First, you use The Red Door of Truth.
How to go about improving the energy efficiency of your home can be confusing. So we were very please to see the good folks at Treehugger magazine publish a modern pyramid of conversation.
Developed by Lloyd Alter who teaches Sustainable Design at Ryerson University in Toronto, he makes perfect sense. “Don't start,” he says, “with loft insulation when you have holes as big as pie plates all over your house. You start with data from the Red Door of Truth, with analysis by a professional who is not a window, foam, or furnace salesperson, and then you climb the pyramid of energy conservation and carbon reduction from there.”
As certified HERS raters, we couldn’t agree more.
Alter writes:
“Here is a pyramid that works today in a world where we worry about carbon as well as energy and have different priorities and technologies. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Or, if you want a list form with greater detail, start here and work your way down.
1. Get an audit that includes a full inspection and The Red Door of Truth, building science YouTuber Mark Wille's great name for the blower door test. If you are going to cut your energy consumption and carbon emissions, you have to know where they are leaking out.
2. Do the free stuff, including turning things off, lowering thermostats, and using a clothesline or horse.
3. Do the cheap stuff, like changing every lightbulb to LED, caulking, and weatherstripping. This is why the blower door is so important; for years, we have grossly underestimated the amount of energy lost through leakage. The Economist doesn't even mention it.
4. Do the big easy hunks, as energy pioneer Harold Orr called them. "If you take a look at a pie chart in terms of where the heat goes in a house, you’ll find that roughly 10% of your heat loss goes through the outside walls,” said Orr. About 30 to 40 % of your total heat loss is due to air leakage, another 10% from the ceiling, 10% from the windows and doors, and about 30% from the basement. “You have to tackle the big hunks,” said Orr, “and the big hunks are air leakage and uninsulated basement.” This would include The Economist's loft or attic insulation.
5. Get window inserts. They are a fraction of the cost of new windows but dramatically cut drafts and noise.
6. Get off the gas. This is a big step in cost but a giant leap in carbon emissions reduction. Change the furnace or boiler for a heat pump, and get a heat pump hot water heater. This will never pay back; you are still paying for energy, but it is key to going zero carbon. If you have done the big easy hunks, then the heat pump will likely cost less because it can be sized smaller for the reduced heating loads. This is what we mean when we write that we need to electrify, heatpumpify, and insulate our way out of the current crisis.
7. Install photovoltaics if your roof faces the right way, and your electricity supplier will buy the power from you.
8. Do a gut job and go enerphit—the Passive Haus standard for renovations.“ - Lloyd Alter
Article: Treehugger Introduces a Modern Pyramid of Energy Conservation