Energy Efficiency Consulting Services

It doesn’t have to be ‘business as usual’ in either new home design or in major renovations.

There are compelling reasons to design a ‘high performance’ home: increased home owner comfort, increased building durability and reduced energy bills.

In addition, these qualities in a home serve as market differentiators.
As the market becomes more sensitive to energy costs, the value of this differentiator will appreciate.


Energy Efficiency Associates provides consulting sevices to advance energy efficiency in new homes, as well as in renovations, or even in cases of routine maintenance such as siding replacement. 


Interested in eliminating home energy bills ?  

 

New homes targeted at Zero Net Energy, and Near-Zero Net Energy either eliminate, or come close to eliminating home energy bills. The energy used by the home comes from the sun, in different ways.


For existing homes, much depends upon the size, condition, and age of the home, as well as the goals of the homeowner. Energy Efficiency Associates is currently consulting on a 7400 sf home major renovation, in which the currently projected annual energy savings is in excess of $4100, at today’s fuel prices (see spreadsheet example below).

 

Energy Efficiency Associates are now developing Superinsulation Retrofit technology, a set of materials and techniques which can be used to reduce home energy consumption by 70% to 90%. Although presently seen as a 'technology of the future', some of these techniques can be cost effectively applied by taking advantage of today's renovations.

 

In both new and existing homes there is great deal of very interesting work in the area of energy efficiency is being done, for a sampling see this area of the Affordable Comfort Inc. website.  


Applied Building Science (the principles of physics as applied to the way houses work ‘as a system’) in balance with optimal design and construction techniques, and an eclectic selection of materials, results in more comfortable and durable buildings with lower operating costs.

 

Incorporating computer modeling  of home energy use provides feedback during the design and materials selection process, and helps quantify energy efficiency savings. Here is an example:

 

 

Computer modeling is used in an interative, iterative process to rapidly converge on an optimal design considering the  home as a system', not disjoint, isolated components.

 

Once the computer model of the home is created, many different scenarios can be tried quickly and easily, with monetizing energy savings as the feedback for each scenario.  

 

The bottom line is you can quickly see the annualized monetary effects of each decision, and this is used to guide the selection process to an optimal result.

 

The optimal result is to be more comfortable in the home, save money on energy bills, and a lower maintenance, more durable home.