Perhaps you would be interested in the article I wrote regarding energy conservation. Air leaks are the largest source of heating and cooling loss, resulting in increased energy costs. The same air leaks that cost us heat loss in the North can cost you cooling loss in the South. thanks, Mark D. Tyrol, P.E. Battic Door Attic Stair Covers PO Box 15 Mansfield, MA 02048-0015 tel. 508.320.9082 fax 508.339.4571 email: mark@batticdoor.com web: www.batticdoor.com Reduce Your Heating Bills This Winter - Overlooked Sources of Heat Loss in the Home, by Mark D. Tyrol, P.E., www.batticdoor.com - November 2004 Imagine leaving a window open all winter long the heat loss, cold drafts, and wasted energy! Well if your home has a folding attic stair, a fireplace, and/or a clothes dryer, that may be just what is occurring in your home! These often overlooked sources of heat loss and air leakage can cause your heat pour out and the cold outside air pour in costing you higher heating bills, causing cold drafts, and wasting energy. Air leaks are the largest source of heating and cooling loss in the home. Air leaks occur through the small cracks around doors, windows, pipes, etc. Homeowners are well aware of the benefits of applying caulk and weatherstripping to these areas to minimize heat loss and cold drafts. But what can you do about the three largest "holes" in your home the folding attic stair, the fireplace, and the clothes dryer? Here are some tips and techniques that can easily, quickly and inexpensively seal and insulate these holes. Attic Stairs: Do you have a folding attic stairway in your house? When attic stairs are installed, a large hole (approximately 10 square feet!) is created in your ceiling. The ceiling and insulation that were there have to be removed. And what is installed to cover this opening? A thin, unsealed, un-insulated sheet of plywood! Did you know that your attic space is ventilated directly to the outdoors? In the winter, the attic space can be very cold, and in the summer it can be very hot. And what is separating your conditioned house from your unconditioned attic? That thin sheet of plywood! Often a gap can be observed around the perimeter of the door. Try this yourself: at night when it is dark, turn on the attic light and shut the attic stairway door - do you see any light coming through? These are gaps - which add up to a large opening where your heated/cooled air leaks out 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year! This is like leaving a window open all year round! An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add an attic stair cover. An attic stair cover provides an air seal, reducing the air leaks. Add the desired amount of insulation over the cover to restore the insulation removed from the ceiling. Fireplaces: Approximately 100 million homes in North America are constructed with wood or gas burning fireplaces. Unfortunately there are negative side effects that the fireplace brings to a home especially during the winter home-heating season. Fireplaces are energy losers! Researchers have studied this to determine the amount of heat loss through a fireplace, and the results are amazing! One remarkable research study showed that an open damper on an unused fireplace in a well-insulated house can raise overall heating energy consumption by 30%! A recent study showed that for many consumers, their heating bills may be more than $500 higher per winter just due to the air leakage and wasted energy caused by fireplaces! Why Does a Home With a Fireplace Have Higher Heating Bills? Hot air rises! Your heated air leaks out any exit it can find, and when your warm heated air is drawn out of your home, cold outside air is drawn in to make up for it. The fireplace is like a giant straw - sucking the heated air from your house. This is like leaving a window open all year round! An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a fireplace draftstopper. A fireplace draftstopper is an inflatable pillow that seals the damper, eliminating any air leaks. The pillow removed whenever the fireplace is used, then reinserted after. Clothes Dryer Exhaust Ducts: Have you ever noticed that the room containing your clothes dryer is the coldest room in your house? Ever wonder why? Your clothes dryer is connected to an exhaust duct that is open to the outdoors. In the winter, cold air leaks in through the duct, through your dryer and into your house, while your heated air just pours right out! Dryer vents use a sheet metal flapper to try to reduce this air leakage. This is very primitive technology that does not provide a positive seal to stop the air leakage. Compounding the problem is that over time, lint clogs the flapper valve causing it to stay open. This is like leaving a window open all year round! An easy, low-cost solution to this problem is to add a dryer vent seal! A dryer vent seal will reduce unwanted air infiltration, and keep out pests, bees and rodents as well. The vent will remain closed unless the dryer is in use. When the dryer is in use, a floating shuttle rises to allow warm air, lint, and moisture to escape. If your home has a folding attic stair, a fireplace, and/or a clothes dryer, you can easily, quickly and inexpensively seal and insulate these holes. At Battic Door, we have developed low-cost, green solutions to these and other energy-conservation related issues. For more information please visit our website www.batticdoor.com or send a S.A.S.E. to P.O. Box 15, Mansfield, MA 02048.

We have a very mild climate in the bay area so energy efficiency is important but not usually the highest priority in my experience with most customers. Most any modern window will be more efficient than the single pane windows you have now, but quality is still important. The first question really is what kind of window material are you interested in. Wood/clad (most expensive but most attractive and design oriented), fiberglass (mid priced), vinyl (lowest price but limited color and design options). A good number of homes in the Saratoga area are higher end and use a wood clad window but I've still seen plenty of vinyl as well. I'd search for a local window/door dealer to replace them. Avoid home depot/lowes for windows and an installer/contractor would be best if the window dealer doesn't provide installation.

The glass should be the same if sold in the same region, but the sample might be incorrect. Ask the supplier. I wouldn't hesitate to use Marvin instead of Pella.

In doing my "due diligence" on the subject, I found that energy code requirements very much depend on region. One of my considerations is that I'm replacing only some of the windows in the house. I had a couple of replacements in the kitchen in 2001 by Renewal by Andersen with "low E", but I can't see any difference from colorless. They now offer as standard a darker coating, but I can still get the lighter coating at no additional cost. I'm also looking at Marvin Infinity and their standard is like Andersens. But now I've been told that there is a lighter coating and they are FedExing me a sample this week (a slightly higher price, but not much). They didn't have the sample in the showroom which surprised me, given that surely some of us would prefer it (I'm in the Mid-Atlantic on a shady lot) - especially as I've now told Marvin that the darker glass is a deal-killer (DH does not want it), even though Andersen's cost will be 1/3 higher than Marvin for essentially the same product. TexasGal, I've found out what the numbers mean. The first digit for you, "3" means three coatings, "2" is two and "1" is one coating, which is what I want. I've found a very good wonky website that you might like that supplements all the qualitative information you can find about these low E windows. You can input your region and get recommendations, and there are also fact sheets by state. Here is a link that might be useful: Window Selection Tool