The Duggan family on their front porch newly decorated with holiday cheer.
In July 2011, the City of Decatur and City of Atlanta partnered to create the Home Energy Makeover Contest. Hundreds of entries were received and we are proud to announce that the Decatur winning home has been selected and will receive a home energy makeover worth up to $10,000! Not a bad holiday gift right?
Dana Duggan, an Oakhurst resident and proud mother of 3 daughters, was selected based on her home’s ability to demonstrate the significant difference that energy efficiency improvements can make to reduce energy bills and increase comfort. This 1,500 square foot house was built in 1970, and had an addition built in 2003. Despite enormous energy bills, areas of the home remain uncomfortable year round. “You can be freezing in the back room, and then sweating while you eat dinner in the front,” says Ms. Duggan.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Duggan and touring her home last week with the contractors who will be donating their energy efficiency services. The energy audit of her home was donated by Joe Thomas of Renewal System Solutions. Home energy audits are a great way to get professional advice on how your particular home, with all its unique characteristics, can be retrofitted to reduce your utility bills. This service is being offered by more providers every day, and the prices have become competitive. Ms. Duggan’s audit showed a significant amount of air leakage, meaning the that home’s inside air is exchanging with the outside air through leaks and holes too frequently. This is measured using a blower door test. The test of this home showed a leakage of .77 air changes per hour (ACH), meaning that every hour approximately 77% of the house’s air will exchange with the outside air. High performance homes rank less than .35 ACH.
Even more alarming was her duct leakage test. Duct leakage is expressed as a percent: duct leakage divided by total floor area served by that duct system. Ms. Duggan’s leakage was 76%. High performance homes rank less than 5%. This means that a high percentage of the air she is paying to have heated and cooled is never making it into her living areas. This likely due to loose and leaky duct work around various connection points in the home. Older homes generally rank between 20-30%. As a reference, when my 1940’s era home was tested last year, I had 36% leakage.
The home also suffers from missing and improperly installed insulation and old heating and air conditioning equipment. So what are we going to do about it? Several partners have stepped up to help.
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Partners
We plan to share all the details on the work done to Ms. Duggan’s home in January, however we would like to take this opportunity to thank the contractors and companies that have stepped up to donate their services to this makeover. This list is likely to grow and change as the scope of work is finalized in the coming weeks.
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Wellhome is serving as the primary contractor. Their contribution will likely include insulation work in the attic and crawlspace. |
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ACS Inc. is providing installation of a new heat pump and replacement of the duct system. |
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Lennox has agreed to donate a new heat pump needed to replace the old and aging equipment currently in the home. |
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Renewal System Solutions provided the energy audit for the home which will be used to prepare the scope of work. |
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Stay tuned for more information. If you have any questions about this contest, please contact Lena Stevens at lena.stevens@decauturga.com or 678-553-6577.
