Homeowners: Basic Home Energy Assessment

The Comprehensive Home Performance Assessment may seem like an expensive
“shot in the dark” to some homeowners, we offer a Basic Home Performance Assessment
to get started.  This is a qualitative version of the comprehensive evaluation,
without using the blower door to pressurize the building and the duct blaster to
pressurize the heating and air conditioning system, or taking various measurements
and going through the crawl space.  It can give us enough information to let you know what
is involved in improving your home’s performance. We can usually give you approximate costs
for the measures we recommend on the spot, so you can make appropriate decisions about your next steps.

The Basic Home Performance Evaluation includes:

• Complete interview with homeowner (and other occupants)
• Evaluation of one year’s gas and electric bills (Homeowner provides)
• Visual evaluation of attic
• Visual evaluation of attic insulation
• Thermographic evaluation of attic insulation
• Thermographic evaluation of wall insulation
• Visual evaluation of crawlspace insulation (if present)
• Visual evaluation of heating and air conditioning system(s), including furnaces, heat exchangers, condensers, and ductwork
• Thermographic evaluation of ductwork for leakage (when possible)
• Visual evaluation of ventilation equipment
• Visual evaluation of water heating equipment
• Visual evaluation of appliances and electrical equipment
• Visual evaluation of lighting
• visual evaluation of windows and doors
• Measurement of carbon monoxide levels around all combustion equipment
• Evaluation of potential hazards around combustion equipment
• Visual evaluation of water conservation provisions at sinks, showers and toilets
• Visual evaluation of lawn irrigation system

We'll discuss our findings with you at the conclusion of our evaluation, which usually takes a few hours. We'll also prepare a written report with specific recommendations and approximate costs to implement those recommendations.  If you have any questions about the report after we email it to you, we can answer all your questions via phone.  You can then engage us to carry out some or all of our recommendations, and be on your way to better living with reduced utility costs, improved comfort, and a more energy-efficient house.

If you decide to have us implement some or all of our proposals, we will do more or less of the comprehensive assessment prior to starting work (depending on the scope of work).  We always “test in” (to see our starting point) and then “test out” to quantify how much we’ve improved certain important measurements of building performance.  The comprehensive assessment may uncover additional opportunities to improve your home's performance, since it is a whole-house quantitive assessment using powerful tools.