BEFORE THE AUDIT:
Like many homeowners along the coast of New Jersey, the owner of this beautiful three story, 2,344 square foot home was concerned with replacing equipment damaged by Super Storm Sandy. The Heating systems, cooling systems, and hot water heater were all submerged in several feet of water. In addition to damaged equipment the customer was also worried about several rooms in the house that were always at less comfortable temperatures than the rest of the house.
AFTER THE AUDIT:
Upon inspection, the auditor found that the existing equipment was damaged beyond repair. By using a specialized camera he was able to see inside several wall cavities and identified the source of room discomfort to be a lack of wall insulation on exterior closet walls. Additionally, a worn and fractured ceiling on the top floor was causing a loss of conditioned and heated air. This caused the AC and Heating systems to have to work harder to condition those particular rooms because of the vast temperature difference between the air and the walls.
WHAT WAS SUGGESTED:
Many solutions were suggested and implemented to improve the homeowner's comfort. All of the heating and air conditioning equipment was replaced with new and more efficient equipment. In this case two 70k btu gas furnace units and a 2 ton air conditioning system as well as a new fifty gallon hot water heater. In addition to equipment replacement, fractures in the ceiling were sealed using a high quality expanding foam product to create a seal between conditioned and unconditioned space to prevent the loss of conditioned air. To solve the issue of discomfort due to poor insulation, a high density rigid foam board with a thermal resistance (R) value of 20 was installed over the walls to provide an insulated barrier between inside and outside. From the chart below you can see that all of these measures had a significant effect. Energy usage and cost were projected to drop by up to 29.4%.
View the before and after results above!
