Everything You Need to Know About Retrofitting Your Home For Energy Efficiency

By Mark Soto

November 04, 2024

Retrofitting your home for energy efficiency can save you significant amounts of money on your energy bills. Simple tasks — like installing weatherstripping and cleaning your ducts — can be the first step to improving energy performance.

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You can also take things up a level and do deep energy retrofitting to see huge changes in the energy efficiency around the house and lower your bills by big percentages.

What Is An Energy Efficiency Retrofit?

An energy efficiency retrofit is the process of making your home more energy efficient by doing projects and upgrades around the house or building. Energy efficiency retrofitting can result in lower bills and make all areas more comfortable to stay in.

Deep Energy Retrofitting

Deep energy retrofitting involves making extensive changes to a property with the goal of reducing your energy usage by at least 40%. The difference between regular and deep retrofitting is typically the scale of the projects you take on to improve energy efficiency. While deep energy retrofitting projects are often more complicated, longer and costly, the vast changes in energy savings can lead to more significant cost savings.

Home Energy Efficiency Retrofitting Projects

Insulation

If you have damaged or old, worn-out insulation, installing new insulation can provide major benefits. Install insulation with a high R-value, which represents the material’s ability to stop heat from entering or leaving. Add it to your floors, walls, attic, basement and any area that needs it. This task is best left to a professional contractor to ensure it gets installed correctly and works as expected. It can be considered a deep energy efficiency retrofit, assuming you’re installing it around the entire house in all areas of need.

HVAC

If you’re using an older-style HVAC system like a furnace or a typical central air conditioning system, you may not be getting the most efficiency. One of the best energy-efficiency retrofit projects you can do is install a new HVAC system known as an air source heat pump. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, these systems can deliver three times more energy to a home than what they consume, and you can see savings of $459 compared to electrical systems and $948 compared to oil furnaces. Their major energy savings put them in the deep energy retrofit category.

Weatherstripping

Weatherstripping is the process of sealing gaps in the windows or doors to prevent air leaks. This can be done by caulking around the windows or installing felt or foam around the corners. You can also add a door sweep to the bottom of your door to prevent drafts, dirt and other debris from entering the area. This is a regular energy efficiency retrofit, but small tasks like these can quickly deliver results when it comes to energy savings.

Windows and Doors

Apart from weatherstripping your windows and doors, you can take it a step further and completely replace them with more energy-efficient alternatives. Installing windows with low-emissivity (low-E) glass can significantly reduce your cooling costs since they reflect the UV rays from the sun. Windows with multiple panels, like double or triple-pane windows, offer better insulation.

Composite, vinyl, fiberglass and steel doors are considered the most energy-efficient, so you may want to consider replacing an exterior or storm door with one of these options. Make sure that your new windows and doors have the ENERGY Star label since that’s one of the ways the government classifies materials as energy efficient.

Ventilation Upgrades

Improving the ventilation in your house can also reduce energy costs. Improve the air ventilation by speaking with a roofer and ensuring your roof has enough air vents. You can also get your ducts cleaned to see minor improvements. Since dirt, dust and other debris will start to clog them, getting them inspected and cleaned can ensure that there is no blockage in the system, leading to improved airflow and less work for your HVAC system.

You can also install a heat recovery ventilator, which replaces the indoor air with outside air while keeping the heat from the air that leaves and using it for the air that comes in. This can help keep your home warm in the winter and reduce heating costs.

Roof

Replacing your existing roof with premium asphalt shingles that offer solar reflective properties or even switching to materials like metal can improve energy efficiency. With the cost and time required for a roof replacement, this deep energy retrofit project isn’t cheap but can have a big impact. You can even consider using solar shingles, although those may or may not be suitable based on where you live. Solar panels over your asphalt shingles might be a better alternative.

Roofing materials like metal and asphalt shingles with high-quality granules offer solar reflective capabilities that prevent heat transfer. This keeps your roof and home from becoming too hot when it’s sunny outside and reduces the work required from your air conditioning system. Apart from better energy efficiency, these roofs also have a longer lifespan since they aren’t worn down as easily by UV rays, and their regulated temperatures mean less expansion and contractors on the material, which can cause them to crack.

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What Are the Benefits of Deep Energy Retrofits?

The main benefit of deep energy retrofits is the huge energy cost reductions. If you can make your home significantly more efficient by percentages of 50% to 60% with deep energy efficiency retrofits, this translates to huge savings. Of course, you don’t always have to go the full way, and regular energy efficiency retrofitting can still increase efficiency by 10% to 25%, reducing monthly energy costs.

While lower costs are the primary benefit of deep energy efficiency retrofitting, they sure aren’t the only one. The added comfort should also motivate you to take these tasks into consideration. Work like air sealing the windows and doors and adding insulation to different areas can mean the difference between not being too cold in the winter and not being too warm in the summer. It also ensures that all areas of your home are comfortable for your family, whether it’s upstairs or downstairs. Insulation can also act as a soundproof barrier, reducing the outside noise.

You can also unknowingly receive some health benefits from retrofitting. Improving the ventilation in your attic and other parts of your home allows fresh air to be ventilated throughout the house. Ventilation is also essential to prevent pesky mold and mildew from growing, which can cause all sorts of health effects on certain people. Cleaning out your ducts and filtering out dust particles from the air ensures you breathe cleaner air.

If you plan on selling your home soon, you can easily increase its value by making it more efficient. New HVAC systems and roofs also tend to require less maintenance and longer lifespans. Reduced utility bills, system upgrades and more comfort for guests can be quite a selling point for homeowners.

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