“Energize NY was very helpful in walking me through the process and making it easy to understand. As a result, there were no surprises as to what needed to be done and when.”
Jim Liao – South Salem, NY
Year & Style: 1789 Colonial
Square Feet: 3,264
Bedrooms/Baths: 2 BR, 2 BA
Heat Sources: Propane Boiler, Electric Baseboard
Home Performance Contractor
Healthy Home Energy & Consulting, Inc.
Propane Savings: 45%
Living in a house whose oldest section dates from 1789, Jim Liao felt there was a lot of unnecessary waste of energy and expenses. Having lent his support and expertise to help Energize NY get off the ground, Jim knew exactly where he could get help to improve the energy efficiency of his colonial. He began by selecting Healthy Home, an Energize Comfort Corps and Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program contractor. Healthy Home identified his 18th century colonial's unique problems through a comprehensive home energy evaluation. To his surprise, the evaluation showed that the older section of the house was more efficient than the addition he built in 2001. Jim chose to air seal and insulate his home from top to bottom. This measure would block cold outside air from being drawn into the house around the sill and basement, and heated air from escaping through the attic and roof. Jim is very pleased with his home upgrades and could not be happier with the results. His home is now wasting much less energy and his heating costs have dropped significantly too.
Homeowner Concerns:
Eliminating avoidable energy costs
Do savings justify the cost of improvements?
Reducing carbon footprint
Problems Uncovered:
Insufficient exterior wall insulation
Air leakage through the ceiling into the attic, and through the roof
Heat loss through basement crawlspace perimeter
Improvements Completed:
Air sealed house to reduce air leakage from 3437 CFM50 to 2319 CFM50 (33%)
Insulated exterior walls with R-12* cellulose insulation
Insulated crawlspace with R-21 high density foam insulation
Insulated side attic with R-39 cellulose insulation
Resulting Benefits:
*The R-value is a measure of thermal resistance. The higher the value, the less heat conducted through the insulation.
View as a downloadable PDF version
