Rating your home for energy efficiency

John Deely had always thought about lowering the carbon footprint in his home, but a recent free class geared for real-estate professionals gave him the push to get it done sooner rather than later.

"I may not need to replace my water heater right now, but I might do it to save the energy right now," said Deely, whose Ravenna home was built in 1915.

Deely, a principal broker with Coldwell Banker and Bain, was in the first class of real-estate professionals to go through STAR certification from the city under a grant from the federal stimulus package. That program is administered by Seattle's Office of Sustainability and the Environment and Seattle City Light.

The program has a simple goal: Get more Seattle residents to get home energy audits and do the necessary retrofits to make their homes more efficient. Educating the real-estate community about the energy-efficiency ratings is part of that program.

The city hopes to train 350 real-estate professionals and 100 appraisers by year's end.

Grant manager Christie Baumel said the audits rate the homes similar to how you'd gauge miles per gallon estimates for a car. They can be universally applied to compare efficiency.

"You may still decide you want to buy the Hummer, but you probably still ask what the miles per gallon are," Baumel said. "We want people to think about their homes the same way they think about their cars."

On the consumer end, the city is subsidizing the $400 home energy audits and Seattle homeowners will only have to pay $95 for the audit. The program already has a backlog. "This is a pilot project, and we have somewhat limited funding," Baumel said.

Homeowners are able to log onto City Light's website and see the results of their energy audit, hook up with contractors bidding on the proposed work and get information on loans and incentives. Think of it as eHarmony for the energy conscious.

"As part of that, there is also an interactive Web portal to serve as a matchmaking service," said Tom Breunig with Earth Advantage Institute, the nonprofit hosting the training seminars. "Hopefully the website will make this a little easier."

Richard Dahl, a 64-year-old accountant, was one of the first Seattle residents to take advantage of the subsidy. He plans to renovate his home on Capitol Hill and convert it to a duplex this summer.

The report found that, even though Dahl had insulation in the walls and attic and double-pane windows, his home's heating system was less than 78 percent efficient.

The ducts were leaking, the water heater needs an upgrade and there are major air leaks from the attic hatch, the plumbing penetrations, electrical outlets and the fireplace dampener.

The grand total, best case scenario: Dahl could save between $772 and $1,434 a year and go from using 10.5 tons of carbon a year to 4.6 to 7.3 tons.

But the upgrades aren't cheap: upgrading the heating system alone, the biggest-ticket item, is estimated to cost $3,000 to $9,000; a new water heater could cost as much as $3,500.

Of course, those figures don't factor in the $305 he saved by getting the subsidy from the city for the audit to begin with.

"I think the subsidy was certainly a carrot to go ahead and do it," Dahl said. "I might have gone ahead and sprung it because I did have it in mind to do a large scope of work and wanted to know the best practice for improving the carbon footprint and for cutting costs."