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  Home Page » News » Earth » The Hole You Cant See

The hole you can't see

Local experts can detect where heat and money are escaping the home

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer Four Corners residents whose gas and electricity bills are eating them alive could well have a house and/or appliances that leak energy like a sieve.

The first step to remedy the situation is a home-energy audit, says Tim Keuski, the principal of Durango-based Verified Green, who does such inspections. Similar to a fiscal audit that shows where the money is going, a home-energy audit is designed to pinpoint fugitive-heat exits.

The average home probably has the equivalent of a hole four feet square from which heat escapes, Keuski said in an interview Monday. Keuski said he has spent 25 years in the construction industry and is a “green" verifier for the National Home Builders Association.

“There are houses so drafty that you can't get a reading," said Keuski, one of several area commercial entrepreneurs who can perform a home-energy audit. (See accompanying information box.) Nathan Ballenger of NRG by Design in Durango said an energy audit has several benefits.

“An energy audit can lead to a return on investments in home improvement; comfort, which is linked to health and safety; and a reduction in one's carbon footprint as a steward of the Earth," he said.

Home-energy audits have become quite the rage, Indiana Reed, a spokeswoman for La Plata Electric Association, said Wednesday.

“LPEA has always been willing to inspect the home of a customer who asks 'Why is my electric bill so high?'" Reed said. “But since about 2005, energy audits have become very popular."

The cooperative has an energy team of six employees who can do an audit, Reed said. The inspections are walk-throughs as contrasted with commercial outfits that have sophisticated equipment, she said.

LPEA has two infrared cameras that pinpoint energy leakage, and it makes available a growing list of commercial inspectors in its service area, Reed said.

Keuski, who has a 21-point inspection list, starts an energy audit by installing a blower door - an adjustable frame covered with heavy plastic - into an exterior door in a building. A fan placed in a hole in the bottom of the plastic sheet sucks air out of a building in which all exterior doors and widows have been closed.

A manometer connected to the fan supplies numbers that tell the overall heat loss. An inspector, armed with an infrared camera, then makes the rounds of the building to find specific spots where cold air is being sucked into the structure.

Another instrument used in an energy audit is a duct blaster that shows how leaky ducts are.

“Most people will say that windows and doors are the main sources of heat loss," Keuski said. “Actually, low insulation and leaky ducts are the main sources."

Keuski, who came to Durango seven years ago from Maryland for the biking scene, took six days of training by the national Residential Energy Services Network to become a certified energy auditor. Under the network's ratings, called a home-energy rating service, or HERS, an index of 100 represents the energy use of a “standard" building. An index of 0 would be a zero-energy house, meaning it would produce all its own energy from alternative sources.

During an audit, Keuski notes the size and orientation of a house. He examines doors, windows, crawl spaces, attics, ducts, appliances, furnace filter, carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, and lighting. He also looks for phantom loads - consumption of electricity by devices in the off or standby mode.

The payback from an energy audit depends on how much heat is being lost, Keuski said. The amount invested in improvements could be recouped in as little as six months if the house is in deplorable condition.

The cost of the audit itself varies with what the goal is, he said. An audit to be certified to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards involves paperwork that will make it more expensive. A homeowner interested simply in finding out how to cut utility bills will pay less.

“There are several levels of energy audits," Keuski said. “But a ballpark estimate is 25 cents per square foot of the building. The cost of an audit for a 2,000-square-foot house would be $500."

The Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency, a nonprofit funded by La Plata County, the city of Durango, BP and La Plata Electric Association, does energy audits as part of its home weatherization program for low-income residents in Archuleta, La Plata, Montezuma, San Juan and Dolores counties.

In September, the agency received $1.26 million in stimulus money to fund the work, said Greg Dubit, the weatherization manager. Weatherization includes the addition of insulation and replacement of energy-gobbling appliances, Dubit said.

daler@durangoherald.com

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