The house seemed colder and draftier after they left, probably a combination of factors, not the least of which were the ambient weather and my psyche. On Nov. 18, the start of our descent into the first sloppy snows of the season, the Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) sent their Home Energy Squad (HES) out to analyze my home.
When I first arranged this, the date would have been well into January, but they’d had a cancellation. It would take about 2.5 hours and require access to boiler and hot water heater, all windows to be closed, and pets to be kept in kennels or a small room. To prepare, I went around changing combination windows to all storm panels, storing the screens as one should always do before it gets even this cold.
Two technicians quickly went to work, one installing the (temporary) red plastic blower door, a device with a fan that sucks air out of the house, de-pressurizing it. With use of an infrared detector, they can see patterns where cold air comes in to the void. A couple of my upper window sashes had migrated down, and the chimney’s frozen-open damper position made the fireplace problematic even though I have a glass front on it. All told, the house was as drafty as if I left one window open halfway.
While one tech was looking at air infiltration, the other was replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents, all free. While I thought would have been happier to have the cooler daylight-approximating bulbs, apparently most people want the warmer tones similar to incandescent, so that is what they carry with them. I could have purchased LEDs for $5 apiece. They do let you keep the replaced incandescents, so if I miss my heat source disguised as lighting, I can substitute (so far so good).
The Home Energy Audit is voluntary. I realize that last sentence may have sounded like it’s the energy police coming to take us away. As incentive to get it done, many neighborhoods at one time or another have bought down the costs of the audits, and low-income people can get the service free. Most Minneapolitans above the income threshold pay $70 for a visit, it’s possible to cost $100. The cost is explained in the scheduling process and again before work begins.
They also replaced some faucet aerators, also free, where it made sense to have less water flow distributed by more air in the mix. The difference is significant when you’re trying to fill up a bucket, as I did a couple days later to wash my kitchen floor. But for hand-washing or dish rinsing, the water-saving is significant and the surfaces no less clean.
To figure out if one’s house is insulated, they find an outside wall in a closet that allows them to drill a small hole from the inside to access the insulation, and then plug it back up with a plastic cap. In my case, insulation is a half-inch of sewn-
together newspapers, common in the 1930s. Homes can be re-insulated by blowing in dense-packed cellulose (ground-up newspapers, imagine that!) through the outside or inside; outside is cheaper but destructive [my word], inside is more expensive and only practical if done in conjunction with other remodeling and painting, as there’s a series of holes to patch, one for each stud cavity.
In my case, the cost of treating the walls would be more than twice that of insulating the attic, and that didn’t take into account the cost of restoring each room’s walls and paint. Even the Home Energy Squad didn’t recommend it.
I was impressed at their practicality. Having seen a lot of good old windows go into the trash as government programs do lead abatement, I was pleased to see that the HES is not recommending getting new windows. Two panes of glass – even the old single-pane windows combined with a decent storm window – meets the energy efficiency standard.
They turned me on to the idea of a removable chimney balloon to address the damper problem, and may have had more to say about windows had I not assured them that I’ve taken window restoration classes and would probably practice what I learned, over time.
They weatherstripped the worst one of my three outside doors. It closes even a little better now than before, always requiring a little hip-check to line up the lock. That was free (or more accurately, included in the cost of the visit, which turns out to be less than the cost of materials).
If I didn’t already have a programmable set-back thermostat, they could have installed that, too.
To reach CEE and the Home Energy Squad, call 612-335-5874 in Minneapolis or go online to mncee.org/hes-mpls.
According to the City of Minneapolis website, Home Energy Squad is provided by CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy; the City of Minneapolis is supporting the program along with no-interest financing as part of the Clean Energy Partnership. The Clean Energy Partnership, began in 2015 and has the City of Minneapolis and utilities collaborating to help Minneapolis achieve its clean energy goals…Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) is the nonprofit that delivers the Home Energy Squad’s services, tailoring each home visit to each resident’s specific needs and interests. Since 2009, Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy have contracted with CEE to administer Home Energy Squad Enhanced (and prior related programs) in Minneapolis and other Twin Cities locations. Learn more at mncee.org.