[Glorantha]

We have our home design meeting next month for our future home in St Catherine. We have done some research, but would like some feedback from our future neighbors in the Villages. With added costs in mine, we want to be realistic on what upgrades to add. We are leaning toward building the Sunflower/Begonia or Iris/Lilac model home. I guess we’ll find out when we get there on what is standard for our model and what is an upgrade.
Part 1 - Energy saving options. In terms of ROI, which additions should we request?

• Attic Fans: From aerial flyovers I see most (all?) the homes have attic fans. Is one fan standard and multiple fans optional? Also, are solar powered fans recommended?
• Attic insulation: is builder standard sufficient or additional insulation recommended?
• Garage door/ceiling insulation: Worth the cost? Additional ventilation or garage fans worth the cost.
• Insulated siding: Is insulated vinyl siding standard or an upgrade?

[Altavia]

Wish I added insulation over the garage and Lanai.

[dewilson58]

Zone your AC ducts by room.

Agree with Rob.......insulate.

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Soon2B-Villager

We have our home design meeting next month for our future home in St Catherine. We have done some research, but would like some feedback from our future neighbors in the Villages. With added costs in mine, we want to be realistic on what upgrades to add. We are leaning toward building the Sunflower/Begonia or Iris/Lilac model home. I guess we’ll find out when we get there on what is standard for our model and what is an upgrade.
Part 1 - Energy saving options. In terms of ROI, which additions should we request?

• Attic Fans: From aerial flyovers I see most (all?) the homes have attic fans. Is one fan standard and multiple fans optional? Also, are solar powered fans recommended?
• Attic insulation: is builder standard sufficient or additional insulation recommended?
• Garage door/ceiling insulation: Worth the cost? Additional ventilation or garage fans worth the cost.
• Insulated siding: Is insulated vinyl siding standard or an upgrade?

Return on investment is the proper way to look at it. Cost is $$$$$$ time to recover that expense is so many months, years etc. We purchased our home new. I was built on speculation so all the choices were made.

My view, frankly my wife choosing what countertop to buy and what color, I could not take that pain.

We do have an attic fan. I don't know if it is a billed addition to our spec built home or is included in the basic plan. Does it save anything? We all know hot air rises, cold air falls
I assume all, most of the homes have ridge vents down the highest part of the roof as well as intakes along the lowest part of the roof.

Garage door insulation. Reminder insulation can only slow heat flow. Your garage is not air conditioned. I don't think it will save much. We do not have it. It might and probably does block outside noise. Probably, if you want it to get the builder to do it. Your garage door is a balancing act. The counter balance springs are chosen, adjusted to the weight of the door.

Insulated, vinyl siding? We have block and stucco. Our previous home had vinyl siding.
I'm sure it is not the same today. Ours was ONLY 40 years old. They had added insulating board behind it. It was fine when we sold the house. Florida sun, hurricanes etc I don't know. Forty years? I will not last another forty years.

Originally Posted by Soon2B-Villager

We have our home design meeting next month for our future home in St Catherine. We have done some research, but would like some feedback from our future neighbors in the Villages. With added costs in mine, we want to be realistic on what upgrades to add. We are leaning toward building the Sunflower/Begonia or Iris/Lilac model home. I guess we’ll find out when we get there on what is standard for our model and what is an upgrade.
Part 1 - Energy saving options. In terms of ROI, which additions should we request?

• Attic Fans: From aerial flyovers I see most (all?) the homes have attic fans. Is one fan standard and multiple fans optional? Also, are solar powered fans recommended?
• Attic insulation: is builder standard sufficient or additional insulation recommended?
• Garage door/ceiling insulation: Worth the cost? Additional ventilation or garage fans worth the cost.
• Insulated siding: Is insulated vinyl siding standard or an upgrade?

Awnings and window coverings. Window tinting DIY.

[villagetinker]

We have a Gardenia, concrete block, very similar to sunflower/begonia. Most bang for the buck, careful control of the thermostat. We have 3 stretches, one to the house, the others to the garage and lanai. I did and a fan to force hot air out of the attic, a 120v AC powered unit thermostatically controlled. House is 8 years old, and I see no need to add insulation, etc. The electric bill ranges from $90 to $140, so IMHO any additional insulation, etc., will take a long time to pay off, especially if you will have mortgage. Be careful of the window tint as this typically cancels the 10 year warranty on the windows. I would order windows with a factory tint if necessary.
Hope this helps. Send a PM if you would like to discuss further over the phone.

[dewilson58]

I agree with Tink on the payback for additional insulation might take a while, but it helps save our world's energy consumption for our grandkids, etc.

[Toymeister]

I have an whole home electricity monitor. With 10,000 snapshots a second for three years for a home here I believe I can offer an extremely accurate perspective.

Pay for an upgrade to a two stage HVAC.

Powered vents, by 110 current or solar are not cost effective, a solar will never be in your lifetime, your children's, and your grandchildren. Extra non powered vents may be worthwhile in terms of increasing the lifespan of your roof. What you think are attic fans from the overhead views are round unpowered vents although attic fans are somewhat common.

Insulation over the lanai or garage is not cost effective for energy savings but may be worthwhile for comfort. It is unlikely that extra insulation for the home will be cost effective. You simply do not get that much heat gain radiating down from your ceiling. Here it depends on the cost and how long you will be in that home.

Powered hot water circulation pumps (for tankless water heaters) are never energy efficient, if you opt for this for comfort be sure to use this on a timer. NO! Water savings do not offset the cost of operation of the timer.

Window tint is not cost effective and is generally not needed as the windows are already low e coated.

Any questions, please ask.

[BigSteph]

To our dismay, we discovered that the circular roof power vents are power-less. They are the same units you buy up north that come with a fan and thermostat and have electrical run to power them. Here, at least south of 44, the are just the shell.

The construction foreman told me that they are just vents added to the roof to exhaust heat. There is a formula for the size of roof to length of ridge-vent (the vent along the peak of the roof). If your house does not have enough linear length of ridge vent, they throw up the power-less round roof vents to aid in the necessary heat-exhaust formula.

I found this surprising. I bought a spec house, so I didn't get to do any planning.

[Dond1959]

Agree with Toymeister, many things will bring comfort but not cost effective. We built a home with a west facing garage door and front windows. We insulated the garage side (extra), garage door (extra), and above the garage (extra). I don’t think these things really helped from a comfort or a cost savings. I will say when it is cold outside in the winter the garage is a nice temperature, but in the summer still really hot. I probably wouldn’t do these things again, but might add a roll up screen door in the future to remove some of the heat during the day from the garage. Again, more from a comfort perspective.

We did use Solar guys to put tint on our front west facing windows and it definitely helped from a comfort level. They also can provide a warranty for a cost to replace the warranty of the new construction windows.

[BigSteph]

We had all 12 of our windows and all four of our sliding doors tinted when we moved in.

Even with the low-E new windows, we felt a thermal heating of the areas near the windows. We also had glare issues and worried about fabric fading issues over time.

We got quotes and found a wide swing of prices to do the job.

We ended up hiring a father-son team who came in and spent over a 1/2 day installing.

We paid less than $1000 for all.

I may never know if we get a return on investment in relation to reduction of thermal heating, but it has been welcome for reduction of glare and less heat around the windows and door areas. We are also less worried about furniture fading.

If I had to do it again, I would tint the windows and doors.

[Arctic Fox]

Go with the lightest color allowed for your roof shingles - costs no extra but saves on A/C

[CoachKandSportsguy]

We went with lightest roof shingles, extra insulation, and missed adding more roof vents, I would double the number of rook vents over the standard. . . with adequate inflow the attic will be cooler than without added, but i did not say cold

Houses faces east and garage door absorbs alot of morning sun and heat, and very hot to perform work, so the garage solutions are the biggest issue if you want to spend time in the garage during the summer months.

and ROI is for revenue producing investments, which a house is not, so only payback is the metric IF you want to financialize your decisions. If not, then buy whatever you feel enhances your remaining life span. . . and you can afford to live comfortably

finance guy

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by Toymeister

I have an whole home electricity monitor. With 10,000 snapshots a second for three years for a home here I believe I can offer an extremely accurate perspective.

Pay for an upgrade to a two stage HVAC.

Powered vents, by 110 current or solar are not cost effective, a solar will never be in your lifetime, your children's, and your grandchildren. Extra non powered vents may be worthwhile in terms of increasing the lifespan of your roof. What you think are attic fans from the overhead views are round unpowered vents although attic fans are somewhat common.

Insulation over the lanai or garage is not cost effective for energy savings but may be worthwhile for comfort. It is unlikely that extra insulation for the home will be cost effective. You simply do not get that much heat gain radiating down from your ceiling. Here it depends on the cost and how long you will be in that home.

Powered hot water circulation pumps (for tankless water heaters) are never energy efficient, if you opt for this for comfort be sure to use this on a timer. NO! Water savings do not offset the cost of operation of the timer.

Window tint is not cost effective and is generally not needed as the windows are already low e coated.

Any questions, please ask.

I applied window tint to the arched section of our windows. We have blinds. Custom covers for that section are either very unsightly or rather expensive. Are they needed, I suppose it depends on where your room is. I did the ones in my office. Inexpensive and work fine. Far easier to see my computer monitor.

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by BigSteph

To our dismay, we discovered that the circular roof power vents are power-less. They are the same units you buy up north that come with a fan and thermostat and have electrical run to power them. Here, at least south of 44, the are just the shell.

The construction foreman told me that they are just vents added to the roof to exhaust heat. There is a formula for the size of roof to length of ridge-vent (the vent along the peak of the roof). If your house does not have enough linear length of ridge vent, they throw up the power-less round roof vents to aid in the necessary heat-exhaust formula.

I found this surprising. I bought a spec house, so I didn't get to do any planning.

As said elsewhere, hot air rises, cold air falls so the air moves out the top. Perhaps, in older homes but I expect all current models have proper venting.

Putting in a power fan without increasing the intake is like trying to suck air out of a glass coke bottle.