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Energy updatesMoisture management guide coming; basement insulation redux; energy prices spiking; Fort Collins rolls out homebuyer education effort; energy codes; energy tax credits.To err is human, but to blame it on someone else is even more human. It's potpourri time. Some short items that don't yet require a full column are introduced or updated below. The first two address ongoing moisture mysteries. The remainder tie loosely to the recently rocketing energy prices. Moisture management guideNext month, you should visit the Denver Home Builders Association's Web site (www.hbadenver.com) and download a document with a lengthy title: "Recommended Practices for Design and Construction of New Homes with Below-grade Under-floor Spaces." You should also find a parallel document written in code language. Don't be surprised if it immediately becomes a code-accepted practice. The objective of these documents is to provide recommendations that should help the industry manage moisture in and around crawlspaces and foundations. When followed systematically, these new guidelines should help reduce the potential for mold growth. At the initiation of the Tri-County Health Department, the guidelines were developed by a task force that met over a dozen times at the Denver HBA between June 2002 and January 2003. Members of the balanced group included builders, soils and structural engineers, code officials. health department officials and others. As this article goes to press, the documents are out for review by other members of the various industries at the table. While the date for final publication hasn't been set yet, expect these two items out on the street by May. Basement insulation updateLast August this column featured basement insulation. It contained two errors that need to be corrected. Those errors deal with vinyl-faced basement insulation. A couple of directly related items need updating. Error #1: the article stated that the permeability of vinyl facings was about 1.0. In fact, the research performed by Johns Manville's Denver laboratory indicated a permeability much closer to zero for one sample tested. That means it performs much like 4-mil and 6-mil sheet polyethylene. Error #2: the assumption was the perforating the vinyl facing available at that time - with tack-holes poked on 2.5-inch centers - would push its permeability up into the 5.0 range. Unfortunately. that didn't happen. The permeability increased to slightly more than 1.0. A product with tack-holes poked on 1-inch centers increased the permeability up into the 3.0 range. At the time. Joe Lstiburek (Building Science Corp; Westford, Mass.) recommended that any vinyl facing have its permeability increased to around 5.0 in order to avoid condensation on the insulation side of the product. So far, this writer is not aware of any vinyl-faced product meeting that goal. At the same time, testing has not identified a permeability threshold - 5.0 or otherwise - that is unquestioned. Updates: During August last year, just when the original article appeared in print, this writer observed a personal first - condensation covering 100 percent of the vinyl facing toward the wall. Other circumstances: no mold within the basement under-floor space: cold basement due to leaky ducts and air conditioning: basement walls still drying out in relatively new hone. Some cases of moldy basement insulation drapes have been reported. Typically those cases seem to occur in tandem with either under-floor mold problems or water leaks (plumbing, etc.). At least one Denver production builder is experimenting with the Lstiburek alternative interior basement insulation system described in the August article. The upper four feet of basement wall is covered with fire-rated, foil-faced insulation. The lower half is eventually covered with un-faced permeable expanded polystyrene foam, but only as part of finishing the basement. Energy price updateThree months ago, this writer projected that natural gas prices were headed up. On March 21. Xcel boosted its natural gas rates for residential customers by a reported 43 percent. Bingo. This price increase isn't shaping up like the memorable price roller coaster of 2000-01. In fact, both locally and nationally, average prices for natural gas should reach all-time highs this year. Xcel's spokesman Steve Roalstad was quoted in local newspapers as saying, "We're looking at it as a long-term increase, not just a temporary price spike." Think permanent. Prices will still fluctuate wildly, but within a much higher range. A similar oil price analogy was the 1973-74 increase from $3 to $12 a barrel. That permanently pushed up the price floor for oil, with some negative impacts on our economy. When heating ends this month, natural gas left in our underground structures is projected to be at all all-time low. Adding to price woes. U.S. and Canadian natural gas production declined last year and is likely to decline this year. And the post-Enron hangover coupled with economic uncertainties has left a few hundred drilling rigs idle. Without substantially more drilling. production will fall further. Given the increased number of homes and power plants using natural gas this year over last, a further fall in production means demand for gas from our industrial sector will have to drop. That probably means scattered layoffs. On the residential front. this price run-up should lead to the following:
Fort Collins homebuyer brochuresThis month, Fort Collins Utilities rolls out the first pieces of a sustained education campaign for the home-buying public. Collaborators in the effort include the Northern Colorado Home Builders Association and E-Star Colorado. E-Star will be circulating the information statewide. The information campaign centers around a brochure/folder labeled "What To Look For In A New Home: A Buyer's Guide to Comfort, Health. Durability and Value." The glossy brochure explains briefly the benefits of a high-performance home. A second fold-out brochure describes "whole-house design" or systems thinking. A series of 16 fact sheets, Many still under development, drills clown into the details for consumers: low-e windows, water heaters, combustion safety, wall insulation, tight construction. indoor air quality, IVAC equipment siring, etc. High-performance-home builders like Engle Homes. Aspen Homes of Colorado (Loveland). Centex Homes (Fort Collins), Domega Homes (Pueblo) will benefit from the campaign. The campaign should encourage the growing number of builders currently in the process of moving towards systems-engineered, higher-performance design and Constructions. Energy codesThe 2003 versions of the International Council Codes are now in print. In many regions with dated codes, expect the 2003 version to be adopted, quite possibly this year. Based on current activity, more jurisdictions will adopt either the International Residential Code or International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) this year than have adopted it over the last three years combined. Nearly all the metro area is moving toward adoption of I-Codes. The one notable exception is the City of Denver. That's ironic since Denver Building Department officials stated their intention to adopt it by the fall of 2001, and spent considerable time at that effort. Federal energy tax creditsFirst introduced hack in the mid-1990s, residential energy tax credits came close to passing last November during the lame duck session. The plan was $600 per home built 30 percent better than the IECC and 52.000 per home built 50 percent above the IECC. While this writer was told at the time that chances of passage were 50-50, the hills fell through at the very end of the session. Last month, complimentary hills were introduced in both the Senate and House. The chances of their passage this year are reported to be better than last year because these are stand-alone bills with lots of cosponsors. Translation: it's still too early to tell. Steve Andrews consults with builders for E-Star Colorado and writes on energy issues (sbandrews@att.net). E-Star (www.e-star.com), is a nonprofit home energy rating system that works with both new and existing homes statewide. |
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2008 Built Green Colorado
Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, 9033 E. Easter Place, Suite 200,
Centennial, CO 80112 Last Updated: 10/05/2007 |