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Energy Smart: Wall Insulation

Spray Insulation in a Home

Energy Smart: Wall Insulation

 

How Using the Right Home Insulation Techniques Will Help You Lower the Energy Bill

Have you ever dreaded opening the energy bill for your home, especially during hot summer months and cold winter months, when you know you’ll have to maintain a certain temperature to stay comfortable? With newer homes, there are ways to identify leaks that might be letting cold and warm air out, but for older homes it could be as simple as installing the correct amount of insulation for your home. By doing so, it is possible to lower heating bills and cooling bills by a substantial amount to keep your home comfortable, regardless of the weather or season. Here is what you need to know about home insulation.

The R-Value of Insulation

The R-value is a unit of measure that is used in construction and building to determine how well something can resist the flow of heat once it is exposed. The greater the R-value, the more efficient the object is in resisting the flow of heat. R-value is one of the four factors that determine the effectiveness of insulation materials with the others being thickness of the material, density, and surface emissivity.

What areas need the most insulation in the home?

There are parts of your house which will need insulation the most. These include:

· The roof and loft: These are the two areas of a home that can experience a lot of heat loss. By insulating them, homeowners can reduce this loss.

· Cavity wall: Not all homes have cavity walls, but if yours has one, you are likely to need roof insulation services to reduce heat loss.

· Tanks pipes and radiators: When these parts of the home are insulated, heat loss is reduced significantly.

· Floor: people ignore heat loss through the floor, but it does contribute to a bigger energy bill. Depending if your house has a basement or not, you could look at both insulation or home geothermal systems.

· Solid walls: These walls lose twice as much heat as cavity walls, and therefore, need to be insulated to curb heat loss.

· Draught proofing, and reduction of damp condensation, are other techniques which are very effective in managing heat loss from home.

Therefore, the first step in the process of insulation is finding out where most of the heat loss occurs. Once you have this figured out, you can get the right insulation technique to manage heat loss.

What heat insulation techniques are there? 

Concrete block insulation 

This is a technique used on unfinished walls, including the foundation of the home, but you will need an expert in construction to do concrete block insulation. The main benefits of this type of insulation is that it increases the R-value of the wall, and increases its insulating power by up to ten times and keeps the rooms well-conditioned.

Spray Foam Insulation

This is an insulation technique that is applied to parts of the home such as enclosed existing walls, unfinished attic floors, and open new wall cavities to name a few. The materials used in spray foam insulation include polyurethane, phenolic, cementitious, and polyisocyanurate. The application is done by actually spraying a pressurIzed product, or doing it in smaller scale by using small spray containers.

Structural Insulated Panels 

This method can be used for a wide range of places that need insulation, such as, walls in unfinished buildings, floors, roofs, ceilings and other structures. The SIPs are fitted together to form walls and roofs. The materials used for this technique include foam board, liquid foam insulation core, and straw core insulation. They take less time to build, but they have been rated among one of the best insulation techniques in the home.

Rigid Fiber Insulation

This is another technique that is used for ducts in unconditioned places, and other spaces that need insulation and can withstand high temperature. The ducts are fabricated by HVAC contractors in their shops and supplied on demand. They use materials like fiberglass and mineral wool.

How much insulation does the home need? 

There is a lot of information out there about over-insulating the home, and how it can lead to moisture accumulation and mold among other related problems. However, this does not mean that homeowners should shy away from insulating their houses. The reality is that the amount of insulation you need depends on the climate zone you live in, the building design, the age of the home, and your desired energy cost-cutting needs.

The best way to handle home insulation and get the right amount of insulation to meet your needs, is hiring a professional contractor to assess your home’s needs and recommend the best insulation type and level. A home that is well insulated is comfortable to live in, energy efficient and eases the pain of paying high energy bills every month.

Line 3 Needs Upgrade

Manufacturing worker in a factory

CEA Midwest Executive Director, Chris Ventura, looks at how anti-energy groups threatening lawsuits and mass protests over modernizing critical energy infrastructure hurts families across Minnesota.

The replacement line would reduce energy expenses for lower-income families who regularly spend a dangerously high percentage of their take-home pay on electricity and gasoline compared to those in other income brackets. The Minnesota Department of Commerce’s taxpayer-funded study warned that hardworking families would experience unnecessary cost increases if action on modernizing critical infrastructure like Line 3 stalled, yet they’ve criticized the project.

Read more – Fairmont Sentinel

Report: Heating Costs May Increase This Winter

Household Furnace Repair

CEA’s report on home heating costs in the New England region was discussed in The Register-Star as they look at the programs available to families having trouble paying higher energy costs.

Northeastern families and households paid $263 more for electric heating and an additional $179 for natural gas heating, than the national average during the winter of 2017 and 2018, according to the report.

Read more – The Register-Star

Pennsylvania Natural Gas Industry Stalled by Lack of Support From Neighboring State

Family in the Snow

CEA’s Mike Butler was quoted discussing the importance of energy infrastructure and how the policies of neighboring states are preventing consumers from realizing energy savings.

“And household budgets were crushed last winter during epic cold spells due to man-made constraints of natural gas pipelines — bottlenecks that Cuomo refuses to approve,” said CEA’s Butler, adding that Gov. Cuomo “needs to stop playing games with our energy infrastructure and quit waging war against his own constituent’s wallets.”

Read more – Pennsylvania Business Report

Why Are Gasoline Prices Dropping?

Putting gas in car

Brydon Ross, Director of State Affairs for Consumer Energy Alliance, discusses gasoline prices with Les Sinclair on “Charlottesville Right Now”.

Listen here – Newsradio WINA

Florida Should Take Another Look at Its Solar Policy

Solar panel installation

Kevin Doyle, CEA-Florida Executive Director looks at how Floridians are benefiting from access to solar energy and how new policies can make solar more affordable, but also more available to individuals who are unable to purchase their own solar panels.

Its affordability comes from technology improvements and government financial incentives, which have sharply reduced homeowners’ out-of-pocket costs for installing and maintaining solar panels.

In fact, a 6,100-watt rooftop system on a Florida home can result in taxpayer and net-metering incentives averaging a combined $12,848, or roughly 65 percent of the total system cost.

Read more – Jacksonville Business Journal

Top 5 Children’s Gifts This Holiday Season to Promote STEM Learning

Family Holidays

It’s getting down to the final days before Christmas, and if you’re still looking for any last minute gifts that are fun and educational, we’ve got you covered! These gifts are not only good for the holidays, but for birthdays too!

In 2018, it is predicted there will be over 2.4 million jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) related fields that will remain unfulfilled. Most of these jobs come with great pay, great benefits and exciting opportunities for growth. These are future jobs for your children, but it’s important to get them excited about these fields early.

As the workforce changes, just like it did in the early days of automation, we will begin to see more and more STEM jobs. These fields saw a 24% increase in job growth within the last decade, while non-STEM jobs only saw a 4% increase. More and more schools, community groups, and families are focused on STEM and early childhood development.

This is a trend that is only growing. So, when you are considering what to buy your child this holiday season, it is good to keep in mind that toy manufacturers are creating products and programs specifically designed to promote an interest in various aspects of STEM fields.

Parents everywhere are turning to STEM games and toys to help teach these critical skills to students during their early years to get a head start on developing these skills. Below are some of the top 5 toys that will help your children get ahead early in life.

Guidecraft Grippies BuildersSTEM toys

These toys are a set of magnetic shapes designed for kids in the earliest stages of educational development. They give kids an early introduction to engineering concepts by allowing them to design highly creative 3-D models and are specifically designed to fit into kids’ small hands.

Wooden Building Blocks SetSTEM toys

This nifty kit comes with 100 blocks in 4 colors and 9 shapes. The kit is designed to promote motor skills and to foster creativity through the endless variety of shapes that can be built by interlocking the various blocks.

Edushape Magic Shapes Foam Building BlocksSTEM toys

This box of flexible shapes is perfect for children to build and design basically anything. The shapes interlock with each other so kids can build anything from houses to cars, to robots. This gift is for kids around preschool age. In addition to the creativity this toy offers, it also helps grow fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Fisher-Price Think & Learn Code-a-Pillar STEM toys
This tool was one of the first on the market specifically designed to interest young kids in the fields of science, robotics, and coding. Kids are able to utilize specific segments that control the Code-a-Pillar’s movements. Helping them to problem solve, rearranging the pieces and getting the toy to move where they want.

Lego Boost Creative Toolbox and Coding KitSTEM toys

This wonderful toolbox starts traditional Legos as the foundation. Kids can build several robot models including a cat, a car, or a guitar. The set itself is paired with an app that controls the final robot the child constructs. Once built, kids can move the robots around and control things like lights and motion. This toy set was specifically designed to generate interest in skills like coding.

While there are hundreds of great toys out there, these are just a few of the toys we picked to promote an interest in core STEM skills that will help your child excel in these subjects in school and eventually the myriad of job opportunities those fields offer. This holiday season you can give your kid the chance to not only have fun with some truly interesting toys but to master these core STEM skills too!

Consumer Energy Alliance Report Finds Higher Household Heating Costs Threaten Northeast Consumers

Man clearing snow with a snow blower

Boston, M.A. – Meteorologists are predicting another harsh winter throughout the United States, with a particularly cold season for New Yorkers and New Englanders. This means residents throughout the region will need to prepare for harsh weather and higher heating costs, according to a report released by Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA).

CEA’s analysis, titled “2018/2019 Winter Forecast: High Heating Bills for the Northeast,” details how energy prices typically spike during winter weather, especially during prolonged cold snaps because of reduced energy supplies and difficulties delivering these supplies to utility providers.

According to federal data, Northeastern families and households paid $263 more for electric heating and an additional $179 for natural gas than the national average last winter. If this winter season is just 10 percent colder than expected, home heating costs could increase by as much as 33 percent.  That would mean, families in the Northeast who rely on home heating oil and electricity to meet their needs they would pay on average an extra $585for energy in the next few months.

Highlights from the report include:

  • The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts Americans’ household heating costs, particularly heating oil, could rise by as much as 33 percent this winter.
  • Natural gas storage inventory levels were at their lowest level since 2005 heading into this winter season. They were also considerably lower than their five-year average.
  • Northeastern families and households paid $263 more for electric heating and $179 more for natural gas than the national average during the winter of 2017-18.
  • 21 percent of Northeastern homes use heating oil during winter months. Due to the instability of oil prices, EIA predicts these households could spend an average of $269 more this winter.
  • If the 2018-2019 winter season is just 10 percent colder than expected natural gas and electricity prices could increase by 16 percent and 9 percent over the agency’s base forecast.
  • Last year, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) assisted nearly 5.9 million households nationwide, including more than a million New York households and almost 361,000 New England households.
  • National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA) expects 8.9 million American households will qualify for assistance this winter.
  • This winter nearly 400,000 New Yorkers will not have reliable home heating due to the on-going energy infrastructure needs at the NYC Housing Authority.

“CEA, along with regional electrical grid experts like ISO New England, continue to urge policymakers to take action and heed the warnings about the severe lack of pipeline capacity in the Northeast,” CEA President David Holt said. “While the growth in U.S. energy production has certainly helped utilities prepare for high-energy demand days during the winter months, it is unfortunate that state policymakers continue to block the development of pipeline infrastructure needed to deliver critical energy supplies that would ensure families are warm this winter.”

Holt continued, “One thing is certain: The region needs more dependable, affordable energy. This is evident from witnessing both LNG shipments being imported from Russia into New England and how the Boston metro area had the highest natural gas prices in the industrialized world last winter, despite the United States leading role as the world’s largest producer. It’s time for policymakers who have stood in the way of approving modernized infrastructure for the past several years to get serious about the burden facing New England energy consumers.”

Holt added: “Fortunately, there are near-term solutions that can help with this energy supply constraint facing the Northeast and New England. The most immediate and effective steps to ease home-heating spikes and outages for low-income families and those living paycheck to paycheck would be to end the state’s blockade and allow the expansion of critical pipeline infrastructure projects. These actions are critical as the region heads into another cold winter where the most vulnerable in our communities are counting on policymakers to put politics aside and provide solutions to help them stay warm.”

To see the report, click here.

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About Consumer Energy Alliance
Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) brings together families, farmers, small businesses, distributors, producers and manufacturers to support America’s energy future. With more than 500,000 members nationwide, our mission is to help ensure stable prices and energy security for households across the country. We believe energy development is something that touches everyone in our nation, and thus it is necessary for all of us to actively engage in the conversation about how we develop our diverse energy resources and energy’s importance to the economy.

Contact:
Emily Haggstrom
P: 720-582-0242
ehaggstrom@consumerenergyalliance.org

Line 5 Tunnel: Great for Michigan

Manistique Michigan Lighthouse

CEA’s Chris Ventura looks at the need for modernized energy infrastructure in Michigan, like the proposed Straits tunnel, that will continue to keep transportation fuel and propane affordable for Michiganders while ensuring the Great Lakes are protected.

Pipelines remain the safest way to move energy, 4.5 times safer than alternatives, and the current agreement to place Line 5 into a utility tunnel of solid bedrock, over 100 feet below the Straits, is the best safeguard for families and the state.

Read more – Detroit Free Press

Much-needed Projects Often Linger in Limbo Because of Lack of Funding

Oil and Gas Refinery Workers

CEA’s Kaitlin Schmidtke talks about how regulatory certainty leading to energy development can attract new businesses to Alabama, bringing in new revenue for public services.

Local energy production has been a springboard in reducing manufacturing costs for critical infrastructure project components like asphalt and generating significant economic activity and jobs.

Read more – Montgomery Advertiser

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