No more questions [0]? Come on, people. The more you ask, the less work I have to do on my own house [0]. Hello [0]?
Alright, then, just one more topic I'd like to hit before we get back to whatever it was [0] I'm doing to my house. A while back I mentioned prioritizing [0]: How should we decide where to start when getting our houses greener? The answer isn't totally black and white; every house has different needs, and every homeowner has different means. But an excellent place to start - aside from basic stuff like monitoring your electricity use [0] - is getting a home energy audit [1].
Basically, an energy audit consists of a trained professional energy nerd [2] - also known as home performance contractors or house doctors - showing up at your house and telling you what's wrong with it. More specifically, where and why you use the most energy, and how you can stave that use. Do you have enough insulation? Is it in the right place(s)? How much air is leaking into or out of your windows and doors? How much heat is leaking through the walls or crawlspace?
They have an array of neat-o tools [3] for all this, like a blower door [4] - basically a giant fan that attaches to your front door and sucks air out of the house, measuring just how much air is moving in through leaks in the windows and doors and et ceteras; infrared temperature sensors can determine where that air is infiltrating. Then they break out the Kill-A-Watt [5]s [6] to measure how much electricity your various appliances are using, and which ones you should consider replacing. These can also measure where the dreaded phantom loads [7] are in your house - those little energy drains caused by appliances that use power even when they're turned off, a source of much consternation [7] here at Lime Virtual Headquarters.
The good news: A number of utility companies offer these for free, or at least at a decent discount. Here in Boulder, the county subsidizes them down to $100 per audit for a 2,500 square foot home. The whole thing takes about three hours, but you'll learn exactly which problems warrant the most attention. And the house doc should be able to explain which ones are most worth your money. I'm trying to schedule one for next week; I'll let you know how it goes.
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One more thing: Oddly enough, I've been invited to speak on a green remodeling panel [8] at BKLYN DESIGNS [9]: Saturday, May 12, at 4pm in, of course, Brooklyn. Any New Yorkers in the house, please do stop by.