What Is Energy Star?

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Our slogan at Enerliv is “Energy Efficient Living“. We are proud of the fact that every day when we go to work we are making homes and offices in South-Western Ontario more energy efficient. It’s good for the environment and it’s good for our customer’s pocket books.

There aren’t too many opportunities in life where you can simultaneously cut back on your living expenses and raise your standard of living at the same time. Making this happen for our customers is the rare privilege of being a part of the insulation industry.

Here in the Energy Efficient Living Blog, we cover a range of topics connected to living better while using less energy. We thought we’d take a look at the Energy Star rating system since it’s an important part of this broader context.

What Is The ENERGY STAR® Rating System?

ENERGY STAR® is an international symbol of energy efficiency. It is a partnership between government and industry. Manufacturers are eligible to use the Energy Star symbol on products that meet strict government-endorsed guidelines. In Canada, the Energy Star program is administered by Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan’s) Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE).

In order to be eligible to carry the Energy Star logo, a product must be 10% to 65% more energy efficient than a comparable conventional item of the same kind. The requirements vary depending on the specific product.

Energy Star in Canada currently includes several different categories, including:

  • Commercial and industrial equipment such as restaurant appliances
  • Consumer electronics, e.g. televisions
  • Windows, doors and skylights
  • Heating, cooling and ventilation equipment, e.g. furnaces, boilers, heat recovery ventilators and fans
  • Lighting products
  • Major household appliances
  • Office equipment, e.g. computers, copiers, printers

One of the primary benefits of the Energy Star program is that it allows consumers to be able to choose energy-efficient products so they can save money on their utility bills, without requiring them to have any specific technical knowledge about the products they are buying. They just have to look for the Energy Star logo.

Like home insulation, it’s good for the environment and good for the pocket book at the same time.

For more details on Energy Star in Canada you can refer to the Office of Energy Efficiency’s web page at Natural Resources Canada. They also have some fun stuff for kids like the Energy and the Environment Activity Book.

Moisture In The Attic & Air Sealing

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We’ve previously written about the importance of monitoring humidity levels in the home and mold growth. Today we look at the attic in particular and how perforations in your ceiling can lead to heat loss, energy loss, and condensation in the attic, even if you have a significant layer of R50 loose fill attic insulation installed.

You might be surprised to find out how many cubic feet of air are leaking through your attic each day, and what this is costing you in added heating and cooling costs.  This continuous flow of warm moist air that is leaking out of your house into your attic space is a significant contributor to high heating costs as well as moisture accumulation in the attic.

Most ceilings from about the 1970’s forward have a vapour barrier lining whose purpose is to prevent air and moisture from escaping the living space of the home into the attic space. However, no vapour barrier lining is perfect because of how they are installed and actual job site conditions that prevent a complete seal from happening.

The number of penetrations through your attic’s vapour barrier lining depends on how many cuts were needed for electrical equipment, plumbing, furnace, and hot water vent pipes. This will in turn determine the actual effectiveness of the vapour barrier in keeping the warm moist air in your home. The actual amount of air leakage between your house and your attic can easily be measured by having an air tightness test preformed on your home.

Another concern related to attic air leakage is mold growth. When warm moist air from your home carries humidity from normal everyday activities like cooking and bathing into the cold attic, the moisture from this air can condense as it cools in the attic. A little bit is not usually problematic because the ventilation through the attic and out the roof vents usually dissipates the moisture before any condensation occurs.

But, if there is excessive air leakage into the attic and the humidity levels rise beyond the dew point, this condensation can lead to mold growth in the attic. This is unfortunately a very common situation today as people try to reduce heating costs by installing better-sealed windows and high efficiency furnaces. These are excellent home improvements to make, but they inadvertently can lead to increased levels of humidity going into the attic.

How does air leak into my attic?

Even if the vapour barrier lining between your attic and the rest of you home was installed properly, there are likely dozens of holes where air passes freely through. Loose fill insulation simply won’t block this leakage of air as loose fill insulation is not air barrier at all,  but rather acts like a knitted blanked which slows the movement of air without stopping moisture from passing through.

It’s not uncommon for a home to have a hundred perforations that leak air into the attic. There are many cases where the vapour barrier lining is perforated, depending on the house. Each plumbing stack must extend into the attic for the plumbing’s vent pipes to function properly. Light fixtures and ceiling fans typically have large openings for wiring. In the case of pot lights there is likely an interruption in the vapour barrier and even the insulation for the light fixture itself. Electrical wiring and communication lines criss-cross through the attic as they run from outlet to outlet in each wall. Often when an interior partition wall meets the ceiling there are interruptions in the vapour barrier due to the way the materials meet at these joints.

So you can see that even in a well-built home with a significant amount of even recently upgraded loose fill insulation, you can be losing hundreds of cubic feet of conditioned air, essentially exhausting it unintentionally into your attic. Loose fill insulation does offer thermal insulation value, but simply cannot stop air from moving through it. You can determine the extent of your attic air leakage by having an assessment done by a qualified home energy evaluator.

Older homes are generally more leaky that new homes. The new 2012 building code will enforce even stricter standards of air-tightness for homes in the future, however this new standard will only start to be implemented in mid to late 2012. This leaves the vast majority of our existing housing stock with potential problems.

In newer and more tightly sealed homes it is important to monitor humidity levels. Fresh air exchange is important to have, which can be achieved with a heat-recovery ventilator (HRV). An HRV will bring fresh air into the home, transferring heat between the fresh air and the indoor air that is being exhausted, before circulating the new fresh air through your house. In this way even the most tightly-sealed homes can enjoy high energy-efficiency with high indoor air quality without the threats of stale, stagnant air or potential mold problems.

For existing homes, one very effective and affordable solution to attic air leakage is to properly air seal all of the attic penetrations.  This can be done by individually finding and sealing each penetration into the attic manually or by applying a complete monolithic 2″ layer of polyurethane spray foam insulation on the floor of the attic to create a complete air seal. Not only does spray foam seal the attic, it offers some thermal insulation as well, and removes the dangers of attic mold growth from humid air rising into the attic and condensing.

After the spray foam insulation is installed, additional loose fill insulation will be blown on top of the 2” layer of spray foam to add additional insulation value cost-effectively.  This process exceeds even the tough 2012 standards for attic air-tightness, and ensures the most energy-efficient and cost-effective attic insulation method available. Installation can be done in one day with little or no interruption to household activities.

An eco energy auditor can help you determine how efficient or leaky your home is. For more information on attic air sealing an expert at Enerliv will be happy to give you a free consultation.

Mold Symptoms In The Home

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Concerned about mold growing in your home? Mold growth can cause allergic reactions, asthma attacks and other respiratory problems, and the mold itself destroys the things it grows on. Obviously mold growth in the home is something we all want to avoid.

Although no advice can take the place of a professional mold inspection, you can help keep your home and family safe by watching for early symptoms that your home might be at risk for mold growth. One easy sign is whether or not you see water droplets on the insides of your windows and window sills. If the insides of your windows are wet on cold days or after you have a shower or boil pasta, for example, there are simple actions you can take to ensure that mold growth does not become a problem in your house.

Why Does Mold Grow?

In order to understand how water droplets on your window relate to mold growth, we need to learn a little about mold and your home’s humidity balance.

What Is Mold?

Mold is a fungus organism, the spores of which occur naturally in air, soil and water. Mold spores are ubiquitous, but in order for mold spores to grow they require water, sufficient warmth, and stagnant or undisturbed conditions.

Attics, basements and bathrooms are common areas where mold can grow if water is allowed to sit. Most people are careful about cleaning up water in the bathroom. As for the basement and attic, if there are no leaking pipes then you have nothing to worry about, right? Not necessarily.

Your Home’s Humidity Balance

In order to understand how mold can grow in your attic or basement, or even in your walls, we need to understand how water cycles through the home. Mold in the home often happens when a home’s humidity cycle is out of balance.

If there is more water vapour in your home than the air can hold, water can condense on any cold surface into droplets that can promote mold growth. This condensation can occur in your attic or even inside of walls. These are the most common areas for mold to grow because this is where warm moisture-laden air comes in contact with surfaces that are in contact with the cold outdoors. When air cools it can’t hold as much water vapour as it can when it’s warm. This results in the formation of water droplets in your attic or walls.

My Home Hasn’t Had Mold Growth Before, Why Now?

Older homes were built with little or no insulation in their walls and attic. Older homes are typically drafty, as are older windows and doors. Older mid-efficiency furnaces pump their exhaust directly outside, carrying the water vapour that results from fuel combustion up the chimney. Mold growth typically isn’t a problem in older homes because the draftiness results in ample, sometimes excessive, ventilation. In fact, older homes usually have the opposite problem in winter: they get too dry. Plants wilt, static electricity develops, and peoples’ skin and throats get too dry. If you’ve lived in an older home, you’ve probably run a humidifier in February to increase the home’s humidity level.

Now, all this draftiness isn’t the ideal condition. A drafty home is not comfortable and wastes a lot of energy and money in heating (and cooling in summer). So people invest in ways to improve their home’s energy efficiency and comfort. This can include installing a high-efficiency furnace, adding insulation to walls, increasing insulation in the attic, or installing new energy star windows and doors.

The old, drafty, over-ventilated home has been changed into a comfortable, well-sealed, energy-efficient home. One unintended side effect of these home improvements can be a rise in indoor humidity levels. How does this happen?

Your home’s humidity level is the result of all the water that has been added to the indoor air minus the water that is taken out. Water vapour is released into your home’s air from every-day sources such as the shower, the kettle, the dishwasher, evaporation from plants, perspiration from people and pets, cooking, and drying clothes indoors.

Water is removed from a home through ventilation. This can be the kitchen’s range hood, the bathroom fan, open windows, attic vents, or simply though walls that are not sealed well.

If you’ve recently replaced an older furnace with a high-efficiency furnace, you’ve also changed your home’s humidity balance. Older furnaces typically use warm indoor air for combustion, and then pump the warm air and moisture from combustion up the chimney, whereas high-efficiency furnaces have an energy-recovery feature that first cools the exhaust before it leaves the house. This results in less ventilation and more retained moisture indoors.

So, improving your home’s energy efficiency can lead to unintentionally high levels of indoor humidity if not properly monitored. If you see water condensing on the inside of your windows this is a symptom that your indoor humidity levels are too high and action should be taken.

A professional home inspector can help you but there are steps you can take yourself: always run the range hood fan when cooking, use the bathroom fan when showering or bathing. Buy a hygrometer at the hardware store and keep an eye on your humidity levels. Don’t’ just assume that because it’s winter you should be running a humidifier. Open the windows for 10 minutes a day to vent the house if you don’t have fans.

When considering having insulation work done on your home, ask your insulation contractor how the proposed work will affect your indoor humidity levels, and make sure they including adequate ventilation and vapour-barrier considerations as part of the job.

For more information on symptoms of mold in the home and how to clean mold, refer to these CMHC and US EPA publications: