Faced with the task of heating and cooling a home of any size, geothermal systems make an incredible contribution to energy efficiency and practical applications.  Not only will they save money over time but they significantly reduce the demand on the electrical grid and the gas services in a community.   Given the energy issues in our world, its good to know that there are ways to make tremendous reductions in the carbon footprint of any new home or renovation.

In this project five wells were drilled to provide the heat exchangers with a water inflow that is roughly constant in temperature, about 50 degrees F.   Heat pumps work like a reversible refrigerator, sending the heat from ground water to the home in winter and swapping the heat from home back to the ground water in summer. Boilers work to boost the temperature of water. One of the wells prior to being connected to the home appears in the adjacent photo.

The following photos depict the installation of radiant heating systems that, by concept, date back to the Roman Empire.  When combined with geothermal systems, and today’s technology, radiant systems can drastically improve the comfort of modern living areas at a much lower energy cost.  Small tubing filled with heated water is recessed into prefabricated panels. The panels are mounted on the subflooring and contain an aluminum backing that radiates the heat of the water upwards.  The rooms will warm from the floor to the ceiling, heating the entire space. This will allow the owners to be comfortable at lower thermostat settings on the primary heating system.  This installation also helps eliminate cold feet syndrome – that malady that occurs when your body is warm, but your feet are freezing.

This system is installed in the kitchen and dining area, spaces where families and friends often congregate.  These flooring elements should be carefully coordinated with the cabinets, floor supply ducts and even flooring patterns in the tile and wood.

A great link that explains the physics behind geothermal: http://smart-nrg.com/geothermal.php Not only is this the "green" thing to do but it saves a lot of money in the long run.  You might check with your tax advisor about the incentives available for these installations.

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This article was posted in New Homes, Heating & Air Conditioning, Renovations, Remodeling, Building Green, News and tagged with New Homes, Energy Efficiency, Remodeling Potomac Maryland, Heating & Air Conditioning

We have all been in homes in winter months, perhaps our own, when we feel a bit colder than the temperature seems to indicate.  The wood joints have opened up in the mouldings, doors, cabinets and furniture.  Interior doors and cabinet doors don't quite close or lock as they did a few months ago. We generally shock one-another or objects when we touch them.  Our skin gets rough and itchy, our eyes are irritated and our throats and noses are dry.  Those homes are begging for more humidity.  Winter dries everything out in a home because the relative humidity is low and our furnaces are blasting hot air needing a healthy dose of water vapor.

A given volume of air can contain a fixed amount of water, but when that same volume of air is heated up it can contain a greater amount of water.  So when our furnaces crank out heat in the winter, the potential amount of water contained in the air is increased.  If we don't add water vapor to the heated air the relative humidity goes down and we feel cold.  Our bodies are very sensitive to relative humidity.  A temperature with only 10% relative humidity feels colder to us that the same temperature with 45% relative humidity.  For example a heat index table tells us that a 70 degree temperature with 10% relative humidity feel like 65 degrees, but if we increase the relative humidity to 40% it feels like 68 degrees.  That is a 3 degree increase in comfort by just adding water to the air!

With that in mind, we need to ensure we give our homes the ability to add humidity properly.  One should carefully evaluate whole-house humidifiers in a new home or renovation.  Humidification is not always one of the top boxes to check in a home project but one should know the benefits and work diligently to include the proper equipment.   A typical evaporative humidifier is attached to the ductwork near the furnace as shown in the adjacent photo on the right.  These humidifiers are effective but require periodic maintenance because they remove particulates and minerals from the water.  These evaporative humidifiers are used in the vast majority of homes in the Washington, DC area, and perhaps nationwide, but there are other cost-effective options.

I prefer a steam humidifier (shown in the photo on the left and installed by Tri-State Home Services) which is dedicated to a zone or individual furnace in a home.  These steam humidifiers are incredibly effective and have the ablity to increase the relative humidity measurably in a home.

Steam humidifiers , as opposed to units that operate by evaporation, have several advantages including lower water consumption, much higher capacity, and increased flexibility in installation.  While a typical humidifier might have a capacity of 8-12 gallons per day, depending on how much the furnace runs, Residential Steam Humidifiers can have capacities of as much as 50 gallons per day, independent of the furnace operation.

Steam Humidifiers operate by heating a container of water causing steam to be formed, which is then distributed into the home. Most units can be mounted directly onto the ducting like standard humidifiers, and in the case of units like the Honeywell TrueSTEAM or the GeneralAire Elite Series they can be mounted remotely with the steam delivered to the forced air duct system via a hose, with a nozzle installed in the duct system.

Humidity is important to your home and your health in the winter months.  Make sure you consult with your building professional or your trusted Heating and Air Conditioning contractor.  I have several that I recommend - feel free to contact me.

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This article was posted in Quality, New Homes, Heating & Air Conditioning and tagged with Quality, humidity, humidifiers, healthy home, Heating & Air Conditioning

It must be hard for a consumer to decide how to select replacement windows or windows for a new home.  How do you start, where do you start and who do you trust for such an important investment?  All the manufacturers claim high efficiency glass, tax incentives and new and improved technologies.  In my career at Natelli Homes, which is going on 25 years in residential construction, the window and door industry has grown and improved the most.  The standards for all the major manufacturers are so much improved that I would venture to state that there are arguable financial and performance benefits to replacing windows that are only 10 years old.

Windows and exterior doors are the biggest contributors to heat and energy loss in a home.  People notice it more in the winter when we can feel the cold spots and drafts around windows and doors, but imagine how much is also lost in the summer when we are not quite as sensitive.  Poor performing windows and exterior doors contribute to an immeasurable amount of energy loss in our world.

Again, where does one start?  You might start with the U-value of a window which is a measurement of 4 combined ways windows lose heat.  This is a standard by which a homeowner can evaluate the performance of manufacturers on an even playing field.  Simply put, the U-value of a window combines the heat loss of a window through (1) radiation, (2) convection, (3) air leakage and (4) conduction.  The lower the U-value the better performing the window is.

I found a great sketch in an article by Paul Fisette in Fine Homebuilding.  Paul Fisette is director of the Building Materials Technology and Management Program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA (www.umass.edu/bmatwt). Chart information courtesy of W. W. Norton & Co. Inc., except where noted. Photo: Brian Vanden Brink; drawings: Dan Thornton.

This article was posted in Windows, Exterior Doors, Insulation, Heating & Air Conditioning and tagged with Windows, Window replacement Potomac Maryland, Exterior Doors, Insulation, U-value, Energy Efficiency, Heating & Air Conditioning