What's a Watt, Anyway?

I'm seldom speechless, but when I have to charge to reset a breaker or replace a fuse, it's hard to know what to say to the blithe overloading homeowner. So all you fuse-blowers, breaker-trippers, lampcord staplers, plugstrip abusers, listen up!

You don't have to be a guy like me, compulsively adding up loads and anticipating what gets plugged into which outlet, to understand electrical loading.

Rule 1. trace your circuits. Plug in a vacuum cleaner, boom box or ask your beloved to shout when the lamp goes out. Go to the basement and try breakers or fuses until you hear the device/delovely signal you. Write that down. It's best to number your outlets with a pen or tape label. Write: breaker 1, outlets 1,2,5,9 and lights in family room. Like that. Mark the panel clearly with the circuits that feed the furnace, refrigerator, water pump, and other important loads you may need to find in a big fat hurry.

Rule 2. Count the devices plugged into your now tiresomely neat and labeled circuits, and count the watts. Don't even worry what they are. Just count. Light bulb? 50 to 100 watts, read the top of the bulb. Vacuum cleaner? Turn it over and read the label. The watts thing is there. Refrigerator? If it's not on its own circuit, enter 1200 watts. Blow Dryer? 1200-1500 watts. Read the label. And, armed with this data, limit the load on each circuit to 1500 watts or less. Especially in the kitchen where you (don't even try to shizzle me, I know better) plug in the toaster, coffee maker, bean grinder and small microwave into the same countertop circuit. It can't go over 1500 watts without putting you in danger of an overload or tripped breaker.

Ok. Enough for now. Here's a link, and we'll be back to talk more about loads.

Heat Leaks Two: We All Leak About the Same

Last post we looked at several infrared scans of houses and parts of houses, showing a bit of where all the heat goes, typically. In the photo above, borrowed from a home inspection site, you see all the colors of the rainbow. Remember, violet is good, and orange, red or even white are bad. From the top down, note the really bad hot spot around the plumbing stack. That could be sealed with caulk and/or foam, although the pipe, to be fair, does constantly convey warm stinky air up and out, and you'd better be glad it does.

Next note the line of heat escaping along the roof ridge. The ridge vent is a necessary architectural feature designed to keep air moving in the attic, but it shouldn't be that warm; the attic is getting too much warm air from the rooms beneath the ceiling, whether through lighting fixture penetrations, recessed lights that warm up the attic anyway, and probably the access hole to the attic, which never gets sealed the way it should.

The hot spots under the eaves and under the gable overhang are likely a combination of air leaks in a very vulnerable place of structural movement and a much nastier symptom: insulation settling over time. It's very dificult to avoid, and very difficult to correct. No one wants to damage siding or interior walls to get at the voids, so what's a homeowner to do? There are retrofits that work, as Bob Vila explains in the link. Fibers or foam can be inserted in the cavities; the work leaves small holes easily repaired and painted out.

The only other remarkable features of the house in question are the hot spots all around windows, due to framing leaks and radiant losses, and around the door, where the lack of weatherstripping is all too obvious.

This house has most of the typical flaws; it's a typical house. Without getting deeply into having a full-on energy audit of your own house, unless your utility does them for free, you can safely pursue the usual suspects. Shoot foam into foundation and sill cracks, caulk gaps under baseboards, apply sticky-on weatherstripping to entry doors and frequently used windows, seal up attic access with plastic or foam board, and do something smart with those windows, as we discussed in earlier posts. About the same things go wrong, energy-wise, to most houses. I don't like being typical, either, but following the same checklist as typical homeowners all over this land will help you to quickly and inexpensively pounce on your major heat leaks and get some energy savings going right away.

Infrared Photos: I Can See Your Heat Leaks From Here

The technology of infrared scanning is not new any more; i have a small infrared device i carry to scan ductwork and rooms. It helps me to test and balance my installed heating/cooling systems. Having a scan of your own house is a little pricey (neighborhood of $400), but you can learn a lot from studying scans of typical houses.

The links attached to this post are infrared scans of homes, some probably like yours, and the colors tell the tale about where heat is escaping most rapidly from the building envelope. For novices, the temperatures run opposite to the rainbow: violet is coolest, followed by indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Red is very hot in relative terms. Window glass, in most homes, is the greatest concentration of red.

Check out the links, then, and see where the most obvious heat leaks are. Then have a look at your own house, and we'll be back next time to chew over the results a bit.

LED Magic: Coming to Your House

Technology always starts out expensive, but demand can work its voodoo on an industry, driving prices down within the reach of normal people. Like us. Since Edison and others gave us the tungsten-vacuum light bulb over a hundred years ago, electric lighting hasn't changed much. Current flows through a filament, heating it to "incandescent" temperatures, and the lights go up. Vacuum inside the bulb keeps the filament from bursting into flame, and the whole affair lasts around 1000 hours of use, either continuous or intermittent.

Fluorescents, arriving some years later, improved on the light bulb in many ways with a conductive chemical coating, again inside a gas-filled chamber, which gives off light as current flows through it. The bulb doesn't get dangerously hot, and it lasts longer than a regular incandescent bulb. Downside? Doesn't like to function in cold temperatures, flickers noticeably as it ages, and typically yields light in a narrow and harsh color spectrum, making you look your worst all day, not just in the morning.

These days we pin great hopes on the LED, a work of genius that emits light at low temperatures when current passes through a semi-conductor, or "Light-Emitting-Diode." With a wide choice of lighting shades and colors, service life approaching 50,000 hours, and power consumption less than half that of regular bulbs, the LED shows every sign of being the future of lighting.

The catch? Right now they're expensive, and lighting manufacturers have been slow to build residential fixtures that feature them. Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway scooter and other marvelous things, has become a champion for the LED as light source, installing LED fixtures throughout his getaway home on Little Dumpling Island, off the coast of Connecticut. Question back there? Can he afford it? Oh, yes, in ways the rest of us can't, but ostentation is not Kamen's prime motive. He hopes to see LEDs become a big weapon in the energy wars, and his all-LED home is meant to be part of a very large conversation. So good for him. No, you can't have a tour, but you can check out the lovely photos in the link.

Already LEDs have made inroads into industrial settings, becoming the lamp of choice in traffic signals, heavy truck tail and signal lights, and in your house. Tonight, before you go up to bed, turn off all the regular lights and walk around. Don't get hurt, just prowl carefully and check out the lights that stay on. Your coffee machine, your microwave, your computer, printer, fax machine, phone charger, toothbrush charging station, nightlight, phone cradle, answering machine, security panel, television, tivo, stereo and alarm clock all have LEDs in them, some that never go off. I like to take a second before mounting the stairs to survey all my unsleeping LED indicators. They don't cost me much to run. All my flashlights are now LED-equipped, especially the one I wear on my head at work, and my wife's sneaky midnight reading lamp, that rarely wakes me up unless we both had the garlic bread, is an LED.

There are LED fixtures available to you, but the application doesn't yet support a single fixture that replaces the 75 watt bulb. You can install under-cabinet fixtures in the kitchen, mini-recessed fixtures for accents, and reading lamps that sit on a desk or table. But better times are coming, and that, readers, will be a way for all of us to cut our lighting costs in half. I'm excited, I admit. Now can someone figure out how to dry my clothes with semi-conductors? I'm still waiting.

Super Windows: Can We Wait?

Hi, this is a short post to follow up on our discussion of windows and various strategies including interior treatments, restoration of existing windows and sash replacement by professionals. The aesthetic character of older windows is a strong factor for some folks who live in older houses, especially those with the finer qualities of historic architecture. If you've got natural wood siding, lovely old brick chimneys, and historic Federal or Victorian trim details, you might feel the loss of beauty if a window company blows through your house (the pun is fully intended) installing white vinyl monsters. Especially if, as we cautioned in the last post, you wind up not addressing the draft-susceptible framing and trim that remain in place around your new replacement sashes.

Window technology is on the march. Eco Home Magazine catalogues a series of futuristic window models that will be available or already are being sold. Each is a significant departure from traditional window construction, and each has a significantly higher performance profile than you can get from a run-of-the-mill replacement window or a contractor-grade complete window package. Follow the links on the page and tell me what you think. Super-insulative glass composites, new metallic coatings, and wood composite sashes and frames all improve the performance of windows by small steps until the numbers (R5-R15 !!) dwarf the performance of even new off-the-shelf conventional windows. I admit it makes me drool a bit. All the same, I've been choosing conservative Andersen mid-price windows in my own remodeling project. When we add the performance of the contractor-grade window to that of the window treatments we use, the energy numbers satisfy us, and the price (under $500 average per window) works well with our project budget.

Should we hold up on our window projects to let this technology catch up? No, I don't think I can wait. I want my house done before I leave the planet, and my wife would like it done a little sooner than that. But if you're thinking a few years down the road, and you expect to be able to pay up the scale a bit when you do your project, the pace of progress may be in your favor.

Note well, you who see yourselves as potential replacement window candidates, that new window technologies do find their way into the replacement industry, but always after they've been tried and approved in new construction and remodeling. So your crack at super windows will come last, as it were. Also note that if you pursue restoration options, you may have the opportunity to seal up the surrounding frame and trim that I've been banging on about, and your degree of improvement in energy performance will go significantly higher.

And here's another wry twist to the logic of restoration. Once you've removed the exterior trim from an old window, you're often only a few nails away from being able to install a new complete window, sometimes without disturbing your interior walls and trim. It doesn't always work, but I've enjoyed breaks like that in working on my own house; old window out, new window in, some jamb fillers to mate up to interior trim, and you're on to stain or paint, with minimum fuss and no blood on the floor, so to speak. Have a discussion with your remodeling contractor, and see if he/she agrees.

These are small points, I admit, but I want you to feel empowered, not trapped, if you're considering doing something about your old windows. I've done replacements, I've done restorations, I've done surgical and full-on new window installations, and they're all effective in their special niches of usefulness. Your hard-earned cash should buy you three things, as we said before: beauty, comfort and energy savings. And the more of all three, of course, the better. Do your homework; make a smart choice for yourself; we wish you the joy of looking at your windows and feeling warm, safe and smug for years to come.

Replacement Windows: Do I Have To?

We've been talking windows for a while here, and this post deals with a big item in the window market: window replacement. For a fee ranging from $300 to as much as $1000 per window, replacement companies will measure your openings, order windows, send techs to your house to remove trim and install the windows, and in many cases offer in-house loans for less-than-solvent homeowners in these troubled times. The pitch for replacement windows is built on two promises: looks and energy savings. Many companies promise lower energy costs and offer rebates or other compensation if their products don't save energy as promised.

We're not here to defame the replacement companies, or to question their claims in detail. Just hear me out. The performance of your windows is based on several factors, and you must calculate whether replacement windows offer you a desirable improvement in appearance, comfort and energy costs. You can't rely on people with something to sell when making those decisions.

Appearance first. The finish options on replacement windows usually cover several colors of vinyl and a few types/colors of wood, including an "unfinished" option you can stain or paint yourself. You will discover that the best performance and lowest prices center around vinyl/interior-vinyl/exterior models, especially if you'd rather not wait weeks for special ordering and shipping. All-vinyl windows are always in stock, depending upon size.

Now on to comfort. You will find that the most basic model windows feature thermo-pane dual glass and weatherstripping to seal the sashes to the replacement frame. You will be able to order performance options like Low Emissivity glass and sealed vacuum pane units with inert gas filler for lower conductive losses. The performance of thermo-pane glass with coatings over traditional single pane glass can be significant, on the order of twice as good. The pitch for better glass and vinyl sashes in your windows can be very compelling when considered in the small picture. Hang on for the summary, when we put all factors on the table.

Third item is energy savings. Here the conversation generates a bit of friction. Window companies speak of energy savings exceeding 45% as a result of window replacement, but warn that "results may vary." Of course. Other, more independent analysts figure the payback problem differently, suggesting payback periods of twenty or even forty years are a reasonable expectation. Be smart. Balance the claims of the window company against the data you get from contractors and independent energy zealots.

Let's sum up. Here's a kicker of sorts: the energy performance of a window is a combination of energy losses including conductive losses through glass, radiant losses through glass, and drafts and infiltration through sashes and around frames. Replacement windows, depending upon the installers and how much carpentry you're paying them to do, may address only conductive and radiant losses, leaving you with most of your drafts and air infiltration untreated, since the problem lies in your sash channels, framing and trim, where replacement window installers often fear to tread. The energy performance of a traditional single pane window covered by a glass storm window sealed to the outer trim can compete with that of a new replacement window.

Repairing/restoring windows is an intermediate strategy, somewhere in cost between low-cost window treatments (the link is to my earlier posts on window treatments) and full-on window replacement. And restoration/repair can yield energy performance and payback/savings that really work, rather than "results may vary." Friends don't encourage friends to spend borrowed money on an investment with uncertain results. If you have the cash, and you REALLY hate those old windows, you can shop hard and negotiate a good deal on replacement. Ask about the details of the carpentry. Use words like "infiltration losses," now that you know what they are. Replacement windows can dress a house up very nicely, and save energy in the bargain. But restoring your old windows, installing good storms, or interior treatments of the sort we discussed in earlier posts, can all save you money at lower risk, and these strategies should be considered before you apply for a loan and take a big step like replacement. As you noticed, in this blog we're all about the small steps. They get you there in the end, and I hate it when my friends fall down.

I Made Them Myself, Can You Tell?

If i set out to do my own window treatments, they'd probably be done in plywood and black paint. Can't help it, I'm that kind of man. Thank God, my sainted wife sews, and she sews well. She won't allow me to post a photo of our Roman shades in the "sunny addition" mentioned in earlier posts, but there are lots of places you can go to get ideas and even instructional help. If the sewing thing is never going to be you, don't despair. Other strategies will get you into higher R factors and movable coverings for those windows that feel good all day but not at night.
Rigid panels, made of foam (not plywood, i was kidding) or some other insulating board, can give you a great R factor while controlling radiant and conductive heat losses through windows.
Pre-fab panels can be purchased to your measurements, or you can make panels yourself from insulating board material from the home store. The look can be as basic as the specular silver or black coating on the raw board, or as sexy as the white muslin my wife used to cover ours. Fastening can be as simple as sticky pads from duct tape, or as sleek as store-bought velcro patches. This is good, clean fun and you can't fail, unless you slip with that sharp knife; so watch yourself, go slow, and measure three times.
The least cost option, for people on strict budgets or short on time and craft moxy, is 3M shrink film window coverings, available at the home store and as easy to install as Saran wrap in a static electricity vortex. I made a mess of mine, but my wife calmed me down, and with her help we covered several old, drafty windows and got a wonderful result. The film product goes into place over two-sided sticky tape, and a hair dryer (watch the heat, you can melt the film) shrinks it to wrinkle-free tension, sealing an old window against drafts very nicely. It's not sophisticated, and you can't open the window until you remove the film, but in terms of return-on-investment, it's top of the list. They even make a kit sized for sliding glass doors, if you can do without the entry option all winter.
It doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be Martha, although i'm sure hers are lovely. It just has to stifle drafts, cut down on conductive losses, and permit the sun to come in and bless you with its warmth during the day. That's why God made windows.

Shades, Curtains, and Drapes

Hi, we're back in that sunny room, but the sun is going down. It's time to trap some warmth, lest it all be lost through the windows that have gathered the sun's rays all day. The windows have a low Emissivity coating, but that doesn't completely stop radiant energy escaping once evening sets in, and the room will get uncomfortably cool if we don't do something.

Forward the Roman shade. Credited to the old pre-Italian inhabitants of that sunny Mediterranean country, the Roman shade varies from other shades in its ability to be raised and lowered by means of cords and pulleys. Before there was glass, Roman shades were used in concert with shutters to keep out cold winds, barbarians and rain. Later, when windows became more elegant, with glass panes and movable sashes, shades were used to exclude light and drafts, and to ensure privacy in city homes. Today Roman shades are hot again because they enhance the energy performance of even the most expensive coated windows, and make sunny rooms more comfortable to be in at night.

Shades, as a class of window treatment, raise and lower from the top. Curtains, by contrast, slide left and right, often parting in the middle. Drapes, often synonymous with curtains, tend to be drawn apart with ties or loops rather than sliding on overhead rods. All window treatments help to make windows more comfortable and less revealing, but not all treatments perform equally in keeping a room warm.

Unless the window treatment is sealed against the window frame, or made to hang within an inch or so of the glass, the resulting space powers a convective current which circulates warm air continuously in the manner of a convective radiator. Energy is passed through the glass to the outside by conduction and some radiation. Curtains and drapes are difficult to install sufficiently close to the glass to defeat this convective effect. Roman shades are more adaptable to close-fitting installations. Roller shades also lend themselves to the kind of mounting that seals better and keeps more warmth in the room. We'll be back soon with some remarks on how to cover your windows with homemade shades and curtains, on a budget, without having to hire a fairy godmother and pay those rates.

So? Don't Sit by the Window!

Sunny windows feel good at my house. I bask like a cat in my sunny addition, with skylights overhead, sliding glass door and big windows on two walls. And then the sun goes down, too soon on these winter days, and the fun is over. Windows feel cold, not because they're drafty, but because of radiant losses, which make me want to turn the heat up. Higher temperatures aren't really the answer, though. The same transmitting properties of glass that make it a great solar energy collector also allow my body heat to radiate through it to the outside at night. I can put on a sweater or a "fleecy" vest, but any exposed skin feels cold when i'm near the glass.

How do you turn a window into a wall? And back again the next day, when the sun is streaming through those windows and warming the room? Relax. It's not magic, and it's doesn't have to break the bank. You can do it on a grand scale, with motor-driven insulated shades, blinds or curtains; or you can get out your old machine and have a go at sewing them yourself. And if you don't have much money or much time or much artistic shizzle and if you bleed when you think of sewing, you can cover your windows seasonally with shrink film and declare a moral victory. It's ok. You don't have to be Martha, or even Bob Vila to win at this energy game. We'll be back soon to go into detail on these options.