Easy Upgrades Boost Water, Energy Efficiency in 1950s Ranch Home

When Judith and Tim Vanderver were expecting their daughter, Hannah, they wanted to make their 1959 brick ranch home in Atlanta healthier and more environmentally sound. Since Tim, an investment manager, is a “bottom-line money guy,” any changes had to have a financial payoff. The couple decided to look at their house as a system, and by taking relatively simple steps they’re achieving dramatic savings in energy, water, and money.

Simple Changes Save Electricity
We started by simply replacing all our lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, which use less energy. This reduces our electricity bill and the load on our HVAC unit. Eighty-five percent of the energy going into an incandescent lightbulb is wasted as heat, and because Atlanta is extremely hot and humid in the summer (which starts in May and ends sometimes in October), the last thing we need is little “space heaters” adding to our HVAC unit’s workload. We also replaced our electric landscaping lights with solar-powered LED lights, and used LED Christmas tree lights last year. We think there will be great improvements in LED lighting technology in the future.

We replaced our old refrigerator with an Energy Star Amana bottom-drawer freezer model. This may seem extreme, but we decided against the icemaker because not having it reduces our energy usage by 20 percent. If only I could remember to keep the ice trays full!

Plumbing Retrofits Put Money in the Bank
We installed a high-efficiency (80–85 percent) Noritz tankless water heater, reducing our natural gas usage. We took advantage of an $800 rebate from the gas utility, so our cash outlay was $400. The heater has already paid for itself.

Water is expensive in Atlanta, and we discovered two inexpensive retrofits that save water. The first is an oxygenated showerhead, which makes a trickle of water seem like a powerful jet—the water pressure is amazing. It uses 70 percent less water than a traditional showerhead. We purchased two of the Ultra Oxygenics model online from Gaiam.

We also replaced all three toilets in our house with dual-flush toilets. We had our original 1959 eight-gallon tank, water-guzzling toilets—which sometimes required two flushes. We picked the Rockton by Sterling. (Sterling is made by Kohler, but is a lot less expensive.) You can flush with 0.8 or 1.6 gallons. We hardly ever have to use the full flush. Another benefit is the flapperless design—it never leaks.

These two simple projects reduced our water usage by 80 percent, from 20 CCFs (1 CCF equals 100 cubic feet, or 748 gallons) a month to 4 CCFs, reducing our monthly bill by $148. We recouped our $660 investment in the two showerheads ($30 each) and the three toilets ($200 each) in four and a half months. Now we have an extra $1,776 in our bank account each year.

Energy Audit Reveals Leaks to Plug
Then we decided to pursue the next step in energy efficiency. Through our work on the Sustainability Committee and Earth Day festival at our church, Tim and I discovered Southface, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to providing energy-efficiency and green building services and resources. I learned that Southface would come to our home and conduct an energy audit, including a blower-door test to find leaks.

After walking through each room of my home, the Southface technicians attached a very large blower fan to my front door. All the seams were sealed and all the windows closed to create a “tight” house. With the blower on, it was obvious where the leaks in the house were. The five-page report I received contained pictures of the areas that needed addressing and instructions on what to do next.

Southface was extremely thorough and went through each of the hazards in my house. For example, the HVAC unit in my house vents through the chimney. The flue had fallen out of the chimney and was leaking carbon monoxide into the crawlspace. It was easy and inexpensive to hire a local service to seal up the leaks using GrateStuff spray foam in the attic and white caulk within the house, reattach the flue to the chimney, seal the opening, and add weather stripping to the crawlspace door.

We will address the report’s other recommendations as money and time allow. These include spraying foam insulation on the ceiling of the crawlspace, replacing our HVAC unit with a more efficient one, and replacing our manual thermostat with a programmable one. Now, we are looking at replacing our water-guzzling old dishwasher with a new Energy Star model!

Resources
Atlanta-based nonprofit Southface performed an energy audit at the Vandervers’ home.

Judith and Tim chose Sterling’s Rockton dual-flush toilet and a Noritz tankless water heater.

Ultra Oxygenics showerheads were purchased online from Gaiam.