I want to replace my four sliding glass doors (they leak air between the panels like a sieve). I like Andersen, but the guy from the NY Energy Smart program is pitching Schuco. I have done some searches and read a lot of good things about Schuco windows.
I love the look and quality of the Andersen French Wood Gliders. The natural wood would go well in our house. I like the idea of the energy savings of the Schuco’s with the triple pane-kypton filled glass package. I am leary about the vinyl frame of the Schucos and how long they will last. I like that I can call Andersen and get parts for my 30 year old Andersen windows. Could I do that with Schuco? What would be cool is if I could get the Schuco glass package in the Andersen door. I have more research to do. I am thinking about calling Andersen and asking them about Schuco, and calling Schuco and asking them about Andersen. The consultant guy gave me a price of $8200 for the four Schuco doors installed. The price I have for the Andersens is $1172 each plus $449 installation (next three doors would be a little cheaper), but this works out to about $6484 installed. I might be able to get the guy to come down on the Schucos. He was going to give info on where I can go see some Schuco doors. I am definately not plunking down $8000 without actually seeing what I will be getting first.
We got our Energy Smart home assessment report last night. Interesting stuff, but lets look closer at it.
They made various recommendations:
Insulate attic flat, cost $882, ann. savings $7, payback 127.8 years.
Insulate attic kneewall, cost $840, ann $75, payback 11.1 years.
Replace lighting (CFL), cost $42, ann savings $42, payback 1 year
Replace windows, cost ?, ann savings $558, payback N/A
Seal attic doors, cost $150, savings $0, payback N/A
Seal front door, cost $85, savings $0, payback N/A
Attic flat access, cost $175, savings $0, payback N/A
Total cost $2174, Annual savings $683, Payback 3.19 years.
Hmmmm…. Payback of 3.19 years to have all this work done! But I had already switched almost all of my home lighting to CFLs before the auditor came. So scratch that. I also remember the auditor testing may front door during the blower door test, and saying it was well sealed. There were no leaks there. Scratch that. They had left the cost of the widows off because they didn’t know what options I might want. But they didn’t leave the savings of the windows off. So if I exclude the savings from the windows, and the stuff for the lighting and the front door, the cost is now $2047, with a savings of $82 a year, and a payback of 25 years. The consultant guy threw out a number for the 21 windows of $19000 I think. So throwing that number into the equation, the payback turns into 30 years.
Interesting stuff.
I called the consultant guy and he confirmed my reading of the numbers. I may still have some of the work done, or do it myself. I am not replacing all of the windows in my house. I will replace the weather strippping on on the Andersen windows. I am still looking at replacing the sliding glass doors. I am not sure if I will go with the Schuco doors, or the Anderson French Wood Gliders. I will go into more detail on this in another post. They didn’t include home sealing since my house is a post and beam design, it would have been hard for them to do. Hmmm.. I seem to be doing fine with it. I have been busy sealing my house slowly, a little here, a little there.
We have an appointment for 8pm tonight to get our Energy Smart audit report. If for some reason he cancels again, I may just tell him forget about the whole thing, and will get it done by someone else.
Basically I am in kind of a pissy mood today!
Yet again we have an appointment to get our Comprehensive Home Assessment report. Today is 4 weeks since we had the audit done. I was told we would get are report in a couple weeks. Thus far I have not been impressed. I don’t think the fault lies with the EnergySmart program, but with the local contractor I chose. We’ll see how it goes. I am not going to hold my breath for actually getting the report tomorrow night.
I am pretty much done sealing all of the outlet boxes. I have a small handful left to do, but they are behind bookcases and such.
So onto my next project. I have replaced the crank on one of our Andersen awning windows. I still have to replace a few more cranks. I ordered a new weatherstripping directly from Andersen for all of the windows. According to the codes on the windows, they are all original to the house. I thought the ones in our great room were installed more recently, but they date back to the 1977 construction of the house as well. The weather stripping on all the windows is almost 30 years old. So I am going to replace the weatherstripping on all the windows whether they are leaky or not, because sooner or later they will be. According to the guy at Andersen they are easy to install, and from it sounded like they just slide into to a kerf. I just hope they come with instructions. We have 3 double awning windows, 4 double casement windows, and 2 single casement windows for a total of 16 individual windows to do. The weatherstripping cost $86.51 including tax and shipping.