Top Home and Garden Services in Sterling, VA 20164
Recent Reviews View all
TruGreen
By sandrajohnston531 October 18, 2017
Lawn is looking better but still a few weeds. Andre is professional, courteous, and knowledgeable. . Satisfied. ...read more
TruGreen
By colinmaynes801 September 28, 2017
The man that does our yard continually goes over and above the standard service treatments.. Maximum Effort. ...read more
TruGreen
By peterjaworski20 September 21, 2017
The technician was very competent and knowledgeable. And the treatments are effective and safe. Highly Recommend.. ...read more
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The Economic Return of Insulation
While most home owners think of their home as a place to shelter their families and to create great memories it can also be considered the biggest investment in their portfolio. This is important to consider when contemplating making an investment in home improvements. Home improvements come in the form of replacements and repairs to mechanicals or other components that break down or become obsolete, expansions that provide for more space or changes the purpose of a space, remodels that change the function and appearance of a space or retrofits that make a home more comfortable and energy efficient. I want to make the case for which of these home improvements lead to a financial return on the money you invest. A return on investment is created when the financial outlay for your home improvement generates some form of a cash return. Cash return is created when the improvement reduces your operating costs, or increases the value of your home so that when you sell it you more than make up for your investment. The list of investments that reduce your operating cost is pretty slim. The only group of home improvements that lowers your operating costs are those that reduce your energy consumption. This includes improving your insulation, replacement doors and windows, re-lamping projects, replacing appliances or mechanical systems including HVAC systems and hot water heaters. Somewhere between 45% and 65% of the energy consumption in your home is spent on conditioning the air for comfort. Either Heating in the winter, or cooling in the summer. 15% or so of your energy is spent making hot water. An even smaller portion of the energy load is spent on appliances. Energy spent on lighting and other electronic devises is also relatively unimportant compared with the portion allocated to heating and cooling. There are two methods to reduce the amount of energy spent on heating and cooling: Replacing your mechanical system or improving your houses Thermal Envelope by improving insulation or by installing replacement windows and doors. The analysis shows that among these, improving your homes insulation provides the greatest payback. Remodeling Magazine does a study every year that gathers national data on the cost versus value of a variety of remodeling projects. The 2016 Cost versus Value report evaluates the average cost of making an improvement versus the return of that investment upon sale of improved properties. 30 categories of improvements were studied. Any number greater than 100% means you get your investment back plus some additional. Any number less than 100% means you are not getting the money you invested back. Consider this a “Bang for your Buck Meter”. The bigger the number, the bigger the bang for your buck. The only project that yielded a value that exceeded the cost of installation was improving your insulation. Nationally, this home improvement project yielded a 116% return on initial investment. Wow, that is a lot! Following insulation improvement were other replacement projects including: Replacement Windows 73%, Replacement Doors 82% Replacement Siding with Foam Backing 68%. It is clear that Insulation improvement is the best improvement. It is interesting to note how small most of the projects touted by HGTV and the like are. Look how little the payback is on these improvements: · Major Kitchen Remodel: 65% · Basement Remodel: 70% · Deck Addition: 58% · Bathroom Addition: 57% Journal of Appraisers did a study of “The Value of Energy Upgrades” on appraised values of residential properties. In this study, the values of comparable homes was evaluated in comparison to the energy consumption of the property. Imagine two homes in the same neighborhood, with the same square footage and similar fits and finishes. The homes that consumed less energy were sold for higher values. Specifically, they found that for every dollar of savings in energy consumption, the house increased in value by $21.50. So if you were saving $1,000 per year in energy bills, your home would be worth $21,500 more. National Association of Home Builders recently concluded a study that shows that the drivers behind these trends are going to continue into the future. The 2016 study of features desired by current home buyers indicated a whopping 80% of respondents desired high level of insulation as a feature they want in their new homes. Supply and Demand drive price, so if you have what people want (increased levels of thermal protection) and you are among the few that have it you can conclude that the price of your property will increase. The studies are varied and published in a variety of journals. The conclusion is consistent. Today’s home buyers want energy efficiency. If you modify your house (aka major investment) with improved insulation you will generate a return on your investment while benefitting from increased levels of comfort and decrease operations costs. It is one of the only home improvements you can make that will generate this financial performance. Comfenergy can help you work through some of the details of determining what a return on investment can look like for your home. Call for an evaluation today 800-604-2252. ...read more
By Comfenergy June 24, 2016
Radiant Barriers - The case for making them work
Radiant Barriers can be an important component of an attic retrofit designed to reduce the temperature in hot rooms during the summer. There are three ways that energy transfers from a hot attic to a room that you would like to keep cool. Convection, Conduction and Radiation. Radiant barriers address the third of these energy transfer methods. I will lay out the case for how to retrofit an attic to make rooms below it cooler, and show where radiant Barriers fit into that strategy. When retrofitting your home for increased comfort and decreased energy consumption, focusing on improvements in the attic is your number one priority. Without going into a great deal of detail this results from the “Stack Effect”, temperature and pressure differentials that are always the highest on this plane of your property. Perfecting the air barrier between your unconditioned attic and conditioned rooms below is priority number one. This reduces transfer of energy through Convection, or direct air transfer between conditioned and unconditioned space. Priority number two is to address Convection by increasing the amount of insulation to reduce molecule to molecule transfer of energy between the conditioned and unconditioned space. In our region, we recommend insulating to R60 levels of thermal performance when designing a traditional attic. In order to reduce “Heat Flux” during summer from the attic to the conditioned rooms below you also need to address the thermal gain caused by Radiant Energy. Radiant Energy is transferred through space. Think wave lengths of light that hit a surface heating it to intense temperatures. During the heat of Northern Virginia Summers, radiant energy heats roof decks to temperatures in excess of 145 degrees on the top to 130 degrees on the bottom. This is a large part of the reason that the temperatures in your attic can rise to 130 degrees during a summer day. Studies have shown that radiant barriers can deflect some of this thermal energy back through the roof deck. In a study done by the Berkley National Laboratories, peak attic temperatures were reduced from 125.7 degrees F to 104.3 degrees F when radiant barriers were deployed. This 21 degree reduction in temperature reduces the load or potential for heat to transfer from the attic to the rooms below. Consider that insulation has an R value that represents the “Resistance to Heat Transfer”. The greater the Heat Differential the greater the work that needs to be done by the insulation. By “Bouncing” the radiant energy back into the atmosphere, and reducing the heat in the attic, you make the other insulating systems more effective. This factor is particularly important when the attic has duct work contained within the space. Insulated ductwork generally carries an R value of 8 or less. The radiant energy heats the air in these ducts up to an extreme temperature, causing the Air Conditioner to have to work to overcome this temperature rise. A study done by Hagman and Modera in 1996 on the effects of radiant barriers found that they decrease the amount of time that HVAC systems have to work to overcome this heat gain by up to 30% in these circumstances. Radiant Barriers are manage heat gain in attics during the summer in Northern Virginia. They are an important component when attempting to cool down rooms that are too hot during the summer. If you have a home that suffers during the summer with rooms that are too hot, call Comfenergy for a free consultation on how to make your home more comfortable. ...read more
By Comfenergy June 24, 2016
Radiant Barriers - The case for making them work
Radiant Barriers can be an important component of an attic retrofit designed to reduce the temperature in hot rooms during the summer. There are three ways that energy transfers from a hot attic to a room that you would like to keep cool. Convection, Conduction and Radiation. Radiant barriers address the third of these energy transfer methods. I will lay out the case for how to retrofit an attic to make rooms below it cooler, and show where radiant Barriers fit into that strategy. When retrofitting your home for increased comfort and decreased energy consumption, focusing on improvements in the attic is your number one priority. Without going into a great deal of detail this results from the “Stack Effect”, temperature and pressure differentials that are always the highest on this plane of your property. Perfecting the air barrier between your unconditioned attic and conditioned rooms below is priority number one. This reduces transfer of energy through Convection, or direct air transfer between conditioned and unconditioned space. Priority number two is to address Convection by increasing the amount of insulation to reduce molecule to molecule transfer of energy between the conditioned and unconditioned space. In our region, we recommend insulating to R60 levels of thermal performance when designing a traditional attic. In order to reduce “Heat Flux” during summer from the attic to the conditioned rooms below you also need to address the thermal gain caused by Radiant Energy. Radiant Energy is transferred through space. Think wave lengths of light that hit a surface heating it to intense temperatures. During the heat of Northern Virginia Summers, radiant energy heats roof decks to temperatures in excess of 145 degrees on the top to 130 degrees on the bottom. This is a large part of the reason that the temperatures in your attic can rise to 130 degrees during a summer day. Studies have shown that radiant barriers can deflect some of this thermal energy back through the roof deck. In a study done by the Berkley National Laboratories, peak attic temperatures were reduced from 125.7 degrees F to 104.3 degrees F when radiant barriers were deployed. This 21 degree reduction in temperature reduces the load or potential for heat to transfer from the attic to the rooms below. Consider that insulation has an R value that represents the “Resistance to Heat Transfer”. The greater the Heat Differential the greater the work that needs to be done by the insulation. By “Bouncing” the radiant energy back into the atmosphere, and reducing the heat in the attic, you make the other insulating systems more effective. This factor is particularly important when the attic has duct work contained within the space. Insulated ductwork generally carries an R value of 8 or less. The radiant energy heats the air in these ducts up to an extreme temperature, causing the Air Conditioner to have to work to overcome this temperature rise. A study done by Hagman and Modera in 1996 on the effects of radiant barriers found that they decrease the amount of time that HVAC systems have to work to overcome this heat gain by up to 30% in these circumstances. Radiant Barriers are manage heat gain in attics during the summer in Northern Virginia. They are an important component when attempting to cool down rooms that are too hot during the summer. If you have a home that suffers during the summer with rooms that are too hot, call Comfenergy for a free consultation on how to make your home more comfortable. ...read more
By Comfenergy June 24, 2016