Tom Kraeutler Jun 10th 2010 at 5:00PM

Along with summer temperatures, your utility bills are bound to start heating up unless you take steps to help your home create a more efficient cool. According to the EPA’s Energy Star program, almost 20% of a typical household’s utility bill goes toward cooling costs. By taking a few simple steps this summer to improve energy efficiency, you can save energy, save money and help fight climate change.

Fortunately, there are lots of easy no-cost to low-cost ways to choose from to beat back the heat this summer.

Spin Up the Cool With Room Fans

• Room fans provide that great “evaporative cooling” effect, moving air and thereby causing any moisture on your skin to evaporate so that you feel more cool and comfortable. Position them for maximum air circulation in living areas, and if you’re using a window fan, make sure to open another window across the room to help with cross-ventilation.

• Get ceiling fans spinning in the right direction to help cool your home faster. In summer, that direction is counterclockwise so the fan “pulls” colder air up and into circulation. If your fan isn’t clued in to the right blade direction, turn it off and look for a small switch on the side of the fan motor to reverse the flow.
• Whole-house fans are among the most effective, efficient and low-cost means of cooling your home. Unlike smaller attic fans, these large fans are installed in the ceiling of the uppermost floor of your home and cool living spaces by drawing air from open windows into the attic, where it flows out through enlarged vents. Fire up a whole-house fan for an hour or so in the early evening once temperatures drop, and you’ll slumber in cooled-down comfort.
• Attic fans are critical to reducing the temperature of warm air that gets trapped in attic spaces. Cool down your attic, and the temperature on the floors below will also drop. One caution though: If your home already has a central air conditioning system, attic fans can actually steal some of that cool air from your house. In that case, it’s always better to rely on attic vents to handle the attic cooling duties.

Insulate and Ventilate

• Adding attic insulation isn’t something you might think to do in summer, but doing so can help keep hot attic air out of your house as well as save energy year-round. Well-insulated homes should have a minimum of 19-inches of batt insulation or 22-inches of blown-in insulation, so grab a tape measure and check your attic’s status now. If you need to add more, tackle the job during cooler morning hours, and be sure to wear a dust mask, safety goggles and full-coverage work clothes that minimize skin exposure to insulation particles.
• Seal all duct seams to keep that hard-earned cool air from escaping into dead ends. As much as 20% of circulating air is lost to leaks and faulty connections, but a bit of your time and some mastic sealant or metal (UL 181) tape is all it takes to seal ducts in attics, basements and crawlspaces. By the way, despite its name, “duct tape” is not to be used to seal ducts. Its adhesive will dry out quickly, leaving ducts as leaky as they were before it was applied. Also be sure to seal connections between cooling vents and registers and your ceilings, walls and floors.
• Improving attic ventilation is also key to a cool summer indoors. A combination of ridge and soffit vents will work with your insulation efforts and attic fans to keep attic air cooler. Such a vent system moves air into the soffits, where it runs along the underside of the roof sheathing to exit your home at the roof’s ridge.

((continued below)

Care for Your Air Conditioning

• Now’s the time to get your central air conditioning system serviced for optimum summertime efficiency. Even if it seems to cool well, low-refrigerant levels may mean it needs to run longer to do the same job cooling your house, which raises cooling costs significantly. After servicing, help your AC system keep up the cool by changing filters at least once a month.
• If you rely on window air conditioners for home cooling, get the most out of them by making sure they’re properly installed, sealed, cleaned and equipped with a new filter.
• If your air conditioning equipment is getting old (and therefore less efficient), you may actually make money by trading up to Energy Star qualified AC units and systems. Installing a new system now can compound your summer energy savings with valuable tax credits and local utility rebates that are available until the end of this year.

Program a Cool Routine for Your Home

• Use a programmable thermostat to sync home comfort with your household’s summer routines. Set it for a higher temperature when you’re away from the house, and program the cooling to begin about an hour before you’re due to arrive home.
• Keep blinds and curtains drawn during the day to screen out the sun’s heat.
• Strategic landscaping will have your home made in the shade, so add and maintain trees on the south and west sides to help shelter and shield the sunniest sides of the structure.

For more ways to save energy this summer, consult the Energy Star’s Home Energy Yardstick tool to find out how your home compares to other across the country and get specific recommendations for improvements.

Tom Kraeutler delivers home cooling tips and more each week as host of The Money Pit, a nationally syndicated home improvement radio program. He is also AOL’s Home Improvement Editor and author of “My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure.”

See full article from WalletPop: http://srph.it/bR9e3R

These days many families are looking for ways to be both frugal and environmentally friendly.

New Brunswick has the unfortunate distinction of being the third highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases in Canada. Though some of this is attributed to industry, the energy we use to heat and power our homes is responsible for a whopping 26 per cent of our total emissions, a fact that the Conservation Council of New Brunswick states quite candidly on its website. And it’s something Kevin Matthews, renewable and home energy adviser with the council, feels could change with just a little bit of effort by the homeowner.

“The first step in achieving energy efficiency in your home is getting an energy efficiency audit done,” said Matthews. “For a house less than 2,000 square feet, the cost amounts to $50, with the remainder ($400) paid for by the provincial government, so you’re almost crazy to not get it done.”

“An energy audit of your home is like a medical checkup for the home,” said Matthews. “It will provide you with a comprehensive list of the energy-related strengths and weaknesses of your home, and as an additional financial benefit, it is very rare that the recommendations are not cost effective to implement.”

Making better energy decisions in and around the home is something Efficiency NB is working hard to promote and financially support through its programs, which can be found in detail on its website www.efficiencynb.ca. Programs cover everything from new and existing residential and commercial buildings to low-income households in conjunction with the Department of Social Development.

What exactly is an energy audit?

A comprehensive residential energy audit is an assessment of energy use and inventory of the energy-using equipment in the home. The energy assessment includes:

* how energy is used (can determine the use of a smaller appliance instead of a major appliance to save energy)

* how much is used – which means tracking your energy use using your utility bills or reading your own utility meters

* when it is used – means the time of day and time of year usage, which will help determine if savings can be made when no one is home

* how and how much energy is lost or wasted will help determine where energy can be saved

(continued below)

Internal Sponsorship:
Just released from GreenEcoClub the DIY Easy-Energy-Audits. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do energy audit on your home like the pros. Easy-Energy-audits

Besides a formal energy audit, Matthews outlines an energy conservation measures inventory that any homeowner can undertake to get a rough estimate of the home’s energy efficiency and how one can reach the objective of air tightness throughout the home.

“You want to reduce all air leakage . . . and first and foremost, the key to any energy assessment is the blower-door test,” said Matthews. “This test effectively sucks all the air out of your house and reveals air leakage spots.”

Matthews indicates that the basement and attic are two places a homeowner should look first, particularly at the insulation.

“The basement, from my experience, is always going to be your weakest point and it usually exhibits telltale signs right away,” said Matthews, “in terms of leaks, moisture and letting in cold air or water.”

Matthews says that insulating your foundation – from the inside and if possible from the outside – will go a long way to minimize any heat loss and potential water moisture issues in the foundation.

Matthews says that lack of insulation in walls and ceilings, and around windows and doors is the next major culprit of air escape, along with the incidental little penetration holes used for power sockets, piping and other construction holes in the home.

Finally, the third item question is what method of heating is used by the homeowner and does it need replacing?

Electric heating systems emit the most greenhouse gas emissions, far worse than burning oil in a home furnace.

Only about 30 per cent of the energy of coal or oil burned in a power generating station makes it to our electric heaters.

Matthews points out that today’s oil, gas and wood furnaces have upgraded their energy efficiency to the point that many have efficiency ratings easily exceeding 80 per cent.

Forward Thinking is a Thursday feature that explores research and development, as well as new technologies in our community. Send your comments and story ideas to news@dailygleaner.com.

As I’ve watched the residential solar energy market for the past year I’ve often wondered where it is heading.  Who will emerge as the dominant players?  Will the panel manufacturers ultimately control the industry or will those on the leasing and finance side?  How will rebates look in years to come?  Will the federal and local governments continue to support residential solar energy? 

I’m not enough of a clairvoyant to be able to predict who will dominate the market, but I will say that there is some pretty amazing progress being made.  Here are my favorite advances which I believe will continue to shape the future of the residential solar energy market by reducing the overall price and friction of going solar, and therefore increasing the adoption rate.

1. Micro-inverters and other parallel panel technology that allows each panel to perform at it’s best rather than bringing all the panels down to the level of the worst performing panel, as is the case with traditional inverters.  Currently panels are usually hooked up in series and if one panel is only performing at 90% due to shading or something else, the whole system will be brought down to 90%.  Whereas with parallel panel technology each panel performs at it’s optimal range and is not impacted by the panels around it.  So if only panel was dirty and performing at 90%, the others could still produce at 100%. This can improve overall system performance by 5-30%.  Or more accurately, it can avoid losses of efficiency that often run 5% -30%.  Companies to look at in this space:
eIQ Energy – Parallel Solar
Enphase Energy – Microinverters
 
2. Packaged installation kits.  I don’t mean DIY kits for homeowners to try to install themselves.  I mean kits like Akeena Solar’s Westinghouse Solar kit (formerly Andalay Solar) and other similar kits. believe these will help drive down installation time and cost because they are delivered to the installer with all of the necessary parts, which means the installers won’t have to make one-off runs to the hardware store because they forgot this fastener or that bolt.  That should help drive down costs by decreasing the installation time.  The bulk purchasing of parts may also help drive down costs.   

3. Solar Leases.  Companies like SunRun, Sungevity, and SolarCity are all now offering solar leases of one sort or another.  While the details differ between each of the leases (lease length, down payment amount, monthly payment, etc.) the idea is the same.  instead of paying one lump sum upfront to buy and install panels, a homeowner pays a monthly fee to lease the system.  The home owner won’t own the system, but they will get all of the power it produces, which in turn lowers their utility bill.  The net effect is a reduced energy bill and a monthly payment for the use of the solar panels, which, when added together cost less than the homeowners pre-solar energy bill.  Because the leasing company, rather than the home owner, owns the solar panels, the leasing company handles all maintenance and repairs of the system.  The homeowner can have the system installed, then never have to lift a finger for the next 10-20 years. 

One of the other benefits of a solar lease is that the solar leasing companies can purchase panels in bulk and or can negotiate better rates with installers because they do so many installations, and therefore can pass some of that savings on to the homeowner. 

Lastly, lease payments do increase year over year, but they tend to do so at 2.5% a year, not the 6%+ a year that traditional utility rates are increasing so homeowners who select a lease are insulated from rising energy prices.    

4. New excitement around clean, renewable energy. I wish it did not have to come to things as extreme as a coal mine collapse and the Gulf Coast oil spill to motivate people to take real steps towards renewable energy, but often it does take a catastrophe to get change to happen.  If global warming and climate change are not concrete enough for some, I suggest they take a look at the Louisiana coast line. 

5. Lastly, rebates and incentives.  While New Jersey did cut one of their rebate programs as a way to make up a state budget short-fall, on the whole there are more and more rebate programs being put in place and that’s a trend that I believe will continue.  For example, Oregon just put in a $0.65 per kWh feed-in tariff.  That’s about as good as it gets!  President Obama extended the 30% federal tax credit through 2016, and given how much he’s talking about the importance of renewable energy now, I think he’ll be likely to extend it further given the opportunity.  While you’re at President Obama, how about putting a solar array on the Whitehouse?   

As always, if you’d like to learn more about going solar, we’d love to help.  Fill out our learn more form and we’ll put you in touch with a local installer who can help you out!

By STEVEN HILL Published: June 8, 2010

With toxic black ooze spreading throughout the Gulf of Mexico, it may be time for the Obama administration to think seriously about national energy policy. It could learn plenty by looking across the Atlantic. 

The average European today emits half the carbon of an average American and uses far less electricity. It takes 40 percent more fuel for an American car to drive a mile than a European car. Europe overall has managed to reduce its ecological footprint to half that of the United States for the same standard of living. 

How has Europe managed this? Through smart, strategic government policy, working closely with the private sector, to advance incentives and regulations that encourage the necessary behavior from consumers, households and businesses. 

While the U.S. has resorted to ill-fated strategies to secure more oil — including recent calls for more offshore drilling — the European landscape has been slowly transformed. Picture windmills, tidal turbines and solar panels on rooftops dotting the European landscape, and vast solar arrays with tens of thousands of panels that have tracking technology to follow the sun. 

Then add “smart” energy-efficient buildings that monitor the temperature and sunlight to open and close window panels and blinds automatically. Imagine harnessing the body warmth of 250,000 daily commuters to produce heat for a nearby office block, with high-speed trains circling it all, linking major cities, whisking passengers in carbon-friendly efficiency. All of these inventions and more are becoming reality in Europe. 

Europe leads the world in the production of wind power — the U.S. has less than half of Europe’s wind capacity and China barely a third. Solar power has also surged, with photovoltaic capacity in the European Union growing at an annual rate of 70 percent. 

Other energy forms are being developed, including geothermal, biomass and small-scale hydro. Captain Nemo’s dream of power from the sea has taken the form of large cylindrical “sea snakes” bobbing in the ocean, transforming wave motion into electric power, as well as underwater “seamills” — turbines churning in the currents, producing carbon-free power. 

Renewable energy technologies have proliferated in Europe. Energy companies are required to pay producers of wind and solar power three times more per kilowatt than they pay for conventional power. That has created economies of scale allowing renewable technologies to expand. 

Most European advances result from just better ways of boosting conservation. Since the mid-1990s, all new construction has had to meet requirements for energy efficiency, incorporating green principles into everything from building design to urban planning to low-flush toilets. 

Buildings account for 50 to 70 percent of total energy use in today’s cities, so E.U. directives pushing widespread use of low wattage light bulbs, motion sensors that automatically turn off lights and reductions in “standby power” used by household appliances, have been important tools in the battle to reduce energy use. 

Europe also has been pioneering what is known as “cogeneration,” which recaptures the vast amounts of wasted heat belched up a power plant’s smokestack. Millions of homes and buildings are warmed by recycled heat transported in insulated pipes from power plants. Recycled energy from cogeneration amounts to 40-50 percent of all energy used in Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland, and 20 percent in Germany and Poland — but only 8 percent in the United States. 

The average American building uses roughly a third more energy than its German counterpart. Improving energy efficiency in buildings would translate to a whopping 25 percent reduction in America’s carbon emissions. 

In the transportation sector, Europe is leading in the development of mass public transit, high-speed trains and fuel-efficient autos (including vehicles such as electric plug-ins and hydrogen-fueled cars). It also encourages bicycling and walking with thousands of kilometers of bike and pedestrian paths. 

For all these reasons, while the U.S. has seen a 21 percent rise in oil consumption since 1980, most European countries have seen significant drops. Oil consumption in Denmark and Sweden declined by a third, in Germany by 20 percent, in France by 14 percent. If the United States matched Europe’s energy productivity, Americans’ demand for oil would be cut by nearly 20 percent — a huge amount given that the U.S. consumes about a quarter of the world’s total. 

Europe has created hundreds of thousands of new “green jobs,” and green exports to global markets have increased, showing that sound environmental policy does not have to hurt the economy. Europe has set a course outlined by its ambitious 20-20-20 Plan, with its goals of reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent and increasing use of renewables to 20 percent of the overall energy mix by 2020 (the U.S. generates only 6 percent of electricity from renewables). 

Certainly Europe has its energy challenges, many of them stemming from the instability of Middle Eastern and Russian energy sources. The current economic crisis adds an additional trial. 

But Europeans have discovered what a previous generation of American leaders once knew: that investment in infrastructure pays dividends in multiple ways that pave the way for the future. 

by Tom Kraeutler, Posted Jun 7th 2010 8:30AM

Kevin Hawes of Assured Home Inspections in Calgary, Alberta (via The Money Pit). Used with permission of the ASHI Reporter.

This rudimentary labeling pretty much sums up the homeowner’s knowledge of which circuit breaker powers what. It should be an electrifying experience if there’s ever an emergency here!

Diagnosis: Obviously, we’re witnessing an extreme lack of knowledge about electrical panels, which house the circuit breakers (and sometimes, fuses) that protect your home’s electrical components (everything from your doorbell to your water heater) from dangerous power surges, which can lead to fires. Proper labeling of circuit breakers or fuses is imperative for easy identification in an emergency, an outage isolated to one area of the house, or a strategic electrical shutdown before leaving home for a trip or other extended absence.

Rx: Learn what circuit breaker powers what appliance, light fixture, etc. in your electrical panel well before an emergency strikes, and you’ll save time while preventing dangerous electrical errors.

There are two approaches for determining which switch corresponds to which component. You can either take inventory of every component of your house that uses electricity (from the power grid, obviously not battery- or solar-powered devices) and shut the switches off one by one, checking which component loses power each time. Or you can work in reverse, shutting down all the power and turning it back on, one circuit at a time, to see which component comes back to life.

Use a Sharpie or label machine to identify the room or appliance to which each breaker switch corresponds (dedicated circuits will power one item — like the central air conditioner, for instance — while branch circuits supply power to a range of outlets, lights or switches within a room or section of your house).

It makes no sense to leave non-essential circuits on when you head off for an extended vacation or just long weekend, so pickup some of those handy little colored dot stickers to identify circuits that can be switched off when you go away. Doing so not only stops vampire power that “leaks” out of appliances like television sets (even when they are off!) but also reduces the risk of electrical fires.

Use red dots for circuits in which power always needs to be on — security lights and your refrigerator, for instance. Then use green dots to mark circuits that can be turned off for times you’ll be away — things like room lights and electronics.

Truly vintage electrical systems involve another safety labeling step: fuses. It’s critical that when a fuse blows, you have the right kind and size to replace it, so make sure to also note that information inside the fuse box, and have a collection of spare fuses ready for installation.

If you’re not sure what size fuse you need, have an electrician check wires sizes the next time you’re scheduled for a basic repair. Fuses are design to blow when a circuit is forced to pull more power than its wiring can handle. Fuse size therefore depends on the size of the wire it is protecting: 15 amp fuses protect #14 wired circuits, 20 amp fuses protect #12 wired circuits and 30 amp fuses are needed for #10 wired circuits.

Finally, never use a fuse bigger than what the wire requires. It not only defeats its purpose, but can allow the wire to overheat and potentially result in an electrical fire.Can I Treat This Myself? Yes. Basic DIY skills are all that’s necessary to label your circuit breakers and fuses. Call an electrician for electrical system repairs, though they’re not for the faint of heart. This is definitely the kind of thing where doing it yourself can turn into hurting yourself if you don’t have the necessary experience and training.home improvement tips and ideas each week as host of The Money Pit Home Improvement Show, a nationally syndicated radio program. He is also author of My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure. You can also subscribe to Tom’s latest home improvement podcast or free home improvement newsletter.

Tom Kraeutler delivers

BY JOHN COX, Californian staff writer
jcox@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Jun 05 2010 12:00 PM

Short of buying solar panels or a new air conditioner, Rosedale homeowner Clint Phillips has done just about all he can do to control his summer electric bills without sacrificing his family’s comfort.

Some of the steps he has taken — such as analyzing his online SmartMeter data, and signing up for a “SmartRate” plan — came courtesy of his electricity provider, Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

Other measures he more or less invented himself. Instead of leaving on his coffee maker for two hours a day (at a cost of $25 a month), he pours it into a thermos as soon as it’s brewed. He also lowers his air conditioner to 72 degrees at about 5 a.m., then at 2 p.m. he lowers it to 80 degrees, thereby reducing his total monthly usage by as much as 15 percent.

Phillips said his monthly bill of about $550 in peak summer heat hasn’t gone down noticeably, probably because of PG&E’s periodic rate increases. But his bills haven’t gone up, either.

“I think I have done what I can do,” he said confidently.

((continued below)

Energy efficiency is the other side of Bakersfield’s struggle with steep electric bills. Much attention recently has focused on problems with PG&E SmartMeters, the way its tiered rate structure has grown increasingly lopsided, and the ever-rising costs that are passed on to PG&E’s customers.

But one thing the utility and its critics agree on is that ratepayers can and do save money when they reduce their energy consumption.

As Phillips’ case illustrates, there are many things even the most frugal people can do to keep down their energy costs, often with PG&E’s direct assistance.

Spending to save money

Investing in energy-efficient appliances helps, too, as the experience of Bakersfield retiree Bruce Rapp shows.

When his 3,300-square-foot home was being built in 2002, Rapp bought a high-efficiency air-conditioning system, a whole house fan to make the most of cool morning air, and had only fluorescent lights installed. He also spent big on an energy-saving washer and dryer.

Now his bills run about $400 a month in the summer. And although he said he probably could afford to pay more, having invested wisely over the years, he doesn’t want to.

“If I got a choice between sending my money to PG&E or going out to dinner,” he said, “I’m going out to dinner.”

Help from PG&E

PG&E offers various programs and services to help its customers reduce their usage, from incentives designed to lower consumption at times of peak demand, to a new option that allows the company to turn down air-conditioners remotely.

Free home energy audits are available, too. When customers request one (by calling 800-743-5000), the company sends out an inspector who tours the home looking at things like attic insulation, air-conditioning units and pool pumps.

“Basically, it’s an evaluation of your home’s energy efficiency,” local PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles said. “They can be pretty in-depth.”

The inspector’s recommendations can be wide-ranging, and may include investment suggestions. Boyles said there’s no obligation to carry out any changes.

“It’s just basically someone saying, ‘If you’re looking at your home energy bill, this is some stuff I’d do,’” he said.

(continued below)

Internal Sponsorship:
Just released from GreenEcoClub the DIY Easy-Energy-Audits. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do energy audit on your home like the pros. Easy-Energy-audits

Saving the planet

Some efficiency improvements are simple, like unplugging appliances that use energy even when they’re turned off.

“Anything with an AC adapter, anything with a clock or a light, anything that uses electricity should be put on a power strip and turned off when not in use,” Mindy Spatt, spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group, wrote in an e-mail.

She added that an estimated 5 percent of the nation’s electricity usage is wasted on stand-by power.

“Simple conservation measure(s) can help consumers save money — and the planet,” she wrote.

by ANNA PRIOR

Late-spring heat waves already have people cranking up the air conditioners — and their energy bills. But a new free tool may help people get a better handle on their home’s energy consumption.

The Hohm Score, launched in May as part of Microsoft’s online service Microsoft-Hohm.com, lets users enter their address to get their “Hohm Score,” a number from 0 to 100 that indicates a home’s energy efficiency. The higher the number, the more energy efficient the home.

Scores are currently available for about 60 million homes. For instance, a typical early-1970s house in Raleigh, N.C., with 1,400 to 1,599 square feet, has a score of 54; an approximately 3,000-square-foot Phoenix house built in the past five years scores 59.

If your home isn’t in the database, you can see neighborhood estimates. An estimated breakdown of a home’s energy consumption and spending — on heating, cooling, lighting — also is available.

For a more specific score, create a profile and plug in a house’s square footage, heating and cooling systems, window types, solar panels, etc.

With a profile, you also get a more detailed breakdown of your bill. A few utilities, including the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Xcel Energy, let you upload data from your bill online to the Hohm site, says Troy Batterberry, general manager of Hohm.

Write to Anna Prior at anna.prior@wsj.com

By Sequoia on 05/29/2010 – 4:06 am PDT

The Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) offered through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and its qualified lenders allows homeowners to receive a larger mortgage to improve the efficiency of a home. Essentially, this mortgage covers not just the initial cost of the property but also the cost of energy improvements. As a result, the loan can exceed standard FHA limits. The FHA provides this option with the understanding that the utility costs of the home will be far lower after improvements, allowing the homeowner to pay more toward a mortgage.

EEM Process
The process to secure an EEM is similar to the process to secure any FHA-insured loan. You must first qualify for a private mortgage loan, and then you must apply for the FHA guarantee. When you are working with an FHA-qualified lender, you can do both at once. The FHA guarantee is a form of insurance on your loan. To qualify, you must be deemed credit worthy. The FHA’s standards are among the highest in the industry. However, the FHA does assist with low down payment options. Through this program, you can purchase a home with as little as 3.5 percent down, and you are guaranteed a fixed-rate mortgage.

EEM Home Inspection

Once you qualify for the loan, the home you are purchasing must also qualify for the energy improvements. The process to qualify a home takes place through an efficiency inspection. Inspectors factor in the various considerations for the property, such as the year it was built, the quality of insulation and the appliances present. Inspectors then carry out a test where air is blown through the home to measure the ducts and ventilation. Ultimately, the inspectors input all of the information into a computer program to generate a Home Energy Rating (HER).

HERS Rating

The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) is an index based on a reference created in 2006. If a home is equal to this reference point in terms of efficiency, the home receives a HERS score of 100. A net zero home, meaning a house that creates all the energy it uses, will score a HERS rating of 0. The home under inspection will be rated somewhere along this scale or beyond this scale. Then, the inspectors will estimate what the home’s HERS rating will be based on several improvements to increase the efficiency of the property. The cost to make these improvements is added to the mortgage.

Benefits of an EEM Loan

Many EEM users are eco-conscious, and they desire to live in a home that has a lower impact on the environment. Even if you are not extremely “green,” there are several fiscal benefits to the larger mortgage. Theoretically, you will be spending the same amount on the home either way, since the extra mortgage will be covered through utility savings. If this is the case, then you will net a gain as a result of the improvements. Homes that are energy efficient sell at higher prices. The updates and changes to the home will put money in your pocket when it comes time to sell.