Informed Energy Decisions | What we do

1. Energy audits 2. Construction/Rehab 3. New green construction 4. Energy ratings 5. Training contractors

This is the service most often requested by individual homeowners and low-rise condo associations. For the single home, our condition survey averages four-to-five hours of on-site investigation. Our survey includes a comprehensive review of windows and doors, current insulation and air tightness, and heating-ventilation-air-conditioning systems.

We use state-of-the-art equipment to performance-test your building. This includes a blower-door to depressurize the house, infrared scans of walls and ceilings, infrared thermometers and a host of other devices. And most importantly, we use our years of experience to understand how air and energy are traveling through the building.

A) Using a puffer to follow the draft by open ductwork B) The low-E detector checks whether a modern window is genuinely low E C) Infrared scanner used to read the variations of hot and cold in the walls D) Condition Survey checklist prepared E) Blower door pulls air out of the house F) The infrared thermometer reads surface temperatures G) In protective gear for investigating the attic, checking the whole house fan. H) Checking the specifications of the boiler

At the conclusion, we sit down with you and review the written checklist we call a “condition survey”. We discuss with you an action plan that prioritizes the remedies, beginning with the fix that gets you the biggest bang for your buck. The condition survey starts with action items that merit immediate attention followed by items that are not urgent but merit being done when ready. We leave at the bottom of the priorities, items not likely to reduce energy cost over normal service life.

(The Condition Survey is Informed Energy Decisions method of a comprehensive hands-on “energy audit”. Other firms may offer energy audits limited to a review of the financial record of utility bills or may base their assessment on an instrument-free walk-through. “Energy ratings” entail a computer-based extensive compilation of data. See Energy Ratings below.

2. Construction/Rehab: administration

When your improvements require contractor installations, having a clearly written "Scope of Work" is vital to ensure success. To get the job done right, we can act as your project administrator to handle all the details: bidding, coordination, scheduling and inspection.

Let’s say you’ve stopped guessing and obtained a thorough condition survey from the Energy Detectives. What now? Who do you call to get certain work done? How do you know they’ve been trained to do the work according to state-of-the-art energy efficiency standards? Are their bids too high? You can’t be expected to know all this, yet it’s your money on the line.

Take advantage of our expertise and take the guesswork out of implementing energy improvements. We oversee the implementation of your decisions to ensure the work is done correctly and for the best price. We also provide post-installation inspection using our diagnostic equipment to back up the written specifications before you hand the contractors their pay.

While similar to our work in construction/rehab administration, our main focus in new green construction is to build it right the first time. The most cost-effective way to achieve energy efficiency in a building is before it’s built. For example, insulation that costs 35 cents a square foot to install during construction costs roughly five times as much to install later.

From thought to finish, we work with you, your architect and builder on the design and construction of your energy-efficient building.There are over four hundred items that contribute to the overall performance of a building. We know all four hundred and a few more.

Using up-to-date computer modeling, we monitor and predict the energy performance of your building to give you a bird’s eye view of the use and mis-use of energy in your building. We are nationally-certified to conduct energy ratings based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “Energy Star” standards.

Correct installation is key to reducing energy waste successfullly. For example, complete coverage of insulation is important. A mere 4% of inadequate attic insulation can reduce the overall effectiveness by a whopping 40%. New windows, poorly installed, can be draftier than the ones they replaced. Leaky ductwork accounts for an average 10% of energy loss in buildings (and may be as high as 40%).

We find most contractors to be skilled and conscientious, but many lack the knowledge and training in the most recent construction practices for energy efficiency. Learning how to build it right the first time saves everyone time and money.