31 of 80: Project Drawdown’s ranking of insulation as a solution to climate change.
“A granite counter top won’t pay you back over time,” Alan Wilson states. “But investing in energy efficiency measures, that will.”
Considering as much as 80% of the energy consumed in a building can be wasted, and that a leaky building can siphon up to 60% of a building’s purchased energy, Alan’s point becomes quite clear.
The building sector accounts for a notable chunk of our community’s greenhouse gas inventory. In Juneau, buildings accounted for 32% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2010. Much of that derives from using fossil fuels to heat buildings and water.
We can reduce carbon emissions through conserving the energy we already use with efficiency measures. For our buildings, this means upgrading incandescent light bulbs to LEDs, enhancing the air tightness of buildings, using insulation, and other practical applications of building science to reduce emissions, improve the experience of the occupant, and save money.
“I think most people are aware of the carbon, but that’s not usually how I gauge it, because it’s something that’s hard for everyone to relate to. But dollars and cents, people can relate to that,” says Alan. The payback time for many retrofit projects is five to seven years according to Project Drawdown. That’s the point where an owner has recouped project costs in energy savings. After that, it’s money in the pocket.
Since moving to Juneau in 1991, he’s advocated for increasing the affordability of local housing, “but I don’t think I’ve made much progress,” he chuckles. That’s not entirely true, though. As a founding board member of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska Heat Smart here in Juneau, Alan’s research, advocacy, and practical application of energy efficiency measures has undoubtedly saved home owners’ money.
But there’s a persistent barrier to the widespread adoption of energy efficiency improvements and new technologies, like heat pumps. Builders and others base their decisions on immediate costs, rather than long-term savings. This becomes especially apparent in multi-family homes, where the owners look to construction cost instead of the long-term utility costs, since tenants are responsible for those.
“Ninety percent of the multi-family housing in Juneau is 20 years or older. They have electric baseboards, they have fuel-oil furnaces,” Alan explains. “How can we incentivize owners to make energy efficiency improvements in these cases, when they have no problem keeping their buildings occupied due to the shortage of housing?”
The former Home Energy Rebate Program was a highly effective incentive. The financing for weatherization and energy improvements available through that project helped 27,000 homes across Alaska eliminate 3 billion pounds of carbon emissions, and reduced the energy costs of participants by an average of 34%. Homes in Southeast Alaska reduced carbon emissions by 44%.
While that program provided incentive to hire professional help, many of the ways that we can enhance the efficiency of our homes require basic skills. “Most of it isn’t rocket science,” Alan states. “You don’t have to hire people for a lot of the work, much of it you could do yourself. Replacing weather strips, caulking seams. With a short tutorial you can do it yourself, make your house less drafty, and save money.”
All should be empowered to make energy efficiency improvements and consider the responsible use of the energy that we purchase, Alan contends. The responsible use of resources means thinking about long-term benefits and savings. It also means building to future codes now, rather than to the minimum standards. When thinking of home energy and heating standards, what’s adequate today will likely be subpar in the coming decade, “and I want what I build to perform as well in year twenty as it does in year one.”
With such thinking, we can adapt our current building stock to meet the needs of occupants and the climate.