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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I highly recommend Evergreen! 1st, I had a home efficiency inspection (that was free) & Bryan P. was great! He took the time needed, asked & listened to what I thought were priorities, explained clearly what he thought were priorities & why, then gave me numerous options. No pressure whatsoever. Then I had my attic sealed & insulated as the 1st step & Bryan came along on day 1 to introduce everyone & make sure we were all on the same page. Bruce's team (inc. Kelsey & Roland) did the work - they were exceptional!!

Melissa M.

Kennebunk

Evergreen removed and replaced the insulation in my attic. They did a great job!, Crew was excellent, and the whole thing went smoothly, and the attic was NOT easy to get into or work in, so kudos to some hard work done well!

Joel A.

Portland

Evergreen did everything they said they would and more. I actually don't mind going into the basement now since they sealed it. The air quality in the house is noticeably better and it's warmer in the winter. We can even store clothing down there where before, whatever was in there would mildew. Even the spider population declined! I used to vacuum so many of them from the corners of the ceilings in the house. Not any more!

Loriel Van Dusen

Evergreen was so helpful in securing us Efficiency Maine funding for a big attic insulation project early this winter. They did all of the paperwork, and totally guided us through a vermiculite removal process that included a payment from a trust for the procedure. I could instantly feel the second floor being so much warmer than before. The boiler does not kick on nearly as frequently since they completed the job. It was worth every penny! Brian Robinson was so thorough throughout the whole process including a full walk through after the job had been completed.

Todd W.

Camden

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

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

Last week, my oil company asked if we were using some other kind of fuel because our usage was so much less than they had expected We are very happy with the results; the house is much more comfortable

Steve T.

St. George

I cant say enough about this company and the benefits that it created for our family. They are very professional and have effectively re-insulated our home. The heating bill proves the point.

Bob O.

Springvale

Highly recommended. Our heating usage is now less than half what it was before we had our roof insulated. Evergreen was knowledgeable, friendly, and left no trace they were ever in our house. Not only is our heating bill much lower now, but our home is generally more comfortable year-round with less temperature fluctuations. Money well spent.

RC Lations

Our house still the most efficient home we’ve ever lived in. And we have you folks to thank for that! A special howdy to Brian Robinson please!

Bruce O’Donal and Eva Butler

Evergreen came back this year to finish insulating our house. We have been remodeling and renovating an 1850s cape for several years. Their employees are very professional and pleasant to deal with. Over several years Brian Robinson has been able to schedule us in for several small areas that needed addressing and finally turning a room we used to close off in the winter into a comfortable usable space. We primarily heat with wood and since Evergreens great work our furnace has only come on ONCE this winter. Fantastic. Really satisfied customer in Thomaston.

Chris F.

Thomaston

I waited a year to write this review. Evergreen finished our job late last winter. Terrific results!!! we've gone from 12-day propane deliveries to 30+ day propane deliveries. The house is noticeably warmer. The Evergreen crew was/is professional, prompt, thorough, scientific, gracious and immaculate with respect to keeping our house clean. Money well spent.

John E.

Boothbay

We are thrilled with the job Evergreen did to transform our 213 year old home into a warm, draft-free, cozy space. The entire team led by Bruce was prompt, courteous, knowledgeable, and hard working. If Evergreen could transform our home in this way, we are sure they would make a comparable difference in YOUR home!

Jonathan M.

Bridgton

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

Evergreen is a highly professional company from start to finish. They went over all of our options, costs and rebates thoroughly before even beginning the job. Once the job began, they worked in a timely, neat, thorough, friendly and thoroughly professional manner. We waited 14 years to have the insulation redone in our attic and within days of it being completed we seen a drastic difference in the warmth of our home. We have a wood stove on our main floor and although it has warmed the main rooms of our home, the bedrooms were always still chilly.

Andréa C. de Almeida

Portland Buy Local
Efficiency Maine
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