DOE-GEE 13 Cedar Virginia Test House Update
DOE-GEE 13 Cedar Virginia Test House: Incredible Shell Sealing Tonight We'll explore what it takes to create a workforce capable of producing the tight, performing houses that we'll need to achieve our 2020 and 2030 energy use goals. BTW, we are not on track to meet them with the status quo. Finding and training a competent labor force is the second most often heard complaint that I hear from my contractor and program operating friends. (First is finding customers willing to pay what good Home Performance work costs) The problem can be approached from both a small and a large perspective. After our...Continue Reading!
Forum On Dry Climate Home Performance 2012
Irvine 2012 Forum Dry Climate Home Performance Flexibility is one of the benefits of working on your own projects so we're flexing and changing the plan for this Tuesday's Webinar. I made a last minute decision to attend the Forum On Dry Climate Home Performance in Irvine this week. The focus of this year's event is working toward Net Zero Energy homes. What is working? How well does it work? How difficult is it? The organizers have been very specific. We want to hear real data from real projects as opposed to modeling and projections from Manual J, EnergyPro, or any other instrument....Continue Reading!
G.E.A.R. Added Value Membership Launch
G.E.A.R. Launch Added Value and Registration Process Over a year in the making, GreenEarthEquities is ready to launch its 2012 Added Value Membership Service! GEE's invested decades, developing and refining the expertise necessary for successful energy wise house flipping. For years we provided an array of free educational services to our many green building partners. As part of our completely redesigned website we've added hundreds of hours of webinars and training videos and continue to upload value packed information. We're excited to debut this new and improved site to better share decades of our expertise and provide a user friendly forum for a...Continue Reading!
How Low Is Too Low (cfm50 readings)
How Low Is Too Low? cfm50 Readings & ASHRAE 62.2 That's the challenge I gave the crew at the beginning of the project. On 13 Cedar, you may remember, we started out at 8000 cfm50 on that leaky old balloon framed farm house. Kevin and Dave at IBACOS would like 422 cfm50... the same goal we had on the Homsy house in Fresno. We exceeded that goal with some heroic shell sealing by Rogelio and the California Crew... but that was a stucco house on a slab... so a lot easier to reach the numbers. I told the Virginia Crew that we absolutely...Continue Reading!
110110 Is This Property A Deal?
Is This Property A Deal? 955 W Euclid, Clovis CA 93612 Greetings Planetsavers Last week's Field Trip to 955 Euclid was a real eye opener. I hadn't expected that we would find a real deal to buy but that may have been what happened. We have submitted an offer on the property based on our inspection and the comps provided by Jennifer. The group had a lot of good suggestions and we focused on a new strategy which will: Still do all of the Energy Package. Include a reduced Wow! and Done Package Use rental and refi as an exit strategy Provide significant positive cash flow Ride the...Continue Reading!
120103 eMonitor Installation 4404 N Eddy Fresno CA
eMonitor Installation 440 N. Eddy Fresno CA 93727 On tonight's webinar we will demonstrate the installation of the eMonitor in Rogelio's home. The eMonitor is arguably the best of the "circuit by circuit" monitors available today. Studies have found savings of 10 to 30% just from having good feedback about energy usage. Most people are surprised to find out exactly where their electricity is going. Sometimes when we know how much something is costing, we decide we don't need it that much. Typical of these surprises are that extra (old) refrigerator in the garage, and various electronics in the home office and...Continue Reading!
111227 440 N. Homsy & 1207 E. San Madele Wrap Up
Two Property Wrap Up 440 N. Homsy & 1207 E. San Madele About the Photo: My nieces got politically incorrect and put this still life statement together with some friends. The police called... the paper and it was on the front of the San Diego Union. Way to go girls! I'm back in Fresno, getting ready for family reunion over New Years. I'm going to tour two of our recently finished homes, including our Department of Energy test house located at 440 Homsy. From there I'll meet with Jennifer to evaluate the San Madelle property. I'll have new photos and comments about...Continue Reading!
111220 BombProof Your Business from Bombed Appraisals
BombProof Your Business Energy Wise Appraisal Strategies In order to not wind up stressed out over bad appraisals like the guy in the photo, we'll discuss survival tips with the most Home Performance Savvy Appraiser I know. We've been saying (and experiencing) that the market for deep energy retrofits along with nice remodeling has changed and become a hostile environment for this type of foreclosure renovation. One of the primary sources of the hostility toward progress is the Bankers and Appraisals who don't understand and therefore don't give value to the primary work that we do. Tonight we will interview one of the...Continue Reading!
111206 Home Performance Nightmare
Home Performance Nightmare DOE Test House 13 Cedar St. Round Hill VA We're diving in to fixing the worst Home Performance nightmare I've ever seen. That's right, it's the house I just bought in Virginia! Over the last few weeks I've shown you some pictures but today I took my first blower door reading... 7800 cfm50... and it never even got to 50! Actually it got to 34 with an open fan. We'll talk about what that all means and what can be done about it... on this house that the DOE wants real tight. BTW I met some neighbors and they told...Continue Reading!
112911 DOE-IBACOS-GEE Virginia Test House
DOE-IBACOS-GEE 13 Cedar Virginia Test House Wow! It's good to be back in the USA! Luelle and I had a great cruise on the Danube and I'll talk a little about some of the surprising Energy related things that I saw in Germany at the beginning of the webinar. BTW if you want to read the blog and see a bunch of pictures click here. Now it's time to get serious on my new project here in Virginia. It's going to be a lab house with DOE and IBACOS... like the one in Fresno. The problem is that for the tests to be...Continue Reading!
By Dave Robinson
By Jack Frost
By Andrew Martinez
By Debra Little