"Like Italy in the 1960s", HVAC contractors have no idea how to build to California's Energy Code.

A lovely guest house in the country. Brand new, white, gleaming and beautiful. The owner is British. I tested the performance of her new HVAC system. It failed three HERS tests.

I explained to her each of the tests and why the system failed. The ducts leaked too much air. The system did not move enough air for the size of the air conditioner. Why? The return ducts are either too few or too small. The MERV 8 filter installed is restricting air flow so it should be bigger or perhaps there should be two of them. The 2017, airtight, well insulated 1500 square foot house with low e, argon dual pane windows doesn't take much to heat or cool. How did it end up with a 3 ton AC and restricted, leaky ducts?

The homeowner told me that it was "like Italy in the 1960s." A top-heavy bureaucracy well insulated from those doing the actual work or needing to get things done. The individual people are often brilliant, but people are not working together. Some were also incompetent.

We have a real problem in the SF Bay area with HVAC contractors installing air conditioning systems without following the CA energy code's "Mandatory Measures", nor CalGreen. Every day I test new systems that have not been sized and designed as per code requirements. This yields systems that use more energy and provide less comfort. This has a real effect on energy use in the SF Bay Area. These improperly designed system can last 30 years or more and will waste energy daily 'til near 2050 when they will fail.

California Title 24 Energy experts say that 1% of residential HVAC systems are properly calculated for sizing and have their ducts designed per the specs in Title 24. Only 10% get permitted and tested.

Of course, the Energy Commission did not make up these design specs. They use the Air Conditioner Contractor's of America Manual J, Manual D and Manual S sizing, duct and register grill design specifications.

Sadly, there is no continuing education from the Contractors State License Board for HVAC contractors. Hence, they have no idea of what is in the California Energy Code or how to build comfort system that conform to it.

We are now in the 2016 energy code. Builders and HVAC contractors are nowhere near understanding what is in the current code or how to meet it. At the same time we are nearly 2 years away from the 2020 energy code when new buildings will be "Zero Net Energy", meaning that houses will generate as much energy in a year as they use in a year. We have a lot of work to do to educate the building industry workforce in order to get up to speed with upcoming code changes.

Let's fix this problem.  Just like engineers design our building so they stand up to earthquakes via code required structural design, let's have our HVAC systems engineered per our energy code. We need to require building department design review first, before permitting these long lasting, energy using systems to get built.

CSLB and California local Building Departments, please get up to speed educating the building industry workforce and enforcing the energy code.

George Matthews, owner
Building Energy Compliance Testing
Serving the San Francisco Bay Area

Why get a professional load calculation and duct design for your new air conditioning system?

At Building Energy Compliance Testing I’ve been testing HVAC systems in the Bay Area since July 2014. In that time, I’ve tested hundreds of heating and air conditioning systems that don’t comply with code. The problem? They were guessed together using outdated rules of thumb. I commonly see furnaces and air conditioners that are 200 or 300% of the size they need to be. The ducts usually have return ducts and filter grills that are puny compared to what engineered systems call out and wildly undersized according to what the California Energy Commission states in title 24, part 6. None of these systems are designed to get the exact amount of air to each room according to what the room needs to stay comfortable. They don’t provide comfort, economy and clean interior air.

The problem. When you have a big furnace or air conditioner with a small return duct system you get low airflow with a lot of heat or cooling. This causes short cycling, the systems comes on and then turns off shortly thereafter because all that conditioned air satisfied the thermostat. Meanwhile, there is no air circulation or air filtration. Often the farthest rooms stay uncomfortable. This tends to make people in the house uncomfortable and unhappy about the expensive system they just installed. It also does not make for the lowest energy bills or long system lifespan. The home owner who just spent $7,000 or more on what they assume is a state of the art system has a bunch of equipment that is not optimized for they home and they are stuck with it.

What the code requires
California’s energy code and Calgreen, the green part of the code, require manual J, Manual D and Manual T system design. LEED and Build It Green’s Green Point Rating also require that Calgreen be adhered to. These above code, green building documentation systems also give points for such HVAC design. Cities such as Palo Alto and Santa Monica also call out, again, on the plans, that approved HVAC system design shall happen. On a typical set of plans for an addition or remodel, system design might be called out three times. These plans are signed by the architect, builder and homeowner. Still, California energy experts state that 99% of HVAC systems in homes in California do not get designed according to accepted engineering protocols.

Problems with guessed-together systems
Inadequate  air flow from small return duct.
Short cycling
small, quickly clogged air filters that strangle air flow
furnace/air handlers with old style, low efficiency motors
Lack of dampers on ducts to control airflow room by room.
Register grills that don’t direct air where it belongs
Outdated register placement the contractor’s Grand Dad brought from the east coast in 1947.
Wrong filters, hampering airflow or allowing contaminants in the home’s air.
Lack of air duct mastic on joints, leaking conditioned air, wasting energy and allowing in contaminants.
Long duct runs causing excessive static pressure in the system.
Rooms that don’t heat/cool because the door gets closed for privacy.
Register/duct placement where it does not need to go or lacking where it should.

I seem some combination of the above problems every day. We know how to avoid them all. When you eliminate these problems and incorporate proven energy design, you end up with systems that keep homes comfortable, quiet, energy efficient and provide superior air quality.

Further, when a system is designed using state-of-the-art design and built with advanced equipment and assembled professionally with ducts sealed tight with mastic at every connection and then commissioned so that every performance test is passed, you get systems that really perform.

What Design protocol is acceptable? There are a variety of ways to achieve Manual J Load calculations, Manual D duct design and Manual T air grill design. Energy experts tend to agree that Wrightsoft Universal software is the gold standard design software. This company in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the leader in HVAC design software. We at BECT use Wrightsoft and love it. The software is a joy to use, the company has outstanding support help and it is committed to educating its users how to use the product. They have scores of videos on how to use every facet of the software from homes to multistory commercial buildings.

At BECT we can take your home plans and design a custom home comfort system that incorporates our knowledge of ducted air systems and home energy efficiency to bring comfort and value.

Hiring BECT to do load calcs and duct design can save you money. Often times, a contractor will “rule of thumb” a system at 4 tons of air conditioning. When we calculate the plan of the house, room by room, including how much insulation is in the walls, ceiling and floor, window type and how the house is oriented, we have, a number of times, come up with around 2 ton as the proper size. Two tons of AC cost less than four. Money saved.

We’ve seen some houses where a contractor wants to install two systems. While this is usually best for 2 story houses, we’ve seen cases where, upon calculation of sizing, a single system can suffice,  saving capital costs.

Need a closet? Sometimes a family needs more space for coats, hats and the vacuum cleaner. We sometimes get clients a new closet by moving the furnace into the attic or garage as part of the new design. The added space makes it easier to get access to the new system so the contractor can assure that the plenums and duct start collars are accessible so they can be sealed properly. This adds value to your home.

Allergies or respiratory health issues?
Sometimes a respiratory ailment is not from disease but from the environment. The environment we live in today is inside houses and office buildings. All the air in buildings moves through HVAC systems. Is your interior environment designed to keep contaminants out and make the air clean?

Planned, well-thought-out, engineered systems always work better than those hastily thrown-together. If you want comfort and economy with long term performance, load calcs and duct design are something a homeowner wants to incorporate into their strategy.

At BECT, we have decades of experience in energy efficiency in buildings.

www.bect.us

Letter to the California Energy Commission 5.19.17

Dear California Energy Commission,

I’d like to let you know about some failures in the energy code system as I see it in the field as a HERS rater testing alterations of existing houses and new houses.

I work from Silicon Valley to the Wine Country, up and down the Peninsula and in the East Bay Area. I am usually in two or three houses per day. I’ve owned Building Energy Compliance Testing, www.bect.us since June 2014.

What I see is that the only time a house gets HERS tested is when it is new construction, there is an addition or major remodel and it includes a new furnace and ducts. If a homeowner just gets a new HVAC system, it rarely gets permitted and tested. I’ve spoken to other HERS raters and energy consultants, we all suspect that only about 5% of new or altered HVAC systems in California get HERS tested.

Every time I go to a job and meet an HVAC contractor I ask them how they sized this system. They almost always answer, “Square feet.” When I dig deeper into it, they often tell me that the rule is 500 square feet per ton of air conditioning.  Often times, they tell me that the guy at the supply house told them what size to buy. I tell them that the state of California requires ACCA Manual J, D and S calculations. I have one client who I know uses Wrightsoft calcs on every job.

This lack of design before construction causes real problems. I often see 5 ton AC systems on smaller houses in fog banks. Contractors usually fail airflow tests because they wildly undersize cold air returns. This makes the testing process a burden to both the homeowner who can’t get the job “finalled” and has to pay for multiple HERS tests. These big AC systems contribute to peak electric loads, uncomfortable houses and high energy bills.

The problem is with the building department when a job is permitted. When one submits plans for an addition or new construction job to a building department they require structural engineering. What they don’t do is require the engineering on the HVAC system even though the builder or owner signs off on Calgreen and the T24 report and mandatory measures.  Calgreen includes 4.507.2, stating that heating and AC systems shall be sized, designed using ACCA Manual J, D and S.

There is a real disconnect here that needs to be addressed by the CEC, Building Departments and the Contractors State License Board. I’d like to get the heads of these departments in a conference room and have them figure out a way to get energy code compliance above 5% and closer to the majority of jobs.

While I love the fact that the CEC is taking us to Zero Net Energy buildings by 2020, I find it absurd that 95% of current HVAC jobs are not achieving the 2016, 2013 or any other year of the code. HVAC contractors could be the champions of building an energy efficient economy in California. However, what I see is that the vast majority of them are actually outlaws or skofflaws, ignoring codes and evading local building authorities.

Aside from energy codes, these contractors are making electrical and gas connections as well as installing flues to hopefully rid houses of poisonous combustion gasses. These three things are all able to kill people and deserve to have another set of eyes on them. Deaths from carbon monoxide are not a rare occurrence.  

While I am on the job inspecting and testing HVAC systems I look at the insulation installation. Generally, attics are poorly insulated and general & roofing contractors do not use radiant barriers. When this bad combo exists in the attic, homeowners buy air conditioning systems, (even in the foggy Bay Area). We in the energy efficiency industry should be helping building owners install these systems so as not to need compressor cooling and the energy it takes in late in the afternoon at peak load.

Attic hatches are not sealed or insulated in most Bay Area houses. In about the last 90 attics I’ve climbed into, I’ve found 3 that actually have attic hatches that are air sealed and insulated. Insulation contractors just don’t do this. I suspect that since there is no HERS attic hatch inspection no one else cares. In my experience, City building inspectors pass any insulation installation no matter how poorly installed or how many gaps there are around boxes or can lights. Q: When is an R-39 attic actually an R-33.85 attic? A: When the attic hatch is unsealed and uninsulated.

Here is what I’d like to see,

·         Get the majority of HVAC contractors to have their work inspected and HERS tested.

·         Make contractors responsible for 4.507.2, sizing HVAC systems before they build them.

·         Have insulation installations inspected and enforce proper installation.

·         Have attic hatches inspected for air sealing and insulation.

·         Require HVAC contractors get continuing education in the energy code.

I know this is a lot to ask but I request that you coordinate and work with other state agencies like the CSLB and organizations of local building officials to actually enforce the California building energy code. If there is anything I can do to make this a reality, please let me know.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. My goal is to build a post carbon California Economy.

George Matthews
Building Energy Compliance Testing
Walnut Creek, CA
www.bect.us

-- 

George Matthews
HERS I & II, BPI-BA Single & Multifamily
Green Point Rater for New, Existing & MF
Building Energy Compliance Testing
PO Box 4633, Walnut Creek, CA 94597
www.bect.us  510 520 4443

Failed HERS Test and Final Inspection - How to Avoid the Pain and Expense and a Solution to the Problem

It happened again, yesterday, doing a HERS test on a new house, HERS testing the air conditioning system.
This was the third time I was at this house testing. The technician, not an HVAC contractor but a tech hired by the owner, had added another duct to coax the 5 ton air conditioner into blowing 1750 cubic feet of air per minute, the minimum required by code.

The system did not perform to code. It moved 1600 CFM but not the 1750 required by the State of California. We looked at his work. He'd added a shiny silver drooping limp flex duct connected to a small return filter box. He told me there was nothing more he could do. I suggested pulling it taught in a straight line to the return. He didn't think that would work. He really did not like my alt suggestion of a straight metal duct to reduce air friction.

I exited the front door with him. He threw is boots hard at the driveway and cursed in anger. I could sense deep frustration and a man who probably won't get paid until the job passes. I felt sorry for him. He did not know that these systems are supposed to be sized according to manual J, Manual D and Manual S in software such as Wrightsoft. The owner or builder had signed off on building to the Calgreen checklist which states that the HVAC system will be sized according to Manual J, D and S. Apparently, no one took that seriously. The City of Orinda building department never asked for this basic engineering. Hence, it never got done.

The technician had guessed the system together. The 2600 square foot house in mild, often foggy Orinda, California somehow received a 5 ton air conditioner, the largest available. When it failed he asked me what to do. I had to tell him that I am not the designer but the State's Energy Commission does have something called the Building HVAC Requirements.  http://www.energy.ca.gov/2013publications/CEC-400-2013-001/chapters/04_Building_HVAC_Requirements.pdf

In these Building HVAC Requirements, under table 4-11 (Standards Table 150-D): Return Duct Sizing for Multiple Return Duct Systems, there is a line that shows a 5 ton air conditioning duct system having two 20 inch return ducts with a minimum gross filter grill face area of 1500 square inches.

The system I was testing did not have anywhere near 1500 square inches of filter grill face. It had two filters equaling 768 square inches, about half what code is requiring.

If this system had actually been designed rather than guessed together by a person using some "rules of thumb", it most probably would have passed the first time. The problem is that this is the 3rd time I've seen this in a ten days. It happens all the time in the affluent, well educated San Francisco bay area, home to so much energy efficiency research and development.

I usually ask air conditioner contractors how they sized the system I'm about to test. Almost invariably they tell me they use the "square footage rule". "What is that?" I ask. They then explain that for every 500 square feet of house they put in a ton of AC. Easy! 2500 square feet of house equals 5 tons of AC. System sizing complete! Sometimes they admit that the guy at the supply house told them what size was needed.

We know the problem. HVAC contractors and unlicensed technicians who install HVAC systems don't size those systems according to protocol of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America. The results are brand new, shiny yet poorly operating systems that will waste energy and perform poorly for decades to come.

Here's the solution. City Building Departments must get manual J, D and S designs before contractors can build that system. Just as seismic engineering is required for buildings before they are built, so to can we require that mechanical systems be engineered before they are built. Then we just have to work with the problem that the residential HVAC industry evades building departments permits and code HERS testing some 90% of the time.