Redefining Home: GreenovationTV Launches on Earth Day

Here's a sneak preview of the GreenovationTV promo for our launch on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. I've been busy working with folks to get the website up and running and begin creating great content that will help green every home in America, starting with yours!

On Earth Day this blog will move to the Greenovation.TV website. GreenovationTV is the first internet TV channel for green remodeling.

Our mission: Help green the 130 million inefficient and sometimes unhealthy homes in the U.S. greenovationTV inspires viewers with practical advice and real solutions in a fast-paced and entertaining format. This isn't your daddy's fix-it-up show. greenovationTV is an internet television station with free 24/7 on-demand access to original short videos with everything consumers need to know about green home improvement.

It's about Real Homes + Real Improvement. It's about Redefining Home. If we're going to green every home in America, we need your help! Please visit www.Greenovation.TV and send us your photos, videos and stories about how you are saving energy & water and how you are greening your home. Join us on Facebook http://tinyurl.com/cjytjq

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Join Dr. Anna Marie (from The Weather Channel) as she takes her 1970s ranch home kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. She's not doing an extreme makeover and she's not doing just a facelift, she's making her home clean and green. From the windows and doors to the paint on the walls, we have a real home with real solutions. If you're thinking about greening your home on your own, then don't miss Dr. Anna Marie's GIY segments on www.Greenovation.TV. Remember: A green home is a healthy home.

GreenovationTV: Real Homes + Real Improvement

Can a $1 Incensce Stick Save You $100s on Your Energy Bill?

Detecting Air Leaks in Your Drafty House

You may already know where some air leakage occurs in your home, such as an under-the-door draft, but you'll need to find the less obvious gaps to properly air seal your home.

For a thorough and accurate measurement of air leakage in your home, hire a qualified technician to conduct an energy audit, particularly a blower door test. A blower door test, which depressurizes a home, can reveal the location of many leaks. A complete energy audit will also help determine areas in your home that need more insulation.

Without a blower door test, there are ways to find some air leaks yourself. First, look at areas where different materials meet, such as between brick and wood siding, between foundation and walls, and between the chimney and siding. Also inspect around the following areas for any cracks and gaps that could cause air leaks:

• Door and window frames
• Mail chutes
• Electrical and gas service entrances
• Cable TV and phone lines
• Outdoor water faucets
• Where dryer vents pass through walls
• Bricks, siding, stucco, and foundation
• Air conditioners
• Vents and fans.

You can also try these steps to depressurize your home to help detect leaks:

1. Turn off your furnace on a cool, very windy day.
2. Shut all windows and doors.
3. Turn on all exhaust fans that blow air outside, such as bathroom fans or stove vents.
4. Light an incense stick and pass it around the edges of common leak sites. Wherever the smoke is sucked out of or blown into the room, there's a draft.

If you don't want to turn off your furnace, you can just turn on all your exhaust fans to depressurize your home.

Other air-leak detection methods include the following:

• Shining flashlight at night over all potential gaps while a partner observes the house from outside. Large cracks will show up as rays of light. Not a good way to detect small cracks.

• Shutting a door or window on a piece of paper. If you can pull the paper out without tearing it, you're losing energy. You may as well just shove some $10s and $20s through those cracks while you're at it.
  

  From U.S. Department of Energy Consumer's Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Energy Inefficient: U.S. Trails Some Third World Countries

Editorial - New York Times

Published: January 18, 2009

From plug-in cars to carbon capture to wind farms linked to “intelligent” power grids, many of the solutions pitched to restructure the country’s energy system and confront global warming rely on a faith in high tech: we expect, or at least hope, that an Apollo project, the energy equivalent of the dot.com revolution or some other burst of creative genius will engineer the problem away. . . .

. . . Per-capita carbon dioxide emissions by households in the United States and Canada are the highest in the world — in part because of bigger homes . . . READ MORE.

Tax Incentives to Help Trim Home Energy Costs

From Matter Network January 6, 2009

A force of public interest and government agencies is working to ease the financial crisis by revitalizing and adding tax incentives for homeowners across America under the Tax Incentives Assistance Project (TIAP).

TIAP, which includes he Natural Resources Defense Council, and businesses and environmental organizations like the Alliance to Save Energy, provides information on the available tax incentives for reducing a home’s energy consumption through installation of energy-efficient technologies. Home improvements that qualify under the plethora of tax breaks include the purchase of:

- insulating products for walls, windows and doors,

- EnergyStar windows, doors, frames and roofs, and

- energy efficient heating and cooling systems and fans. READ MORE . . .

Nine home renovation projects that make sense for 2009

. . . Hint . . . the best bangs for the bucks are good for the planet and your wallet too.

By Karen Klages | Tribune reporter

With sales of existing houses in the Midwest down 6 percent in October (and remain 9.1 percent below figures from October '07) and the median Midwestern home price down 6.7 percent from a year ago (according to the National Association of Realtors), it makes sense for homeowners to think at least twice about investing in a renovation.

What projects make sense, given the state of economic affairs? What improvements will allow folks to live better now and make the house more saleable later—and offer a handsome return on investment? READ MORE

Until the Sun Shines Out Your Ars . . . Use a CFL

I couldn't resist sharing this wonderful video encouraging energy efficient lighting.  

Send this post along to friends and tell them to "SCREW OFF".   That's right.  Screw off those old-school wasteful bulbs and light up your energy savings now.  

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about that nasty mercury in compact fluorescent bulbs and why they are still better for the planet than incandescents.

Digging Deep for Energy Savings

Here's a great article on Matt & Kelly's geothermal system from MetroMode magazine:

By: Kelli B Kavanaugh, 11/15/2007

Many alternative energy sources have an associated mental image -- fields of windmills sprouting like flowers in a field come to mind -- but what does your brain conjure up when confronted with the term geothermal?

Even if you know what geothermal is, you might have some trouble picturing it. Which makes sense because geothermal's magic happens below the earth's surface. Chances are a home or business you are familiar with already takes advantage of this not-new-at-all technology to heat and cool their premises while spending up to 70% less on their utility bill.

Is your interest piqued? READ MORE . . .

Aged and Ripened . . . but Still Green

How we restored our historic home and reduced our carbon footprint

by Kelly and Matthew Grocoff

When we bought our 107 year old home on Ann Arbor's Historic Old West Side, it was a dream come true: lead paint, zero insulation, a half-century old furnace, asbestos siding, and a gas powered mower in the shed. What more could a couple of treehuggers ask for?

We wanted to buy a historic home, turn it green and prove that, even on our limited budget, we could create a home of unparalleled comfort and design while using less energy and water and fewer natural resources and toxic chemicals. Our efforts have rewarded us (and the planet) with an approximate 50% reduction in energy bills compared to similar sized homes in Michigan. As energy prices rise with global temperatures, our home will increase in value as well.

We always joke that there are three things that set back the environmental movement: the original low flow showerhead, the original low flush toilet, and Jimmy Carter's sweater (Kelly would add a fourth: silken tofu). These icons perpetuated the myth that living green meant paying more while sacrificing quality, performance and comfort. We wanted to restore our home using Environmentalism 2.0, which means improved quality, performance, efficiency, value, health and comfort.

In upcoming articles, we will share the choices we made when renovating our historic home. We will review the little stuff and the big stuff. We separate our efforts into those which can be done easily and inexpensively (the little stuff) versus those that require larger investments of time and money, but create higher long term savings (the big stuff). Both are important and both go a long way towards reducing your carbon footprint.

It is important to imagine the day when all homes are carbon neutral, but don't wait for the windmills or affordable solar panels! We developed a plan based on our budget, the historic standards of our neighborhood, and how we wanted our home to look and feel.

We included a large portion of our renovation costs in our mortgage. The first step was deciding how to allocate the money. We prioritized in order of energy consumption, working our way from the worst offenders to the petty criminals. In other words, we started with the big stuff.

The most hardened criminal in most homes is heating, cooling and hot water systems, which account for 58% of home energy use. We chose a hyper-efficient geothermal HVAC system (also called a ground source heat pump or geoexchange), and then moved on to the little stuff like cost effective motion sensor lighting controls and compact fluorescent lights. Remember, the cheapest form of energy is the unused kilowatt.

A green home isn't only about energy efficiency, but also about health and sustainability. With each decision we made we asked ourselves: 1. can we buy reused instead of new materials? 2. is it durable? 3. can we purchase locally? 4. how can we reduce construction waste? 5. will this harm air or water quality? 6. will this harm us, our guests or our community? 7. how was this product made?

In our modest home, our improvements seem small compared to all we need to do to curb climate change. However, choices we've made are being rapidly adopted by others and are often becoming policy. In California, the motion sensors we installed are now mandatory in all new residential construction. Our geothermal system reduces greenhouse gases equivalent to taking two cars off the road! We hope to see Michigan adopting progressive policies and incentives soon.

In a coming article, we will share with you the details of what we've done to green our home and what you can do to green yours - easily, affordably and elegantly. It's inspiring to know that not only can we improve the comfort, efficiency and health of our home, but be part of a collective monumental change.

To schedule a group tour of our Ann Arbor home you can contact us at greenovationtv@gmail.com
Coming soon . . . GreenovationTV.com - the world's first internet TV station for healthy home improvement.