Cascade Built Blog
January 29, 2009
Energy Savings, in dollars
Posted by admin, 6:57 AM
I’ve been asked to explain how much energy is used by the houses I build that are supposedly energy efficient, so we measured it on the latest one, the Alley House in Seattle. First step was to do energy modeling during design phase, then to blower door test and hire a HERS rater to verify everything. Enough about that. Let’s just spell it out in simple terms:
The result is that the Alley House uses 61% less energy than an average home in the area (whether using Seattle City Light data or Federal data, the result is about the same). So if the neighbor pays $100 in energy bills, the Alley House energy bill should cost only $39 for that same period.
I’ll post the calcs here if anyone is interested. Disclaimer: I’m not an engineer, but I do have a calculator. Engineering critiques welcome!
Average, West region 38.4 kBtu/Sq. Ft./Yr
2006 IECC (current codes) 29.5 kBtu/Sq. Ft./Yr
Alley House 15.1 kBtu/Sq. Ft./Yr
61% savings versus average home
EIA, Energy Information Adminstration, 2001
