Energy Audits

For existing homes, energy audits can locate energy leaks, allowing you to identify and correct problem areas. We can help you keep your conditioned air inside and at an appropriate temperature while helping you save money. We realize that is today’s economy, everyone is becoming more energy and financially conscious. Elite can work with you for the design choices that are most cost-effective for you.

Walk-Through Energy Audit

The best way to determine how to cut your energy costs is to audit your home’s current energy use. A walk-through assessment is the easiest and least expensive means of identifying and evaluating energy use in your home. An energy audit’s purpose is to identify places n the home where energy is being wasted and prioritize the projects needed to fix them. The end result is intended to reduce the amount of energy the home needs to operate and keep occupants comfortable. While the word “audit” may sound ominous, a home energy audit is just the first step in the process of lowering energy bills by making a home more efficient.

If you own the home, there is a clearly defined benefit for your efforts. Many have found that conducting a walk-though energy audit results in significant benefits not only in occupant comfort, but with new ways to save energy by identifying energy problems. You’ll start saving money on your energy bills as soon as you identify and fix energy wasters.

Advanced Energy Audits

Advanced energy audits go on step further. We use sophisticated software to model your home and analyze how it uses energy. The software helps identify deficiencies in your home’s thermal envelope and makes recommendations on how to correct them. In addition it produces reports on current energy usage along with expected energy usage based on improvements done to the home.

An Advanced Energy Audit includes:

Duct Blaster Leakage Testing – Combines a small fan and a pressure gauge to pressurize a house’s duct system and accurately measure air leakage of the ductwork. This test will show how much of the conditioned air in the duct system is being lost to the outside and increasing the cost of operation.

Blower Door Testing – A diagnostic tool designed to measure the airtightness of buildings and to help locate air leakage sites. A blower door consists of a calibrated fan for measuring an airflow rate, and a pressure=sensing device to measure the air pressure created by the fan flow. The combination of pressure and fan-flow measurements is used to determine the building airtightness. Knowing the airtightness of a building is useful when trying to increase energy conservation or decrease indoor air pollution.

Infrared Thermal Imaging – A thermal imaging camera can show you exactly where your energy dollars are being wasted. At the same time, we will give you suggestions on how to reduce the amount of leakage in your home.

For more information, or to schedule an energy audit, call Elite Service at 918.610.7300.

Whole House Energy Efficiency

At Elite Service, we take a whole house approach to heating and air conditioning.  By using a whole house approach, we are able to assess the efficiency of the home's entire envelope rather than just the HVAC system.  By doing this, we can find areas of energy leakage in your home.  This allows us to properly size your equipment for maximum efficiency and energy reduction instead of installing a larger system that will simply cover up existing problems, resulting in higher energy bills.  

There are many ways your home can lose energy:

• Hot air coming in the windows makes the new HVAC system work harder to cool the house in summer.
• Heat loss through an un-insulated attic makes it work harder to heat the home in winter. 
• Gaps in the aging ductwork make the system work harder all year round.

However, that efficiency will not be as high as it could be unless you fix leaky windows, increase attic insulation, and make repairs to aging ductwork. 

How Does a Whole House Approach Benefit Me?

The whole house systems approach is important for many reasons:

• Knowing about and being able to correct the energy wasters in your home's envelope help to create a home that is comfortable year round.
• Higher efficiency means less energy usage, which saves money by lowering utility bills.
• With lower energy use, the home is drawing on less non-renewable resources, thus reducing your carbon footprint.
• Sealing areas of air infiltration and installing a more efficient HVAC system will dramatically lower the dust and allergens in your home, creating a healthier living environment for your family.

How the Whole House Approach Works

Each home is a unique combination of factors which influence the efficiency of the entire home. When taking a whole house approach, it is important to consider these factors in making decisions to increase your home's efficiency levels. The important factors include the home site, its orientation and the local climate. It also involves the home's current appliances, electronics, insulation levels, air sealing, lighting, HVAC systems, water heating and openings in the home's envelope.

Making a home more efficient involves making incremental changes while keeping the budget in mind. Here is a sample plan for improving your home's efficiency:

• You will need to address openings in the home's building envelope. Check your windows and doors for leaks. Use caulk and weatherstripping to close those gaps. Also check your home's exterior for places where pipes and wires enter the house. Make sure those have adequate insulation and covering.
• Check for problems with your HVAC ductwork. Older ducts can have gaps in the seams. They may have loose joints or not fit the vent openings properly.  They may be completely detached from the system.   
• Check the level of insulation you have in the attic, exterior walls and crawl space. If the insulation isn't at recommended levels, add more.
• Make sure to have the HVAC system checked and tuned once a year. This helps it work at a more efficient level.
•  As your old incandescent light bulbs burn out, replace them with more efficient compact fluorescent lamps or LED bulbs.
• Ceiling fans help the home feel cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Select Energy Star-rated fans for the most energy efficiency.
• Choose a double-pane window with a low-E value made from wood or vinyl-covered wood.
• As the water heater nears its end of life, replace the older unit with a higher efficiency model. Energy Star rated ones are best.
• As old appliances die off one by one, replace them with Energy Star-rated options.
• Upgrade your HVAC system. Over the past couple of decades, manufacturers have made incremental improvements to the efficiency levels of furnaces, heat pumps and other HVAC equipment. 

The list may seem overwhelming, but that's where Elite comes in.  If you are thinking of making energy improvements to your home, consider having one of Elite perform an energy audit for you.  One of our certified energy auditors will evaluate your home and provide you with a consultation based on his findings, taking all of the guesswork out of the process.  After the consultation, you will be provided with a report that will give you suggestions for energy improvements.  

For more information on improving your home's energy efficiency, contact Elite at 918.610.7300.

Earth Day 2014

Earth Day is just around the corner.   We've compiled a list of suggestions to help you decide the best way for you to participate.  

1.  Water Management

Did you know that a faucet leaking just one drop per second wastes over 1,300 gallons per year?! A leak from a hot water source wastes both water and fossil fuel, creating more greenhouse gasses. You can definitely make a positive impact by fixing any leaks in your home's plumbing AND save money on your monthly water bill. 

2.  Water Temperature

One way to reduce your home's energy consumption is to adjust your water heater's output. Your water heater works constantly to keep water hot and ready whenever you need it. However, as the water sits, it naturally cools down.  This is called "standard heat loss".  Once the water cools, the heating element in the tank switches on to warm it up again.  The higher the water temperature is set, the longer the heating element will run.  Are you beginning to see how this never-ending cycle is increasing your energy and wasting your money?

For every 10 degrees you turn it down, you’ll save 3% to 5% on your heating or electric bill. Most water heaters come preset at 140 degrees, which has the added risk of scalding. The Energy Department recommends most households lower it to 120 degrees. That’s high enough for your needs, and high enough to reduce mineral buildup in your tank and pipes.

Ask us your technician to adjust the water temperature for you on your next service.  

Visit energy.gov for more ways  you can conserve water usage in your home.

2.  Clean Green

Cleaning products that contain chlorine or petroleum distillates expose your family to toxins and then end up in the ecosystem. Choose nontoxic, naturally derived cleaning products, which are proven effective but won’t cause long term damage to the Earth.

You can find suggestions for environmentally friendly cleaners and directions on making your own non-toxic cleaners here:

3.  Paper Conservation

Every year, pulp mills release over one trillion gallons of chlorine-tainted water as part of the paper making process. Using the other side of the paper can cut that pollution almost in half! And choose recycled paper—especially processed-chlorine-free recycled paper.

At Elite, we use unwanted fax solicitations for scratch paper.  Cindy even takes it home for her grandchildren to color on when they visit.  We think Libbie might be writing a novel on the backs of them ;)

4.  Maintain Your Vehicle

Americans waste over 700 million gallons of gasoline each year just because tires aren’t properly inflated. Millions more are wasted because our vehicles aren’t properly tuned up. Keep your vehicle running in peak condition, and you’ll save money and reduce your carbon footprint!

5.  Bike Or Walk

If people in the U.S. would occasionally ride a bike for a short errand instead of driving a car, over 70 million gallons of fuel could be saved each year! And there’s the added benefit of enjoying the fresh air and exercise! For short errands, take a hike...or ride a bike!

6.  Plant A Tree

Over a 50-year lifetime, a tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water, and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion. It also provides shade that keeps homes and cities cooler!  Consider planting a tree for Earth Day pledge.  

7.  Green Gardening

Herbicides aren’t the only way to control weeds, and they’re certainly not the most environmentally friendly way!  If you're concerned about keeping your yard environmentally friendly, invest in a good pair of gloves and garden tools, and remove weeds by hand.  You can even use apple cider vinegar as a means to kill off pesky weeds instead of using toxic herbicides that can poison plants and wildlife. 

Also, choose natural alternatives to pesticides for getting rid of pests!

Click here for ideas on how to maintain your yard or garden without using toxic herbicides and here for ideas on non toxic alternatives for insecticides.

8.  Compact Flourescents

There’s a brighter way to light your home: new Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs). Compared to regular bulbs, CFLs last 10 times longer, use only 1/4 the energy and produce 90% less heat and more light per watt! Brighten the future: go CFL!

9.  Recycling

You can start making the world a ‘greener’ place today: use local recycling centers for recyclable waste, donate cell phones, clothing and computers to charities, buy re-manufactured ink and toner cartridges, use reusable grocery bags.  There are hundreds of ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle!

10.  Buy Local

There are many benefits to buying locally made products.  For instance, buying locally produced goods can reduce fossil fuel consumption.  The average distance our food travels is 1500 miles, mostly by air and truck, increasing our dependence on petroleum. By buying locally, you conserve the energy that’s used for transport.

Buying locally grown food keeps money in our communities.  The American family farmer is a vanishing breed - fewer than 1,000,000 people (less than 1%) of Americans claim farming as a primary occupation. It’s no wonder: it’s hard to make a living when you get less than 10 cents of every retail food dollar. By buying locally, the middleman disappears and the farmer gets full retail price, in turn helping farmers continue to farm.

These are just a couple of the benefits of shopping locally.

Go to earthday.org for more ideas on how you can make a difference.  What are you going to do to help Mother Earth?

Winter Tip of the Day: Dodge Those Drafts!