Weatherization is Step 1
By Dana Fischer
Editor’s note
We reached out to Dana Fischer, former home energy efficiency guru for Efficiency Maine, to see if he would share some sound and simple advice for how Mainers can approach home energy efficiency improvements. Where to start? What’s most important? And what he’s learned along the way over the last two decades of helping Mainers make their homes more comfortable, healthy, affordable and efficient. Here’s what he had to say.
Home is where the heart is, but sometimes our houses are draftier, damper or less comfortable than the places we dream of living in forever. Options for making improvements can be confusing, expensive and at times consuming. So, where should we start? The plain truth is that no matter what extraordinary features or appliances a home may have, occupants will have difficulty achieving comfort unless the structure is weather-proof, well insulated, airtight, dry and has proper ventilation.
You can call it weatherization, or taking care of the basics, but this is the whole secret to having a better living space, improved financial prospects and saving the planet at the same time. Take steps to make all parts of your home dry in all seasons. Increase your insulation and seal up everywhere that drafts enter the home. And lastly, provide controlled ventilation. Once you take care of the basics through weatherization, it will be easier to optimize heating and cooling systems, add solar panels or upgrade appliances and windows. Of course, people do the long-term home improvement dance in whatever order they want, depending on interest, finances and opportunity. And it can work out fine. But understand that the real things that make you uncomfortable, or make our spaces unhealthy, or costly, have everything to do with the detail features of the structure and little to do with what is used to heat or cool the space or generate power.
Keep the basement dry
If your basement is wet, has a dirt or permeable floor, or has running water during weather events, stop. Do not pass go. This requires mission-critical upgrades before doing any tightening or insulating of the building.
First, with gutters and landscaping, divert the moisture coming off your roof or from higher ground away from your house. Install a sump pump hole if needed with a sealed top to lower the water level some number of inches below the bottom of your foundation floor year-round in all conditions. Test and address radon if found. It’s not that a big deal to remedy, but it is a big deal to let it ruin your health.
Next, look at all the ways that bulk moisture enters your basement. There are ways to fix this with membranes, rolls of hard dimpled plastic sheets or elevated floors, sump pumps and other tricks. It can be an investment to have a complete retrofit if you are unable to tackle it yourself. But you absolutely must make your basement dry, or at least separate the wetness and humidity source from the rest of your house with a sealed moisture-proof barrier of some nature, such as a liner that follows the contour of your basement all the way up the walls. It will be easier and cheaper to run a dehumidifier after these improvements have been completed.
Now that we have covered moisture in the basement, insulate the walls of your basement, not the ceiling. Let me tell you why. The weatherization trade has the term “thermal envelope,” which is the boundary between what is outside and what is inside. Think of the thermal envelope as your home’s space suit. You want it to go uniformly around the entire home without any gaps or untucked shirts. Often, in New England homes, people have a heating system in the basement but insulate the ceiling of the basement to keep the first floor warmer. Unfortunately, you are putting yourself between all the excess heat being put off in the basement and allowing it to escape through the stone or concrete walls. By insulating the walls, you turn the basement into a true “indoor space,” keeping all the moderating temperature of the earth and heat from the heating system in your overall living space and not letting it escape to the outside through the portion of your basement walls that are above the frost line. Not only will your floor be warmer, but it will also be reasonable to heat your basement and have it be a usable, dry space for all the stuff that can no longer go in the attic.
What? Nothing in the attic? Seriously people, we all have way too much stuff. Recycle it, trash it, cherish it, but keep things by clear intention, not default. You will find it much easier to make improvements to your home if it is not a struggle to get to the places that need improvement.
Insulate your attic
But I digress. Nobody really wants to think about the attic so much. And often it is a good place to stash things. So, it might seem like a lot of work to do anything about it. If you have anything less than 18 inches of blown in insulation on top of whatever may have been put down in prior years, it is a good idea to call in an insulator to seal any penetrations and vents coming up from lower floors. Fill that attic space with fluff—not stuff. Or, if you want to keep using the space in the attic, insulate the underside of the entire roof deck. If you do not have a sealed and insulated attic, your house will continue to suck heat up and out like you would if you were in the polar vortex without a hat. The loose insulation or disheveled, thin batts of fiberglass under plank boards from decades ago aren’t doing much for you.
Have you ever cut holes in your winter hat for style? Do you have inset ceiling “can” lights anywhere on the top floor or ceiling in your house? Same thing as holes in your wool beanie. Well, there is a very good chance that every one of them is sucking the heat out of your house into your attic and off to outer space. Until recently, the remedy was to put a box or bucket over the top of the can light in the attic and seal around it and insulate over it. With all the new LED light options, you can get a flush-mount LED bulb that screws into the existing socket and seals the can of the original light at the same time. This is an easy move that can save electricity and heat. All vents, bathroom and otherwise, should exit the building and be sealed every time they penetrate a floor. If you make these improvements, your house will have no holes in its “hat.”
Why windows are not step 1
Speaking of intentional holes in homes, let’s talk windows. If you really do not like your windows and want new ones, go ahead, replace them. If your windows don’t work or are beyond basic replacement of gaskets or decent clean-up, you are in need of new windows. However, you never want to get new windows under the sole impression that you will dramatically lower your heating costs. Most of the time, the problem with windows is that they need basic caulking or weather-stripping, and 90% of the time there is no insulation around the perimeter of the frame of the window, leading to serious midwinter drafts. If you are under the impression that you have wicked drafty windows and you want them gone, grab a can of spray foam, pry off the trim, goop up the perimeter and see how you feel about it the next day. Trim can be replaced or repaired for far less than a set of new windows.
Ventilate right
Windows are a key feature of a delightful home. They are also the original ventilation equipment. Need fresh air, open a window. Burnt some toast? Open a window. Need to check the weather? Stick your head out the window. But that is not an entirely perfect system when you are going for efficiency and uniformly good air quality. Enter newfangled ERVs and HRVs, also known as Energy Recovery Ventilators and Heat Recovery Ventilators. These devices have two fans: one that pulls in fresh air from outside, and one that draws stale air out of your house. As the fans do this, they push the streams of air through a heat exchanger in the unit that warms up incoming air by pulling heat out of the outgoing stale air without the two air streams mixing.
In the case of the ERV, the heat exchanger is made from very fancy cardboard that can transfer heat and moisture between the two streams of air, helping to maintain comfortable humidity levels. This gets us back to our “build it tight” conversation. People need fresh air. People like air that has in the ballpark of 40% to 60% humidity. If you are relying on windows or the leakiness of your house to accomplish this task, the comfort and quality of your indoor air will vary with the sun, wind and rain— which means that it is not even be close to uniform. Having a tight home and good indoor air quality with active ventilation makes you more comfortable year-round.
Most people, when they’re uncomfortable with the temperature, jump to the conclusion that the heat systems are the problem. I say “systems” in the plural because it is very common in New England for us to have multiple systems with multiple fuel sources as if we are all some kind of micro fuel commodity brokers. As if we are all going to win big by figuring out what the cheapest fuel is in any given year.
I’ve been a big fan of heat pumps for a decade now and have been promoting them for just as long. Good ones work great even when it is stupid cold outside, don’t burn anything and also provide really slick cooling without having to ever move and mount a window shaker ever again.
But are heat pumps the only rational or reasonable option for the future of our planet? Definitely not. Using less fuel and getting the most out of your existing equipment is being a responsible steward of your pocketbook. And why is it a good idea to tighten up the house and insulate before upgrading your heating system? You won’t need as much or as many or spend as much upfront to meet the heating and cooling load of your home if you first lower the heating and cooling load. Checking off your priorities on moisture, insulation, tightness, and ventilation will make everything else less expensive and easier.
So, what about resources? How are any of us going to accomplish all these high and mighty improvements? Who can we call as experts and trusted advisors? Who has rebates or financing to tackle these things? As it so happens, we are blessed with these resources in Maine. Few states have as awesome of a network of energy auditors, insulators, HVAC installers and dedicated state agencies. Efficiency Maine (efficiencymaine.com) has an excellent “Registered Vendors” list of contractors—independent businesses from across the state that make improvements in homes day in and day out. I have had the great opportunity to converse with many and find them by a wide margin to be incredibly dedicated, honest and downright good people. Part of the relationship that Efficiency Maine has with these vendors through their rebate programs improves the professional nature of their businesses and provides core principles of best practices and standards. The rebates that Efficiency Maine offers are helpful and not only shine a light on what are good ideas for most homes but also make the improvements more affordable.
Efficiency Maine (1-866-ES-MAINE) also has an exceptionally fair loan program where, with no money down and fast online approval, Mainers can borrow up to $15,000 at 4.99% APR over ten years. This translates into about $11 per month per thousand dollars borrowed. These are the kind of “good loans” that, in my book, count as investments.
While many of Efficiency Maine’s standard programs are targeted to the broader audience of homeowners, they also have elevated incentives for moderate- and lower-income homeowners. If that is still not providing enough to make these kinds of improvements feasible for your budget, Maine Housing (mainehousing.org), the various local Community Action Programs and the local offices of the USDA have additional programs to help put weatherization and heating system improvements within the reach of all Mainers. Go online or pick up the phone. Folks at these organizations are happy to help you take steps to improve your home and make it the kind of place you want to live and prosper in forever. That is what they wake up every day seeking to do. I’m not kidding.
This past year has been difficult on all of us, and plenty more on some than others. I am hopeful that we can find peace in our hearts and among our neighbors in the months and years ahead. One thing that came into clear view for many during the pandemic was how our homes play such a critical role in the preservation of ourselves and our families. In a great reversal of trends moving us out into the public space, this past year has been about finding our center, seeking shelter and maybe noticing things that could be improved with our shelter.
Houses serve a few somewhat obvious purposes, like providing us and our belongings with safety and security. And if they are doing their job well, they provide us with a good living environment by keeping the water and snow outside, while maintaining good indoor air quality and a comfortable temperature and humidity level year-round. Improving on this further is a home that uses low amounts of clean and lower-cost energy to accomplish it all, providing us with sustainability for our pockets and the planet. I don’t have a prediction on how quickly Maine will transform our building stock, but I do know this: It will not happen without you taking action in the spaces where you live.
We rarely think about how homes accomplish all these tricky tasks all at once. And trying to figure out how to improve upon existing systems or incorporate them into new homes can be complicated and daunting. There is no one path for any of us on weatherization, or anything else for that matter. Be kind to yourself, take things on one step at a time with the help and advice of others. Observe the things about your living environment that need to change, then be bold.
HERE’S A NUMBERED PRIORITY LIST ON HOW TO MAKE THE BEST HOME WHERE YOU ALREADY ARE
For specific and exacting guidance for your home, reach out to a home energy advisor through www.efficiencymaine.com.
1. ADDRESS ANY BULK MOISTURE PROBLEMS.
This includes leaking roofs, wet basements and rot that can be seen around the outside of the house.
2. THREE BIG INSULATION OPPORTUNITIES:
If your attic is not sealed and jam-packed with insulation to very high depths, OR your basement walls are not insulated, including the sills above the basement walls, OR your pre–World War II home has walls with no insulation. If any of these apply to your home, you are lucky as it will be easy to remedy and make a big improvement.
3. EVER HEARD THE ADAGE “HOUSES GOTTA BREATHE”?
Malarkey. If you are hiring a builder and they utter these words, find another one. As it turns out, buildings should be tight and ventilated right. Ideally very tight, with fans to remove odor from bathrooms and fumes from kitchen cooking appliances. Fresh make-up air from the outdoors? Yes, and ideally tempered with exhausted air and distributed into living spaces and bedrooms. (For more on this, see “Does your house need to breathe?” by Michael Maines)
Dana Fischer has been dedicated to hastening Maine off fossil fuels since he received a seed grant from MTI for a solar hot water heating project in 2005. In addition to those early solar efforts, Dana was also a BPI energy auditor, and he worked at Efficiency Maine for seven years helping to establish and manage residential programs that provide rebates and loans to homeowners taking steps to lower energy costs. He has been an Area Manager for Mitsubishi Electric since 2017, providing training and support to the network of heat pump installers and distributors across Maine and New Hampshire. Over the past decade he estimates that he has had at least 50,000 conversations with homeowners, consultants, architects, policy makers and contractors about project details and strategies for lowering energy use, moving toward renewables and improving home comfort.
This article appeared in the Spring/Summer 2021 edition of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. Subscribe today!