New digital forms have been uploaded

Just in case you have stumbled here before Ray sends an email out, the latest versions of the digital job books have been uploaded to the Intelligent Weatherization forms page.

Incidental Repair Costs
The most significant change to the work orders are the new way incidental costs are treated.  There are now incidental cost spending limits specific to each activity based on how cost effective that conservation measure is.  The more cost effective the activity is, the more that can be spent on incidental costs associated with performing that activity.  But don't forget, the $500 total incidental cost limit still applies!

For example, there is a 1000 sqft attic with no insulation, but it has some water coming in around the roof's chimney penetration.  Just to throw a number out there, lets assume there is $900 worth of insulation that you want added to the attic.  Based on the spending limits, you could spend up to $1,377 on incidental repairs before the attic insulation is no longer cost effective.  However, you cannot spend that full amount, because the $500 total incidental cost limit applies for the entire job!  Don't overspend!

Likewise, there is a small addition on the back of the house that has a water heater vent going through the roof.  There happens to be a roof leak around the water heater vent's roof jack.  You'd like to insulate the little uninsulated addition's attic.  But you can't unless that roof leak is fixed!  The addition is only 150 sqft.  It would cost $135 to insulate just that back attic.  Which means you could spend up to $206 repairing that leaky water heater vent.

If there is an activity that doesn't have a spending limit (insulating a mobile home belly, installing insider storm windows, or minor air sealing), that means there can be no incidental repairs associated with those activities.

ASHRAE 62.2
There was also a couple small changes on the 62.2 calculation tool.  The chart was tweaked to show 10 cfm increments instead of 20 cfm.  The other change was in the guidance for combustion air.  The 62.2 tool was never meant to be the means that combustion air was calculated.  But the math was already there for the ventilation sizing, so it made some sense to mention if the house was above or below .4 ACH. 

Just because a house is tighter than .4 ACH doesn't mean there isn't enough combustion air.  There are other methods of determining how much combustion air is needed based on the known infiltration rate of the house and the btus of the appliances.  The form is now more specific in letting the user know if the house is below .4 ACH, that further investigation is needed to determine if there is sufficient combustion air for the appliances, just as it always has been.

Maine is doing it, are you?

The house the auditor describes could be located in the sandy soils of northwest Indiana.  The part that caught my eye was this:

A little background: the low income weatherization program insulates and weatherizes homes of folks who qualify for heating assistance. MSHA evaluates the houses and tackles the “worst” ones using highest BTUs per square foot per heating degree day as criteria. Then they apply their limited budget to insulating and weatherizing the building.

It is always encouraging to see actual energy consumption as a part of the auditing and overall weatherization process.  Maine is doing it, are you?

Wx's long tradition of cheap & good enough diagnostics

Back in my old BSU days Dr. Hill made great efforts to get as many diagnostic tools into our hands as possible.  It was always fun to use a DIY tool.  The all time greatest DIY tool is the cardboard stack effect box.  It is about the only good use for a 150 W bulb!  Take a tall cardboard box with a light fixture at the bottom.  Give it a few minutes to heat the air in the box up, and with a little chemical smoke and some smallish holes at the top and bottom, you can clearly see the air moving into the box's 'foundation' and out the box's 'roof'! 

In a pinch a well taped cardboard box will work as a pressure pan.  Cut a hole in the cardboard pressure pan and now you've got an exhaust flow hood.  Then there is the calibrated air flow gauge.  Also known as a trash bag.  It is good to hear ACI can call back to some of its earlier, less refined roots!

There are approximately 1.7 cubic feet in 13 gallons.  So if you have an exhaust fan moving 30 cfm of air, it would take about three and a half seconds for a 13 gallon trash bag full of air to be completely empty if that fan were moving 30 cfm of air.  While the volume of the bag is well known, it must be full of air or the accuracy is reduced.  Another source of error is the timing of how long it takes to suck (or inflate) the bag.  The more air the fan is moving, the less time there is to measure. 

So if you happen to forget your TEC exhaust fan flow hood, ask for a large trash bag and a metal coat hanger if you are in a pinch.  Or, if you've got rooms with comfort issues, see how long it takes to fill the trash bag up.  That can give you a good feel for how many cfm the duct is delivering. 



New Site Built and Mobile Home Priority lists - Incidental Repairs!

If you haven't heard from IHCDA already, DOE has approved a new method of determining how much can be spent on incidental repairs associated with energy conservation activities.  I won't go into the details much, as IHCDA is taking the lead on that front.  Just ask Ray to explain how it works.  I do want everyone to know that the new hard copy versions of the work orders have been on the Intelligent Weatherization site for a short while. 

Updated versions of the digital job books should follow, but not in the immediate future.  Between Add a Hole field training, University of Illinois ventilation research and other field trainings, it is looking like it would be the end of the month at the very earliest before any of those are updated.  Speaking of the Add a Hole training, there is a new line in the pressure diagnostics page of the site built work order form where zonal cfm leakage rates can be documented.  Before the new work orders are integrated into the digital job books, there are other electronic forms that are due for some user interface changes.  Tom Andrews is doing an excellent job of beta testing these electronic versions of the forms and finding some bugs and UI tweaks that could be made.  Be on the lookout for some updates to the 62.2 spreadsheet...