What Does A Green Home Retrofit Cost?
“Basic Budget Items”
Remove asbestos pipe wrap: $1,200
Demo Basement (Take It To Studs): $5,000
Electrical Work (Rewiring Knob and Tube Basement Only): $3,000
Plumbing Work (Replacing Piping): 4,000
Air-to-Water Heat Pump System (with thermal storage tank backup): $15,000
Low Temperature Baseboard Heaters in Basement: $2,500
Low Temperature Radiators Upstairs: $6,000
Wall Removal and Structural Adjustments: $4,000
Wall Insulation and Air Sealing (Basement): $10,000
Ventilation System: $3,000
Sheetrocking (Drywall Installation): $4,000
Structural Engineer/Energy Auditor: $1,000
Adding “Nice-to-have” Items
Lighting Upgrade and Additional Outlets: $3,000
Egress Window for Legal Bedroom: $5,000
Removing Concrete and Insulating Basement Floor: $5,000
Hydronic Floor Heating: $5,000
Rewiring Knob and Tube in the Rest of the House: $10,000
Architect Fees: $4,000
New Door In Basement: $1,500”
I’ve often thought, “if I am going to be blogging about green home retrofits, I should be renovating an old home myself.” I didn’t have to wait long—the impetus came like a bolt of lightning—as if someone was listening to my thoughts.
In July, I received an email from a Minnesota nonprofit, CEE, that said that our home was being considered as a potential participant for an air-to-water heat pump with thermal storage study I signed up for. This makes sense because our home still has an old boiler that needs replacing along with 115 year old cast iron radiators.
Air to water heat pumps are popular in Europe. There’s some installed here in the USA, but mostly in commercial installations. Could an air source heat pump that heats only water power a system of radiators here in Minnesota? Interesting question. I hoped the answer was yes. I don’t like the idea of mini-splits needing five-seven different heads installed if we were to go with a whole home system.
I did a little reading on some of these systems. Because they use thermal storage tanks to heat or cool the water, it could fill the tanks when electricity is cheapest and then send it to the radiators when the thermostat is turned up or down. This sounded very cool. I quickly got back to the nonprofit with answers to their follow-up questions. "Yes!" I wrote, not only is our boiler old, our home has comfort issues, especially in the kitchen. For years, there’s been an issue in the wall behind the washer-dryer in the basement. I’ve plugged some things up, but the drafts still come from behind a layer of wall paneling. Worse, those drafts are finding their way up to our kitchen. Obviously, something was going on there that I could not see.
After a few back-and-forth emails with the recruiter, my understanding was that any renovations that related to efficiency work I mentioned in the email would have to be completed before October 15th, the start of the fall. That’s when the new system and their monitoring equipment would arrive. After that, no changes for 2 years. The study could not be disturbed.
I’d already modeled our with the Home Energy Score, an unofficial version of the software: 3 out of 10. That did not deter me. I knew most old homes in America would score just a 1 or 2 at this point.
When I plugged something like the air-to-water heat pump system the research people were planning on using into the Home Energy Score and assumed it could handle both heating and hot water, along with a few other important and very necessary insulation and air sealing efficiency upgrades, my unofficial score jumped to an 8 out of 10!
This was huge. Of course, I was sure that numbers like these would require new radiators, at least some new radiators throughout the house that are capable of operating at lower water temperatures - 120-140 degrees vs the 180-200 the gas boiler pumps out now.
I called my architect friend, Derk, who’d helped us with another project. He said the changes I wanted to make in the basement - replacing wiring, pipes and insulation - was a big job, but routine. He suggested calling in a general contractor. There are two popular firms in our neighborhood.
"You’ll pay more, but it will be done right," he said.
I’m used to deadlines from my writing assignments, but this was a whole new kind of pressure. This was excitement over something new and important.
Our initial budget: 50-75K.
When I spoke to one of the contractors, I got the first punch to the gut. He said my budget would needed to be twice what I told him. The second general contractor said he couldn’t start the project for 10 months.
I called Derk back, and he suggested that as a first step, I strip the walls to the studs myself to see what was “going on” in our basement.
Note The Knob-and-Tube Wiring (black wires in the ceiling) From 1915 That Should Be Removed
I stood in line at the city’s building permit office. I decided if there was no general contractor to help me, I would sign up as the general contractor. I actually visited the permit office twice, they were so helpful. On my first visit, the receptionist started helping me draw up plans!
With my permit in hand, I knew that once the walls and ceiling were open, we’d be able to get to air-sealing the rim joists and otherwise tighten things up in the walls, especially the wall behind the washing machine that was the source of so much trouble. It would require removing plaster and lath in the ceiling and some of the walls that had been around since 1915 when the house was built. It would be a mess. I recruited a handyman who we’ve used before. He was raring to go.
In the end, rather than mess with the demo ourselves, I found a demo company with a hole in their schedule, and they came right over. This part actually went well. They completed the job in two days and cleaned up after themselves. The place looked completely different. A big bookcase from the University of Minnesota left by previous owners was removed, and this opened our brick chimney. My wife and I imagined new possibilities for the space.
New life for an old chimney
Now, we can imagine possibilities
I wrote back to the nonprofit informing them that the space was opened up - down to the studs - offering them maximum flexibility to install the new system. The recruiter got back to me and said they were still in the planning stages and it was way too early for us to meet with any HVAC contractors. They wouldn’t be interviewing these people until September, the same time they would let me know of their final decision.
I refined my plans, consulting with the Green Home Club’s Chatbot on more than one occasion. Then August turned into September, and I took stock of three things we accomplished: removed the asbestos pipe wrap, demoed the basement, and got a quote to remove the knob-and-tube wiring from an electrician - all health and safety measures necessary to move forward with the rest of the project.
Then things started to unravel.
I learned that the air-to-water heat pump, the cornerstone of my plan, would not be available. Well, not available to me, anyway. The nonprofit I’d been conversing with had selected a few homes for their research program, but ours wasn’t one of them. I made the mistake of assuming that being an advocate for the green movement would put me in line for preferential treatment. Instead, I found myself on the outside, excluded from the very future I was trying to build.
Alarm bells went off in my head. I recalled rejected manuscripts, missed awards, even the 300 pushups when, by mistake, I showed up for football practice without my uniform and many other times when I went for the prize and was met with indifference or hostility. I spent days digesting the news, staring at the exposed walls in the basement, already torn down in anticipation of the system that would never come. It’s amazing how much dust and debris suddenly appear in a basement when your plans fall apart.
Then I thought, just one more pitch—they may change their mind. At the least, a conversation with the researcher could be helpful. I got back in touch with the recruiter, and she suggested I set up a phone call with her supervisor. I started to imagine myself as the kind of person who could make things happen, even bend the rules if I explained things just right.
The supervisor was pleasant enough and explained one reason our house was not included - at least in the first round. There was a concern that it would not meet their standard for “cost-effectiveness”. Every home included in their study and much of their work has to be able to demonstrate a reasonable payback, where the upgrades pay for themselves in energy savings over time.
For example, she said that my idea for hydronic underfloor heating panels, a key feature of the design I’d dreamed up, were impractical by this measure. I quickly accepted her proposal for low-temperature radiators and chalked up the experience to a learning process. She made some other very good points.
I put down the phone and decided to try the payback calculation myself. I came up with a payback of around 50 years—if I selected our basic budget package, forgetting any “nice-to-haves”. Obviously, utility cost savings alone are not going to work for our project.
"What motivates you about this project?"
I spoke to my brother-in-law Norman, always a critic, but this time, he was filled with compassion. He suggested looking at the final product I envisioned, revisiting our original goals and not getting so stuck on the details or even if we got the heat pump as part of the research study or not.
He asked what still motivates me about the project. I mentioned the laundry room, then I added space for a TV room, health and safety improvements, increased property value, and most importantly, reduced environmental impact.
Looking at the environmental impact numbers now, I see that with the planned changes, our home will have nearly 65% savings in CO2 emissions! (Source DOE’s Home Energy Score, demo version)
Before the retrofit: 23,967 pounds (10.87 metric tons) annually.
After the retrofit: 8,413 pounds (3.81 metric tons) annually.
So for us, even if this green home project does not have a reasonable payback period from energy savings, if it helps the environment and we get the money back when we sell the house, we feel it’s something we ought to do!
