Benefits of a Home Performance UpgradeThere’s a lot to gain from a Green Home Energy Upgrade. The table below lists many of the benefits associated with various Upgrade improvements. For additional benefits, follow the links below.
| HOME PERFORMANCE UPGRADE IMPROVEMENT |
ENERGY EFFICIENCY |
COMFORT BENEFIT |
| Air sealing | Identifying and sealing air intrusion and loss points, decreases the amount of energy necessary to heat and cool your home | Get comfortable indoor temperatures faster and stay comfortable longer |
| Duct redesign | Improves airflow to make the whole heating and cooling system work much more efficiently | Provides consistent temperatures throughout the house with much less energy |
| Duct sealing | Sealing duct leaks means far less energy wasted | Much more conditioned air gets to the rooms with less run time |
| Indoor air quality (with improved filtering and control of fresh air) | Eliminates the need for energy-intensive room air purifiers | Breathe easier, especially those with allergies and asthma |
| Insulation improvement | Enables you to downgrade to smaller HVAC appliances and run them more efficiently, reducing energy use | Comfortable indoor temperatures year-round |
| Lighting and appliance upgrade or adjustment | Decreases the amount of energy used to light your home, heat water, air condition your home, heat and filter pools and spas, and run big energy users like refrigerators and dryers | No sacrifice in comfort because your home will be upgraded to perform better with less energy! |
| Moisture control | Makes energy-intensive fans, dehumidifiers, or other moisture control appliances unnecessary | No more unsightly and unhealthy mildew, mold or fungus on your walls and ceilings or in your crawlspace. Also gets rid of airborne spores. |
| Windows upgrade | Saves on energy bills by decreasing solar heat gain | More uniform room temperatures and eliminates cold and hot spots near windows |
Energy Savings
The most obvious Home Performance Upgrade benefit is energy savings. Older homes typically have inadequate insulation, leaky single pane windows, outdated heating and cooling systems, and air infiltration sites all throughout the ductwork and building frame. Newer homes are often no better, and suffer from poor construction quality, materials, and mechanical systems. Our field experience shows that even brand-new homes with supposedly high performance insulation and new heating and cooling appliances suffer from all kinds of performance-related issues!
Because most homes aren’t operating at peak efficiency, a typical homeowner could be paying up to 40% of their energy bill on wasted energy. The good news is that all these problems can be fixed.
Comfort
Rather than focusing on a single component of the house, such as single-pane windows, an old air conditioning system, or leaky ductwork, a Home Performance contractor will assess how improvements to all of these components can work together to provide:
Safety & Air Quality
Sometimes normal household activities like doing laundry while running the kitchen exhaust fan can depressurize your house enough to cause combustion appliance vents to backdraft gases into the home. These backdrafts can be dangerous, sometimes spewing carbon monoxide, soot, and toxic fumes into the house with serious health and even life-safety effects.
Other safety issues include mold, mildew, and other growths associated with improper moisture control. These problems not only create an unhealthy indoor environment, but they can also damage the structural integrity of your home, requiring costly repairs. Other irritants like dust and spores, can cause discomfort and recurring health problems, especially for those with allergies or asthma.
Home Performance contractors have unique qualifications for testing, detecting, and correcting these types of safety issues. We’ve had many homeowners report significant improvements in asthma conditions as a result of a Home Performance Update, and many homes have been improved to prevent carbon monoxide leaks and backdrafts.
Value Added
A home that operates at peak performance for energy efficiency, comfort, and safety is simply worth more. Research shows that for every $1 reduced in annual fuel bills, home value increases by $10-$25. The comfort, health effects, and other benefits of aHome Performance Upgrade are features that can set your house above the rest. And when it comes time to sell your house, your utility bills will also bear witness to the value of the upgrades you’ve installed.
To document it all, your California Home Performance contractor will give you a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Certificate that you can show to a prospective buyer, indicating the work completed and the new home performance achieved.
Greening Your Home
The average household's energy use unnecessarily contributes to the degradation of the environment we rely on and live in. Most of the energy we use in our homes comes from burning fossil fuels, which produce greenhouse gases. In fact, the average home is responsible for producing twice the greenhouse gas emissions that the average car emits.
Few homeowners would be willing to tolerate sweltering summer heat or chilly winter conditions just for the sake of saving energy and making a contribution to a better environment. But the Home Performance Upgrade allows you to have it all—energy savings in a more comfortable, healthier indoor environment for your family—all because a Home Performance Upgrade improves your home's total performance.
In northern California, call 888-352-2722
In southern California, call 888-357-1777
Email: energyupgrade@cbpca.org
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CBPCA is the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® partner in California. We promote whole-house energy efficiency upgrades for homes and homeowners in California.
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