A Building Science Sunday

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Here’s a confession: Sometimes even BPI-certified energy advisors have complicated, efficiency-challenged houses. Take Cree Hale Krull, who leads Evergreen’s charge in Maine’s southern Midcoast region. He’s the proud new owner of an older home that’s been full of efficiency surprises.

When the water heater up and quit last month, Cree decided to replace it with a high efficiency heat pump water heater. These appliances essentially work like refrigerators in reverse – they pull heat from the surrounding air and dump it, at a higher temperature, into a tank to heat water. Cree and local heating contractor Steve Winchenbach figure it will cut the cost of heating water in half, with the added benefit of dehumidifying the basement.

Since Cree knows a thing or two about financing energy efficiency projects, he looked into Efficiency Maine’s loan programs. He chose an unsecured PowerSaver loan, which offers up to $7500 for up to 10 years and is not tied to the property.

While he was at it, Cree decided to tackle an area where a day’s work would make a big difference: his attic hatch (left). Whether you access your attic through a panel-style hatch, pull-down stairs, or a real door at the bottom of a real staircase, these openings are often energy holes. They connect living space and unconditioned attic space, and all too often they offer a pathway for heat to leak from the house to the attic all winter, and to radiate from the attic to the house all summer.

At Cree’s house, the solution included air sealing the 4’x8’ opening in the second floor ceiling with a combination of spray-foam and caulk (below left).Not content to seal just what he could see, Cree pulled up the attic floorboards around the opening… and uncovered an unsealed top plate of an interior wall (below center). The top plate is the stud, laid lengthwise, at the top of the walls. When “open,” or unsealed, it creates another pathway for air to worm its way through. Cree put a stop to that with another round of spray-foam and caulk (below right).

With the attic hatch opening air sealed, the next step was creating an insulated plug for the 4’ x 8’ opening. (Though there’s a door at the bottom of the stairs, it’s an original interior door that provides very little in the way of insulating value. For energy efficiency purposes, the stairway is part of the second floor, and the barrier between conditioned and unconditioned space is the attic flat – so that’s where the insulated plug belongs.) Cree’s improvised door – constructed of scavenged blue board, 1×3 strapping, and weather-stripping – provides what he calls “a reasonable radiant/thermal barrier to heat transfer as well as the all-important air barrier – and even then it wasn’t perfect.”

All told, it was a 9-hour Sunday for Cree. “Most people don’t realize how much work it takes to do this right,” says Cree. At least the results were immediate: one of his sons commented (without prompting) that the second floor was significantly warmer, and the whole family noticed that the furnace cycled on far fewer times. Being a building science geek at heart, Cree quantified the improvements with a blower door test and found that air sealing the attic hatch reduced his home’s air leakage by 13%.

Not bad for a Sunday’s work.

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"Working with Evergreen from start to finish was a great experience." See what our customers have to say about their experience with Evergreen Home Performance. 

Jeff L.

From beginning to end – that is from the moment Justin McEdward stepped into our home to assess our energy conservation needs until the crew left – the Evergreen Home Performance process went absolutely smoothly. Justin made a thorough inspection and took pictures with an infrared camera. His proposal described the scope of work in detail, and he explained what we could expect the proposed work to accomplish. Our proposal was forthcoming within a couple of days, and Justin was available to discuss it and answer questions.

Adrienne Harkavy

Great job installing windows and insulation.

Bob S.

Rockland

We just finished a large project air sealing and reinsulating our 1890s basement and attic. It had been completely renovated 8 years ago, but still felt cold, and lacked proper energy assessment and corrections. We met with Justin in December and were very impressed with his knowledge, professionalism and communication skills and knew Evergreen was who we wanted to work with. Dave was our on hands project manager and was excellent. The office staff has been quick to respond and helpful as well when needed.

E Gallant

Kennebunk

Evergreen came out 2 years ago to do an assessment and insulate our roof. This year we had them come back and do the basement as well. They are hands-down the best crew we've ever hired to work on our house. They are experts at what they do, and super meticulous in their work. After working in our house for a week with blown insulation, there was no trace they were ever here. We've seen a huge decrease in our energy bills while at the same time the house has become way more comfortable. Can't recommend them enough.

RC Lations II

Portland

I made the mistake of NOT hiring this company last year when I bought and renovated my home. I have brought them in now and what a difference. This group knows what they are doing. They take a complete look at everything and believe they can make your home more energy efficient. They are very professional in the way they approach problems and solutions. And they find ways to save me money. Don't bother with anyone else. Bring Evergreen in before you do anything. Let them assess your issues and give you the right solutions.

Shaw

Owls Head

We had Evergreen Home Performance of Rockland come in to make our home more energy efficient, and what a TOP notch crew. Brian and his crew did an amazing job from start to finish. Very knowledgeable and professional. We would Definitely highly recommend this crew to anyone who is looking for energy efficiency in their home with a company that truly is an expert and knows how to do a quality job and truly cares about their customer.

Melissa S.

Owls Head

Greetings one and all! I am writing to express my gratitude to all involved in my insulation project.  From start to finish, I appreciate the universal theme which was maintained by each and every one of you, to ensure that my home was insulated and protected from freezing pipes as if it was your home. Andrea, thanks for helping me navigate my way to the project. Nate, thanks for the thorough initial assessment and the time you took to explain this project to me, step by step. Brian, thanks for setting up my project - so happy

Michele

We absolutely loved our experience with Evergreen. The team was incredibly kind, professional and great to work with. We're very impressed with the quality of work of the Evergreen team and how easy they made everything! Our house had barely any insulation ahead of this project and the results are amazing. Insulating the attic, walls and basement with Evergreen allowed us to tear a 50-year-old furnace, ductwork and oil tank out of the basement and now heat the home with new heat pumps. Evergreen also added 100 sq ft of clean, new storage space to the attic!

Nick S.

South Portland

Very Satisfied with the work performed by Evergreen. Professional employees, high quality work done in a timely manner. My sales rep was Justin, and he was phenomenal During the initial walk around my house, he gave me great ideas for how to improve the efficiency of our home. We will consult with Evergreen for our future home projects.

Adam G.

Westbrook

Led by Brian Robinson, the Evergreen Home Performance team just completed an insulation refit at my home. It was truly a great experience from start to finish, a period of time that was a fraction of the time that I originally anticipated due to the team's unbelievable work habits and professional knowledge of their tasks. As impressive were the communication skills and friendliness of each and every member of the team.

Anne W.

Rockport

I used to spend winters in the bathtub because my house was so cold. This was my first winter roaming around my whole house comfortably. This even led me to decorate a little. My heating oil usage has been reduced by over a quarter: I rarely have to boost the thermostat because the temp stays at a constant. The Efficiency Maine rebates, together with the energy savings, make it affordable for me to pay for the loan I took out to finance the project. I do not worry about my pipes freezing.

Claire Helene Bevan

Camden

The crew members from Evergreen Home Performance each made sure to greet us every day, while maintaining their distance in this time of the pandemic. Their work took a total of nine days, spread over three weeks. Even though they were working in multiple rooms of our house, as well as the basement and attic, they were unobtrusive and always cleaned up after themselves every day. The on-sight manager kept us informed of their daily schedule so we'd know which parts of the house they'd be working on.

Bob & Sue

Whitefield

Evergreen is the "go-to" company for improving the efficiency of your home. There are others to choose from but none so effective, honest, and capable as Evergreen. They did a great quantity of dense packing cellulose to improve our home (both for energy efficiency and for sound insulation) and it was totally successful. They are on-time, helpful, and caring. They clean up to a level that can't be over emphasized. This was the second time we employed them and we'd use them again if the opportunity came. You'll not be sorry to select Evergreen.

Dirk F.

Belfast

Working with Evergreen was a dream! Professional, knowledgeable, and super clean work. Communication was fast and service impeccable. The bedroom floors in our 1960's split ranch will be warm with the new insulation between them and the garage. Bring on the snow! (not really, but sort of)

Jess Dee Proctor

Portland Buy Local
Efficiency Maine
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