Even a mild Oceanside winter can make a home uncomfortable if it's not properly insulated and sealed. That's what Mark and Jenny Zajac discovered after purchasing their 1970s split-level home last year.
"It was quite drafty and we had to use space heaters in our son's bedroom and in our home office," Jenny recalled. She said the summer was no better, reporting the house would get up to over 90 degrees.
When Michael and Jessica Wolf bought their 1911-built Craftsman home in the South Park area of San Diego, it came with the original furnace and a lot of air leakage. "The house was very drafty with air coming in through the windows and floors," recalls Michael.
To make the home more comfortable, the couple incorporated energy upgrades into their remodel plans. Improvements included new ducts, air sealing, attic and wall insulation and a tankless water heater. They also had dual-pane windows and ENERGY STAR appliances installed.
In 2010, Tony and Cindy bought a remodeled 25-year-old home in Spring Valley. They quickly discovered the temperatures in the home were inconsistent and uncomfortable. "Our house was really cold in the winter and it got really hot in the summer," says Cindy. They knew there was very little insulation in the attic, and a home energy assessment conducted last year revealed gaping holes in the ducts.
Beth and Paul's beautiful La Mesa home used to have one major problem. "The living room was unbearable in the summer," says Beth. "It felt like you could cook a chicken in there.” Their floor-to-ceiling, west-facing windows were partly to blame, but there was more to the story.
Is an 87-year-old home destined to be drafty? Shirley of North Park knows the answer is no. After enduring 13 chilly winters, she decided to make her living environment more comfortable.
“Inside this 1920s vintage house it was extremely cold in the winter and I had to wear heavy sweaters most of the time and use extra blankets,” Shirley recalls. "The bathroom was so cold that I would run a space heater in there before taking a shower.”
CSE's Clean Energy Financing Advisory Council (CEFAC) will present a panel of experts exploring the growing market for energy storage technologies in partnership with the San Francisco Department of the Environment from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at the San Francisco Main Public Library.
CSE’s Clean Energy Financing Advisory Council (CEFAC) is kicking off a two-year tour of California to increase awareness of financing programs and options that support home and commercial energy improvement projects throughout the state in an effort to help stimulate clean energy adoption.
Mayors of the 22 California cities competing in the CoolCalifornia Challenge, a contest to motivate and reward residents for reducing their carbon footprints and build more sustainable communities, are upping the stakes by producing videos rallying their residents to action.
