Washington DC/Baltimore

[Randle]

I'd like to buy a house in NW DC, Silver Spring or Bethesda area, and for both environmental and financial reasons, I'd like to get something that is as energy efficient as possible.

Is there any way to get information about how energy efficient houses for sale are?  Any way to compare energy efficiency or get data on past energy usage?

Thanks.

[philip-gvinter]

Randle,

Sellers in Montgomery Couty are required to fill out a sheet with the past 12 months of electric and if applicable gas or heating oil bills if they have occupied the property, however if they have not been occupying it the disclosure will be blank. Also this is somewhat imperfect because everyone has slightly different preferances for how hot or cold they keep their home.

When touring a house you can look for double pane windows, insulation around hot water pipes, an insulation wrap around the hot water heater or other energy efficiency improvements. Also during a home inspection the inspector will look at the insulation in the attic or any other accessible area of the home.

[Randle]

Philip,

Is that something that's available when you're looking at the home or does the seller provide that only after the offer letter, but before the contract. 

Judging from this - http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/ocp/Energy/pdf/disclosure_sellers.pdf - it seems like it comes just before the contract, so you can't really use it to compare houses when you're looking.

[philip-gvinter]

Randle,

Agents either uplaod disclosures into the MLS where other agents can simply retrieve them for clients or will happily email them to your agent. Asking for disclosures is usually something of an indication of client interest but agents don't automatically expect an offer when they are asked for.  Because disclosures are fairly easy to get you can compare a reasonable list of homes which are of similar size and construction style to see what their respective energy usage has been and start to formulate a baseline for that particular style of home. 

[Randle]

OK, thanks!

[awilum]

The utility bills are the wrong approach, unless you start accounting for their usage styles and whether they have fifteen flat screen televisions. Waste of time. 

1. It's called a HERS rating. That is how you determine whether it's efficient and if you spend $800 you can get a rating. 

2. As mentioned above, you can look for all the CFL bulbs, energy star appliances, which should take about a minute. And if they aren't there, you can spend about $10 and change all the bulbs yourself. I would not let that inform your decision. 

So what you do you look for that isn't extremely easy and cheap to rectify? 

1. A good HVAC system, good ductwork and good windows. If the house lacks insulation, is leaky (in certain ways), and has 50 year old bulbs you can fix that stuff cheaply. But you'll spend lots of money if the HVAC is 20 years old and the ductwork is bad.

2. A crawlspace is the epitome of inefficiency. It can be treated, but it will cost you $$. 

Therefore: 1) avoid houses with crawlspaces, old HVAC units/ductwork, and single pane windows and you can cheaply turn it into an uber-efficeient house. 

[Randle]

That's good advice, thanks. 

Of course, it would be GREAT if houses were sold with HERS ratings.  It would create incentives for people to upgrade before they sell and discourage people from buying leaky, inefficient houses  (like the one I live in now). 

But any effort to require that kind of disclosure has been blocked by the real estate industry.