Legislature(2009 - 2010)BUTROVICH 205
03/03/2010 10:00 AM Senate RESOURCES
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| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE RESOURCES STANDING COMMITTEE
March 3, 2010
10:01 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Bill Wielechowski, Co-Chair
Senator Gary Stevens
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Lesil McGuire, Co-Chair
Senator Charlie Huggins, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
Senator Bert Stedman
Senator Thomas Wagoner
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Representative David Guttenberg
Senator Dennis Egan
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Overview: AHFC Weatherization Program
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
CARY BOLLING, Energy Specialist
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC)
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented overview on AHFC Weatherization
Program
ACTION NARRATIVE
10:01:12 AM
CO-CHAIR BILL WIELECHOWSKI called the Alaska State Senate
Resources Standing Committee meeting to order at 10:01 a.m.
Present at the call to order were Senators Stevens and
Wielechowski.
Overview of the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC)
Weatherization Program ^Overview: AHFC Weatherization Program
10:01:36 AM
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced the overview of the Alaska
Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) Weatherization Program. He
said this was of benefit to the public on how to make their
homes and businesses more energy efficient.
CARY BOLLING, AHFC Energy Specialist, Alaska Housing Finance
Corporation, said he had been with AHFC since 1992 mainly
researching information on housing construction, energy
efficiency, building science and renewable energy, and trying to
get that information out to people through their research
information center and presentations to consumers and builders.
He said the program embodies two different strategies -
conservation and efficiency. Conservation is cutting back and
involves things like opening the refrigerator less and turning
off lights; and efficiency usually involves using technology or
"doing more with less" like using energy efficient bulbs and
programmable thermostats.
10:04:05 AM
He also reminded people to look at what the energy usage is on
their product purchases; lots of products have energy star
labels from washing machines to televisions. He compared two
televisions (TV) made by the same manufacturer that were both
the same size but one used 177 watts of electricity and the
other used 118 watts. He emphasized the "standby power" that is
involved when a product looks like it's off, but it really
isn't. One of the TVs drew only a little over 1 watt of
electricity when it's off, but the bottom one drew 40.04 watts.
Energy star labeled products have to meet some kind of guideline
for the standby power. The savings can be considerable for
places like rural areas.
10:06:02 AM
Slide 4 illustrated how a $100-investment in a house could cut
someone's energy costs. For instance, he bought 10 compact
fluorescent lights (CFL) that use a quarter of the energy of a
standard light bulb at $3/ea. And showerheads - most put out
about 3-5 gallons of water per minute, but you can cut down the
amount of hot water by getting a showerhead that uses half of
that amount - 1.6 gallon per minute. It's simple to install. A
water heater blanket is about $20 and easy to install, as well.
Then there are the doors and windows - weather strip and caulk
for those cost of about $15. Where car block heaters are needed
to keep engines warm during the winter, a timer can be used to
turn it on two hours beforehand instead of leaving it on all
night. The last thing is phantom power loads - the standby power
losses with electronics like video games and electronics battery
chargers; that can add up to 100 watts of electricity that is on
all the time. His calculation showed a person would save a total
of $650.00/year - $200 for using the light bulbs, $80 from using
and energy efficient showerhead, $20 from using a water heater
blanket that will pay for itself in one year, $40 from caulking
and weather stripping, $100 from using a power strip, and $200
from using a car block heater timer. But this is what is called
"the low-hanging fruit."
10:11:03 AM
MR. BOLLING's Home Energy Use Chart (slide 6) broke down home
energy use into categories. The really big chunk of energy use,
especially in Alaska, is space heating. For this one must
understand how a house works which could involve major
improvements, but he cautioned that caulking and insulating a
lot but may cause unintended consequences. He illustrated his
points with a little story about how "Grandma's house" works or
what some call Building Science 101. Her house has very little
insulation, built maybe 50 years ago - very drafty. It was built
when energy was cheap. A pot of water on the heating system for
humidity was putting moisture into the air. This was done
because typically in Alaska outdoor air is cold and dry - and
it's blowing through the house drying it out more.
He explained that a house works just like a chimney. The cold
air comes in cold and low through cracks and leaks around the
bottom of the house and goes out up and hot through cracks and
leaks in the ceiling - the part most people don't typically get.
All the light fixtures and attic places have little cracks.
Escaping warm air can be pretty significant when it is all added
up.
10:14:26 AM
Back to his Grandma illustration: energy is expensive, so she
hired someone to install more insulation. But problems can be
created without understanding how the house works as a system.
The drafts and cracks need to be caulked and sealed to stop the
air from coming in and going out. Now what happens is that warm
moist air gets into the attic, which is a lot colder because of
the added insulation, and that air freezes. Then when it gets
warmer outside, it melts and drips back down and starts causing
durability problems. So, she should caulk around the light
fixtures in the ceiling to keep the moist air in. Another
indication that too much moisture is in the attic is when
moisture freezes on its way out through a gable vent.
10:17:19 AM
You can tell Grandma to take her pot off the stove, Mr. Bolling
said, but a family of 4 creates 1100 gallons of moisture a year
(slide 14). It's got to go some place. So when the weather
conditions get right the house gets ice damming. Snow gets on
the roof, the snow right next to the roof is melting because the
attic is warm; it runs down and hits the cold outside edge of
the roof and freezes, and causes giant icicles. Then a whole
ridge of ice can form along the edge of the roof that becomes an
actual dam so that the water running under the snow layer can't
get over the dam and it starts backing up underneath the
shingles. A lot of people don't understand this because they go
through the "icicle dam follies," which means they think they
need more insulation in their attic. But they really need to
seal up all the cracks and leaks in the ceiling that are
allowing warm to get up into it. That solves 90-95 percent of
the problems.
10:19:55 AM
He explained that a good air seal is put on the warm side of the
insulation in Alaska's climate. In new homes that is done by
putting Visqueen plastic film around the house (slide 17). In a
retro-fit situation, you try to caulk and seal up as best you
can (slide 18). Once the house is tightened up, however, the
house system makes the inside moisture go to the coldest
surface; it condenses on the windows and starts dripping and
even freezing presenting durability issues. Or it goes to a very
extreme example of mold. The moist air condenses on the warmer
surfaces like a stud - more durability issues.
He said the moisture must get out somehow. Why not just open a
window? That doesn't always provide ventilation because you need
a driving force to move air in or out of a house. Only three
things can do that - wind, temperature or a mechanical
ventilation system (MVS). The only thing you can control is the
mechanical ventilation system. However, simply running the
bathroom fan longer provides background ventilation for the
whole house that can have indoor air quality issues other than
moisture once it has been tightened up.
MR. BOLLING said using a bathroom fans is fine in those
situations. However most of them don't get used because they
are not rated to run continuously so they can burn out; they are
also not very energy efficient, and - the main reason - they are
noisy.
10:24:56 AM
New fans are quieter, energy efficient, continuous-duty rated,
and cost $100-200. A controller can control how often it comes
on and off to keep the indoor air in good shape. On the other
hand some people put in heat recovery ventilators (HRV). When
they exhaust the air out of the house these recapture some of
the heat and use it to preheat the cold air coming in; the newer
units use energy efficient fans. But installing a system like
this costs thousands of dollars instead of hundreds. The bottom
line is that you want your house built tight, but you want it
ventilated right.
10:27:28 AM
The building code says burning fuel inside a house for a heating
system (slide 23) has to use air for the combustion process that
comes from outside the house. For Grandma's house that is now
nice and tight, this means when she cooks she turns on the range
hood and it can suck a lot of air out of the house; the same for
a clothes dryer. For the heating system that doesn't have an
outside air supply this means because of all the suction in the
house, instead of smoke going up the stack, it comes down the
stack and into the house - in the form of carbon monoxide, which
is colorless, odorless, and deadly.
Building code says you need outside air for a furnace to burn
fuel, Mr. Bolling said. So, typically you will see holes punched
in walls with a louvered vent that will dump air near the fuel
burning appliance. They need to be there, but it is a pretty
primitive way to supply combustion air to these units. A better
strategy if you are going to upgrade your heating system is to
use one that is direct-vented or uses a sealed combustion system
that injects the air right into the combustion chamber where the
fuel is burned, and takes the exhaust out as well. It's safer
and less prone to back drafting. A carbon monoxide detector is
required by law. Everything should be safe, durable, efficient
and affordable.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI noted that Representative Guttenberg was
present.
10:33:27 AM
MR. BOLLING summarized that one begins building tight and
ventilating right by first sealing up the house; then
insulating.
10:35:33 AM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if a specific type of caulk should be
used.
MR. BOLLING replied that silicone is a universally benign
product to use - unless it has to be painted. More important to
think about is caulking around something that will get hot. It
should also be caulk that lasts a long time, 20 years or longer.
He used illustrations to show different techniques for
insulating around different items like electrical outlets and
chimneys saying that typically you have to make insulation dams
yourself that keep insulation from touching hot surfaces. This
information is on AHFC's energy star website.
He said once everything is sealed on top, then you seal where
the air is coming in low and that typically is where the
foundation wall meets the floor framing, the rim joist area.
Sometimes insulation is stuffed in that area, but if you pull it
out and see a lot of dirt, that means air is coming in from
outside. That should all be sealed up by installing rigid foam
board that has been cut to size and caulking around it; then
draping insulation down the wall. It's important to keep the
area dry and that is accomplished with ground vapor retarder
that is sealed with red tape. Don't use duck tape, he warned,
because it tends to dry up and fall off after a couple of years.
Seal first and then insulate, he instructed. Typically, it's
easy to add insulation in the attic, but being careful to create
barriers around things that get hot, maybe with wire mesh. He
suggested getting rid of recessed light fixtures because they
get very hot and have holes in them to keep them cool. So they
are pumping a lot of hot air up into the attic causing ice
damming problems and energy loss. Sometimes you can build an
insulated box around them, but carefully. Luckily several
products are now available so that recessed light fixtures can
be sealed from inside the house.
He emphasized that attics and roofs need to be ventilated;
soffit vents allow air to come in and ridge and gable vents
allow it to go out over the insulation. You don't want so much
insulation that it blocks the air flow.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked if electrical outlets should be
insulated in some way.
MR. BOLLING answered that you can put foam gaskets behind the
covers. The big air leakers are the ones that are really high
and really low; then hit the foam gaskets.
10:45:47 AM
He summarized that the top priority is to caulk and seal air
leaks between ceiling and attic, around crawlspace or basement
rim joist, and doors and windows. Then add more insulation to
the attic and crawlspace or basement walls. Then get a heating
and water heating system check up annually for safety and
efficiency. And last but not least provide proper ventilation
for the house - for health and safety: at least install a quiet
energy-efficient bathroom fan.
10:48:44 AM
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked if using water heater blankets make
the heaters sweat and rust out.
MR. BOLLING answered that most of the newer water heaters are
better insulated than they used to be, so additional insulation
may not be needed. If the water heater feels really warm, you
may need one. Getting the right blanket is important for dealing
with the sweating issue. Some are fiberglass and some use a
bubble pack. Sweating could also be coming from the presence of
too much moisture in that area.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked how to keep cold air from coming in
through dryer vents and bathroom fans.
MR. BOLLING answered that the newer bathroom fans have a damper
that shuts off when the fan is not on; another damper closes on
the outside. Dryer vents typically have a flapper on the
outside; but some have a shuttle device that uses the force of
the air from the dryer to push up a little gasket. When the
dryer is turned off the gasket falls back down and covers the
hole making a better seal than the flapper.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked for ways to improve efficiency on
wood stoves and fire places.
MR. BOLLING responded that generally the open hearth fire places
are energy losers because so much air that has already been
heated is going up the chimney. Use them sparingly and not in
the winter, he stated, and when they are not being used, use one
of several low cost ways to make sure they are sealed properly.
Make a pillow out of squishy foam in a plastic bag and fit it
into the throat of the chimney, for instance. But make sure it
is removed before ever starting a fire.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked for efficiency suggestions on "warm
roofs" that have no attics.
MR. BOLLING answered that you have to attack any air that is
leaking up to the roof from inside the house from the bottom
side. One strategy is caulking around the light fixtures on the
inside, doing the retro-fit kits for recessed light fixtures,
and trying to get as much as you can from inside the house.
Typically air leakage is the biggest source of heat loss;
sealing them up will make a major difference in reducing heat
loss and preventing ice damming - even without sufficient
insulation. For a much bigger project, one could build another
roof on top of the old one that adds insulation.
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked him to talk a little bit about tax
credits for Alaskans and the Energy Rebate Program.
10:56:16 AM
MR. BOLLING replied that you can get federal tax credits for
becoming more energy efficient. The best place is get
information on this is on their energy star website
(www.energystar.gov). You can take up to 30 percent of the cost
of many energy saving items up to a maximum of $1500 total off
your taxes. It's called a tax credit, not a deduction, and comes
off the amount of tax you pay. The state has the Home Energy
Rebate Program available through the AHFC for people who have
the money upfront to pay for energy improvements. The
Weatherization Program is available for people who meet certain
income guidelines at no cost.
10:59:05 AM
CO-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI thanked him for his presentation and
finding no further business adjourned the meeting at 10:59 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| AHFC - Making Sense of Energy Efficiency.ppt |
SRES 3/3/2010 10:00:00 AM |