How Should a Homeowner Shop for a High Performance Home?!?

Hello Corbett,
I have been listening to your podcast and heard your request for ideas. You often mention the challenges in educating consumers, and I think my questions might be interesting to the non-professionals in your audience.
I just moved to Denver, Colorado and am considering purchasing a home for the first time. As a potential first-time homebuyer interested in air quality, moisture management, energy efficiency, and building durability, I expect that it is unlikely that I will be able to find a high-performing home at an entry-level price. With the expectation that I may need to invest in some retrofitting, I have a couple of general building performance questions:

Ascertaining current performance

Assuming that a first-time buyer probably will not have access to the sophisticated diagnostics described on your podcast during their search, what are some key things to look for that would indicate a high or low performance?
Utility bills can shed some light on energy efficiency, but how can someone gauge issues like air quality or moisture control?

Performance improvement opportunities

What factors influence a residential building’s suitability for a high-performance retrofit?
Are there factors that would influence the ROI of a retrofit for a modest home? And how could a homebuyer identify those?

Assembling a team

Do you have suggestions about how to assemble your team (realtors, inspectors, and appraisers) to help identify an entry-level home based on current or future potential?
What skills or expertise would you consider important?
Your podcasts have covered issues about financing for retrofits – so there may be nothing new to address here.
 
Basically, it would be great to be able to use a home performance lens during a home search to identify a property in which it is not too difficult or expensive to improve from decent to good performance.
As a potential consumer, I have enjoyed and learned a lot from your podcast. Thank you for thoughts.

Best,
B

I Turned My A/C Off All Day at 106 Degrees

Dear Corbett:

I thought I would send this your way.  I live in the Central Valley of California.  Yesterday it reached 106 degrees.  I did an experiment with my house.  My 1,883 sq./ft. house had a deep energy upgrade over three years ago.  The heating and cooling unit is a 2 stage/2 ton heat pump with no back-up heat.  The second stage of cooling is disconnected so I am cooling with 1.4 tons.  That is one ton for every 1,345 sq./ft.

Yesterday morning I left the house at 7:40 am.  It was 75 degrees in the house and 75 degrees outside.  I closed all of the blinds, turned the HRV off and turned the Heat Pump off.  In other words, I let the house float.  It got up to 106 degrees in Stockton yesterday.  Luci my bride got home at 5:40 in the afternoon and the house was 78 degrees.  She turned the thermostat back on and it brought the temp back to 75 in 30 minutes.

This stuff really works.
Keep up the GREAT work;
Dick Rome

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Dear Dick-

You are awesome. I'm not sure I know many other home performance experts who have fixed their own homes- most of our families have to suffer at home while we help other people get comfortable. Thanks so much for sharing the good word!

~Corbett

How Much More Will a High Performance Home Cost?

The answer to this bass-ackwards question is: NEGATIVE DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS. It costs LESS to build a high performance home, whether that means ENERGY STAR Home, a Passive House, a Zero-Energy Ready home, or any of a number of other green home certifications.  Here's why:

In his first Fall Fast Track week of 2015, home performance guru Corbett Lunsford answers the question "how much more will it cost to build my next home high performance?" The answer to the question is as straightforward as the question is ridiculous!

Dear Corbett: How Long Should My A/C Ideally Run?

Hi Corbett,
How long should the air conditioner run in a given day?  The upstairs zone was running for 16 hours yesterday, and 10.5 and 11.25 each of the days before.  Is that reasonable amount of time for the A/C to run given the recent summer temperatures?  We are still trying to get the developer in to fix the ductwork, and figured this might be an symptom of the problem.
Thanks,
Graham

Hey Graham!
Great question- your air conditioner is actually designed to run continuously when it's hotter than 89 degrees F outside.
The A/C's job is to both COOL and DRY the air, and if it's too big, it doesn't run long enough to wring the humidity out of the air. This leaves you with a muggy house, where you keep lowering the temperature to try to get comfortable.
So don't be concerned when your air conditioner runs for long periods on hot summer days- that means everything's working the way it's supposed to!
Looking Forward,
Corbett

Dear Corbett: How do I Protect Against Both Air and Water?

Corbett - I have what I hope is a great 'old house' question for you regarding my home. I am getting my attic sealed and insulated, but I'm leaving the basement now to help troubleshoot if I am still pulling in air this winter.

I just discovered that my sill plate has plenty of gaps where one can even see daylight through the width of the entire foundation.  In unfinished part of the basement, the sill plate is easy enough to access and fill with cans of spray foam. 

However, in the finished areas, the drywall and wall blocking goes above the sill plate, and it is not accessible. It would be possible to use foam on the exterior, between the foundation wall and the original wood siding, which is underneath the aluminum siding.  This would also provide pest control, which would explain why I found a few ants this year.  

The question is, will that cause a moisture problem? Am I sealing in moisture that would normally drip out from behind the aluminum siding through the old wood siding?  Would it effectively direct the moisture or water into the house along the sill plate?  Is it simple to do, or would I be taking off the lower three slats of siding to properly seal?

Looking for details such as this online is very difficult, so I'm wondering if you already know of a great solution! ~Curt P.

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Thanks for your question, Curt! Though air sealing is of critical importance, when we're talking about air sealing from the exterior, make sure you don't create any moisture or durability issues for the house.

Spray foam used for air sealing is like a sponge, and it can wick water from under the siding into the house- I'd be leery of trying to fix it from the exterior for this reason.  If at all possible, seal the sill plate from inside, but if it's not possible, then just make sure you're able to monitor those areas that we're not sure about.

There's no standard solution I'm aware of for DIY repair of this issue, which is why I'd recommend having a professional take a look at it.  Just make sure they guarantee you a measurable test result of some type after home improvements have been done- that's the secret!
~Corbett

More than an 'Energy Audit' for Manufactured/Mobile Homes

Oh Guru of Home Performance,
Would you shed some light on the intricacies of auditing manufactured homes?? I have an audit to do on a 17 year old mobile home- I will do a blower door test with infrared... other than the walkthrough assessment and evaluating the duct-work, checking the underneath for the insulation quality, and what else possibly could be tested?
Thank you! Sincerely,
Kevin J.

Hi Kevin-
Thanks for reaching out!  If you keep your head in the 4-3-2-1 space (see below) and listen to the client’s pain (comfort/EE/air quality), then use testing to pinpoint the opportunities for improvement, it’s the same as analyzing any other type of building.  Your approach sounds solid, and I’d use any other diagnostics to solve the client’s specific pain points.  Think about what Motivational Metrics you can use to help your client take action with solutions.
Use my book Home Performance Diagnostics to help you perform any tests that seem applicable to pinpointing the cause and proving the measured home improvement.
Best of luck, and TAKE PICTURES AND DOCUMENT YOUR PROCESS SO YOU CAN WRITE A COOL ARTICLE ABOUT IT!  Have a great weekend.
Looking Forward,
Corbett