We take a “whole house” approach to evaluating the energy efficiency of your home. Rather than focusing on a single component, such as a single-paned window, an old air condition system, or leaky ductwork, we assess how improvements to all of these components can work together to improve the efficiency and comfort of your home.
By diagnosing a house as a whole system, we are able to provide you with a comprehensive plan to improve the home’s performance. Here are a list of services provided to our home owners:
ENERGY AUDITS
An Energy Audit is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy effecient, by performing a room by room examination of a structure as well as a thoroughcomfor examination of past utility bills.
A home energy audit can save you as much as $500 to $3,000 per year or more depending on the size and construction of your home! An Energy Audit Report will highlight items in order of the most cost effecient ways to reduce your energy bills and increase your home's comfort.
All homes, even new homes, leak air. This can affect the comfort, safety, and energy performance of the home. When reviewing your home we will compare your home to a qualified energy star home. These homes must be 15% more efficient than an average existing home built today.
Energy Audits should be performed before you decide to replace windows or have any air sealing or insulation work done on your home. We will find your problems and let you know exactly what needs to be done to make your home more energy efficient and comfortable by giving you a list in order of return on investment. In other words, how quickly can I get my money back over a short period of time?
Problems
Most homes have a problem from the beginning with the construction of their home and the problems are elevated when you add pressures (wind) to the house. With an Energy Audit, we can determine exactly what specific construction concerns exist in your home. Finding air leaks in the building construction of your home is just one area we review to find energy savings. Residential Energy Auditors also reviews the HVAC and duct systems in your home for air leaks.. You should not have an energy audit completed unless these two areas are reviewed thoroughly and recommendations are made in the report to reduce energy cost/consumption.
Steps to Analysis your home-A detail list of services and its functions are outlined on our consulting page for more detail information. Audits can take up to 2 to 6 hours to complete. While conducting the audit we will document all concerns. Once the audit is complete you will receive a PDF file with writtencomments and digital and infrared pictures that explains not only your concerns, but a detailed explanation of how to repair those concerns. This detailed report will allow you to get estimates for repairs or provide help with do it yourself repairs. Energy Star has a helpful website for DIY repairs. Here is a list of services provided in completing a energy audit.
- Measure the exterior of your home.
- Review and record data from HVAC, Water Heater, Compressor or any appliances of concern.
- Measure your interior of your home and windows.
- Review with home owner or occupant of any concerns or problems with home as it relates to comfort/safety/energy use.
- Complete an Blower door test of the home
- Complete an infrared scan onyour home while the Blower door is still running. At the same time REAuditors,LLC is taking infrared picture and digital pictures of any concerns or problems.
- Search and review attics, crawl spaces, access panels, underneath decks, porches and any area of concern.
- While conducting the audit we also collect information that will be loaded into building software that will determine your energy savings. This includes the following.
A-Insulation type and levels
B-Types of windows and condition.
C-Type of building construction and materials.
D-Direction of your home and landscaping.
E-Any indoor air quality or safety concerns. - We provide a detailed Energy Audit Report listing potential energy savings, and providing infrared and digital pictures and analysis on concerns and corrections.
- Comparison of your home to an Energy Star home. Receive an energy star certificate that shows you how your home compares to an Energy Star Home. This will list your energy star index and current energy use.
HERS RATING/CERTIFICATION
We offer HERS Ratings (Home Energy Rating System) throughout the region. A HERS Rating assigns a home score on a scale from 0 to 150, the lower the score the less energy consumption. A standard new home would receive a score of 100, with most existing homes scoring in somewhere between 100 to 150.
A HERS Rating is a requirement for many green buildings and energy efficient building standards across the country, including ENERGY STAR Homes. A HERS Rating is also reguired when seeking a EEM (Energy Efficient Mortgage) and/or EIM (Energy Improvement Mortgage). Builders and Realtors also seek a HERS rating to measure homes energy usage/efficiency to help them show protential new costomers savings from a better built home.
HOME TESTING
IS YOUR HOME MAKING YOU SICK? Did You KNOW Up to 30% of the air in your home can come from your crawl space or attic. Let the home performance experts at Residential Energy Auditors get to the bottom of your air quality problem at the same time we improve the overall comfort and energy efficiency of your home.
BLOWER DOOR TESTING
Professional energy auditors use blower door tests to help determine a home's air tightness. These are some reasons for establishing the proper building tightness, including reducing energy consumption due to air leakage.
DUCT TESTING
It’s important to have your system that delivers warm or color air during the summer and winter time throughout your house tested to make sure the system is working efficiently. Duct leakage may be one of the largest sources of energy loss in some homes when the leakage is to unconditioned space. Leaky supply ductwork causes expensive conditioned air to be lost before it can be delivered to the house, forcing your system to run longer to keep you comfortable. Leaky ductwork can seriously degrade indoor air quality by pulling pollutants and irritants directly into your house. Leaky return ductwork can also pull moisture into your home, making it feel uncomfortable even when the air conditioning is running.
INFRARED SCANNING
Thermograph measures surface temperatures by using an Infrared camera. This tool see’s light that is in the heat spectrum. Images on the camera show the temperature variations of the building’s skin, ranging from lighter colors for warm regions to darker colors for cooler areas. By IR scanning exterior walls and ceilings this will clearly show where there are problem spots in building construction or lack of insulation.
AIR SEALING AND INSULATION
From your audit we create a scope of work (budgeted plan) that will target the low hanging fruit and help obtain the energy savings you are lookig for, while making your home a more efficient, comfortable, and better living environment.
We have cost to return solutions for many common building deficiencies, poor workmanship, and insulation problems. We present energy savings with common and simple solutions. We have quality control procedures on 100% of our jobs to ensure quality, results, safety, and energy program compliance. We can help you fill out incentive paperwork for states or local utility programs. Be sure to check out the most recent tax credit information in your area!
Fixing the air leaks and insulation problems is better left to experts. Anyone can spray foam or adding insulation, but it is our specialty. Our air sealing and insulation division can also seal any mechanical ventilation problems.
Home Performance Contracting Services includes
Air-Sealing: Attics, Crawlspaces, Basements, cantilevers, etc. Spray Foam Insulation, Seal leaky HVAC duct systems and address indoor Air-Quality issues.
Consulting and Renovation
We are a independent energy consulting firm that specializes in energy auditing, project management, renewable energy, education, and technical consultation services to homeowners, home buyers, businesses, builders, architects, mortgage lenders, and realtors in the Northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC for the purpose of improving the energy performance of both planned and existing homes and buildings. We're certified to provide Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Ratings in accordance with the RESNET Mortgage Industry National HERS Standards, and we work with our customers to develop a roadmap for achieving their energy conservation goals.