daniel Lerch) (in library system)
Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience (Rob Hopkins) (in library system)
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (David Korten)
The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns can change to Sustainable Practices (Sarah James and Torbjorn Lahti)
Videos:
The Story of Stuff: http://www.storyofstuff.com/
The End of Suburbia (the video that opened wide the peak oil issue) (in the library system)
Natural Capitalism: The presentation by Amory Lovins
The Next Industrial Revolution: William McDonough, Michael Braungart and the Birth of the Sustainable Economy
Shopping (certainly there are others, and Larry says this place is pricey, but the best online):