Keeping Your Home Cooler with a Radiant Barrier
On the Job in Florida, Larry Janesky, President and Owner of Dr. Energy Saver, installed a radiant barrier in an attic to make this homeowner’s home more comfortable and to help reduce the cooling bills.
Florida’s warm sun causes most roofs, which absorb the sun’s heat, to get really hot. That heat is then transferred to the attic where it can reach scorching temperatures as high as 140 degrees! When the attic, like this one, stores the air ducts, the 55-degree air in the ducts is surrounded by the 140-degree heat before it reaches the living space– making the air conditioner work much harder than needed to keep the house cool and comfortable.
To help relieve the burden on this homeowner’s air conditioner unit, Dr. Energy Saver opted for installing a radiant barrier in the attic. A radiant barrier reflects the sun heat from the roof and helps the attic remain at least 20 degrees cooler. This will make the whole house feel cooler and the air conditioner will work more efficiently.
Regardless of regional climate and how drastic the seasonal changes are in your area, your local Dr. Energy Saver home energy conservation expert will always have the perfect solution to make your home comfortable and energy efficient year round! Give us a call!
Insulating a Commercial Building with Spray Foam
Dr. Energy Saver was called out to help the owner of a commercial building cut down on heating and cooling expenses, by making the building more energy efficient. This particular structure was fully built with metal, and as we all know, metal is the most thermally conductive material in existence. The building did have an estimated R-11 layer of fiberglass insulation applied to the walls, but since the bats were pinched around the beams, the R-Value in these areas was close to zero. That creates gaps in the insulation blanket where the potential for energy loss is very high. To make matters worse, the structure was also very leaky. Dr. Energy Saver energy conservation specialists solved this problem by applying a thick layer of spray foam insulation on top of the existing fiberglass batches. The spray foam expands when applied, closing thermal gaps around the beams and air sealing the whole structure.
Whether it is commercial or residential building, Dr. Energy Saver will always evaluate each job individually and thoroughly, and design a customized energy saving solution to give customers the best results per dollar invested. If you want to save energy and lower your energy bills, give Dr. Energy Saver a call today!
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: Reduce Before you Produce
At Halco, we pride ourselves in having a holistic approach to energy savings. Before installing a high efficiency or renewable energy system, we want to make sure your home is able to conserve energy. We want to make sure that every dollar you pay to heat and cool your home stays in your home.
When you call us for an estimate, a certified, trained energy conservation expert — not an unqualified sales person — will perform a comprehensive evaluation of your home.
Only after understanding how your home uses energy, the specialist will be able to show you the different renewable energy options and customize an energy efficiency upgrade based on your family’s individual needs and budget.
With Halco you will always get the most savings and the best performance for each dollar invested in renewable energy upgrades, including solar, wind and geothermal systems.
Keep in mind that the most efficient system in the world won’t bring you full savings if the air you are paying to cool and heat is leaking out of the house. Part of our home estimate is to closely inspect areas of possible energy waste that are commonly overlooked such as poor insulation or an outdated, leaky or dirty duct system.
To learn more about wind, solar and geothermal and other renewable energy upgrades, or to schedule a free estimate in Syracuse, Rochester and nearby towns in the Finger Lakes, NY area, visit our website or give us a call today!
Solar, Geothermal Heating & Cooling Services in Finger Lakes, NY
Founded in 1984, Halco Heating has been improving the comfort and energy efficiency of households like yours for almost 3 decades, providing solar and geothermal heating and cooling systems and services in Syracuse, Rochester, Binghamton and all throughout the Finger Lakes, NY area.
Hal Smith, owner and founder of the company, is proud to have earned the trust of his community through quality workmanship, outstanding business ethics, and a focus on customer service.
‘Our offices are open seven days a week, up to 9:00 p.m.,’ says Hal. It is a great comfort for their customers to know that someone at Halco will always be there to help them when they are in need. A customer will never speak to a machine when calling Halco.
Hal adds, ‘We answer our phones live, 24 hours a day!’
In addition, Halco has a ‘holistic’ approach to energy efficiency and heating and cooling system upgrades. When Halco is called to install a geothermal or solar heating and cooling system, they begin by making a thorough evaluation of the home, to understand how it consumes, conserves or wastes energy.
Halco believes that making the switch to a renewable energy source based HVAC system is only part of what makes a home energy efficient. If the home is not properly insulated or has a high rate of air leakage, energy is still being wasted, the system’s resources are not being maximized and the home is not as comfortable as it could be– as homeowners might still experience uneven temperatures around the house.
Through this ‘whole-house’ approach to energy efficiency, Halco has been successfully retrofitting existing homes into Net Zero homes. Meaning, comfortable homes whose homeowners pay virtually no energy bills at all!
If you live in the Finger Lakes area and want to make your home more comfortable and save money in energy bills, call Halco today for a complete evaluation and estimate.
Installing Jumper Ducts to Make Bedrooms More Comfortable
Climate control and comfort in a home depends on much more than the size, power and efficiency of the heating and cooling system. It depends on proper insulation, air sealing and, above all, it depends on the air duct’s distribution and adequate balance between return and supply ducts.
Larry Janesky, founder of Dr. Energy Saver, was recently in Central Florida helping a homeowner with a high cooling bills, and uneven temperatures around the house.
The bedrooms in his house had only supply ducts. The only return ducts were located in the common areas. Using state-of-the-art equipment, Larry demonstrates how the lack of return ducts in this home’s bedrooms was increasing the positive pressure in the rooms above acceptable levels, consistently pushing air out of the house, and causing unconditioned, hot and humid air from the outside to be sucked into the common areas of the house. The differences in pressure made the air conditioner work harder, without ever making the whole house comfortable.
When homeowners experience similar problems, they tend to mistakenly believe that they need a bigger, and more powerful heating and cooling system. This is why it is a good idea to call in an energy conservation specialist, before you commit to buying an HVAC upgrade.
In this case, for example, just by adding a return duct to each bedroom, Dr. Energy Saver experts brought the pressure levels in the rooms down to normal. The temperatures are now even around the house, comfort has improved and the old air conditioner now works more efficiently.
If you want to save money, energy and make your home more comfortable, call a Dr. Energy Saver dealer in your area!
Making Knee Wall Spaces Energy Efficient
Knee wall spaces are small spaces commonly found in combination with cathedral or sloped ceilings in finished attics, behind a short wall, and come with or without a small door to access the area.
Typically these spaces are treated as if they were outside the thermal boundary of the house. They are not insulated as you would insulate an attic, and the small wall that separates it from the living area isn’t insulated either.
The roof above the knee wall can reach scorching temperatures during the summer, and get freezing cold during the winter. In addition, soffit vents used to vent the roof allow dirty, unconditioned air from the outside to flow inside the home.
The unconditioned air will then leak into the conditioned area, transferring its extreme temperatures to the whole house through the walls and cavities.
All of this air leakage and heat transfer makes your home much harder to cool and heat, increasing your energy bills. That is the reason why in homes with knee wall spaces, Dr. Energy Saver considers knee wall insulation an energy efficient priority along with attic and foundation insulation.
In this particular case, the knee wall was insulated with SilverGlo™, a product that is exclusively available through the Dr. Energy Saver network. SilverGlo™ is a high R-Value, graphite-infused insulation foam board, lined with radiant foil that reflects the sun’s heat away from the home during the summer, and maintains the heat during the winter.
The space was then completely air sealed to stop air leakages, and is now included in the building’s envelope. Without the extreme temperatures and the air leakages, the space is now clean and suitable for storage. The adjacent rooms are more comfortable and energy efficient.
If your home has untreated, uninsulated knee walls or any architectural features that might be causing energy waste, call Dr. Energy Saver for a free estimate and evaluation.
We specialize in making homes more comfortable and more affordable to own!
Air Sealing Electrical Outlets
Electrical outlets are a common and often overlooked source of air leakage in a home. As the heated air inside the house moves upwards, new air is sucked in from any openings in the building envelope, including electrical outlets.
In this video, Larry Janesky, owner and president of Dr. Energy Saver, demonstrates simple ways to air seal a typical electrical outlet with some caulking, an inexpensive gasket and child-proofing caps. This is a simple project that anyone can do and goes a long way in conserving energy. Just make sure you take all safety precautions, like turning off the circuit for the sections of the house and the outlets where you are working.
Many houses have two or three times the amount of air leakage that building scientists recommend for optimum energy efficiency and indoor air quality. That is the equivalent of having a window open 24/7, year round! A properly sealed building envelope is one of the main components of a green, energy efficient home. By having your home professionally sealed, you can reduce your heating & cooling costs by 20% or more.
If you want to learn more about air sealing and many other ways to save energy and money at home, visit our website or call Dr. Energy Saver for a comprehensive Home Energy Audit!
The Difference Between Low and High Efficiency Air Conditioners
If your air conditioning system is 10 years old or more, you can bet it is wasting a lot of energy and costing you a lot of money. Ten or fifteen years ago, the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rate (SEER) of the best available air conditioner was around 6 to 8, which is less than half of today’s high efficiency models with a SEER of 19 to 20. SEER is the measurement of how much energy and money spent to run the air conditioner is actually being converted into cold air.
Older models also lose some of the SEER as they age. A model that was originally operated at 6 to 8 SEER, after many years, may be operating at SEERs as low as 6 or 4.
In addition to lower SEERs, older units are often improperly maintained. Dirt and moisture accumulate around the coils and ducts, while the A/C unit also becomes the breeding ground and dissemination device for mold and other common allergens, viruses, bacteria and many other pollutants. All of these pollutants will compromise indoor air quality and the health of your family
A modern, high efficiency device contains an array of features that will not only cool the air more efficiently with much higher SEERs; but also filter and rid the air from dirt, viruses and moisture as it passes through the unit. High efficiency units are usually much larger than older models to allow for better heat dispersion. Two-compressor, two-stage units allow the air conditioner to run at only 70% of its capacity in cooler days.
They also operate at variable speed, which draws moisture out of the air and saves energy.
Larry Janesky, president and owner of Dr. Energy Saver explains that the upfront cost of an air conditioning unit is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of costs. The bulk of the cost of having an air conditioner is paid in energy bills over the lifespan of the unit. It is not a smart move to get the least expensive unit to avoid higher upfront costs and end up spending 2 to 3 times more money to run the air conditioner over the years.
If you are shopping for an Air Conditioner or Heating System upgrade, give Dr. Energy Saver a call. We will evaluate your home’s energy consumption, and recommend only models that will give you the best savings per dollar invested, within your specifications and budget.
Basement Insulation Upgrade with Fiberglass Blanket and Low-E Replacement Basement Windows
Dr. Energy Saver was called to help transform the basement of a 100-year-old house into an energy efficient and comfortable space with insulation and replacement windows. This particular basement had irregular stone walls, so rigid foam insulation — the best option for insulating a basement — could not be used. Fiberglass blankets were substituted, and a 20-mil-thick vapor barrier was used to keep moisture from evaporating into the basement. The old basement windows were also replaced with new, Low-E replacement windows, for additional improved energy savings.
For a Free Basement Insulation or Energy Upgrade contact Dr. Energy Saver.
Installing an Air Tight Chimney Cap to Stop Air Leakage
In this specific job, Dr. Energy Saver was called in to help this home owner cut energy loss while enjoying the heat of a very peculiar fireplace configuration. His fireplace was fitted with a wood stove, and a stainless steel chimney pipe ran through the masonry flue. In homes with a fireplace, the chimney is one of the biggest air leakage sources in the entire structure, regardless of whether the fireplace is lit or not. Heated air in the living space tends to rise towards areas with colder temperature, and the flue from the fireplace to the top of the chimney is basically a hole in your house providing the ideal escape route for heated air. Closing traditional chimney dampers will not stop air leakages because the typical cast iron damper doesn’t seal too well and allows air to get by.
Wood burning stoves cause a lot of air leakage. When lit, the stove speeds up the leakage process. The stove uses surrounding air for combustion, causing more outside air to be sucked in to replenish the supply. That means that the area next to it might feel warmer thanks to the radiant heat from the fire, but further away from that room, the rooms feel colder, and homeowners can experience cold drafts coming from windows and doors. In addition, the steel pipe expands and contracts with temperature variations. In this case, there were holes around the damper for the air to escape through the masonry flue. To help this homeowner, Dr. Energy Saver installed an air tight chimney cap to stop the air leakage. If you have a fireplace that is causing cold drafts and uneven temperatures around the house, let the experts at Dr. Energy Saver inspect and suggest the best and most cost effective solution to make your home more comfortable and energy efficient.
Renewable Energy in the Finger Lakes Region, NY
Halco is a company with a vision; a more sustainable future with comfortable and affordable to own homes, powered by clean, inexpensive and renewable energy. This is why several years ago Halco opened a Renewable Energy division, specializing in wind power, solar power, and geothermal energy systems.
The Finger Lakes region in NY provides plenty of all these resources, and Halco crews have been installing at least one of these systems every single day. The Renewable Energy Division has been rapidly growing, making it the leading provider of renewable energy systems in Central New York.
Halco also helped retrofit a number of existing homes into Net-Zero homes, using different combinations of these renewable energy systems.
Imagine living comfortably in your existing home, without having to pay energy bills. A dream? No. A vision that is now a reality for many homeowners in the Finger Lakes, NY area.
Are you ready to make the switch? Call Halco and let’s see how we can make your energy efficiency dreams come true.
Improving Blown Fiberglass with Blown Cellulose Insulation
Larry Janesky, owner and founder of Dr. Energy Saver is On the Job again, this time helping the owner of this ranch-style house make his home more comfortable year round.
As it happens with all one-story buildings the temperatures in this ranch house were being greatly impacted by the temperatures in the attic right above every room.
The homeowner had the attic previously insulated with blown fiberglass but the thermal imaging scans performed by Dr. Energy Saver proved that the loose fiberglass wasn’t helping much.
During the summer, when the roof was heated by the sun, the temperature of the dry wall ceiling reached up to 95 degrees. That heat from the ceiling was radiating to the rooms below, making the home uncomfortable and causing the air conditioner to work much harder to keep the house cool. That happens because loose fill fiberglass does a poor job when it comes to stopping air flow. It is simply too fluffy and not dense enough to keep the air that flows through the soffit and ridge vents from wind washing the insulation.
If the fiberglass couldn’t stop the attic heat from being transferred to the living space during the summer, it could not stop the heat in the living area from escaping to the attic during the winter, making the heating system work harder as well.
Air sealing is an important part of an attic insulation project. Before blowing in the insulation there are several steps that need to be taken such as air sealing and caulking openings and gaps in the construction and installing air sealed boxes around recessed light fixtures. You also need to make sure that there is a dam around chimneys, and that the soffit vents will not be blocked by insulation.
Since this particular home already had several inches of loose fiberglass in the attic, Dr. Energy Saver specialists opted for adding a layer of blown cellulose on top of the fiberglass. Blown cellulose has a higher density and higher R-value than fiberglass. The denser cellulose on top of the fiberglass will help in two ways: it will help stop the air flow through the fiberglass and add R-Value to the attic insulation. This ranch style house will be more comfortable in every season and the heating and cooling bills will be lower.
At Dr. Energy Saver we specialize in finding ways to make homes more comfortable and energy bills more affordable. To learn more about other ways to improve your home’s energy efficiency and save some money on heating and cooling bills, watch other episodes of ‘On the Job’ or simply call Dr. Energy Saver for a complete home energy audit!
