REALTOR Crash Course in Home Performance

If you've asked yourself whether energy efficiency really sells homes, you're asking the right question. Go way beyond efficiency into the quality control metrics that can prove a home is worth the money, whether you're on the buyer or the seller side. Home performance diagnostics are here to stay- don't get left behind!

Recorded at Orange County Association of REALTORS during the Proof Is Possible US Tour- special thanks to Eileen Oldroyd, Joanne Frank, and Laura Reedy Stukel for making it happen!

DEAR CORBETT: HVAC Equipment Airflow Frustration

Dear Corbett,

I was going thru the videos in the training portal. Overall, I like your videos. However, every now and then, a portion of one leaves me less than satisfied with the answer. Usually, my disatisfaction is because you are rushing through and just skimming the details and explainations. I realize that your trying to limit the video's length and accept it.

However, I found one video that had something that you brought up, but didn't explain that frustrated me enough to write. The video is in the training portal, 'Mastermind Series Jan 2015' at 30:01 minutes in. Your talking about system airflows and you bring up NCI. You go to say how they add up supply airflows, return airflows, and compare it to what the airflow should be to get leakage. You say that that is wrong but don't explain. You finish by saying that system airflow needs to be measured at the blower. 

So, the question I have is: Are you objecting to comparing either the supply or return airflows to what the system airflow SHOULD be (i.e. not measured) or something else?

Would you agree with the following? 
(Equipment airflow) - (sum of supply register airflow) = (supply side leakage)
(Equipment airflow) - (sum of return register airflow) = (return side leakage)

Equipment airflow to be measured at or near the blower by one of the several methods. I am calling it equipment airflow and not system airflow just to be clear that it is what the fan actually produces.

Finally, are you doing full manual J's or just block load calculations to get ballpark numbers?

Thanks,
TJ

-_-_-

Dear TJ-

Great question, and I'm happy to clarify what I meant! Thanks for letting me know when my broad strokes don't actually answer your question and leave you frustrated- I always want to give a full picture of what home performance testing actually means.

My issue with measuring the supply airflows and return airflows, and inferring duct leakage from that is:

1. How do you know what airflow the equipment is producing unless you measure the actual airflow at the equipment? You can use a calculation like 400cfm x tons of A/C, but what if it's heating season, 20 degrees outside, and the NEST thermostat won't let you disable the compressor's service disconnect and still run the air handler? Also, what if the installer targeted 350cfm per ton, or 450cfm?
2. Even if you measure the equipment airflow, you won't be measuring the equipment cabinet air leakage, which is almost always there. In fact, the IECC duct leakage test assumes that 25% of all the duct leakage will be in the cabinet in new construction.
3. The only way to measure duct leakage is to perform a duct tightness test, or for a quicker and more localized look, perform a pressure pan test during blower door testing.
4. Measuring airflow is notoriously difficult. What tool and technique are we using? Pitot tube has high user error, passive flow hood (balometer) is not accurate for residential grilles and low flows, and anemometers need to be corrected for net free area of the grilles. Lots to scratch your head about, and it turns out the best way to measure airflow in the 21st century is still a plastic garbage bag.

To answer your final question, if all you need is a ballpark number, a block load is fine, but I always do a full room-by-room load calculation if I'm being paid to do an actual Manual J.

Hope that helps, and keep the questions coming!
Looking Forward,
Corbett

#TinyLab Tour Ends: Lessons Learned

Grace and Corbett Lunsford are happy to not be moving every week, like they did on the Proof Is Possible Tour! Hear some of the ups and downs, and what they learned on this 13,000 mile, 26-state tour of the U.S. promoting measured home performance.

Dear Corbett: Why Don't Homeowners Want It Done Right?

Dear Homeowners: please read and absorb what the quality contractors come up against with typical clients. This is part of why high quality construction and home improvements are hard to come by...

 --------

Hi Corbett,
Hate to bother you, but you said if I had aquestion to get in touch with you. Sometimes I feel like just throwing my hands up in the air and giving up; why did I read that article about making the heating system airtightback in 1992 when I started my HVAC business? And why six years ago did I bother learning about the whole house approach? There are times I wish I wasn’t disciplined and motivated to do things right.

If a customer just wants a new energy efficient furnace or A/C and is not concerned with all the other issues with the house, should I just give them what they're asking for and take their money? Knowing how easy it would be to do that, I just can’t lower my standards. Even companies that are doing 'whole home performance' now, I’m following behind them fixing some of their mistakes already.

I get people telling me about the problems they are having inside the house. The question I’m always asking the homeowner is, If I see some safety concerns or other issues would you like me to tell you? On a service call, the first thing I have to get right is the problem with the equipment, than I can let them know what I see with the whole house and heating/cooling system generally.

I’m always getting pushback on this: "my heating system is just 7 years old, everything's fine." And here I am, telling them it was not installed correctly, and that we have to start all over again.  Always running into oversized furnaces and air conditioners with undersized ductwork.

Not sure if I’m explaining things correctly to the homeowner as to what I’m trying to accomplish inside the house for them. It always seems to come down to the price. Maybe I have to do a better job in showing value to the customer?

Right now, looking at one job, the call was for high end air purifying filters. The homeowner told me the house is 4000 sq ft but might include the garage and it’s 8 years old. Their 5 year old son has allergy problems, $650.00 utility bill a month, a lot dust in the house. They have 181,000 Btu output for heating and 10 tons of cooling! Told the homeowner the first thing we should do is test the house and HVAC systems first before installing the filters. It apparently costs "too much" to fix the problems. Help?
Thanks,
Sal C.

---

Hey Sal-
Great question, and I feel your pain!  Sometimes it can seem like our clients actually prefer to hire mediocre contractors to do cheap home improvements that make things steadily worse in the house.  I promise you, though, that it's not true. Yes, I believe it's 100% about education and showing the value, and judiciously using the powerful marketing tools Fear and Sex Appeal to do so.

Keep at it. I'll keep an eye out for your success stories to come. 

Looking Forward, 

Corbett

Corbett's Conversation with Stephen Rardon, HVAC Guru

Stephen Rardon, HVAC expert extraordinaire, came to the #TinyLab to talk about home performance, HVAC testing, and being a world-class consultant to homeowner and builder clients alike!

If you haven't already, CHECK OUT STEPHEN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL- his is twice the size and following of ours!

End of the Proof Is Possible Tour: ATLANTA

Happy New Year from the Lunsfords and the #TinyLab, after traveling 13k miles through 26 states in 9 months on the Proof Is Possible Tour. Guess what? Washing a tiny house on wheels is exactly like washing a gigantic car!

How to Service, Disassemble, and Clean a Mitsubishi MSZ-FH06NA Ductless Minisplit

See a demonstration of taking apart and cleaning the Mitsubishi Electric FH-series ductless minisplit heat pump.  Thanks to Garrett Beneker of Lincoln Air in Phoenix, AZ for sharing his expertise, and to Jim Clark of Mitsubishi Electric Cooling & Heating for introducing us!

FLOOD in an Airtight Tiny House

Watch Corbett and Grace deal with a 25 gallon leak from their freshwater bag in the #TinyLab. Thanks to Jim Clark for all the help mopping and drying in Phoenix that day!

#TinyLab Teaches the Hamptons Home Performance

PSEG Long Island brought the Proof Is Possible Tour's #TinyLab and Green Jobs Training Center's Building Science Training Lab to East Hampton and Montauk, and here's what happened! Video produced by Geir Magnusson at Nice Studios- thanks also to Bill Sullivan, the man who made the whole thing happen!

#TinyLab in Death Valley: Proven Performance

See what the hottest place on Earth (Death Valley, with the world record 134ºF temperature) does to the world's highest performance tiny house on wheels. See proof that our airtightness, insulation, cooling, and ventilation works even where it's not designed to go.

Testing a Downdraft Kitchen Exhaust Fan

Home performance diagnostics guru Corbett Lunsford demonstrates the simple test for kitchen exhausts of all types with a smoke pen. See how downdraft exhaust fans work (or don't work) and make a more informed decision on what to do in your own kitchen!

Building Pro Review of the Proof Is Possible Tour

Hear from BPI Certified Pros Ryan Weitzel of FLC Energy and Neil Comparetto of Matrix Mechanical about the pro workshop portion of the Proof Is Possible Tour. Come study advanced techniques and tools for home performance diagnostics with Corbett Lunsford, the guy who wrote the book on it!