“Didn’t you tell them we didn’t have a fireplace damper?” Martin asked me afterwards. “They didn’t ask,” I claimed. When scheduling the energy audit with Sustainable Works there was discussion about cleaning the fireplace beforehand because of a “blower door” test. I dutifully cleared ashes from the fireplace.
In truth I was clueless. Clueless about what the energy audit would entail. Clueless about the fact that having a fireplace without a damper in the living room was the equivalent of an open window at all times and as clueless about the ability to have a warm home as I once was about where babies came from. But that’s a separate story of ignorance.
This particular story starts about four years ago when Martin and I both had 45 days to sell our respective homes. Five days before closing (and perhaps not coincidentally at the first snowfall of what would become the blizzard that put Mayor Nickels out of office) he had an incident that ultimately involved the fire department, an accidentally closed damper and an unimaginable amount of smoke in ten minutes. Moving into a home with no damper actually seemed safer.
Being cozy was never an option in my previous Ballard house; why would a Craftsman be any better? I made noises about wanting a chimney pillow to block the draft but never did anything. I was raised in a home where my parents believed that being warm wasn’t true to their depression roots. Not turning on the heat until November was a point of pride and an alleged nod to conservation efforts. Our Puget Sound Energy and Seattle City Light bills suggested this wasn’t working for us the way it did for my parents.
Fast forward to Sustainable Ballard’s Annual Festival last September. I picked up information about a Sustainable Works energy audit as part of the Community Power Works Program. As part of a partnership with the City of Seattle the homeowner pays $95; the city pays the difference of $305. What’s not to love?
In part because of my attempt to re-use an envelope our paperwork went to Florida instead of South Airport way causing a lag before the momentous audit day of January 30. I remember being told, and reminded again, that the audit would take about four hours, pets should be contained, the auditor would need access to crawl spaces and that it was a good idea to clean the fireplace grate.
I knew I should have rescheduled the audit once the writing class that meets in my house was moved to the same day, but if the audit only took four hours … From the moment that Rose Mesec from Sustainable Works arrived promptly at 8:30 a.m., the collision course was set.
I quickly learned the “blower door” would normally be the culminating test in the audit process. Trailed at every step by my dangerously curious cat, the extremely personable Rose, (who lives in Ballard herself) and has done at least 160 audits, went through every inch of the home, cased the outside, peered at meters and used various testing instruments. She counted single pane windows and found crawl spaces I didn’t know existed. Aware of my time constraints she shifted the audit process so as not to disrupt my class if she wasn’t done.
Blower. I pictured a big fan that would reveal leaks the way those dye tablets used to reveal plaque on your teeth. Am I the only person who didn’t understand this “blower door” test would actually be depressurizing my house so that outside air would be pulled into the home through invisible pathways rendering my house a giant sucking vacuum? Still ignorant I attempted to cover the fireplace with plastic and packing tape.
Rose fastened something in my doorframe that looked like a pink trampoline. The cats looked horrified. Rose turned on the blower. The plastic sheet sucked into the room like a bird about to get sucked into an airplane propeller. An open chimney isn’t a leak; it’s a gusher. As Rose said later, “It was Wizard of Oz in there.”
For the next half hour Rose and I constructed a sort of child’s fort. Plywood over plastic over sheet over bricks, covered in duct tape. She started the depressurizing machine again and the fortress held shakily; its success heralded by rattling vents, wind whistling in light switches and wall sockets and doors popping open. It seems Martin and I have actually been camping outdoors the last four years, with the illusion of exterior (and decidedly non-insulated) walls offering dubious shelter.
Exactly at the moment the house had achieved its highest setting as a vacuum, perhaps shag carpet, my class members started arriving. Mouths forming the same “o” shapes as the bewildered animals I tried to sneak them in the back door, plucking them in as though they might be letting butterflies escape at the Pacific Science Center antechamber. The house was about 55 degrees. I couldn’t yet heat water for tea and I had to keep my back pressed against the basement door. Not my finest hour.
During the six hour audit Rose didn’t need the infrared camera to find the biggest leaks, although there were still surprises. To cut to the end of a twelve-page analysis that included evil looking photographs of our heat loss areas, we have a “very leaky house.” On the bright side we get plenty of fresh air and if we go forward with remedying these issues we will qualify for the very highest level of rebates.*
But first, we need to put in a damper.
*The rebates offered by various entities were reduced as of March 1 and may not be available after the end of May. Rebates vary depending on how much retrofitting will improve efficiency and reduce carbon footprint. Sustainable Works is just one non-profit contractor providing these services, educating consumers and providing workforce development for Washington. www.sustainableworks.com
Follow Ballard News-Tribune on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ballardnewstrib
And Twitter at http://twitter.com/ballardnewstrib
