Barron Heating AC Electrical & Plumbing Blog: Archive for the ‘Community Energy Challenge’ Category

How important is a “Home Energy Checkup”?

Wednesday, January 20th, 2016

Only if you believe that a “leaky home” can waste money

And you should! Whether you are heating or cooling your home, leaky homes can waste your hard-earned dollars!

The best way to evaluate your home is to have it professionally tested. Home energy assessments, home energy audits and home energy check-ups are all pretty much the same thing. The important element is to choose the right type of professional contractor to perform any one of these evaluations of your home.

As explained in this video from the U.S. Department of Energy, a home energy checkup is a series of tests and inspections to help determine how your home can be more efficient. Finding the source of inefficiencies in the home will help you understand how you could be wasting money. It is common to find problems in most homes like:

insulation
trap doors/access doors to attics
lighting
appliances
dirty filters
leaky duct work
airflow and sources of air leakage in the home

The good news is that all of these problems areas can be fixed! Many times, homeowners are tricked into purchasing new heating or cooling systems that can cost thousands of dollars. But it is quite common that a new system is not what the homeowner needs. What’s worse is that the new system will not operate as efficiently as expected because the true source of inefficiencies in the home have not been addressed. It is common that homeowners can save more money in the long run by doing a little bit of investigative work on the front end.

So why wait until those energy bills start adding up?

You may also be interested in:
Solving Drafts (and Other Common Problems) with Duct Repairs
The Importance of Sealing Attic Penetrations

Posted in Blower Door Testing, Community Energy Challenge, Energy Audit, Energy Efficiency, Energy Star, Fuel Costs, Heating, High Efficiency, Home Improvement, Understanding Energy Efficiency | Comments Off on How important is a “Home Energy Checkup”?

Aeroseal Featured on PBS’s Hometime with Dean Johnson

Monday, January 18th, 2016

This last weekend, Aeroseal duct sealing was featured on national television (again).

Check out this clip from Hometime for a great explanation of how the procedure works and how you could see improvements to indoor air quality, dust, consistent comfort and heating expenses.

I encourage everyone to ask your local heating and cooling contractor if they can provide this service. If they can’t, then make sure to find out who can!

Don’t let anyone tell you that hand sealing the duct system is “just as good” as sealing them from the inside.

If you are in BARRON HEATING’s service area, check out this page for more great information and how you can take advantage of this innovative opportunity: http://www.barronheating.com/aeroseal/

Posted in 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, AeroSeal, Air Duct Cleaning, Air Sealing, Allergies, Clean Home, Community Energy Challenge, Duct Cleaning, Energy Efficiency, Energy Savings, Healthy Homes, Home Improvement, IAQ | Comments Off on Aeroseal Featured on PBS’s Hometime with Dean Johnson

I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before!

Tuesday, July 21st, 2015

Blower Door Demonstration on Home Improvement’s Tool Time… Enjoy!

Posted in Air Sealing, Bad CHEE, Blower Door, Blower Door Testing, Comfort, Community Energy Challenge, Efficiency, Energy Audit, Energy Efficiency, Healthy Home | Comments Off on I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before!

Insulate Your Home for the Summer!

Thursday, April 16th, 2015

Insulation is important in the winter for obvious reasons, but did you know it also helps to keep your home cool in the summer?

Though insulation may seem obvious in this day and age, older homes often have very little or no insulation.

Because heating and cooling accounts for 50-70% of all energy costs, adding insulation is a critical step for anyone interested in lowering their energy bill.

It can be difficult to invest money in something you can’t even see day-to-day, but in the overall performance of your home, it’s critically important. And it’s becoming less and less hard on your pocketbook to install these much-needed updates. There are rebate programs through Puget Sound Energy and Cascade Natural Gas, and in some cases, rebate matching through the Community Energy Challenge (CEC).

Check out this great article: for a thorough description of the types of insulation, where in your home to put it, and much more!

The article also discusses geeky but useful things like R-Value of insulation. Turns out it stands for Resistance to heat flow. That makes sense! The DOE recommends an R-Value of R-49 for attics. And the better your insulation, the less hard your heating and cooling system will have to work, and therefore the longer before it breaks down. Win-win-win.

So, how do you know how much insulation you have in your home and where? Well, if you are handy and don’t mind wading through it yourself there are DIY ways of checking for insulation. However, if you’d rather leave it to the professionals, a Home Performance Assessment will tell you definitively where the insulation is. An Infrared Camera, used in most assessments, can look right through your walls!

Posted in A/C, Comfort, Comfy Home, Community Energy Challenge, Energy Savings, Insulation, PSE Rebate, R-Value, rebates | Comments Off on Insulate Your Home for the Summer!