Environment

When you think of green homes, older homes don't normally come to mind. It's true, if your specific goal is to solely optimize your own carbon footprint, you should buy a brand new home, built to current LEED standards. However, if your view is that environmental issues are systemic ones, it's important to understand that the existing housing stock is a reality, and migrating these homes toward a modern standard is required; demolishing homes to start from scratch would be en ecological disaster. If you sympathize with this second view, or are just concerned about energy bills, you may be interested in some of the details of what we've done at 5703 Admiral.

Insulation

Circa 2006, the home had very little modern insulation, and was extremely leaky from a weatherproofing standpoint (i.e. drafty). Luckily, the most important part of the home for thermal insulation, the attic, has good access both above and to the side of the upstairs rooms. In the side attic spaces, we have added both 1/2" sound board, as well as kraft-faced fiberglass batts to walls and fiberglass rolls to attic floors.

In the upper attic (above bedrooms), a few strategic locations were covered with fiberglass rolls, and then the entirety of the upper attic was insulated with blow-in cellulose insulation. This insulation alone almost overnight dropped our heating energy consumption in the winter by 20%. Heat wants to rise!

The garage interior walls have been completely insulated with fiberglass batts, and most of that has been covered on the inside with drywall (with some in the shop covered with pegboard). This has made a noticeable difference in the winter comfort of the basement, since an exterior garage door itself is leaky by design (so automotive, or other toxic fumes aren't sealed inside the house).

Large amounts of caulking has also been added to the interface between exterior window frames and the brick, and weatherstripping added to exterior doors (which helps with both thermal and sound insulation).

Windows are another major source of heat loss. In 2006, the home had one single window with two panes of glass (kitchen sink). Today, the home has only one window without two panes of glass (a small closet window)! Most of these have been full window replacements with modern vinyl double-paned windows. In situations where vinyl sliding windows were already added to the room for ventilation and insulation, we have left some original Craftsman windows for character, but protected them on the outside with new single-paned storm windows. Note: these storm windows do not need to be taken down seasonally. We leave them in place 365 days/year, and they are installed properly to not suffer condensation between the panes. The addition of a single pane of exterior glass is enough to almost completely eliminate interior condensation on windows in the winter. If temperatures drop substantially below freezing, a small amount of condensation will occur at the bottom of even double-paned vinyl windows in a marine climate, but our solution has drastically reduced window condensation and the mold that can result if ignored. Many window treatments have been replaced with cellular honeycomb shades, which are good for thermal insulation.

Automation

The smart home features are a significant source of energy savings. The Honeywell Lyric smart thermostat can be remotely switched from anywhere on the internet (no need to heat fully when out of the house, no need to wait for heat if returning home ahead of schedule), or even setup to switch on/off when the owners' smartphones leave the home (geofencing). Forget to turn off connected lights, or leave the garage door open? Turn them off from work, or wherever you are.

Cooling

This home typically runs cool, and we would rarely use air conditioning if we had it. A large part of this is because during the summer, the taller neighboor's home at 5704 Winthrop provides shade from about 4pm to 7:30pm, significantly limiting heat gain during the hottest time of the day (video). We have also added a solar-powered attic fan to force airflow through the attic. This is a safety net against moisture buildup should the roof ever leak, but also reduces attic temperatures that can warm up the upper floors on hot days.

At night, this house also benefits from excellent cool breezes coming off Puget Sound. Even during summer heat waves that approach 90 degrees, we usually get 60 degree air at night to cool the house down. With reasonable window management (e.g. our largest southern window has programmable motorized cellular shades), and deployment of the backyard sun shade, weathering hot days in this house has not been a problem. We also take advantage of the natural cooling of the mostly-underground basement. The lower level never gets too warm, and if the furnace is run in fan-only mode (recirc), this can exchange air between the top floor and basement, and get you about 1-2 degrees of cooling in the upper rooms (with equivalent warming of the basement that's always cool). If you're new to the area and haven't lived close to the Sound, it's noticeable how much moderating influence you get being close to the water (less cold in winter, less hot in summer ... compared to the areas just a mile inland).

Electrical

The 40A circuit run to the garage, and installed Blink car charger, make it convenient to own an electric car, as we've done since 2012.

The home's lighting has been almost entirely replaced, with virtually no incandescent lighting remaining. The majority of lights, including both chandeliers, have high-efficiency LED lighting, with a little CFL lighting remaining. This saves energy, and also the waste heat you don't want in the summer.

Yard

The two backyard sheds have been built primarily with salvaged materials, the pressure-treated framing coming from the old upper level deck. Only the siding and metal roofing were purchased new to build them. The garden shed allows you to store tools and gear that doesn't need to occupy heated living space (or garage!), and the smaller cooking shed is where my wife cooked when she didn't want the excess heat during hot summer days, or smell when she cooked something aromatic! Note: the kitchen fan inside the house has also been upgraded with a ZLINE remote blower model (motor in attic), for the majority of times when you do cook inside.

Our two rainbarrels, front and rear, provide about half of what we need for hand-watering (things not covered by the 3 irrigation circuits) during the summer. The soaker hose irrigation handles two terrace levels in the back, and part of the front slope landscaping, and is more water-efficient than sprinkler systems. The 3 irrigation circuits are integrated into the home automation system, making it easy to program/use them smartly, as opposed to the simplistic schedules you often have with the low-end dedicated irrigation controllers.

We have compost bins in the front and rear yards to make it easy to compost. If buyers are unfamliar with Seattle's system, they have an excellent yard waste policy. Large bin yard waste service very liberally accepts most of what you might think to put in there. The home compost bins are just so we can have our own homemade-supply of rich soil additives for the times when we do plant new things.

Occupant Health

The home's wood flooring throughout the upper two floors is excellent for reducing the dust/allergens present in carpeted homes. A Swiffer is all we need for normal cleaning. The furnace also features a Honeywell electrostatic air cleaner with removable stainless steel filters that can be washed (we run them in the dishwasher once a year). The kitchen sink, fridge and basement gym water fountain all have filtration systems for clean drinking water or ice. In 2006, the home had no bathroom fans, and today, all 3 do, integrated into the smart home (e.g. configurable auto-shutoff timers).

For people not aware of the impacts of clean air on our health, you should read about why both short and long term exposure to more polluted air harms our physical health and cognitive performance. Being close to the Sound has been an important part of our lifestyle for exactly this reason (our new home is just down the road, same distance to the water). As an example, here's a recent day (9/10/22) during wildfire season. The air was noticeably less polluted in neighborhoods adjacent to Puget Sound, even compared with the rest of the Seattle/Bellevue metro area!