Frequently Asked Questions: |
| Listed below are frequently asked questions about Texas Energy Smart Homes. |
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Please describe a Texas Energy Smart Homebuilder – A Texas Energy Smart Homebuilder is a person or company who is aware of the ever increasing issues with energy, air quality and water supply. This builder recognizes new homes as either part of the solution or part of the problem. Texas Energy Smart Homebuilders are committed to becoming part of the solution. |
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Why should anyone care about high performing Texas Energy Smart Homes? High performing Texas Energy Smart Homes are important to having clean outdoor air. The EPA says the average home pollutes twice as much as the average car. The pollution comes from the power plant that generates the electricity that powers the home. North Texas, Houston and Galveston are in violation of the Federal Clean Air Act of 1970. |
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San Antonio and Austin are now officially classified as “near non-attainment”. Essentially, this means our air is dirty and we are struggling to reverse the process. Building energy-efficient homes mean less electricity is used and that can directly be translated to fewer pollutants in our air. Dallas County Judge Margaret Kelliher recently stated that Children’s Hospital in Dallas has the busiest emergency room in the country and that the number one treatment is “respiratory issues” in our children. As Judge Kelliher said, “clean air is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue, clean air is a public health issue”. |
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What is the value of Testing? Testing each home for “tightness” is a last check to set up the home for excellent energy performance. The Home Tightness Test confirms that the home is tight (good for energy-efficiency), but not too tight (bad for indoor air quality). Testing each and every home is a significant upgrade on the level of effort and improved confidence level that the home will perform. |
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What impact will growth have on our environment? It took 160 years (1840 to 2000) for our North Central Texas to go from a scarcely populated area to the home for 5 million people. That was rapid growth. However, demographers studying population trends indicate that the population in this area will almost double – to 9 million people – by the year 2030. |
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Think about it, in 30 years we will have almost twice as many people, twice as many vehicles, twice as many roads – homes- office buildings and retail stores. Clean air is already a major health issue and, despite significant long-term planning, the drought is stressing our current water supplies – not even to mention the impact of millions more people and many more homes and businesses. We must reduce the environmental impact of each individual who lives in our geographic area to help control the environmental impact of almost doubling our population. |
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How do you know that the Texas Energy Smart Home is 30% to 50% more efficient than homes built in 1993? The Home Energy Rating Systems (HERS) are the organizations certified by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) and approved by the US Congress. These organizations have tools and protocols to study and model the energy performance of homes in the United States. The organization sponsoring Texas Energy Smart Home has literally performed energy modeling on 1000 North Texas homes in the last half decade. |
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The energy performance software (Rem Rate – link to site) is built on the work of the Department of Energy’s (DOE 2) modeling software and provides the best combination of user-friendly and sophisticated analysis in comparing homes to standards. After the thousands of homes modeled and many thousands of variations studied, the Texas Energy Smart Homebuilding Team has the experience and data that compares current practice of Texas Energy Smart Homebuilders to those built to other standards. |
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What is a Home Energy Rating Company? Home Energy Rating Companies are organizations certified to provide energy consulting, building modeling, inspections and performance tests to help ensure that homes are designed and built in an energy-efficient fashion. |
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Who is Texas EcoLogic, Incorporated? Texas EcoLogic, Incorporated is a DFW-based provider of energy analysis, consulting, program management and energy improvement construction for both new and existing homes in the State of Texas. Texas EcoLogic is the holding company for the following program and business offerings: Texas Energy Smart Home, Texas Energy Audit and Texas Energy Solutions. The Texas EcoLogic Companies have products and programs for all segments of the market from new to existing homes. TexEnergy Solutions (TexEnergy.org) is certified as a HERS Rater, HERS Provider and HERS Training Provider and a 2006 Recipient of the EPA Partner of the Year Award. |
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What does “the envelope of the home” mean? The envelope is, roughly, the boundary between the conditioned portion of the home and the unconditioned area. |
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What about comparison of the Texas Energy Smart Home to homes built prior to 1993? How do they perform to those standards? Texas Energy Smart Homes are significantly more energy and water efficient than homes constructed prior to 1993. It is impossible to quantify on a global basis because prior to 1993, there was no consistent national standard for home energy performance in new construction. However, homes built to the Model Energy Code were on average a significant improvement and homes built to Texas Energy Smart Home standards are 30% to 50 % more efficient than 1993 standards. It is safe to say that today’s Texas Energy Smart Homes are dramatically more efficient. |
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What has changed about the products and processes for new homes since the early 1990’s? |
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Products: Air conditioning and heat pump standards have moved to 13 SEER. Windows all have Low-emissivity (low-e) glass and the standards for wall and ceiling insulation have increased. |
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Processes: Homes are much better sealed and as a result are much tighter. Duct systems are better sealed and now deliver significantly more conditioned air inside the structure. Loads are calculated more correctly and the heating and cooling systems are sized closely to the load – called “right sizing”. There are many more products and processes – both large and small that have an impact. |
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What is meant by SHGC – Solar Heat Gain Coefficient is a measure of the window’s ability to reflect the rays of the sun off the window. Anything lower than .40 SHGC would be considered a good window. For SHGC, lower scores demonstrate a window more able to reflect the sun’s rays. |
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What is R-Value? These are the units used to measure the insulation value of an object. The higher the R-Value the more insulation value an object has. |
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What is U-Value? U-Values are also a unit of measurement of heat transfer. They are used to measure the transfer of heat through windows. The U-Value of a window is the reciprocal of its R-Value (U=1/R). A lower U-Value has better insulating capabilities. |
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What is EF? The EF (or Energy Factor) is used to calculate the energy-efficiency of hot water devices. This unit is the ratio of heat energy contained in the water in a hot water tank over a certain period of time divided by the energy that the hot water heater consumers over the same time period. |
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What is SEER? Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio is the total cooling output of an air conditioner during its normal annual usage period for cooling, in BTU/hours divided by the total electric energy input during the same period - in watt-hours. |
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What is HSPF? – Heating Seasonal Performance Factor is the measure for determining heating efficiency in heat pumps in the heating mode. It is calculated by dividing the estimated seasonal heating output (in BTU) by the seasonal power consumption (in watts). |
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