Energy Savers

Air sealing your home

donstanleyecu@gmail.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:43:25 +0000

Why is air sealing important in your home? This can be a loaded question.

First of all, air is a carrier. With it, air brings along unwanted moisture, pollutants, and temperature differentials. When a home operates under different pressures from HVAC run cycles and using the dryer and bathroom fans, air will find its way in. In order for insulation to work effectively, air movement through the building envelope should be restricted. Many places in the attic and crawl space should be air sealed. Holes cut for plumbing pipes, electrical wires, and HVAC ductwork and returns are notorious areas for air leakage. Designed chases for wires, plumbing, and ductwork are rarely sealed to restrict air movement into wall systems and the home.

All these “little” holes left open by contractors can add up and make any home uncomfortable. Simple fixes can solve complex issues if you are armed with the right knowledge. Knowing what to look for and how to fix it will require some building science knowledge. However, the concepts of air sealing are simple enough for a weekend warrior to understand and tackle themselves. The next question though is who wants to go into the crawlspace or attic and move around old fiberglass insulation in order to air seal penetrations. That is where Energy Savers comes in. Not only do we find and identify the problems, we also provide the solutions and fixes to these important areas needing improvement.

Air sealing and air barriers are relatively new concepts and are not enforced even in modern building codes. These necessities unfortunately are only caught on new construction if the home is going for a green certification. Bottom line, I’ll bet 95% of existing homes could benefit from air sealing.

The sooner improvements are made to the home; the sooner gains can be realized. It’s hard to put a price on being comfortable. How about a price on indoor air quality? We can definitely put a price on energy efficiency. We all want to be comfortable in our homes, especially considering how much we spend to heat and cool them. Air sealing is the first sequential step in any energy improvement and it happens to be one of the things we specialize in. Give us a call and let us help you get closer to a healthier, more comfortable energy efficient home.

Your way, my way, either way we all win.

Richard Horvath — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:34:50 +0000

I am emphatic about improving energy efficiency in new homes and existing homes. For me personally the driving force is simple. Less energy usage equals less energy demand. Less demand equals less power generated. Less power generated means less global warming and less mountaintop coal removal. Here’s the problem. I often have clients who put as much stock in global warming as I do reality television. I used to get real upset about that and blow up like a bullfrog. Make no mistake I still feel like I am on the right side of the argument; however I have come to a realization. There is more than one way to achieve a goal. We show them without question an Energy Star / Green Certified Home saves them money every month by lower utilities, less maintenance, and increased durability. So instead of saving the planet because it’s the right thing to do, some clients do it because it keeps money in their pocket. Even in energy retrofits we do for existing homes improvements such as better windows, increased insulation, cooler attics, climate controlled crawlspaces, better HVAC equipment, and superior workmanship make a tremendous difference in bills and quality of indoor air quality. The same principle applies to the large corporations of the world. If we want cap and trade accepted, make it profitable. If we want to stop using chemicals that poison our earth and water, make ones that don’t cheaper. If we want China and India do what’s right to ensure global energy, food, and water, supply, let’s show them how to do it cheaper than the wrong ways. Right now we don’t have all the “better and cheaper” answers. Let’s keep working hard to find them and make it profitable for everyone to what’s right.

Chad Ray aka “That Green Builder Guy”

Olde Heritage Builders and Energy Savers of NC

Thirty Second Elevator Speech on Green Homes

Richard Horvath — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:32:00 +0000

I can convince someone on a ride from the first floor to the twelfth floor on why a green energy efficient home is better than one that’s not. That could be either a new home or a retrofitted existing home of any age. Get your stop watch out while you read this… Ready, Set, Go!

A green / energy efficient home will be the following things for you…

1- 20-50% more energy efficient saving you money every month for the life of the house. Uses less water as well.

2- Indoor air will be cleaner and safer resulting in less sick days, healthier children, and happier people

3- Requires less maintenance meaning free weekends

4- More durability meaning less headaches and hassles

5- Increased home value over comparable homes you prove with utility bills and certifications

6- Less Global Impact because less CO2 per house

Stop!

Everyone deserves a home that provides those attributes.

For more details email “That Green Builder Guy” at info@energysavers.com

Q & A with “That Green Builder Guy”

Richard Horvath — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:29:30 +0000

Q. My home always smells musty and my air never feels “fresh”. Is there anything I can do?

A. Absolutely there is. Many crawlspaces or basements in our mixed humid climate have a “moisture” problem. That problem creates other problems such as mold and mildew. With dehumidification and a controlled climate environment such as a sealed crawlspace, those problems can be eliminated. Please call us for more details and we look forward to helping you.

Q. I don’t know where to start with energy efficiency. What do you recommend?

A. We all can change our light bulbs but then what? The long answer is many things we could and will discuss. Let’s focus on two that everyone with a home over 5-7 years old can really lower their power bill changes with. Let’s start with increased attic insulation. In most instances one can easily access there attics to add R-Value usually in the form of blow in fiberglass insulation. Before that’s done attic sealing of holes, pipes, and other penetrations before hand helps even more. Secondly seal your air ducts. The average home waste 50% of the air coming from your forced air system before it gets in your home! Totally unacceptable for anyone who doesnt want to waste money. Now and especially in the future, we can not afford that kind of wasted money and energy.

til next time,

Chad Ray “ That Green Builder Guy”

Olde Heritage Builders and Energy Savers of NC

Is there a new”normal” in our lives?

Richard Horvath — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:28:59 +0000

Let me quickly introduce myself. My name is Chad Ray, also known as “that green builder guy.” I am a partner in two small businesses. Olde Heritage Builders certifies and builds 20 green homes each year. Energy Savers of North Carolina helps over 200 existing homeowners make their current home more comfortable and cost less to operate. Both companies’ objectives are fairly simple, we help people live better at home. We like to say “what we do isn’t rocket science, it’s building science.”

The topic of this piece is asking the question what does “normal” mean post the “great recession.” More specifically, ask yourself the following questions. Do I see the world as a whole and my immediate environment differently than 2-3 years ago? Am I using resources including time, money, food, and energy more efficiently than 2-3 years ago? And lastly, ask yourself am I looking at my future or my children’s future differently than 2-3 years ago? As we now begin “the recovery” period, I feel we all are figuring out new normals in our life. I see great opportunity in this new thought process for many of us. As a small business owner, I control my future destiny to some extent. My parents generation and beyond know what real tough times were. I too now see the payoffs to disciplined savings, smart planning, calculated risk taking, and the value of great people who can depend on each other. The new normal for myself is to do more in life while being smarter, being better, and relying on a great team more than ever.

Let’s change gears now into the world of green building and existing home energy retrofits. I believe the days of building McMansion energy hogs that drain the pocketbooks of their residents forever are over. I also believe the days of the average house in North Carolina wasting 30-50% of its utility bills on air loss and inefficiencies should also be over. As individuals and as a nation we can’t afford to be wasteful anymore. Never before have so many put so much emphasis on energy conservation and efficiency. The time is now to make a difference. Those are the biggest tools in the shed towards energy independence one day.

Would it make a difference in “normal” if 100% economic recovery happened in one day? Not really and here’s why. Many experts say energy prices could double as early as 2020 due to population growth increased plug load, and the world’s emerging markets. In short this falls into “the big three” as I like to say. We need more energy, food, and water in our world today. This process has only started. The recession has brought energy costs to the forefront. This is why we believe everyone should live in a home that uses less energy, is more comfortable, and makes less impact on our global environment. Again that’s not rocket science, just good sense. The new “normal” is a world when we have to do more, and use less. The cross over of this concept was inevitable for new home building and energy retrofitting of existing homes. We are also seeing this in many other aspects of our lives. For example our farmers, soldiers, doctors, factory workers, scientists, and many others have to figure out ways to provide more while using less resources. We must in order t0 compete in another new “normal”, the global economy. China, Russia, India, and many other developing markets have gotten a glimpse at the American way of life our leaders and soldiers have provided for us. New capitalistic markets are opening all over the world. That is a subject for another day in itself but in short people all over the world want to enjoy the things we do like meat and potatoes, cars, and electricity. I believe anyone willing to work for these things has a right to them. The problem goes back to “the big three.” There is not enough food, water and energy to sustain almost 9 billion people to our standard of living. Make no mistake, we must develop ways to do more while using less. We must develop ways for individuals, companies, and countries to be profitable and sustainable. That’s right, I said profitable. One of the top challenges of the twenty first century is to develop cleaner and greener ways of life that cost less than dirtier alternatives if we want the world to do them. We are not there yet, but maybe one day that too will be the new “normal.”

Sincerely,

Chad Ray “that green builder guy”

Olde Heritage Builders and Energy Savers of NC

Greener Doesn’t Mean Better

Richard Horvath — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:28:35 +0000

Over the last seven years we have committed to certifying 100% of all our homes Energy Star and NAHB green. During that entire time we have learned many things about building science and the “how to” that really is green building. We have become known as “the green building” company here in Raleigh, North Carolina. I gave you of this background information in order to explain today’s title. “It’s not enough to be greener, you have to be better.”

Green building has definitely made us a better company and helped us tremendously during a down market. However, just because we build green doesn’t mean we will be successful. All of the core principles my mother and father put in place for over 20 years, prior to us building a green home, are the foundation of our success. Examples of those principles include build a good team of people who you can rely on, treat all people respectfully, be honest, keep open lines of communications, and “don’t be too big for your britches.” That last one is one of those slogans you just have to be from here to understand. Simply put, we want to be the best, not the greenest. Green building is part of being the best. No one could argue against me that a home that uses less energy, has safer indoor air, requires less maintenance, is more durable, holds and builds more value, and has less impact on our global environment, isn’t a home that is better than one that does not have those attributes. So whatever industry you are in strive to be green and ecoconscious, but don’t forget your goal is to be the best you can be.

Green Building to fade away in name only.

Richard Horvath — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:28:00 +0000

In years to come I believe the building terms of green, high performance, energy star, over do thus will fade away. All of those core principles will just be building standards. We achieve silver certification levels and HERS scores of 52 without adding 3% more to the price of a house. In the future there will be no additional costs to build a home of this caliber. Standards and codes will increase. Material supply and skilled labor will also increase causing prices to fall. I hear many arguments that nothing should be done that add costs to new homes. My response is “indoor plumbing added costs, but I sure am glad we did.” We in the building industry do have to make sure we always build homes for first time owners and work force housing that that segmant can afford. As builders, we still provide the American Dream. However, in my opinion we equally must provide new housing sources that uses less energy saving money every month, has safer indoor air making for healthier kids, low maintenance , and highly durable homes that will be more valuable in the future. We can do this all the while having less impact on our global environment. We can and must adopt these new green standards industry wide.

My grandmother taught me what i needed to know.

Richard Horvath — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:25:00 +0000

For the readers of BOOM! Magazine please let me introduce myself. My name is Chad Ray, but many just know me as “that green building guy.” I am, by trade, a person who builds energy efficient homes that have better indoor air quality and many other attributes. I also help people make their existing homes more efficient and healthy as well. Who I am as a person is more important. I love my family. I give all my endevers my best. I want to be a giver not a taker. I want to help make the world a better place. Now that you have an idea of who is talking to you, our focus will be on the simple lessons I learned as a young boy are still relevant today.

Lesson #1- Don’t buy things you don’t need, can’t afford, or won’t help your family.

As a green builder our message is all about using resources such as electricity, gas, water, and materials more wisely in order to conserve money and resources. My grandmother taught me lesson #1. She lived in a nice comfortable home. She was very proud of her family home. For her it was a culmination of hard work between her husband’s labor and her taking care of the family. It wasn’t anything special, but it was her home. She never envied anything anyone else had. She never cared a thing about “keeping up with the Joneses.” At some point, as a nation, we entered an arms race to see who makes and spends the most money on clothes, cars, and homes. They all got bigger and more expensive. At points in my life I to wanted more and bigger. The “great recession” we are all in has been a wake up call for many. Maybe we all can come down from the clouds to a more sensible ways to live our life. Homes that are designed well for use of space, use less electricity, are more durable, and require less money to maintain are all things my Mama Ray would say were good things.

Lesson #2- We are put on this earth to help one another.

The world my grandparents grew up in was hard. The work was hard and the pay was so low. However, they were happy. They loved each other, their kids, and their community. Every family,black and white, helped one another make a living, raise children, grow crops, and care for the sick and elderly. As a child I got a small taste of that. Now as an adult it seems we are all too busy or care too little about our neighbors to go back to that way of life. In general we all make more money, live in bigger houses, and don’t have to grow our own food, but I think at times we are less happy. We live in different times, but I think we can boil it down to something very simple. Life is a mixed bag of chores. There are things we need to get done each and every day. Along the way you can be a giver or a taker. Life used to be almost full of givers and a few takers. Today there is many more takers then it used to be. People are in our lives who take too much of our time, money, energy, and even our soul. When we are a giver and surrounded by other givers, life is a beautiful thing. We will always have bad times in our lives, but I pray someone will be there to help us all get through by giving of themselves.

I could go on for days about how beautiful of people my grandparents were and the lessons I learned from them. If you are a parent, grandparent, or just someone’s friend, make sure you give of yourself. We all need one another to learn from. That’s how human kind has evolved to this point. Do your part today.

Sincerely,

Chad Ray

“that green builder guy”

Could the Existing Home Retrofit Save the Building Industry?

Richard Horvath — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:49:06 +0000

Industry wide the last couple of years have been the worst ever for the building industry in our nation. I’ll admit and agree with the opinion we mashed the gas way too fast from 2002-2006 and helped bring a lot of this on ourselves. Many builders lost all sense of reality and didn’t adhere to the principles that made them successful in the first place. Alot of those builders are now history and 1 in 10 homes sit empty in this country. Let’s use our mistakes and learn from them. Let’s not build large homes for people, who can’t afford to furnish them, take care of them, operate them, nor make payments on them. Let’s build homes that use 50% less electricity and gas by building green. Let’s build homes that don’t make the inhabitants sick by using better materials and bring in fresh air mechanically. That’s the future I see for our industry but what about the present. How can we put back tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of workers to earning paychecks for their families until the demand for new homes come back? Maybe President Obama’s Home Star program is a good start. The program would give tax credits to existing homeowners up to $3,000 for making energy efficient improvements to their homes. As a green builder we made the move to existing homes retrofits this year already. Why you ask, the same reason- keep people at work. In a healthy market there will be 1,000,000 new homes a year built in the United States. There are over 100,000,000 existing homes that need energy efficiency improvements. That means 100 times more work. Energy retrofits are not exactly the same. Meaning those jobs won’t use everyone at the job site. The work is sometimes harder, more complicated, and pays less. The good news –its still work. Our building industry work force needs to invest in themselves and learn the Basics of building science including combustion safety, air flow, air sealing, and many other topics. Make no mistake however, there’s no one more equipped to insulate an existing home than the company that insulates new homes. The same idea is true for the HVAC person, the carpenter, etc. we need the general contractors leading the way. We can not afford to not make an immediate positive impact for the consumer, for our industry, and for our nation. One energy retrofit can put money in our pocket, money in the consumer’s pocket from savings, money in the suppliers pocket, money in the utility’s pocket to delay new power plants, and money in Uncle Sam’s pocket to become more energy independent. We multiply that times 100,000,000 and imagine the prosperity and strength of our nation and planet based off conservation and energy efficiency. Now is the time to make efficiency happen.

Chad Ray “that green builder guy”

TheeDesign Studio Built our New Site

donstanleyecu@gmail.com — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:43:40 +0000

NC Energy Savers is excited to unveil our newly designed website, built in WordPress byRaleigh web design company, TheeDesign Studio. Our new site features a full content management system which makes editing our content easy and simple, and allows our team to add images, audio, and video to any page with just a few clicks. Our site now features and on-site blog, a portfolio of past projects, a lead generating contact form, and custom scheduling software. It is also the perfect medium to display our new logo and branding materials, also designed by TheeDesign Studio.

We realized that our previous website was outdated and lacked the professionalism and functionality we needed to represent our mission and skills. After an extensive search for a web design company, we settled on TheeDesign Studio and are very pleased with the result. Our new site promotes our branding and appeals to the demographic of our desired market, while supporting our green efforts.

Our new website features valuable information related to our company, as well our project listings, energy saving tips, and links to all of our green companies via Shields of Green.

TheeDesign Studio assessed our needs and created a site that reflects our business and mission, complete with a brand that showcases our knowledge and professionalism. Some of the custom features on our site include a dynamic contact form, email newsletter system, and a property listing manager.

If you are looking for more information about sustainable building and more green industries, check out our NC Energy Savers website as well as Shields of Green, our Green Industry portal. Contact us today at (919) 793-6414, or fill out our contact form and one of our staff will contact you shortly.