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We get many calls at Green ID because our customers notice constant dust in their homes, dust on their countertops, dressers, window sills and dust streaks around the HVAC registers. I've heard many times from homeowners that they have neighbors with the same house layout but they have much more dust than anyone else on the block. Dust can be from many reasons that vary with each home.
Some reasons we found during our energy audits for excessive dust in homes are below.
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HVAC contractors have stopped using metal ductwork as their default duct material since the 1980s. The default ducts you’ll see in homes now is flexible ductwork, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a better for airflow. This post will compare metal ductwork with flexible ductwork and help you decide on which is better for your home. Metal Ductwork Types Metal ductwork comes in two types, rectangular sheet metal and round rigid ductwork. Rectangular sheet metal comes in 3-4’ sections and is held together with S cleats and drives. Ranch style homes that have registers above the bedroom doorways and a dropped 8’ ceiling in the hallway have this type of ductwork.
The rectangular sheet metal ducts are nailed into the framing of the house and impossible to take out without removing the ceiling as well. Homes built in the 1970s-80s have this ductwork type delivering the conditioned air from a central heating and cooling system but also from an evaporative cooler.  Rectangular sheet metal ductwork are great for airflow because the ducts are oversized to accommodate the large amount of air delivered from the swamp cooler. Studies have shown that metal ductwork is not necessarily better than flexible ductwork but the advantage of metal ductwork is that is hard to install wrong. Metal ductwork does not kink as easily as its flexible ductwork counterpart. As I’ll discuss later, flexible ductwork is not only easy to install, it’s also easy to install wrong with kinks over trusses or electrical wires, too much length, or hard 90 degree bends. The second type of metal ductwork is round rigid metal ductwork. Round metal ductwork can either be spiral duct, which comes in one 10’ section of different sizes and is not insulated. This is a great look for restaurants, commercial buildings or even homes that want an industrial look. Insulating spiral ductwork more than doubles the price because the insulation is cut and glued between each of the spiral ribs. For this reason uninsulated spiral ductwork is mostly used in conditioned space. The second type of round rigid ductwork is KD pipe which is snapped together at a seem and comes in 3’, 4’ or 5’ sections depending on the size. This ductwork also comes uninsulated and can easily come apart if not mechanically fastened together and can be deformed and crushed if walked on (yes, I have seen cable guys, HVAC technicians, insulation installers, electricians all crushed this kind ductwork and left as a casuality of their work). The airflow is slightly better in KD pipe than in compressed flexible ductwork, but if the flexible ductwork is pulled tightly the airflow will be the same. Why Metal Ductwork Is Bad  The downsides of metal ductwork is that it rusts and it leaks. With new homes the rust isn’t much of an issue but with homes that also had a swamp cooler installed with metal ductwork, there’s a high chance of rusting already occurring in the metal ductwork. I’ve seen rectangular metal ductwork rusted so bad that large gaps have been made and cold air pouring into the attic in the summertime. Because metal ductwork only comes in 3 foot sections (compared to a 25 foot bag of flex duct), there are plenty of joints and places where air can escape. In addition, if the metal ductwork was never sealed before the drywall went up when the house was being built, the bottom half of the ductwork becomes inaccessible to seal by hand and requires a more expensive Aeroseal process to seal properly. Flexible Ductwork The alternative to metal ductwork, and the most commonly used type of ductwork today is flexible ductwork. Flexible ductwork is made from 3 different sections, a outer reflective sleeve, an insulation layer and a vinyl plastic inner liner with a metal spiral rib holding it’s shape. Flexible ductwork was first used in Arizona homes in the 1980’s with a clear inner liner. This type of ductwork has since been outlawed as it deteriorates and becomes so brittle it will crack and split open with the air pressure. When changing your air filters, if you see a clear inner liner at the return duct, you know you have this type of ductwork.  Flexible ductwork must be installed properly to get the right amount of airflow to each room and a poor installation can severely affect airflow and comfort in your home. This means no kinks, using 90 degree elbows at all ceiling cans and the ductwork is pulled tight with minimal slack to minimize friction resistance. Can I Install Metal Ductwork On An Existing Home? Yes it is possible to change out the flex ductwork in your home to all metal ductwork but it is costly. Metal duct installers used to have a name, tin-knockers, because of the skill required to measure, fabricate and install the ductwork was a skill. Unfortunately today, there is no name for those of us that install flexible ductwork. The fact is anyone can install flexible ductwork, so anyone and everyone does. With little to no training, installation best practices go out the window, which is one of the main reasons why I’m not worried about finding work for my lifetime but I digress. Installing metal ductwork in an existing home is expensive for two reasons. 1. Material Cost Is High I don’t know what prices for tin were in the 1970s but to purchase metal today is pricey. Consider that one bag of 16” x 25’, R8 insulated ductwork cost around $90. A 4’ section of KD pipe costs $23 or $138 for 6 sections and that still has to be put together and does not include wrapping the pipe in insulation. Spiral metal ductwork costs $51 for a 10’ stick, or $102 for 20’ and again it is uninsulated and difficult if not impossible to fit a 10’ section in an attic hatch and through the maze of trusses. Insulating the ductwork increases the spiral pipe to $200 for 20’. 2. Installing Is A Laborious Process Because the attic can only be access from a 2’x3’ access in the attic (not to mention all the roof trusses one has to navigate) a 10’ section of ductwork can be impossible to move to where it needs to go. Easier attics to get around have higher pitches and plenty of space to walk around but even then, it’s likely a two man task to just set the ductwork in place. Once set, the ducts needs to be secured, sealed and then wrapped in insulation. The right elbows and bends need to be in place to terminate the ducts into the ceiling cans and registers and all that labor can add up quickly. It can be done but but you have to ask yourself if a small improvement in airflow with metal ductwork is worth double the cost of installation verses decently install flexible ductwork. What’s The Difference Between Metal Ductwork And Flexible Ductwork? Converting round rigid metal ductwork to flexible ductwork all depends on how the flexible ductwork is installed. A 4% compression is a generally accepted practice. To get less than 1% compression would risk the duct being pulled so tight it would disconnect from one end. At a 4% compression, you loose about 1”-2” of duct diameter going from flexible ductwork to round rigid ductwork. That is, a 6” fleixble duct will deliver the same amount of airflow as a 5” KD pipe duct. Can I Install Metal Ductwork On A New Home? What about installing metal ductwork on a newly constructed home? Metal ductwork can better for airflow and the installers don’t have to deal with the space restrictions that come with existing homes, so it would make sense that the cost decreases also. Well, not necessarily because insulated metal ductwork can be twice or more the cost of flexible ductwork. If you are willing to pay double the costs of flexible ductwork and have the piece of mind that all the airflow coming out of your unit is going in your home, than metal ductwork is the way to go on a newly constructed home. What’s Wrong With Flexible Ductwork? Nothing is wrong with flexible ductwork when installed correctly. It is on par with sheet metal ductwork for airflow. What’s wrong with flexible ductwork is that it’s so easy to install wrong. What could go wrong with flexible ductwork installation? Here is a short list.
 What’s Good About Flexible Ductwork? There are good attributes to flexible ducts that in my opinion outweigh the bad. We make our case below.
If flexible ductwork is installed correctly, the airflow will be the same or better than a metal ductwork. It’s all in the installation. The advantage of metal ductwork is that you are taking less of a chance of the ductwork being installed wrong than with flexible ductwork. It’s harder to install metal ductwork wrong than it is flexible ductwork. If you can find an installer than follows the best flexible ductwork installation (like Green ID), then there’s no difference between airflow from flexible ductwork compared to metal ductwork. The cost will be significantly less with flexible ductwork compared to sheet metal ductwork. Loss In Flexible Ductwork Studies https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/836654 https://www.mmmfg.com/wp-content/themes/va/pdf/060601_CC-KW_DuctTechPaper.pdf Making green upgrades to your home can majorly increase your comfort. Unfortunately, comfort and quick paybacks don’t always go hand in hand. Upgrades like window replacements, garage insulation and increasing insulation levels to assure they’re up to the R-38 standard, are all upgrades where the most cost effective solution may not align with your lifestyle conditions. For example, replacing single pane windows in good condition is not cost-effective but the price paid for one south or west-facing window may well be worth the cost if it cools down a hot office or reduces traffic noise at night. It’s clear that in some situations the lifestyle conditions may outweigh the cost or payback of upgrades.
Insulation changes are another popular upgrade that homeowners choose to make. Adding insulation can often times give homeowners greater temperature control in their home but not every home is the same in terms of insulation. If a home has already met a R-38 Energy Star standard adding more may still save you money on utilities but only by a small margin opposed to adding insulation to an aged home where the insulation has sank. In the later example the upgrade would most likely save the home owners much more on their utility bills. Often the more important issue is finding out how the insulation installed. A 5% defect in the installation will cut the R-value (its effectiveness) by 50%. All considerations for upgrades can be discussed with an energy auditor who will give you their professional and unbiased opinion of the most cost effective upgrades you can be making in your home. It’s important to get a professional opinion when making investments that could save you money and increase your comfort. It can be shocking to find that your air conditioner can’t keep up in the summertime and sometimes even rises in temperature during the hottest part of the day. It can be hard to tell if you’re AC system is running right, if your AC is broken, or if you have another issue with duct leakage or insulation. In this post will explain what can be causing your air conditioner to not cool the house properly even if you have a new, high-efficiency AC system. If you’re like many of us in Phoenix Arizona we have a low humidity, dry heat for 10 months out of the year. But every July and August comes our monsoon season which brings the occasional rain and more importantly humidity into Phoenix. If you’re finding that your air conditioner cannot cool the house until the middle of the night when it’s the coolest and sometimes it even rises when you have the temperature set low but it works fine the other 10 months out of the year I’ll explain the possibilities in this post. Common Misconceptions About New Air Conditioners Some common misconceptions about air conditioners are that higher efficiency units are going to give you more air or cool the house better. It’s true that the high-efficiency units cost less to operate and can lower your energy bills but what’s not true is that a new air conditioner will give you more air or cool your home better. What many air-conditioning companies get wrong is that:
The Truth About New Air Conditioning Systems.. the Dirty Little Secret About New Air-Conditioning Systems Every manufacturer has multiple options for new AC systems and each option has different capacities. This is important because you may currently have a true 5 ton, or 60,000 BTU air conditioner now but with manufacturers cutting cost they will offer distributors 5 ton systems that it only give 55,000 BTUs of capacity which is almost a half a ton lower than what you have now currently. This is something that you may never know for your sales rep may not know because this is the only unit that the company offers. It may also be the only unit that fits in your attic space or closet. A good air conditioning installer will not compromise the capacity of the air conditioner because we know that if you’re used to having 60,000 BTUs of air delivered and we put a new system and that only delivers 90% of that we’re likely to have problems in callbacks. Problems With Existing Air Conditioners That Make It Struggle To Keep Up  Undersized System. Although we advocate a properly sized AC unit, I’ve seen more and more builders on new construction homes install the wrong size AC unit or even undersize the AC system. While this can happen on an existing home, I’ve seen it more often on new homes. Builders must use a Manual J calculation to size the AC system correctly but that calculation highly depends on the inputs and assumptions the AC contractor uses. If they put you will only cool your home to 78 degrees and you want it at 76 degrees, the AC unit is going to struggle to keep up. If the correct orientation of the house is not chosen, you may have more heat gain than the AC system is designed for. I have seen both of these issues happen in brand new homes.
Restriction Causing Poor Airflow. A restriction can be from a dirty filter, clogged filter dryer, dirty condenser coil or dirty evaporator coil. Each of these problems will cause lower than normal airflow and poor AC performance. The easiest thing you can do is to change your AC filters every month or two, even if the recommended changing time is three months. If you notice your filter dirty, it’s time to change it. Freon Leak. If your AC system keeps needing a recharge of freon every year, there are several ways to identify and find a freon leak. A dye can be added to help identify a freon leak which glows under a UV light, a nitrogen pressure test can be used to hear and feel where the leak is occurring and the easiest method of finding a freon leak is having an experienced technician knowing the most common locations for leaks and performing a visual inspection. Letting a freon leak happen can damage the compressor overtime and shorten the life of the system. Freon Overcharging or Contamination. If you have had a freon leak where an A/C company had to add freon and now you’re having cooling issues, you’re system may have been overcharged. This is a common mistake and can be hard to diagnose for the untrained technician. Too much freon can cause liquid to flood the coil and damage the compressor. A contaminated freon charge will cause temperatures to flucate and may also damage the compressor.  Why Your Air Conditioner Won’t Cool The House If your air conditioner finally works and seems to lower the temperature during the middle of the night but struggles and actually rises during the daytime then you’re likely having issues with humidity during the monsoon season. The humidity will make an air conditioner work much harder and can struggle to keep up. This is more and more common with systems that are slightly undersized or even sized with razor thin margins as is becoming more and more popular now. In the past contractors would purposely oversize a system but that led to a number of problems including high energy bills, more ware on the compressors from short cycling, and comfort issues. However, and I hate to say this the only thing good about an oversize system in Phoenix is doing the monsoon season it is better at removing the humidity and keep in the house at a comfortable temperature more consistently then if your system is undersized or on the borderline. The inconvenient truth is that you may have to suffer during the two months out of the monsoon season while your air conditioner struggles to keep up and there may be absolutely nothing wrong with your system, it may be charged correctly and all the components operating within specifications. Why The Second Floor Is Hotter Than Your First Floor If you have noticed the rooms on your second floor are much hotter than the first floor we have dedicated an entire blog post to shed light on the causes and potential fixes for the uneven temperatures. The main causes have less to do with your air conditioner’s performance and more to do with the ductwork, insulation and airflow. This is where an energy audit will really shed light on what the causes are and offer the best solutions compared to having an AC contractor tell you to add another return or that you need a new unit, a window person try to sell you all new windows and an insulation contractor perform and “blow-and-go”. How To Stretch Out Your Air Conditioner's Performance If you're stuck with you got, there are some ways to give your AC system a nudge in the right direction and the good news is that it may be enough to push you over the top and finally fix your AC system from not keeping up with the thermostat settings. 1. Sealing The Ductwork To Make Your Air Conditioner Perform Better In Phoenix, sealing your ductwork is the most cost effective upgrade you can do and one of the most common problems we find in homes 15 years or older. SRP estimates that Phoenix homes loose about 20% of their air into the attic through duct leaks. SRP even offers a good rebate to seal the leaks up because they know it’s a cost effective upgrade. Imagine getting 20% more air into your home just by sealing the duct leaks, it’s pretty significant. Have Green ID perform a duct leakage test and energy audit on your home today to find out where you’re leaks are coming from and qualify your home for the SRP duct sealing rebate.
2. Size Your Ductwork Right To Make Your Air Conditioner Perform Better Along with sealing the ductwork, returns that are too small is the next lower hanging fruit upgrade that will help your air conditioner perform better. I wrote an article about Why Phoenix Is Called the Land Of No Return to help get contractors to start upsizing and adding second returns in homes. What happens is homes is a 4 ton air conditioner is installed for example, but the ductwork is only sized to handler 3 tons of air. Now your 4 ton A/C system is acting like a 3 ton system but you’re paying the energy costs for the full 4 tons. 3. Add More Insulation To Make Your Air Conditioner Perform Better If you have a block wall home, consider injecting a closed cell spray foam in the sun struck block walls to reduce the heat gain on those walls. Block walls have no insulation in them, making them radiate heat well into the night in the summer. When it comes to attic insulation, even new homes are underinsulated. Adding more insulation to the attic can help keep the cool air in your home much longer. If you have fiberglass batt insulation on a home built in the 1990’s, your insulation will be like there’s almost nothing up there because it’s likely installed wrong. 4. Use 90 % Shade Screens To Block Windows That Get More Than Two Hours Of Direct Sunlight. Don’t be surprised that windows get more heat gain coming into your home than from the attic in Phoenix! Using shade screens is more cost effective and effective approach than replacing old leaky windows. A common misconception is that leaky windows are the cause of high energy bills and that replacing old windows will fix comfort issues. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Save yourself thousands and install shade screens before replacing old windows. On a side note, we do recommend replacing windows for ascetics or sound proofing but just be cautious if you are replacing windows for energy savings and comfort that we have seen many disappointed customers over the years.
These energy efficiency upgrades above are more cost effective and give you a bigger bang for your buck than doing a full HVAC replacement prematurely. While a new AC system may have some benefits and offer peace of mind, it’s not always the best solution to help your AC cool your home better.
During the Covid lockdown, although I can't blame it all on Covid, I was deep in a Youtube wormhole and came across videos of a guy that upcycled and reused common items for creative purposes. We've all seen those stories, whether it be duct tape, Popsicle sticks or paper clips. My personal favorite was making a bow and arrow out of a paper clip and rubber band. Well how about actually putting some of those ideas to work and actually saving you money. The good news is that there are things you can do to lower that utility bill on any budget. There are simple things you can do for no cost and upgrades, that make an impact, can be done for under $1000. No Cost Energy Saving Upgrades
$100 Energy Saving Upgrades
$500 Energy Saving Upgrades
$1000 Energy Saving Upgrades
Before spending any money, it is a good idea to get a home energy audit. Green ID is a qualified, licensed and bonded HVAC contractor and charges only $99 and is well worth the money. A good audit should be more than just a visual examination and should check static pressure, room pressure, condition of the duct work, adequacy of return and supply registers, and as assessment of the air conditioning unit. Audit results will help you determine where the money is best spent and give you some low cost/ no cost ideas to reduce your energy bills and make your home more comfortable.
The Main Cause Of Loud Noises When The AC System Is RunningI remember sitting to watch TV after dinner during the summer time and finding myself unable to hear the TV only when the AC system kicked on. My AC system was so loud it sounded like I was sitting in a wind tunnel and every time it came on I had to turn the TV volume higher, then when the AC shut off, the TV was too loud and I'd turn the volume back down. I remember not thinking anything about it at the time, only that it was a slightly annoying habit. Little did I know what was causing that wind tunnel like noise was actually hurting my AC system.
It was only year later when I started Green ID and performing energy audits and retrofits that I realized what was actually causing this to happen was an undersized return. Undersized returns plague the Phoenix market in homes of all ages and all types of HVAC systems. HVAC contractors and installers never seemed to get this right and the fact that Arizona homes are typically built with only one return per AC unit, this problem is still going on to this day. Why Is An Undersized Return Hurting The AC Unit? If you've ever been short of breath, had asthma or felt winded after an intense workout you know what it feels like to be starved for air... it seems like you can't get enough air into your lungs. That's what happens all the time when the AC system has too small of a return installed. That loud sound I was hearing was actually my AC system wheezing for air, it was literally trying to inhale more air than could fit in the ductwork. This makes the AC system work a lot harder, reduces it's capacity and creates a loud, wind-tunnel like noise at the grill. How Do You Know What Size Return Is Good Enough? We use a rule of thumb per the table below for the return duct size however the problem can often lie in other places like the elbow type, return air can, filter, grill, kinks in the ductwork and plenum size. A simple check you can do yourself is with the air or heat on, remove the grill and see if the noise is reduced. Then remove the filter and see how much that improves the noise. The solution to undersized returns is to make the return size larger. We can do this by adding a larger return, a second return, installing a return plenum or changing a twist elbow to a side by side elbow. Having a comprehensive energy audit on the home will present the best options because contrary to what your HVAC contractor may believe, it's not always as simple as adding a second return. Return Size Chart 5 ton should have at least a 22" return 4 ton should have at least a 20" return 3 ton should have at least a 18" return  What is the best home insulation for your health? One reliable way you can save energy on your home is through proper insulation. But, how do you know what is best for your family's health? We look at the pros and cons so you can choose the best home insulation for your health. Types of Home InsulationWhen making a decision about the best home insulation, there are generally three different types to choose from: Fiberglass, Cellulose and Spray Foam. Because every home is different, we like to provide our customers with information on all of their options and let them choose for themselves. But, before you decide, you want to make sure you fully understand the pros and cons of each option. It is important to weigh your energy-saving needs with your family's health sensitivities and needs. The Most Well-known Choice: Fiberglass Insulation FIberglass insulation can cause irritation to eyes, lungs and skin with contact As one of the most common choices for insulation, fiberglass also has some of the biggest health concerns. The most evident problem is as a skin and eye irritant. Blown fiberglass is made up of tiny fibers of glass. When touched, it can irritate the skin and eyes, becoming very itchy and uncomfortable. If inhaled, the small fibers can become lodged in the lungs, causing serious respiratory issues. While this may be an issue mainly for the person installing or removing it, those fibers can also get pulled into your air ducts. The potential for fiberglass fibers to enter your air ducts stresses the importance of a proper and complete install. When properly installed and sealed, fiberglass poses minimal threats to a homeowner. However, fiberglass has a lower insulating value (or R-value) compared to other types of insulation, making it a less energy-efficient option. If your goal is to save the most amount of energy, cellulose and spray foam insulation are often better options. A Greener Choice: Cellulose Insulation Cellulose insulation uses recycled materials but can cause airborne allergies if there are leaks in ducts As you are choosing the best home insulation for your needs, you may want to consider the material your insulation is sourced from. What natural resources is it using? How many chemicals are involved in its manufacturing? Does your insulation produce more waste or reduce it? Fortunately, there is an option that takes these questions under consideration: cellulose insulation. Made from recycled paper products, cellulose also has a higher R-value, helping to insulate your home better than fiberglass. Blown-in cellulose is treated with borate as a fire-retardant and to keep critters at bay, but this can be an irritant for those sensitive to that chemical. This treatment is necessary for overall safety but can leave some wondering how "green" or healthy it is despite its ability to better insulate your home and re-purpose waste materials for 85% of its composition. A Great Energy Saver: Spray Foam Spray foam insulation (SPF) raises concerns over the isocyanates present during mixing and curing. One of our best insulation options is also one that has the most questions regarding health. Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) is typically applied to the roof decking of a house, keeping heat or cold out directly at the site of entry. While it has the highest R-value of our three options mentioned here, it also contains chemicals known to be hazardous to our health. These chemicals cause the greatest harm to the installer or people present during the curing process. This is why we request that homeowners stay out of the home for 24 hours to allow the materials to cure and for the risk to dissipate. The biggest risk from SPF is from isocyanates that are present during the mixing, on-site of the two materials. An experienced installer like Green ID assures that these materials are mixed properly and that all precautions are taken. A Thorough Install=Better HealthAt Green ID, it's important to us that you make the healthiest and most efficient decision for your home. Weighing the pros and cons of the material you choose to use in your home is one issue. The other is having your new insulation installed safely and correctly. The biggest risk with fiberglass and cellulose insulation is when dust or fibers enter your air ducts. They can disperse throughout your home and increase the risk of allergies. Ask your installer to check your ducts for leaks before working on your insulation. This will help ensure your A/C and heat are working at full efficiency while also preventing airborne allergies. If you are planning on installing SPF, be sure to leave your home during installation and preferably for 24 hours afterward. Allowing time for SPF to cure will reduce your risk of exposure to the chemicals used in this process. You can even use it as an opportunity for a short staycation! When you return home, your home will be tightly insulated and ready to save you costs on your energy bill. You may also like...
 Getting solar panels installed on your home is exciting and a big step towards energy independence. However, getting a high APS or SRP energy bill in the mail after the solar panels are installed can be a surprising disappointment. Unfortunately this problem happens more often than it should and it’s not necessarily a problem with the solar panels. This post will explain common causes of having high energy bills even when our home has solar panels on the roof.
Solar panels are a great way to produce your own energy but it’s sometimes only half of the picture. Your home is like your body, it’s a group of systems that work together and effect one another... putting solar panels on a home with high energy bills can be like having a heart transplant if your having chest pains, it may solve the symptoms but it’s better to find the root cause and first that first. Using our heart example, those chest pains may be from a high cholesterol, stress or from poor circulation. You wouldn’t go right to the most dramatic solution of swapping out your heart before you tried to fix some of the easier, less expensive options first just like it’s a good idea to find out why your energy bills are so high before you go with solar panels, it may be because the APS rate plan or from air leaks or leaky ductwork. Reason #1 Why Your Energy Bills Haven’t Gone Down With Solar Panels High energy bills can be caused from leaky ductwork, improperly sized ductwork, airflow issues, high air leakage, insulation, appliances and motors, energy habits or excessive heat gain. Solar panels won’t necessarily address these issues which is why having an energy audit can be useful in identifying and correcting these “low hanging fruit” items first, ideally before solar panels are installed. Even in newer, energy efficient homes we've found rooms with missing insulation or wrong sized ductwork. Reason #2 Why Your Energy Bills Haven’t Gone Down With Solar Panels Another reason why your energy bills may still be high with solar panels is your utility rate plan. Both APS and SRP have specific rate plans for their solar customers and if you don’t manage your energy use correctly, you may not save as much energy as predicted. APS and SRP have solar rate plans that charge a demand fee and essentially punish solar users from 2-8 pm with SRP or 3-8 pm with APS when energy usage reaches above a specified amount. The rate plans aren’t friendly for solar customers because from 6-8 pm the sun is setting or already set and zero energy is produced from solar so solar customers are forced to delay turning on their air conditioners during the summer until after 8 pm. If you aren’t managing your energy usage until 8 pm this can be a problem and your probably paying more than you need to be than if you could put a pre-cooling plan in place. Using a load controller is a guaranteed way to keep your energy bills in check according your utility companies rate plan and worth looking into. I’ve written an expensive post about everything you need to know about load controllers for further education. Reason #3 Why Your Energy Bills Haven’t Gone Down With Solar It’s worth mentioning that it goes without saying that if you lower your thermostat in the summer, add an electric vehicle or have another family member move in after solar panels were installed on your home, your energy usage will increase and the original savings predictions may not be valid anymore because they are based off of your historical energy usage. By installing a real time energy monitor like Sense you can view your energy usage breakdown and get a feel for where exactly you are using energy in your home before going solar. With monitoring available to see your solar panel production you can instantly see how much energy your solar panels are producing and if any panels are not producing. Currently Sense and Curb are good energy monitors Reason #4 Why Your Energy Bills Haven’t Gone Down With Solar An aging heating and cooling system that isn’t working properly or improperly sized ductwork can sabotage the work solar panels do by using more energy than your panels offset. Over-amping motors, improper refrigerant charge, slow freon leaks and undersized ductwork all drive up the energy usage. Signs that it may be time to replace an older HVAC system are is if your HVAC system is loud, doesn’t cool or heat your home well, has had a long repair history or is more than 30 years old. Our HVAC technicians and energy auditors will be able to tell how well your HVAC system is performing and give you a baseline of performance to measure against. How To Lower Your Energy Bills They Are Still High Even With Solar Power The good news is that having solar panels is the big hitter of energy upgrades and that lowering your energy bills even more won’t require the capital investment of having solar. Some changes you’ll need to make won’t even cost anything such as changing your thermostat settings. Other low hanging fruit upgrades may be fixing poorly installed insulation, sealing leaky ductwork, properly sizing the ductwork or using a load controller to avoid high peak demand charges. While performing SRP energy audits, we are surprised how many homeowners don’t actually know what SRP rate plan they are. As energy auditors our job is not only to perform the cool test on homes like our thermal camera scan and depressurization test, but also to seek out areas of energy waste that can be changed by managing energy usage and are more lifestyle changes. We’ve seen homeowners reduce their energy bills by as much as 60% simply by managing their energy use on the right SRP rate plan. By simply managing your energy better, you can cut your energy bills without doing any other work. In this post we will go into the best SRP rate plans you should choose for your home and how best to manage your energy to get the most savings. By far the biggest way to reduce your electric bills is with SRP’s E27p plan or SRP Time-of-Use plan. The E27p plan is a pilot plan that SRP uses for solar customers and is similar to APS demand based rate plans, however you don’t have to have solar on your home to sign up for this plan, anyone can do it. SRP’s E27p plan charges a low off-peak energy rate, a high on-peak energy plus a demand charge if your energy usage exceeds a certain amount during a 30 minute period. The important thing about the E27p and Time-of-Use plan is that the off-peak energy rate is very low, cheap energy. We suggest customers use this plan and take full advantage of the cheap off-peak energy. Typical SRP energy rates are $0.12 per kWh, the E27p plan is only $0.05 per kWh and $0.07 per kWh for Time-of-Use. Since the E27p energy is so cheap, we want you to turn your thermostat down to 72 degrees in the summer during off-peak hours. Yes, that’s right, you want to stay nice and coo during the summer months, even if you are gone to work. This strategy is called super-cooling and pre-cools your home before SRP’s peak hours of 2-8 pm with E27p or 2-8 pm with Time-of-Use plan. Then at peak hour time, your thermostat will be programmed to turn up to 84 degrees (or higher) and if your home is well sealed and insulated, your AC system will ideally never turn on and you avoid SRP’s high on-peak rate charges. For SRP’s Time-of-Use, during peak hours their energy rate balloons to $0.24 but there is no demand charge with the high peak hour rate. Both the E27p and Time-of-Use plan are good options if you can take advantage of supercooling your home. SRP Rate Comparison
*Demand charges are$9.43 for the first 3 kW, $17.51 for the next 7 kW, $33.59 each additional kW Which Type Of Homes Would Benefit Most From Pre-Cooling Your Home?
Who Would Not Benefit From Changing Their SRP Rate Plans? Depending on your lifestyle, pre-cooling your home with these rate plan changes may not be a good option. If you or someone in our home works nights or as an irregular schedule, it may be hard to keep the AC system off during peak hours if they want the temperature to be 76 degrees during the middle of the day. To take full advantage of demand control (penalty) rate plans, the pre-cooling strategy is essential. You need to be able to reliably, day after day, lower the thermostat during off-peak hours and then raise it during peak hours to take advantage of the utility company’s cheap off-peak energy rate. If you are like me and sometimes work from home or have someone home on an irregular schedule then following the pre-cooling plan will be difficult to do because, of course we need to be comfortable in our own homes!
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April 2024
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