Home energy

[Bruce Glanville]

Its beginning to buzz, can you hear it? All this wasted energy coming from your home? What your are hearing is the sound of money as it leaves your wallet. There are currently a handful of energy raters in Knoxville. Each of us is armed with equipment and training and a burning desire to help folks save money on their energy bills. Trouble is most folks don't seem to be that interested. For ~$500 you can get an accurate, science based report on your energy use and exactly how to reduce it.
What this group needs is help getting the word out about the value of this service.

[Leonard Knight]

I can hear it and see it in Quickbooks...utilities are a big cost. I have a commercial office building where I pay the utilities. It would be worth the cost to have an analysis of how I could reduce my monthly bill. Also, any suggestions on how to get my $1,000.00 deposit back from KUB would be great. They've had it for six (6) years now and don't seem to have any intentions of returning it until I sell the building.

[Bruce Glanville]

Leonard,
Do you own this building? If you do you might want to consider a LEED EB feasibility study. EB stands for Existing Building and is a methodology for bringing a structure and it's occupants up to US Green Building Counsel LEED quality. It can get costly depending on the condition of the building and what the loads are but the results usually pay for themselves in energy savings and increased productivity. I would be happy to take a look and make some recommendations.
As far as KUB is concerned, the only way to beat them is to cut your energy use.

[Leonard Knight]

Yes, I own the building. Let's get together to look at the building. You can call my cell 865-384-6481 this week and we can meet at the building. Leo

[Bruce Glanville]

I have a meeting with KHP at 9, I'll call you when I am finished there.

[Mark Burns]

Bruce , Once you have identified the problem, can you do anything to repair it?

[Christian Seus]

Bruce,

Hello. Do you have a machine that fits in a door and you "test the pressure of a home" to see where the leaks are or hidden AC leaks that leave the house?

I'm currently building a website for this type of business and I find it very interesting. How many companies in Knoxville are doing this?

[Bruce Glanville]

Christian,
I have both a blower door and duct blaster for pressure tests. There are a few raters in Knoxville besides myself. TVA has equipment as does CAC.

[Garland Pope]

This sounds quite interesting, Bruce. What kind of costs would be required to implement the suggestions for a typical family home built in the last 10 years? What kind of savings could a typical family expect to see from these improvements? I'm just thinking $500 plus whatever it costs to make the changes might take a while to recoup.

[Bruce Glanville]

Like everything else it depends....mostly on the building, how big? how old? who built it? On average you will see a 15% utility savings just by fixing leaky HVAC systems. Lighting is usually 10% of your bill, CFL's will save about 90% of that. Building envelope penetrations are harder to quantify but contribute greatly to energy loss. 25% is a realistic target for overall energy savings, often it is significantly more. Keep in mind that you can borrow the cash for the remedial work with an EIM. That is an Energy Improvement Mortgage, most banks (SunTrust, Wells Fargo) have the product. Efficiency savings will cover you monthly payment. I have some clients that had untestable HVAC systems that spent around $750-$800 on repairs and saw immediate savings of %50 on their bills, plus a tremendous improvement in thermal comfort. If you are paying $250 a month that pays off pretty quickly and continues to pay off. You can do quite a lot yourself if you are the handy type. My reports will give you priority recommendations with photographic references and some resources for help if you aren't the DIY type. The best part of this is having a home that performs well and is a healthy place to live. Most homes today are lacking the "V" part of HVAC, truly the most important part. We often don't know much about our indoor air quality but it is quietly the source of our respiratory ailments and asthma. The process takes roughly 5 hours on site plus another day to compute the Energy Star rating and assemble a report. Let me know if you are interested in an appointment, you should get going before the rates go up!

[Garland Pope]

Thanks for the details, Bruce. I'll discuss with my wife and let you know if we want to do something.

[Steve Drevik]

sustainableenergy.biz did a solar system for my house. I gave their marketing guy (Harvey) some tips. I'll try to drag him into EOK. They're sitting on the front of a wave, and they're the best positioned firm in Knoxville.

Also, the latest energy bill removed the ceiling for tax rebates for sustainable energy improvements. It was 30% subsidy with $2K ceiling, now it's no ceiling.