Check out this article in Sustainable Business Oregon.  Portland and Clean Energy Works Oregon are doing great stuff!  We are glad to be a part of this trend.

Clean Energy Works Oregon is at the Good Green Jobs conference in Los Angeles sharing what they have learn about creating Good Green Jobs.  This well deserved honor for CEWO, they have done a great job!  Read more here.

Ever wonder where your electricity comes from?  Many utilities have only one or two sources for their power, but PGE utilizes up to 9 different sources.  The citizens of Portland have encouraged and supported PGE in the efforts to bring more renewable energy to Portland.  That said, we still have a long way to go.  We still get over 50% of our power from fossil fuels! And 25% from coal.

Did you know that your house produces 2 to 3 times more greenhouse gasses as a car?  On average, our homes are the largest producers of greenhouse gasses in our daily lives.  Want to make a change?  Want to help reduce your carbon foot print?  Conservation is the key.  How do you reduce your usage?  Riding your bike and taking the bus are great starts, but we are not addressing your largest user, the house.

Cost effective choices like air sealing and insulation is where you should start.  Then changing your heating source to an efficient model.  Then water heating, and windows are usually last.

Looking for incentives and financing to complete these projects, check out Clean Energy Works Oregon.

Here are a few things our clients are saying about Neil Kelly and the difference we are making in their homes:

“Hey..we are getting huge savings on our gas bill.  Anyway, thought you would want to know.  Average Therms a day went from 6.4 (Jan 2011) to ~3.0 (Jan 2012)” Chris M. Portland Or

“We LOVE the warmth!!! Huge difference. It’s like a blanket has been put around the house!”  Kyle K.  Portland Or

Posted on Angies List “Bottom line – they did great work, they managed the project very well, and the cost was the same as another quote I got.

I first worked with a different reputable company to figure out what weatherization should be done.  We had a unique situation and I was just not comfortable with the advice of the company.   (I also was doing a lot of research online to educate myself).  I called Neil Kelly because we had them do a Home Performance audit about 5 years ago (without doing any work) and I wanted to ask about some of those results.  They couldn’t find the report, so offered to update the testing for free.  I took them up on it.  The person responsible for making the recommendations has had extensive experience in construction – not just training in weatherization. This really helped with our unique situation, and he listened to what we were trying to accomplish.  His advice on what should be done made so much sense to me that we decided to have them do the work. Also, their price was about the same as the other company.  I had expected it to be more, since my impression of the Neil Kelly reputation is great work but really expensive.

We asked several questions about whether we could do part of the work ourselves to save some money.  They were very generous with this discussion. We did do some of the work ourselves, and were glad about what we decided to do, and what we decided not to do.

The project manager visited our house to review the work and be familiar with our home. The sub contractors and Neil Kelly folks showed up to do the work when expected.  Some unexpected things happened, as I suspect they always do in construction work, but I didn’ t mind because the project manager always kept me informed, and worked with my schedule.

Here is what impressed me the most:  the project manager always came to inspect the work.  If there was something that she thought should be better, she had the workers come back and make the improvements.  She found things that I would never have noticed. ( I think this was especially important for the subcontractors work).   She came at the start of the project, during the project, and at the end.  If weatherization/door/window work is done wrong, there can be damaging consequences on a house. This is why I will always want Neil Kelly to do any work that we need – I am very confident that they will make sure the work is done right.” Janet B. Tigard OR

Tags: Insulation, windows, air sealing, comfort, energy savings, energy efficiency, Portland, Bend, Redmond, Eugene, Seattle

Neil Kelly will be at the Better Living Show, will you? The event is a three-day festival designed to empower attendees to become more thoughtful consumers and reduce their environmental impact. Last year, more than 14,000 visitors attended the show, and organizers expect even more this year. To find out more about the 2012 Better Living Show visit the show website.

Neil Kelly is encouraging visitors to explore hands-on displays that showcase a variety of money-saving, energy-efficient ideas, as well as Green Remodeling and HomeForce, our small jobs and home repair specialists. Neil Kelly energy advisors will be on hand to offer personalized guidance and help attendees create their own plan for energy savings, with help from Energy Trust cash incentives and Clean Energy Works Oregon. To find out more about CEWO and apply for this amazing program, click here, and remember to use the instant rebate code, CNNLK.

The Mystery of the Missing Heat from Seattle Community Power Works on Vimeo.

Thanks to Charlie and Community Power Works for putting this video together.  This is a quick look into what we do at a Home Performance Assessment.  To schedule a Home Performance Assessment in Seattle at the discounted rate of $95 (a $500.00 value), apply here.  Use instant rebate code NEILKELLY.  Sign up today!

If you are in Oregon, sign up here for a FREE assessment.  Use instant rebate code CNNLK.

Congratulation ETO!  We are proud to be a trade ally and do our part in your efforts!  Read more about the award here.

For a limited time, Clean Energy Works Oregon is increasing the incentive by $500.00!  Sign up from March 1 to April 30, 2012 and receive an extra $500.00.  See details here, and remember to use the rebate code CNNLK.

A furnace is an appliance that most homeowners only purchase once or twice in their lifetime, and yet is is a big investment.  How do you go about choosing the right one with the right benefits and features?  What are the right questions to ask?  How has the technology changed over the last 20 years and what will it mean to me?  This can be a daunting task with little experience to drawn on and a whole world wide web to throw you off track.  Here are a few pointers to help you craft the questions you will need to ask to get the right appliance for you.

First, the gas furnace is an appliance that costs money to install, costs money to maintain and costs money to run.  A general rule of thumb is that the less expensive units costs more to maintain and run, and the more expensive units cost less to maintain and run.

Most home owners focus on the efficiency of the furnace.  You see the standard 80% efficient units and the 90+% units and the 95% ones too.  What that efficiency number stands for is the heat exchanger efficiency.  How much of the heat created by burning gas is transferred to the air that heats your house.  For example, the 80% efficient unit, 80% of the heat created by the combustion of the gas is transferred to the air in your home and 20% is going to go up the flue.  This is pretty simple, if you are planning on living in your home for a while, it make sense to spend a little more on a more efficient unit.  But there are some other costs that are harder to find.

All gas furnaces are also hooked up to electricity.  The electricity powers the thermostat (usually), the blower fan motor that circulates the air in your home, and many other parts of the furnace.  The blower fan motor is the one part of the furnace that uses electricity that could really cost you money.  Have you ever noticed that in the winter time your electric usage goes up with the gas usage?  That is in part from the electricity that the fan uses.  If you have a standard fan in your furnace it could be costing you quite a bit more than if you have a variable speed fan or electronically controlled fan.  Also, the variable speed fan motors are much more comfortable.

In my opinion, it is worth the extra investment in purchasing a furnace with:

1) 95% efficiency

2) Variable Speed Fan

3) Two Stage Burner or Modulating Burner.

It may cost more upfront, but will save you plenty over the years, and make you more comfortable.

The Neil Kelly home performance team has been working hard to improve the comfort and health of homes all around Portland.  In our efforts we have also reduced the energy costs of our clients and helped them reduce their “carbon footprint”.

We have been working on quantifying the co2 green house gas emissions reduced by our efforts. Below is an estimate for the home that has had their potential savings modeled in programs provided to us by the Energy Trust of Oregon (“Real Home Analyzer” or “Energy Measure Home”).  This estimate represents only 73% of the retrofits we have completed in the past 13 months.

This year we plan to double this amount and we will also model all of our projects so we may see the impact of our work.

Thanks to everyone at Neil Kelly who has helped to support us in our efforts and enabled us to do the work that is important to everyone concerned with the impact of our energy consumption.

Last Year NKC reduced residential carbon output by 415.78 metric tons per year.

Here are some common things this reduction equates to… every year

 This is equivalent to one of the following:

Equivalency Results

Click on the question mark ? link to read the explanation of that particular calculation. Read about all calculations.

The information you entered above is equivalent to one of the following statements:

Annual greenhouse gas emissions from  74 passenger vehicles

CO₂ emissions from 42,286 gallons of gasoline consumed

CO₂ emissions from 877 barrels of oil consumed

CO₂ emissions from 5 tanker trucks’ worth of gasoline

CO₂ emissions from the electricity use of 47  homes for one year

CO₂ emissions from the energy use of 32.7 homes for one year

Carbon sequestered by 9,672 tree seedlings grown for 10 years

Carbon sequestered annually by 80.4 acres of pine or fir forests

Carbon sequestered annually by 3.7 acres of forest preserved from deforestation

CO₂ emissions from 15,716 propane cylinders used for home barbeques

CO₂ emissions from burning 2.1 railcars’ worth of coal

Greenhouse gas emissions avoided by recycling 131 tons of waste instead of sending it to the landfill