What Drives Energy Assessments?

"Treating the Symptoms, not the Cause"

In San Diego County, approximately 60% of homes were built prior to 1980. These homes predates Calif. energy efficiency building standards. These are likely to lead to comfort issues, higher energy costs and health/safety issues. Even homes built into the "90's" have deficencies in that would greatly benefit in energy efficiency upgrades.
This problem is exaserbated when homeowners attempt to resolve comfort issues and high energy bills. They hire an HVAC or solar contractor respectively. Not understanding the homes energy efficiency is unknowingly resolving the symptons and not the cause.
Lets evaluate high energy costs, comfort issues and health & safety symptons further to identify causes.

Energy Costs

Home ownership means managing costs. Taxes, insurance, maintenance and more. There are resources and multiple vendors available to control cost of ownership.
One cost that needs attention are your energy bills. Easier said than done. It's always bewildering to get a surprise utility bill that is beyond your expectation or budget. Or realize the ongoing increase in your bills. It becomes daunting to unravel and understand your billing and rates. Unfortunately it gets more complicated. Seasonal fluctuations, billing rates (TOU) makes understanding your energy usage overwhelming.

Seasonal Changes
One of the big seasonal cost fluctuations, is heating and cooling our homes to provide comfort. Fortunately standards have moderately improved efficiency in cooling, heating and distribution. Programmable thermostat and other features have helped managed our energy costs as it relates to comfort. This can be managed.
Time-of-Use Rates
Utility companies haven't helped. All Calif utilities have converted most customers to Time-of-Use rates (TOU). This means your rates can change 4 times a day, weekends, holidays and seasonally. The complication of TOU rates has confounded even energy professionals.
Usage
Our habits have changed particularly with the advent of technology. Plug-ins devices have exploded in many facets of our needs.

Solar
Many homeowners jump to a solar system. This traditionally penciled out (cost effective). Thanks to federal tax credits and utility Net Metering resulting in zero utility cost and attractive ROI.
That was yesterday. Tax credits are scheduled to be reduced and expire end of 2022. TOU rates defeats your energy credit back to the utility company.
This solar approach has been problematic and no longer has the same attractive ROI it once had. This is also like treating the symptoms and the cause. Solar companies don’t consider other areas of energy savings.

Comfort Issues

Its essential your home provides comfort all year long from outdoor temperatures. We need heat when its cold and cooling when its hot & humid. The cost of comfort is your largest energy expense
When you realize your current heating/cooling system is not sufficient, Its instinctive to look at your system to determine how to resolve your comfort issues. Don’t hire an HVAC contractor…..yet.

Health & Safety

The problem could be elsewhere. "Your Home is a System." Your home consists of major building components that interact with each other that impacts comfort and energy efficiency. This is paramount when resolving comfort issues. Building exteriors including exterior walls, insulation windows, doors, roof & foundation must be evaluated. Also climate & building orientation impacts overall and specific comfort issues. You're at risk, treating the symptoms and not the cause. Worse yet, you could be upsized to compensate for poor efficiency. This leads to higher initial expense, higher monthly utility bills and shorter life of your equipment.

Energy Assessments also identifies health & safety conditions. This is an opportunity for homeowners get important information on health & safety conditions not previously known. Combustion hazards, indoor air quality and depressurization are identified for potential health & safety hazards.
Combustion Hazards - Malfunctioning gas appliances have potential of exposing occupants to deadly carbon monoxide gas. Location is crucial. Gas appliances located within the conditioned portion of a home present the highest risk. Energy Assessments conduct a Combustion Appliance Assessment to identify potential risks and recommendations.

Air Infiltration - Older dwellings lack air tightness that expose dwelling to outdoor & unconditioned air pollutants inside living areas of your home. This leads to unhealthy indoor air quality (IAQ) conditions.
Depressurization - Exhaust fans that can create depressurization inside a dwelling. Bathroom , clothes dryer fans and kitchen range hoods all draw air from inside to the outside. The biggest potential are older or poorly designed/installed heating/cooling systems. According to Calif Energy Commission, older ducting systems have average leakage of 30%. Worst case is creating moderate depressurization causing combustion appliances to backdraft dangerous combustion gases that includes carbon monoxide gas.

Energy Efficiency is Cost-Effective

Improving energy efficiency reduces your comfort costs, extends the life of your hvac equipment. We have demonstrated up to 40% reduction in energy costs in our assessments. Lower HVAC costs and prolongs the life of the equipments. Lower solar costs with less panels. You are also contributing to a sustainable lifestyle for you and future generations.

We Can Help - Start with an Energy Assessment.

Energy Assessment