Wed, 23 May 2012 13:05:07 -0800WeeblyTue, 08 May 2012 07:01:39 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/05/leaky-faucet-part-two.htmlREPAIR A LEAKY FAUCET PART TWO

 
Last time out we were starting to discuss how to fix a leaky bathroom or kitchen faucet, and we were up to the point of getting the water shut off. Even a small amount of water that leaks past the shut-off valve and into the area you are working in makes what you are trying to do very difficult. If all else fails you can disconnect the supply line from the stop and place a pan under the stop to catch the water, if it’s a slow leak. Just be aware that you only have about a 50-50 chance of the supply line going back on without leaking so plan on buying one when you go to the store.

So now you have the water off and you have the offending faucet in front of you. The first thing to do is put a stopper in the sink drain. You’ll be messing with some small slippery parts and chasing one down the drain and into the P-trap is a whole different column. The next step is to remove the handles. You’ll see on top of the handle a large screw, or you may see a plastic cap with a “C” or “H” on them. You’ll need to gently pry off these caps to expose the screw. If you break one or step on one replacements are now commonly available for cheap. Now you need to remove the screw. Hold the handle in one hand and the Phillips screw driver in the other. Very important here to use the right sized screw driver. These screws are usually pretty tight and it’s easy to round out the slots if you are not careful

                                                   REMOVE THE HANDLES

 So lets assume the higher powers are with you that day and the screws come out. You now need to remove the handles. Sometimes this is as easy as grabbing it and rocking it back and forth while pulling upward and off it comes. Other times the combination of mineral laden soapy water and the 15 years since the handle was last off, kind of weld the handle to the stem. You can try some WD40 and wait overnight and try again, or there is a tool made for just this purpose which you can trot on down to the building supply house and purchase. Thing is I’ve never been able to make the darn things work. They are either made to pull handles off from faucets made on another planet, or they bend the handle up so badly that a jackhammer would have a better choice of tools.  So, may as well go for broke here, squirt some WD40 or Liquid Wrench where the screw came out, go to lunch and when you come back if rocking it doesn’t break it loose then take a pair of channel lock pliers or vise grips and grab the handle from the top and wiggle away. You may want to grab the guest towel first to protect the finish on the handle. This should do it. If it doesn’t then rock harder, and it will either come off as it’s supposed too or it will break the stem off at the handle. If this happens don’t panic, it just means the project will now cost a bit more, but still much cheaper than a new faucet. Now do the other side, and then hide the torn guest towel out in the dogs’ house.

                                                          USE THE CAMERA

Now might be a good time to grab the digital camera and take a picture of what you see. If you do this thru-out the process it will help when you go to put the whole mess back together and you can’t remember what goes where.

You are now staring at a brass stem where the handle came off and at the base of the stem, a big nut. This is the packing nut and go ahead and remove it from both stems. Use  an open end wrench or a crescent wrench, never pliers if you can help it. With the packing nut off now grab the stem and turn it in the “on” direction and it will unscrew and come out in your hand. If it’s hard to turn you can put the handle back on to turn it. If you’ve broken the stem off then go ahead and use pliers on it ‘cause it’s shot anyway.

When you get the stems out, you’ll notice on the end you couldn’t see, a screw and a black rubber washer, or what’s left of one. This is one of the parts you’ll want to change, but set is aside for now. Get your flashlight and look down the hole where the stem was. You’ll see a hole in either a square or hexagon shape, and around the hole a round ridge sticking up. This ridge is what the rubber washer contacts as you turn the faucet off. This seal between the washer and the “seat” is what stops the water flow. Stick your finger down into the hole and feel the ridge. If you feel any roughness or a spot where the ridge is missing, even a little piece, you’ll want to change the “seat” as well as the washer. I usually just go ahead and change both seats and washers anyway as the cost for a seat is only about a buck and the washers even less so while you have it apart just change them both. But you’ll need a special tool.

Looks like I’m out of room so we’ll continue next time

]]>Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:37:27 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/04/-repair-a-leaky-faucet-part-1.htmlREPAIR A LEAKY FAUCET   - PART 1

In this space we’ve tried to educate folks about energy conservation. We’ve talked about the various incentive programs offered, the tax benefits, and how one might go about installing some of the energy saving devices or materials themselves. So far we’ve stuck mostly to things that save on heating and cooling costs, but now we’ll branch off a bit and discuss something that is certainly related to energy conservation but in a different way. Water leakage from a dripping faucet. Water used to be so cheap that until recently it wasn’t even metered in a lot of places. Water is becoming more valuable all the time and the price you pay for it will be increasing as time goes by. A faucet that drips after the handle is closed may not look like it’s costing you, but even a small drip can end up wasting thousands of gallons per year. If the leak is on the hot water side then you are also paying to waste heated water, which of course costs even more. We’ll look at changing the washer and valve seat in a leaky two-handle faucet, like you find on a kitchen or bathroom sink. The newer single lever style we’ll discuss at a later time. There are two types of two handle faucets. One type is called “washerless” and has no washer to change, while the type we’ll discuss today is a washer type faucet. If your faucet is less than 10-15 years old it’s probably washerless. You can tell by turning it off slowly and if the water stops flowing when the handle reaches a solid stop in it’s travel and the handle can’t be turned past that stop, then it’s probably washerless. A faucet with a washer will stop the flow slowly as the washer makes contact with the valve seat, and you can continue to twist it, even though it’s not making the leak stop.

                                                       WHERE TO START

Changing a washer and valve seat is something that can be done in 20 minutes, if you are a master plumber, or about half a day if you are me. But we’ll run down the procedure as if you have never done this before and you’ll see it’s not all that hard or mysterious.

 If you are going to change the washer in one faucet you may as well do both sides, both hot and cold. You’ll have all the tools and time set aside so it makes sense to do them both. The first thing is to shut off the water. Look under the sink, in the cabinet and back against the wall you’ll see some pipes and tubes. Two of the tubes come down from the faucet and join to the pipes coming out of the wall. Where the tubes and pipes meet you’ll see a chrome object with a chrome handle on it. In the world of plumbing where we have words like “petcock” and “P-trap” where the words in no way describe something’s function, it’s refreshing to find this chrome device is called a “stop”, which is what it does, and the tubes are called “supply lines” which is what they do. Turn the handle on the stop clockwise as far as you can. Do both sides. Now back up at the sink open the hot and cold faucets all the way. No water should come out. If even a small amount comes out shut off one side and then the other so you can tell which one is letting water come thru. If you are careful you can use pliers on the stop handle to get that last little bit. If that’s just not doing it you’ll have to find the main shut off for the house.

                              SHUT THE WATER OFF AT THE MAIN

 First, make sure no one is taking a shower or doing something like laundry, where a dependable water supply is required. You should probably warn everyone in the house that they may not have water for a while. Now you can hunt for the shut-off.  Find where the water comes into the house from the source and look for a “gate valve” on the pipe. This is a valve with a handle that looks like the handle on a hose faucet, except they are usually completely round instead of “T” shaped. Turn this clockwise all the way hard and then go back and look at your faucet. If all the water that was coming out has now stopped, you are in luck and can carry on. If it’s still leaking water try turning on a faucet that is lower, like a hose bib faucet outside, this may cause all the water that is getting by the main shut-off to drain out the outside faucet and not out of the one you want to work on. If this doesn’t work then you’ll have to shut the water off at the meter. Most water districts are real cooperative about coming out and shutting off the water for you and then returning when you have finished your repair and turning it back on for you. I would advise this option if at all possible. It takes a special tool to turn off the water at the meter although I’ve heard a big crescent wrench with a good sized screwdriver through the hole in the handle can work. The problem is these valves can be exceedingly hard to turn and now that some districts are using plastic pipe it is possible to twist the meter itself and break the plastic pipe. And if that happens my friend, if you break that pipe off on the district side of the valve, you do in fact, have a really big problem. You’ll need to quickly find a neighbor who will stand next to the fountain of gushing water and hold the crescent wrench while you go inside and call the water company and tell them what a stupid thing your neighbor just did, and then you need to leave town for a while. We’ll continue next time.

]]>Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:33:59 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/04/our-partners-at-the-bank.htmlOUR PARTNERS AT THE BANK

When I was growing up, way back when, there were certain groups or business establishments that were considered trustworthy and above reproach in all matters and situations. One group was the police. You were taught from the time you were small that a police officer was your friend and they were always honest and upstanding. Well if you grew up on the 1960’s and had long hair it didn’t take long for that institution to be knocked from its pedestal. Of course in all fairness there may have been times when we may have been doing something “technically” considered illegal at the time. And now a second group is sliding from its high place, and I’m referring to bankers. Not our local small town bankers but the big boys in the secondary loan markets. There has been a lot of discussion recently about the banking industries participation in the current economic crisis, but I’m talking about something a bit different. A decision last week by our friends at Freddie Mac and Fannie May (joined by six other banking industry groups), which could spell doom for one of the best energy conservation programs to come around in a long time.

A bit of background. In July of 2008 a bill was enacted called AB811. This law allowed Cities and Counties in the State to establish a mechanism to lend money to residential and commercial property owners for energy efficiency upgrades and solar panel installations. The money was called an assessment and would be paid back twice a year with the owner’s property tax bill. The owner could borrow up to 10% of the value of the property and repay it over 20 years, at 7% interest, and 90 different measures could be added or installed.

This was hailed as a program that would bring energy efficiency and solar panels to a great number of homes thru-out the state.

Our neighbor to the south, Sonoma County, was one of the first to launch their program also referred to as PACE or Property Assisted Clean Energy, in mid 2010. They are currently celebrating their 3rd anniversary and have made the program a tremendous success. They have lent over $56 million to over 1600 homes and business owners which created or retained some 683 jobs.

                                         HOPPING ON THE BANDWAGON

Other Cities and Counties were on the verge back in 2010 of starting their own PACE or AB811 programs, our County being one of them. Then two of the biggest players in the secondary lending market threw a wrench in the process. I’m talking about Freddie Mac and Fannie May. These two organizations buy up or guarantee most of the loans on single family homes made today, and they said they would no longer buy loans of homes with a PACE lien against them. Up until that time the standard procedure was to let the assessment stay with the property when it was sold. It would be passed on to the new owner since they would be getting the benefits of the energy measures or solar systems installed. Which is fine as long as the money is called an “assessment”. But the banks wanted it to be called a “loan”, and even though they are relatively small amounts this meant that it was first in line to be paid in case of a default, ahead of Freddie or Fannie. Why they wouldn’t just go along with the “assessment” designation is beyond me. This decision by Freddie and Fannie immediately caused postponement of all AB811 programs across the State, including ours here in Mendocino County.

Sonoma County had the guts to continue their program with the results discussed earlier, while everyone else folded. A lawsuit was brought and a Judge told Freddie and Fannie to take another look at things and see if they couldn’t come up with a way to make this work. Well, the timeframe for that decision was last week and our trusted bankers came to the conclusion that there was just no way any kind of answer to this problem could be found, and they would continue to not buy loans with a PACE assessment against it, and would foreclose on any property that obtained one.

                                                             BAIL-OUT

Now, you can see the good that this program has done for the folks in Sonoma County.  Not just the jobs saved or created, but the large amount of energy saved from the 1600 homes that had upgrades added and the power generated by the 1000 homes with solar systems installed. Now think that this could be happening in every single County or City in our State and add up the tremendous amounts of potential power saved. And since we get a most of our electricity from burning fossil fuels, with about one quarter from natural gas and oil, and remember that reducing our dependence on foreign oil is considered a matter of national security, it seems very unpatriotic of these two organizations come to this conclusion. Especially when you consider both we given support just a few short years ago to the tune of $100 billion each of taxpayer money! They were headed towards bankruptcy and the Federal government stepped in and bailed them out with taxpayer funds and now, for some unknown reason that most likely has to do with money, they are killing the best loan program this state has. I’m just not convinced a simple $20,000 + - tax assessment is an insurmountable problem. And if the taxpayers own a portion of these businesses why isn’t someone in power stepping in and telling these guys that they need to think about something other than their bonuses. Doesn’t anyone else have a problem with this? $100 billion each in taxpayer bail-out funds and these two businesses and their six advisory groups can’t find an answer to this simple problem. Just call the money an assessment so it can slide from one owner to the next and allow the rest of the State to get their PACE programs up and running. The results for the bankers would be that you could send thousands back to work, help save millions of dollars in energy and possibly save lives by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and gas over the coming decades. That is what I used to think bankers were all about. They ought to be ashamed, or worse.

]]>Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:14:26 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/03/is-there-a-new-gas-company-in-town.htmlIS THERE A NEW GAS COMPANY IN TOWN?

 the last two weeks I’ve received a couple of phone calls from the same organization. The recorded message has a greeting that leads you to believe the call is from PG&E, and the caller I.D. says “PG&E Service”. The message goes on to say something about being entitled to a big discount on my natural gas bill due to a recent bill or legislation that has passed.  You are then given the choice of hearing more.

So the first time around I pushed “yes” and was transferred to a live person.

Since I live in an area where natural gas is not available, and since a caller from PG&E should show this on their records, I was a bit skeptical. I asked the live person if they were with PG&E. She said “oh yes”. I then asked her if she actually worked for PG&E and if her paycheck was issued by PG&E. To this she said “well, we are working hand in hand with PG&E on this project” Hmm. “So who do you actually work for?” After several minutes of back & forth she finally gave me the name of a gas company, and it was not PG&E. That was enough for me and I hung up.

I remember when the telephone companies went thru de-regulation and I got a similar call from someone claiming to be with “AT&T” or Pacific Bell” or some major company, who wanted to save me money on my phone bill. And without ever knowing it I was switched to some little unknown phone company whose rates ended up being higher than my major company, and I have a feeling that may be what is going on here. De-regulation probably allows a private company to rent PG&E’s pipelines and buy gas from them or someone else, and ship it to you thru PG&E’s lines. As with the phone company they may even use PG&E to do their billing.

My problem with this whole thing is they are misleading folks into thinking they are talking to PG&E and working “hand and hand” with them to save them money on their natural gas bill. My elderly mother got the same call and hung up on them, but some of her friends didn’t pick up on the deception right away and were asked to fill out various forms which I’m pretty sure would have ended with them contracting with a different gas supplier than PG&E.

Every business has a right to advertise their services and even run a phone campaign to drum up new customers if they wish to do so, and that’s fine. But I’ve worked within PG&E’s energy incentive programs for over 30 years now and one thing PG&E is very specific about is at no time are you allowed to connect yourself with them in any way. You can’t say you are working with them or under them or next to them. You are not even supposed to use the three letters of their name without first submitting it to their lawyers, in triplicate.  And here is a company who’s caller I.D. says they are the real deal, “PG&E Service”.

If their (the new guys) natural gas product is, in fact, a lot cheaper then it should sell itself. But my objection is they are deceiving people into thinking they are dealing with PG&E, and had I not been thru the telephone experience I might have signed up. The paperwork the phony phone company had us sign was a long term contract and they recorded your voice saying you wanted the service you were signing up for, but of course you are thinking you are signing with your regular carrier. So if anyone out there has been thru the process with this company I’d like to know how their rates compare with PG&E’s in the end.

                                              AN ENERGY STAR HOTEL

We got word last week that a hotel in our area has earned the “Energy Star” designation. This is not an easy thing to do as only 28 hotels have proved worthy this year in the whole U.S. This is the Super 8 hotel at Orchard & Gobbi here in Ukiah, and is owned by Raakesh and Saroj Patel. 

They have gone to great lengths to make their place is as “green” and energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. They have done all the usual stuff like making sure the insulation levels are up to current standards and put in dual pane windows as well as energy efficient heating and cooling units in each room. 

But they have gone the extra mile by converting all lighting to efficient types with timer and photo cell activation, using environmentally friendly cleaning and chemical products in the rooms and pool, installing an electric vehicle charging station and recycling wherever possible. Raakesh has even put in occupancy sensors to turn off the lights and equipment when folks leave. They have employee carpooling and even serve a 100% organic breakfast to their guests. 

Our congratulations to Raakesh and Saroj for their extreme efforts in becoming an Energy Star Hotel. If any other hotels are interested just go to the Energy Star website and you can find out how it’s done.

]]>Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:25:38 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/03/what-a-year-special-to-real-estate-today-home-garden-special.html                                                             WHAT A YEAR  

The last day of March marks the end of any and all Federal Stimulus funded energy conservation programs. These programs came about as part of the huge stimulus program enacted by president Obama and most started sometime in 2010, although some didn’t really get off the ground until well into 2011.

These programs have resulted in more activity in the energy conservation industry than anything else that’s happened during the past 30 years. As much of a benefit as these programs were we almost had an additional federal incentive program that would have made these last two years exceptionally productive. It was called “Home Star” or for a while was also known as “cash for caulkers”. The problem was that the political environment changed at the very last minute and a group who wanted no new program enacted, no matter how much sense they made exerted  it’s influence and killed the thing dead. So much more could have been done but we have certainly done a lot with what we were left with.

                                                       STIMULUS MONEY

The stimulus bill provided money for a variety of incentive programs in the energy conservation field and also for education and training, which is always a good thing.

The best program we had to work with was created by a California Energy Commission grant and was a low, or in some areas, a no interest loan to fund whole house energy conservation retrofits. The latest theory in building energy conservation is a “whole house” approach. This is where the building is analyzed as a whole, and the testing and upgrade recommendations are structured with the thought that all the different elements need to work together and be sized correctly based on everything cost effective being installed at one time.  In the past we have approached conservation in a piecemeal fashion, doing attic insulation one year and going back and upgrading the windows the next year etc. and no thought was given to how everything was going to fit and work together in the end. This results in furnaces and other equipment being sized incorrectly.  The new whole house approach tries to give the building owner a “master plan” so to speak and tries to nudge them into making all the upgrades at once so they will all function together properly. This is all well and good except a whole house retrofit can cost from $10,000 to $80,000. And while we have rebate programs that can get you up to $4,000-$5,000 back, not many people have the cash up front to invest, even when their loan payments are much lower than the money saved on utilities.

So this grant inspired program was a loan to cover the cost of a whole house upgrade. A homeowner could borrow as much as he needed to install whatever was recommended as cost effective on a home assessment with another grant covering the cost of the home assessment. It financed new high efficiency HVAC systems, all insulation, new dual pane windows, even solar systems and even a new “cool roof” if you needed a roof.

It was called the Residential Energy Retrofit Program and was administered by CHF or California Homebuyers Fund, a non-profit Joint Powers Authority with membership in almost every County in the State.

                                                         THE CHF LOAN

The loan was very easy to apply for and no appraisal was done, it didn’t matter if you were “under water” on the mortgage amount, as long as the mortgage and property taxes were current. There was an income limit but it was very generous, as long as whoever was on title made less than $87,200 per year you qualified. It was a very easy loan to qualify for and to get with the paperwork being minimal and no lien was placed on the property. It came into our area in May of 2011 and even though it was refunded by the CEC a couple times it ran out of money to loan around September of that year, with well over 100 applications still awaiting processing. This was simply the best incentive vehicle the industry has had in 30 years. It gave $23.6 million in loans to over 1,000 homeowners, saved or created about 400 jobs and resulted in something like 86 Billion btu of energy saved, about 15,000 btu per dollar invested. It’s going to take whole house retrofits generating savings like that to seriously make a dent in our huge oil use.

 When the program ran out of money we in the industry expected money to be found to continue this program, but so far that has not happened. The grants that support this kind of program and money to continue it are taxpayer or ratepayer money, meaning it’s yours. We need to tell the CEC and our government representatives that we want programs like the CHF loan program to be a full time offering. If this Country is really serious about energy conservation, which we need to be, we’ll need this type of vehicle to get it done. This is a loan program so the money comes back and can be leant again. It makes much more sense than a rebate which is just handed out and is gone. If you believe in something like this you’ll need to let your representatives know. It’s an election year, they seem to listen better. Email or call your congressman and/or the CEC and tell them we want a CHF energy conservation loan program on an ongoing basis. If we could do this we could really make a difference, and put a lot of people to work. Just look at what was accomplished when we had the program for half a year. If enough people ask they have to listen, or like I said, it’s an election year.   

]]>Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:53:46 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/03/our-liquid-assets.html                                  OUR LIQUID ASSETS

Here’s an area of energy conservation that isn’t addressed highly in our area but will become very important in the coming years. It’s an issue we tend to not worry about as much as some because it doesn’t affect us on a daily basis and because we have an abundance of this resource compared to other areas. I’m talking about water conservation. Being in an area with 60-80 inches of annual rainfall and having a major river running thru our County we tend to push water conservation aside and think about more pressing shortages. This of course can be shortsighted. Studies have forecast that 2/3 of the worlds population will experience water shortages by 2025. Water is thought to be the next “oil” crisis and it’s easy to see why. People can live without oil, they can figure out another way to propel vehicles and lubricate machinery but there is no substitute for drinking water, or for growing crops. We have an abundance on the planet but in order to use it the purity must be maintained, and that is the issue. Polluted water is not only useless, it’s becomes a burden to deal with, or clean, or dispose of.

We have been treating the clean water on this planet as if it is limitless, with almost no regard for future users or those downstream, while some 884 million people (three times the population of the United States) have no access to clean water whatsoever.  The natural cleansing processes of the planet can only handle so much pollution and at some point in the not too distant future we will simply be polluting faster than the planet (along with our feeble attempts at cleaning it up ourselves) can restore it. The average household uses something like 350 gallons of fresh water per day while industry and farming use massive amounts.

Yes, there is an abundance of water, but we are creating an overabundance of water users with little regard for the consequences of over use. There used to be an abundance of redwood trees but try to find one now.

                                                        WHAT TO DO

So here are a few things that can be done to conserve water. We need to get started on serious conservation efforts while we still have something to conserve.

We can start with the more well known measures like making sure you have low-flow shower heads. Try turning the water off while you are soaping up, that’s why the shower heads have that little shut-off button. And low flow aerators on each faucet (can save 500 gallons/year) When it’s time to replace a toilet look for a low water user. Some of the earlier models didn’t work all that well and water was not being saved due to multiple flushes. That problem has been dealt with. Until you need a new one you can put a brick or full water bottle in the toilet tank (the tank, not the bowl, please) to make it into a low flush toilet. If you have leaks from the tank to the bowl (if it runs, if it comes on and goes off on its’ own) your toilet can use up to 200 gallons per day of extra water, that’s like 40 extra flushes. Fix it.

When buying appliances look for the Energy Star label, and make sure it saves water as well as power. When using those appliances like dishwashers and clothes washers, try to run them with full loads and use concentrated soaps because they take less energy to produce and package.

Here’s a big one, drinking water. Quit buying bottled water. Chances are it’s just someone else’s tap water, and it takes 3 gallons of water to produce one gallon of bottled water. Store drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the tap run until the water gets cold. Forego your garbage disposal and compost your garbage. It just has to be filtered out of the sewage and taken to the landfill.

                                                          LANDSCAPING

When planning your landscaping, use native plants that will survive with just rainwater. And consider catching and harvesting rainwater. A simple system can be designed easily and you get free water for your plants. When watering choose the right time of day. Don’t water in the hot part of the day or much will be lost to evaporation. So much of water conservation is just common sense. If you see water running down the drain or street, or being needlessly polluted, do something about it. If a person wants to really be water conscious you can even try to change your diet to reflect foods that use less water to produce. You would think that fruits and vegetables would be high water use offenders but they require only 20-40 gallons per pound to produce. Some are on the high end with peaches, avocados and bananas taking over one hundred gallons per pound, and tofu and rice taking 2-300 gallons per pound. It seems the dairy & meat products are the worst water offenders per pound with cheese taking almost 400 gallons, processed cheese taking 600 gallons, chicken comes in at almost 500 gallons, while beef is a whopping 1,857 gallons of water per pound of beef. But the real eye opener is butter. One pound of butter takes 2,044 gallons of water to produce, and I really like butter.

The main point here is that we all must do our part and quit thinking the other guy will take care of the problem. We have been using and abusing our most abundant resource for several centuries now and we must stop before we find ourselves (or our children and grandchildren) in the same situation as the redwood trees. Where the few unspoiled examples are relegated to protected places and in books. We must put pressure on governments and industry to change their ways. Commercial water pollution happens on a massive scale and pales in comparison to individual pollution. In the mean time we all need to do our part as much as we can. So for me to break even on the butter all I have to do is find something around here that will hold 2,044 gallons of rainwater.

]]>Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:03:11 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/03/-more-on-the-ir-camera.htmlMORE ON THE I.R. CAMERA

In our last discussion, we were talking about the I.R. or Infrared camera. This is also called a “thermal imager”. These names are self-explanatory in that the camera senses and records images in the “infrared” or heat portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. And “thermal imager” relates to the same thing, an image created using heat or “thermal waves”. Last time I said that we had three tools for testing things in a home pertaining to energy efficiency or utility savings and that is really not exactly correct. The blower door and duct pressure tester and now the thermal imaging camera are just the largest and most impressive of our tools, but we actually have many more we use. We have a combustion gas analyzer to check whether the gasses coming out of your water heater or furnace are burning completely. Incomplete combustion can be a major health hazard if the appliance is allowed to back draft and the products of incomplete combustion are allowed to build up inside the home. These gases can be deadly.

We also have a handheld gas sniffer which we use to inspect every inch of incoming fuel gas line to make sure there are no leaks of fuel gas. Most of these gasses are heavier than air and when they leak they settle in pockets at the lower level of our homes and just wait for a source of ignition. 

We have an aerometer with which we can measure how much air comes out of a heat register and a number of other small very useful tools that give us a large amount of information about your house and the safety of its gas burning appliances.
                                   
                                                    BACK TO THE I.R.

However, the newest, coolest tool is the I.R. camera, which we had been discussing last time. And as we were saying, what better tool to measure heat leaving a structure than a tool that sees and records what it sees in heat waves. These cameras were so expensive just a few years ago that not many people in the business owned one. It doesn’t take long in our world for anything involving electronics to become more user friendly and cheaper and that has held true with the I.R. camera. While a basic beginner’s model used to be around $20,000, we now have entry-level models in the $2,500 range with ones having acceptable sensitivity and range with recording ability being around $5-$8000. While not cheap, it’s now in the realm of lease and financing, thank goodness!

So we have a tool that senses temperature differences in materials. The camera has a screen to which the user sees an image of the target area and when set to its thermal image mode the image is presented as a picture that changes color as the temperature of the materials registers warmer or colder than the surrounding materials. The standard setting gives you a range of about 30 degrees, and you have a color palette that goes from dark blue to bright red as those 30 degrees are transversed. So you see an image of your target area but in false color, with the cooler areas being dark blue and the warmest showing as bright red. The newer units have a “picture-in- picture” setting which allows the operator to take a picture with half of the frame being a normal photo and the center of the shot being in the I.R. mode. This makes it easier to locate the areas for investigation if you can see part of the area as a real light image photo.

                                                       AT THE BUILDING

Typically the operator will set an appointment with a building owner and have them get the structure heated up in advance. It typically takes at least an 18-degree temperature difference between inside and outside to get the difference to register properly. The measurements are usually taken from inside the building due to the effect of wind and direct sunlight on the surface to be viewed. Just a small amount of wind can compromise accuracy. A 10 mph wind can distort results by over 50%. The sunlight warming your wall surface has a similar effect. So viewing is done from the interior. The surface of a wall or ceiling can have drastically different reflective qualities and it takes a skilled operator to make sure he is looking at things correctly. An unpainted surface will give a much different reading than a painted one with the painted one being the most accurate. Glass surfaces do not react at all and special attention must be paid to reflections and “bounce-back” images of the surfaces that reflect an unwanted image back onto the surface you are trying to measure, even something as unforeseen as the operators forehead reflects an image back to your target.

The better units can record hundreds of images on a removable disk or have internal storage, and can also record your voice explanations of each shot.

For the building science industry the advancement and affordability of these tools has opened a whole new world in home performance. To be able to actually “see” the heat leaving a building takes a lot of the guesswork out of what we do.

These cameras, of course, have many other uses, anything that gets hot when it malfunctions can now be observed without touching it. Overloaded fuses, overheating electrical and combustion motors, bearings that are wearing will get hot. Rumor has it that during the last outbreak of whatever exotic flu bug we were concerned was set to invade our Country, that thermal imagers were set up at airport arrival gates and everyone who got off a foreign plane had their temperature taken by a thermal imaging device.

So big brother is not only watching you but can now also take your temperature. Wow.

 For questions, corrections, concerns or requests please email Jim at jim@appersonenergymanagement.com  

or go to the website.  Jim has owned Apperson Insulation for 25 years, installed energy conservation items on over 3000 local homes. Has been a certified HERS rater since 1993 w/ over 1500 audits. He has State licenses in General Building, Insulation & Windows. Is a member of Build It Green, CBPCA & is BPI certified


]]>Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:01:55 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/02/thermal-imaging-camera.htmlTHE I.R. CAMERA AND OTHER TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Back in the early 1980’s when our company was first getting into the energy conservation business, the whole concept of what energy efficiency in a home means and how to achieve it was in its infancy. The birth of the field was basically a reaction to the oil embargo of the late 1970’s. Up until that happened no one thought much about conservation or the fact that we wouldn’t always just have as much oil, and therefore cheap electrical power, as we would ever want or need. The embargo opened everyone’s eyes to the fact that oil is a finite resource and we, in the United States, do not own or produce as much as we use. The first attempts at residential conservation were put forth by the utility companies (PG&E in our area) who were realizing the shortfall of fossil fuels to generate power at the same time construction of nuclear power plants were meeting with strong opposition from the public.

                                  THE ZERO INTEREST LOAN PROGRAM

Since the utility sponsored programs were the only game in town we took their methods as gospel. We had no real testing tools at the time so the concept was a “one-size-fits-all” kind of approach. You went to someone’s home and you looked at a group of six things that the utility company told you were what made a house waste energy. The attic insulation had to be a certain level, the doors had to be weather stripped, the showers had to have low flow heads, the gaps in the outside trim had to be caulked and the water heater had to have a blanket. If any of these were missing you went “Ah-ha” (and in most cases all were missing), and you convinced the homeowner if took advantage of an interest free loan from PG&E he could then install these items and his heating and cooling bills would drop sharply. In our local program if you did install these items you could then go on and get another loan for more extensive things like wall and floor insulation and even dual pane windows. 

This was all fine while it lasted, which was 3-4 years and then the ZIP program ended. It did a lot of good for a lot of homes but without any means of testing or verification of results the real benefits were always in question.

                                                    TESTING & TOOLS

As it became more evident that energy conservation and reducing the use of fossil fuels is a serious matter, even to the point of national security, a better way was needed to make the process custom to each building since each building is so different. First we saw energy audits being done on structures in such a way as to be custom to a particular building. But the real changes started 10-15 years ago when we saw actual testing equipment designed strictly for conservation. We were introduced to the” blower door” about that time and the “duct blaster” shortly thereafter. These are both pieces of testing equipment designed strictly for building energy conservation, and both work on the same principal. The blower door pressurizes a whole house (or commercial building) after sealing up all the openings, so we can tell how leaky that building is. The duct blaster does the same for the HVAC duct system. Air leakage and infiltration are major factors in the loss of conditioned air and there was finally a tool to quantify and locate this instead of just throwing caulking at the same places on every building and hoping those were the correct spots.  
                                           AND NOW THE I.R. CAMERA

About the same time another tool was becoming available for building shell diagnostics. The Thermal Imager or Infrared Camera. These are fantastically useful instruments.

Visible light consists of electromagnetic waves of a certain wavelength. When those same waves are shorter and their crests closer together than visible light, they fall into the “ultra-violet” part of the spectrum, and as they get shorter yet they become X-rays and finally Gamma rays. If we head back up the other way on the spectrum just past visible light, as the waves become longer we have the infra-red part of the spectrum, then longer still they becomes Micro-waves and then radio waves. But it’s the infra-red part that these thermal imagers sense and record. The infra-red is heat. And if we are studying heat loss what better tool than one that can actually see and record heat leaving a building? Together with the blower door and duct pressure tester we have a way to test an individual structure and measure its performance and record the results of the testing. We then can compare our efforts after our energy efficiency measures are installed. We now have a way to see if what we did actually worked. The draw back to this particular tool was and is its cost. The first I.R. cameras had to be artificially cooled with liquefied gas and were large and cumbersome making them not feasible for building shell diagnostics. It would have been easier to bring the building to the camera at the time. We’ll pick it up here next time. 
]]>Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:35:03 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/01/press-democrat-article-published-january-3-2012.htmlHigh Heating Bills Prompt Energy Efficiency Checks for Homeowners
By GLENDA ANDERSON

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

The high heating bills that come with winter’s chill have sent some homeowners hunting for energy efficiency.

 “It’s been cold. People have been cranking up the heat,” said Jim Apperson, owner of Apperson Energy Management, with offices in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.

When they find it costs too much to keep the house toasty, some seek a home energy evaluation.

Kimberly Melvin and her husband this year had their drafty Ukiah home evaluated and opted for a house retrofit, including insulation, double-paned windows, new furnace and air conditioning.

Apperson also made safety checks and found her oven was emitting unsafe amounts of carbon dioxide, a problem that was fixed with a new vent fan. The energy makeover cost the family about $23,000, but they recouped $5,500 in rebates and are saving money on their monthly energy bills.

“It was so well worth it. The money we’re saving is incredible,” Melvin said.

Last winter, her monthly heating bill was close to $220 a month. Her November bill this year was $120, she said. 

“I keep it warm” because of the children, Melvin said. But now it stays warm enough for minimally clad children when the thermostat is set in the mid-60s.

 The makeover was conducted utilizing a new program, Energy Upgrade California, a collaboration of counties, cities, non-profits and utility companies. Property owners can find out what energy-saving incentives are available in their area by going to www.energyupgradeca.org, and then entering their zip codes.

Homeowners have nothing to lose by having their homes evaluated because rebates cover their costs.

“So it’s free,” Apperson said.

The tests are comprehensive, with two energy technicians spending three hours at each home, he said.

Last week, Vince Caffery and Sergio Galarza were busy evaluating a vintage west Ukiah home. Their work included sealing off the front door with a vinyl-covered frame fitted with a fan. Facing outward, the fan pulled air out of the house, creating a vacuum inside. That allowed the technicians to measure how much air was leaking using a hand-held computer.

A smoke-emitting device helps locate the leaks.

“We have tangible evidence where drafts are,” Caffery said.

 An evaluation looks at a home as a whole system rather than at individual parts — like the insulation, windows and ducts, Apperson said.

Making changes piecemeal can result in something like a heating system that is too large for the house, causing it to cycle on and off frequently and inefficiently, he said.

 Looking at individual symptoms also can lead to erroneous assumptions, Apperson said. People often think they need insulation under their homes because the floors feel cold when in fact the problem is air leaks elsewhere in the house sucking the cold air up through the floor. The solution is getting rid of the air leaks, not insulating the floors, which has a minimal effect on a home’s energy efficiency in our climate, Apperson said.

 To be eligible for Energy Upgrade rebates, a home must be tested before and after installation of new devices to prove they work.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or Glenda.anderson


]]>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:21:12 -0800http://www.appersonenergymanagement.com/3/post/2012/01/first-post.html                                         WHOLE HOUSE ENERGY ASSESSMENTS

 First of all, a note pertaining to our last column, questioning why no more money was channeled to such a good and successful a program as the MIST/CHF low interest loan program and why it was allowed to simply die. I was able to email that column to a Mr. Robert Oglesby, the Executive Director of the California Energy Commission as an open letter and asked for his response. So far haven’t heard back.

There is something that needs to be mentioned here regarding politicians we elect. When it was getting down to the wire for the CEC to make it’s decision as to how much money (if any) was to go to the CHF program, people in the industry tried to get any available politician to take a stand and nudge the CEC in the correct direction. We reached out to the offices of Congressmen Mike Thompson, who actually returned our call and was genuinely interested in our plight. Unfortunately it was on the “wrong side of the isle” and there was nothing he could do, but referred us to State Senator Noreen Evans’s Ukiah office who also called us back and asked what they could do to help. Since the vote was the next day and in Sacramento, the timing was all wrong and they just couldn’t do anything, but I think it’s worth mentioning that these elected officials did take the time to actually try to understand the issue and were willing to help if they could have. A nice surprise.
                                                         HOME ENERGY AUDITS

 A lot of the energy incentive programs available right now sponsored by utility companies require some type of energy audit or assessment prior or after the work is complete to justify the incentive amount. We used to call these “Audits” but we have been asked not to use that term. They (whoever that may be) feel the connotation is too close to an IRS function, so we have been asked to use the much bigger word, “assessment”. But it’s all the same and it is the best place to start if you are serious about doing an energy upgrade on your home. As we’ve said so many times here, it can be counterproductive to approach the replacement and upgrading of the many energy systems in a building without some kind of plan or roadmap, which give you some assurance that everything will end up working together as a unit.

It’s been proven that the “Whole-House Concept” of energy upgrades is by far the most cost-effective path, and an energy assessment is the first step. A good one will take one or two guys 2-4 hours onsite to do the testing and gather all the information needed. The basic one required for PG&E’s EUC rebate program requires pressure testing your duct system as well as pressure testing the whole house. The technicians will also gather information on all your gas fired appliances, as well as doing safety testing on them. They will also do basic safety testing on the house as a whole to make sure you don’t start out with some kind of back drafting problem of some kind. They will look at everything in your home that produces, consumes or is affected by energy.

They then take all this information back to their lair and feed it into a computer program that builds a model of your house inside it, and subjects it to all the weather conditions it has in its library, for every hour of the day of the year, for whatever climate zone you are in. It then lists upgrades and improvements and calculates how much each of those will save, both as a percentage and as a monetary amount. These percentages are used to determine rebate amounts in the PG&E EUC rebate program.

The technician should also ask you for 12 months of utility usage and input that into the program also, and in the end a 12 page custom report is issued with some very good information, tailored just for your home. Upgrades are listed in the order of their “cost-effectiveness” meaning the most “bang for the buck” listed first. Unless the home was built within the last 10 years, we almost always see 15-20% by installing a few simple items and a 30-50% savings by getting more aggressive (new dual pane windows, new furnace), and you can get an 80-85% if you add solar P.V.

The drawback is these assessments take a lot of time, as you can see, 10-15 man hours, so most companies must charge for the service. But people hesitate to pay because they don’t know what they are going to get in advance, and since most utility programs have minimums, if their savings doesn’t measure up on the audit the money spent is then wasted.

However, we now have an answer. We now have a $500 rebate from a CEC grant administered by a group called Ecology Action. You can Google “Energyupgradecalifornia” put in your zip code and look for the $500 “Whole House Energy Rating Rebate”. You fill out a form and you have an option of selecting a rating company to come out and do the rating on your home. The first part is called the “test-in” and that’s where you’ll find what upgrades are recommended and for that part the reimbursement is $300. Then after the work is done (if you have work done, it’s not mandatory) you have the rater come back and do a “test-out” and for that you get a $200 reimbursement. When you call or email to schedule your audit make sure you ask how much it’s going to cost, you’ll get $300 back for the assessment but every auditing company can charge what they want. 

A good home energy audit or assessment is a valuable tool in fighting high utility costs and if you can take advantage of this CEC grant to get it done at little or no cost you should consider it before the grants are gone.
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