Paul Scheckel - The Home Energy Diet: How to Save Money by Making Your House Energy-Smart

Advance Praise for

The Home Energy Diet

The Home Energy Diet is a valuable resource for homeowners and anyone
interested in efficient, affordable, and healthy housing. The book balances
theoretical understanding with practical wisdom. Paul Scheckels humorous
and down-to-earth-style make the book accessible; it was a pleasure to read.

J IM G UNSHINAN, managing editor, Home Energy

Although its addressed to the interested home owner, The Home Energy
Diet provides enough theory and practice to be extremely useful as a
teaching tool and reference guide for tradespeople as well. This book
should be required reading for anyone who has anything to do
with the care and feeding of a house and any of its components.

K EN T OHINAKA, senior energy analyst,
Vermont Energy Investment Corporation

The average home causes twice the greenhouse gas emissions of the
average car. To help reduce these emissions, improve the comfort of
homes, and reduce energy bills, EPA encourages homeowners to make
their homes more energy efficient. The Home Energy Diet identifies many
products and systems in your home that are good opportunities for
improved energy efficiency.

D OUG A NDERSON, ENERGY STAR Program

The Home Energy Diet is comprehensive, complete, and useful in fact,
its probably the best single volume out there addressing this issue. Buy it,
read it, and then put this information to use in your own home.

R ICHARD P EREZ, publisher, Home Power Magazine

The Home Energy Diet is an excellent book, clearly showing where
energy is used and wasted in the home, and giving excellent guidance on
how you can dramatically reduce your energy use, while having a more
comfortable, safer, more durable dwelling. I highly recommend it!

S KIP H AYDEN, senior research scientist,
Advanced Combustion Technologies Laboratory, Ottawa, Canada

The Home Energy Diet does an excellent job conveying every detail
of how your home uses and can potentially save energy,
in an understandable yet comprehensive and fun style. Readers will
learn plenty through the anecdotes and experiences gleaned from the
thousands of homes the author has visited, and through adventures with
his own low-energy-diet lifestyle. In fact, even with my own 20 years
experience in the energy business, I still learned a lot that I will
take away and apply to my own home energy diet.

R ICHARD F AESY, residential energy and green building consultant,
LEED Accredited Professional

If you dont have an energy expert in your house, then The Home
Energy Diet is the next best thing. It has the most up-to-date, reliable
and thorough advice you could find anywhere.

B LAIR H AMILTON, director, Efficiency Vermont

The Home Energy Diet

How to Save Money by Making your House Energy-Smart

Paul Scheckel

NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS

Dedication

To June, the source of my energy

Cataloging in Publication Data: A catalog record for this publication is available from the National Library of Canada.

Copyright 2005 by Paul Scheckel. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Cover image: Comstock RF.

Printed in Canada. First printing January 2005.

Paperback ISBN: 0-86571-530-0

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of The Home Energy Diet should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

Disclaimer: Any improvements or alterations outlined in this book are done at your own risk. Local or national codes and manufacturers instructions take precedence over any advice given in this book. The author or publisher cannot be held responsible for accidents or other trouble arising from any information contained in this book.

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Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada

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Table of Contents

N O BOOK IS WRITTEN IN A VACUUM. Vast amounts of time and patience are required by many people, leading to pressures on everyone around the wretched, possessed writer. I liken the writing process to waking up in the morning with a big, gnarly, tangled head of hair the original notion for this book. Over the course of many months, the hair is washed, brushed, combed and teased until finally it is presentable to the public. I have had many hairdressers working on what once was a tangled knot.

Those to whom I would like to extend my wholehearted thanks and appreciation include: my wife June, for all her patient support; my son Silas for giving me hope for a greener, happier future; my mother for her steadfast trust and support (and for teaching me that electricity doesnt grow on trees); and Josh and Judy Van Houten for countless meals and complex problem solving.

Thanks to the entire staff of the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation a group of people who live and breathe energy efficiency and with whom I am proud to work. Specifically, I wish to thank Ken Tohinaka, Dave Keefe, Pat Haller, and the entire Residential Services Pod for their time, encouragement, fact-checking, and professional rewards and challenges. I hold much appreciation and respect for Blair Hamilton and Beth Sachs for their lifelong dedication and commitment to efficiency, and for creating a work environment that draws the best out of employees.

Many thanks to Jim Schley, a true "literary architect" whose thorough hand and gentle nature made me a better writer. Thanks also go to my family who put up with all my annoying questions, meters, and probes all around their homes, and to Susan, Mark, and Hilton for encouragement, insights, and technical review.

Many of the figures in this book were supplied by the energy experts of the US Department of Energys Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and the information gatherers at the Energy Information Administration, many of whom took the time to answer my questions in detail.