Thursday, January 7, 2010

Tight!

I've just been told I have one of the tightest houses in America.

GB3 Energy Solutions has been here for two days installing insulation and correcting random gaps left by our "green" (but evidently not totally observant) homebuilder seven years ago. While our house already was tighter than the vast majority of homes, it now has an air exchange of about 16%, according to GB3 -- better than 99% of our compatriots' residences.

Toward the end of the work day co-founder Bill Lucas, a former teacher, took a few moments to explain why our project, which cost less than $3,000, was a smarter idea than the $30,000 solar panels some of our neighbors have. All the energy produced by a roof-full of panels could instead be saved by replacing 10 lightbulbs, he said. But producing something will always be politically and psychologically more satisfying than saving.

By coincidence, my son is working on his science fair project, which involves finding out if solar panels could be used to power small household objects instead of AAA batteries. So far, the answer is no.

Remediation work will never have the sex appeal or curb appeal of panels, but with the temp forecast to be below zero tonight, I'll sleep better!

1 comment:

  1. Interesting, because I have a very loose house, although my last one was tight. Tight is clearly better, because they are much warmer, and obviously use less energy. My loose house is a rental, and so I won’t be paying to tighten it anytime soon, and neither will my landlord. I’ll just be paying for more gas & electric. This house has solar panels for hot water, but they don’t, as far as I can’t tell produce any hot water at all, so I unplugged them. I was told by a plumber, that there isn’t enough sun, year round in Oregon, to make it a wise investment. On the other hand this house sure could use some insulation!

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