Sustainable Spaces Advocates Home Performance at West Coast Green

Sustainable Spaces, founded by green thought leader Matt Golden, brought the high-tech tools of home performance to the floor of West Coast Green. Using equipment like a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera, the crew at Sustainable Spaces explained some of the energy savings and health benefits to be had from performing these specialty renovations. One of the most talked about renovations involves sealing leaky air ducts, which Sustainable Spaces claims leaks about 30% of the air pushed through it.

According to the professionals at Sustainable Spaces, the payback period for an energy renovation can be as much as ten times faster than that of solar PV installations. When coupled with the health benefits of improving the indoor air quality of a home, this renovation has become a popular activity which lead to the Discovery Channel program Greenovate. The entire process begins with an energy audit, which tests a home's ability to ventilate clean air and conserve the energy used to heat, cool, and light your living space. This often involves adjusting water heaters to ensure that they are not set too high, checking doors and windows for drafts, assessing the efficiency of lighting and appliances, and using special equipment to look through your walls to find places where insulation is missing or failing.

Energy efficiency, as recommended by ENERGY STAR and explained by Matt Golden in a special panel, is on the top of the "stack" of priorities for home optimization. This means that prior to installing rooftop solar or even an energy efficient air conditioner, the load created by your home should be reduced with simple improvements like high quality insulation and home envelope sealing. Sustainable Spaces claims that energy usage can go down as much as 40% from these improvements. To help with the renovations, federal and state programs extend rebates and tax credits to consumers who perform these energy saving projects, including the more cost intensive replacement of major systems like water heaters and air conditioners.

For West Coast Green, Sustainable Spaces represents the cutting edge in a growing industry that may rewrite the American definition of remodeling. You can see videos of Sustainable Spaces at work on "Greenovate" on the Discovery Channel and contact them on their official website to learn more about their services.