Currently I live in a house with 3 housemates. The house was built
in the early 90s and is about 1,800+ square feet. One of the housemates owns
the house and has the responsibility of bills, bills, bills and taxes (yuck).
What came into discussion late this summer was the wretched PG&E bills,
which some might say is as hard a pill to swallow as taxes. It is safe to say
that in the city of Fresno, residents are most dependent on their air
conditioners around the June through August summer months. Our bill was no
exception as we experienced an average of $278 a month with August reaching as
high as $320. I sat with the homeowner in awe as to wonder what on earth we
were doing that the bill was so high. After all, the house is empty 5 days a
week between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm and we felt that was a significant amount of
time to not be using any electricity that the bill shouldn't put us into
traumatic shock.
After asking the homeowners several questions about the house: water
heater, air conditioning, fridge, dishwasher, washer and dryer, windows,
insulation and anything I could think of, I finally contacted my local Central
Valley Energy Tune up (www.cvetu.com). This FREE service provides education to
homeowners about energy savings opportunities in their homes through a variety
of free energy efficiency service offerings.[1]
I requested that we have the comprehensive “Whole-House Home Energy Survey”
option which would include their inspection of the entire house including air
conditioning system and attic. While the homeowners have not received their
detailed reports, the “energy inspectors” did have input that provided some
insight into how they could save on their energy bill.
First, the house faces south-southwest, so that means the 2 bedrooms
that face the front of the house have direct experience with the Fresno summer
sun from about 3:00 pm – to 6:00 pm where the average temperature this summer
is in triple degrees side of the thermometer. So we have two rooms that have
“sauna-like” temperatures that the house has to work harder to cool down. The
proposed solutions: a) keep the door open so hot air doesn't stick; b) get low
emissivity windows.
The second opportunity
was definitely a shock and considering that I personally am not a homeowner, I
find it interesting to discover that there lazy contractors did half of the job
with the insulation. (See photo below)
Just randomly, the in the front part of the house, where the sun faces,
the thermal imager registers that there’s no insulation. Hmm. Homeowners had no
idea.While I am all for energy efficiency and insulation is one method to
get there, I am baffled at the randomness and sloppiness of the
contractors/installers themselves. Why would they all of a sudden just not
finish insulating the house? We’ll never
know.
So here’s the lessons learned. First, Central Valley Home Energy Tune Up
is FREE. You really can’t lose having an inspector review your home and receive
a detailed report providing you with what’s going on with your home. Second, contractors suck.
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