Old homes, new heat
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Building a new energy-efficient home these days provides a full slate of exciting options in design, construction and heating. The same is true of retrofitting existing homes, thanks to financial incentives from local utility companies.
The Orloskis of Whately upgraded their heating system, installed new insulation and Energy Star appliances and added on to their 1946 Cape Cod home. They participated in a new Major Renovations Program offered by Western Massachusetts Electric Co. and arranged by Nelson Shifflett of Valley Home Improvement.
The Clarks of Belchertown had lived in their small Federal-style house for a dozen years, dealing with a wet basement, no insulation, cramped rooms and heating only with a wood stove. Now they have a snug house with gas furnace, super insulation, Energy Star appliances and new storm windows through the Deep Energy Retrofit program of National Grid. Their contractor was Wright Builders of Northampton.
Both projects started with energy audits by the Center for Ecological Technology in Northampton. It was a CET technician who first mentioned the Deep Energy Retrofit program to Alexander Clark.
"We wanted one-floor living and the most energy-efficient house we could remodel or build," explained Fred Orloski. He and his wife, Karen, retired to Orloski's family home in January 2009 after years of living in Michigan. Rather than remodel the house in stages, they wanted to get it all done at one time, despite the inconvenience in their lives.
At a minimum they knew they needed a new heating system and they wanted to replace old clapboards with vinyl siding and get new windows and a roof. But they also wanted to remodel the house, upgrading the kitchen, and adding a sun room and a first-floor master bedroom. "Why side a house and then hire a contractor to rear it off and put on an addition?" Orloski wondered.
The Major Renovations Program offered by WMECO stipulates that at least 500 square feet has to be added to the existing house and high-grade insulation be blown into the walls. All appliances and work must meet federal Energy Star qualifications.
The Orloskis' house now has an additional 600 square feet, partly in the south-facing solarium or sun room, and the rest in the new master bedroom suite at the opposite end of the house.
Work began in November 2009 and is expected to be completed this month. "I got it all framed up before winter," Shifflett said. Orloski plans to do some finish work himself, including building a new deck off the new living room.
The first step was installing a new Buderus boiler in place of the old steam furnace. "I'm not always in a position to convince the homeowner to spend the extra money on a new heating system," Shifflett said. Most people doing additions aren't willing to invest in changing the heating system at the same time, he said.
The old furnace leaked heat so that the basement could be 80 degrees. Fred Orloski reported that the new system is so efficient he has used half the oil he needed last year. They have a new programmable thermostat, one of the WMECO requirements. Actually, they have three set-back thermostats for different zones all registering outside temperatures as well as inside.
Before Shifflett got involved, the Orloskis had already upgraded the old 60-amp electrical system to 200 amps and replaced the old plumbing which had worried them due to the water scare in Whately a few years ago when agricultural chemicals contaminated local wells.
One critical facet of the project was connecting the old garage to the house. There was almost always ice on the pathway in the wintertime. "Coming in with groceries was dangerous," said Karen Orloski.
She now has safe passage from her car into a beautiful new kitchen complete with upscale Energy Star appliances. The Bosch dishwasher is so quiet, her husband said, that the fan makes more noise. "The washer and dryer talk to each other," Fred Orloski said. "Does it fold, too?" asked Shifflett. No, but the GE Profile washer communicates to the dryer just how much moisture is left after the spin cycle so the dryer doesn't over-dry the clothes, Karen Orloski explained.
The original house had a small living room to the right of the front door and a large kitchen to the left. Now, the old kitchen is an expansive living room with newly sanded floor. Part of the old living room is a study and the rest is part of the new bedroom suite. The new kitchen has granite counters and a new tile floor. The refrigerator is a Samsung and there is a six-burner Thermador gas cooktop. The laundry is in the pantry near the garage door.
The Orloskis stayed in their home throughout the construction over the winter. "Fred and Karen were nice enough to move into a little corner of the house," Shifflett said. Nearing the end of the project this spring they were essentially living in the new solarium and kitchen. The oval sun room is unheated except for passive solar where the terra cotta floors absorb the sun's heat.
Insulation is a key part of the project. "We had wind coming in the windows and walls of the old house," Fred Orloski reported. With new super-efficient windows and siding that includes foam insulation, the rooms are much less drafty.
The Orloskis said they didn't undertake the massive project in order to sell the house. With aging in place in mind, they made sure the hallway was widened, levers replaced door knobs and paddle light-switches were included in the design.
"This is our fifth house," Fred Orloski said. "This is our long-term involvement. We plan on living here forever."
Retrofitting an antique
The Clarks in Belchertown had lived in their antique house for just over a dozen years when they decided to undertake a major upgrade. When they bought the story-and-a-half Federal house in 1997, it was in such bad condition they even got an estimate on tearing it down. They believed it was built in 1840 but later learned parts dated back to 1760. But they loved the style and decided to stay. "We did things in stages as we had the money to pay for it," said Irene Clark.
The first priority was a crumbling foundation wall and rotted sills.
"We spoke to people who didn't want to do the work," she recalled. It meant stooping in a crawl space that the contractor they hired dug into a full height basement. Still because of a slope on one side of the house the basement always had standing water. "It was a pond down here," she said.
Alex Clark said he worried over the years about the structure of the house. Although they replaced the roof, siding and windows about seven or eight years ago, more needed to be done. "The structure was deteriorating. There was mold in the house," he reported. "It was important to do it. It was time to do it," he said.
They had an energy audit by CET during which the technician mentioned the new Deep Energy Retrofit program through National Grid. Alex Clark immediately investigated and decided to apply for one of the 10 slots available in 2009.
The goal of the DER program is to reduce energy costs in the house by 70 to 90 percent. Because the house was totally uninsulated, it leaked heat to the extent that the Clarks used four cords of wood in their soapstone kitchen stove just to heat the downstairs. "We would just live around the wood stove," Irene Clark said. "Now we've gained use of the whole house."
"It's possible to breathe new life into old houses and retrofit these homes without a cookie-cutter approach," said Roger Cooney, vice president for design and estimating at Wright Builders.
The first step was eliminating the basement water problem. Drainage pipes were installed under the old dirt floor covered by 4 inches of gravel, rigid foam insulation, a vapor barrier and a cement slab floor. Then closed-cell soy-based foam insulation was applied. That was covered with fire-retardant paint. Similar insulation was used in the walls upstairs.
The old basement beams were really sawn logs and the contractor "sistered" them, pairing the originals with modern lumber.
The entire house had to be gutted and the Clarks moved out from August of last year until the end of January this year, renting a vacant apartment from a neighbor.
"They rebuilt the entire inner structure. They had to get everything down to the studs," Alex Clark said.
The DER program requires such dense insulation that either walls had to be removed from the outside or new interior walls constructed. Since they had so recently put on new siding, it made sense to insulate on the inside. There are 5 inches of foam in the new walls and the window sills are extra deep, making them perfect for growing plants.
Super-insulation means a minimum of R-10 for foundation walls, R-19 for above-ground walls and R-38 in the attic, explained Cooney. Traditional insulation has a rating of perhaps R-6.
The original first floor consisted of four small rooms, including the kitchen with the wood stove, and a bathroom fitted into a hallway. The new design features an open plan for the living room, kitchen and eating area with a separate sitting room and an entirely new bathroom complete with laundry.
This is the first time they have had a washer and dryer, Energy Star Electrolux models. The old house simply had no room so they lugged their laundry uptown to the Laundromat, a real inconvenience since the Clarks have no car. They travel strictly by bus or bicycle.
"We wanted the project done in a sustainable and responsible way," Alex Clark said. Initially he had hoped to achieve net-zero energy consumption with a photovoltaic solar system but it proved to be too expensive. He said he may install solar panels later.
The new kitchen has Energy Star Frigidaire appliances, Cambria quartz countertops, a "green" Marmoleum floor over cork and plenty of light. The dining area boasts a large table and a corner hutch.
The project was nerve-wracking in some ways because it was "a leap of faith" that the Clarks would be accepted in the pilot DER program. First, National Grid sent out a team from Building Science Corp. in Somerville to be engineering consultants and review plans and specifications, Cooney said. "They have quite a brain trust in Somerville," he added.
"The application process was extensive and there was anxiety whether it would be approved," Alex Clark said. In addition, they had to move out for six months, a major inconvenience.
The Clarks paid the contractors and then submitted invoices to National Grid, which reimbursed them for part of the work.
"It exceeded my expectations," he concluded. "Some of it is just fabulous."
