Quick post here regarding the difference between comfort and efficiency. To get an idea of what I mean let me show a silly example. A homeowner, Joe, calls his Hvac (heating and cooling) contractor and explains that the cost of heating his home is ridiculous and asks for help. A comfort consultant is scheduled to meet with the Joe. After inspecting the home the consultant proudly smiles and says he can save the homeowner a decent amount of money. Joe starts grinning and says great how?
The answer is easy ” just turn your stat down to 58 degrees”.
Dumb story right? But it does explain that efficiency and comfort are not linked at the hip. Efficiency relates to two things: Load and Delivered efficiency of the fuel to heat/cool the load. Comfort deals with how that fuel is distributed thoughout the home.
The standard for efficiency has quickly become the Energy Star rating. While I think Energy star is a fantastic program it doesnt guarantee everything that might be implied. Energy Star does a fantastic job dealing with “load”. Load deals with anything that increases the cost of heating or cooling which I will touch on in later posts. It also regulates the design efficiency of the equipment installed but it doesnt regulate how well that equipment is installed. Poorly installed equipment will never come close to rated efficiency. Energy Star does not have a provision for catching this. Comfort deals with how well an entire system is designed and installed. Designing a system correctly takes a considerable amount of training and practice, I just designed a house in Munster In that took about four hours. I will explain more of that in later posts.
Once again I love Energy Star but I don’t believe that a rated home is perfect.
