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Frequently Asked Questions: Q: What is your typical home visit like? Q: Do you offer additional services for homeowners who want to reach super-efficiency? Q: What do you have to offer beyond what a homeowner can just find on the internet? Q: Do you work with homeowners who are do-it-yourselfers? Q: Are your services appropriate for a small home on a tight budget? Q: Do you sell insulation services? Q: Why call Emerson Environmental instead of another energy auditing company? Q: If you are so green, why are you driving that gas guzzler? Q: Was that a golf cart I saw with your logo? Q: What is your typical home visit like? A: Our typical home energy evaluation takes about 4-5 hours. Preparations: Before the visit, the homeowner obtains energy and water use utility data, and removes ashes from their fireplace. Home Energy Evaluation: The home visit begins with an interview to identify the homeowners' concerns and usage patterns. Next we perform combustion safety testing to identify potentially-serious combustion safety problems. Once the combustion appliances have been tested, we evaluate the efficiency of other appliances and the building envelope, measure water temperature and flow rates, and use of a blower door to evaluate the extent and location of air leaks in the building. We evaluate conditions in the attic and crawl space as well, as those locations often have insulation and sealing issues to be addressed. Based upon the evaluation findings, Emerson Environmental prepares customized recommendations for equipment upgrades or installation and suggestions for changes to the family’s habits or procedures. Contractors: We frequently provide referrals to contractors for installation of weatherization, insulation, duct sealing, landscape irrigation controls, and other equipment upgrades. Q: Do you offer additional services for homeowners who want to reach super-efficiency? A: Initial Equipment Installation: If recommended equipment is available in stock, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs, low-flow showerheads, and hot water pipe insulation, it may be offered for the homeowner’s purchase and Emerson Environmental’s installation. : Project Management: If the homeowner wishes, Emerson Environmental can be involved on a on-going basis as an energy consultant, obtaining bids for work to be performed and/or providing consultation with the homeowner and their contractors on energy and water use issues. : Standby and Operational Loads Analysis: In addition to our standard energy evaluation and our project consulting services, we offer a Standby and Operational Loads Analysis. This analysis is cost-effective for homeowners seeking to reduce their electrical loads in order to cover a larger portion of their electrical use with a smaller photovoltaic system. The Loads Analysis takes about three hours, utilizing a Kill-a-Watt device and The Energy Detective or Blue Line PowerCost Monitor to obtain and analyze detailed data about passive and active electrical loads throughout the house. Q: What do you have to offer beyond what a homeowner can just find on the internet? A: We have extensive training in home performance and energy efficiency, through the California Building Performance Contractors Association, PG&E, and the Building Performance Institute. We utilize tools homeowners would not have at their disposal, such as a Kill-a-Watt device, a blower door, and combustion safety testing tools; can offer referrals to contractors for upgrade installations; and, if the homeowner wishes, we can serve as an energy efficiency consultant for the upgrade installation projects. Our focus is on moving items from the homeowner’s “to do” list to the “done” list. In addition to identifying efficiency maintenance and upgrade opportunities, we help the homeowner accomplish these tasks. Q: Do you offer the kind of energy audits that are needed for the new Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), San Francisco Green Finance, CaliforniaFIRST, AB 811, PG&E Whole House, and (pending) Home Star programs? Yes we can. We are certified by the Building Performance Institute as a Certified "Building Analyst Professional", which is a certification required by many of these programs. If you are interested in participating in one of these programs, please let us know so that we can be sure to perform the specific evaluation type and paperwork necessary for the program. Q: Do you work with homeowners who are do-it-yourselfers? A: Yes. We understand that there is a broad spectrum of interest among homeowners in performing or managing their home's maintenance and upgrades. Some homeowners only need assistance identifying which maintenance and upgrades would be most cost-effective for their own homes, and then they want to take care of making these improvements themselves. We are happy to work with do-it-yourselfers to help them identify the areas in which their efforts can pay off most effectively. Other homeowners have busy schedules and little interest in performing or even managing home maintenance or upgrades themselves. For those homeowners, we offer referrals to contractors, and can act as energy efficiency consultant for the installation or upgrade project. Q: Are your services appropriate for a small home on a tight budget? A: Absolutely. We focus on the maintenance and upgrades that would be most cost-effective, maximizing the energy and water savings opportunities available on your budget. Q: Do you sell insulation services? A: No, we do not sell insulation services, but we do know companies that we can refer you to for insulation or other upgrades. Q: Why call Emerson Environmental instead of another energy auditing company? A: First, the business owner, who has extensive training and experience in this field, is the person who will be performing your home energy evaluation, not some newly-hired trainee. Second, we provide the most detailed, thorough, site-specific energy evaluation report we have seen on the market. Some other companies only focus on heating and cooling without evaluating electrical appliance efficiency and lighting -- and other services only consider electrical loads without evaluating the HVAC system and building shell. We do both. Some other companies produce reports in which it is hard to tell which data is from your home and which charts are generic examples -- that is not our approach. Third, we aren't trying to sell you expensive contracting services or a photovoltaic system. Our role is as an independent, third-party evaluator. We are not contractors trying to sell you upgrade services. Many of our recommendations fall into the categories of low-cost, no-cost, or handyman-type changes or modifications. Sure, we do sell light bulbs from time to time, but usually only if the client asks us to help them relamp. There are some companies that offer a deeply-discounted energy audit as a "loss leader," or credit the audit cost towards your upgrade services. But they just increase the cost of their construction bid in order to make up for the discounted energy audit price, and their reports focus on upgrades that they can be hired to install. A: We frequently have in stock energy efficiency items such as fluorescent bulbs, low-flow showerheads, water heater blankets, insulation for hot water pipes, weather stripping, and timers. We may also have in stock home safety products, such as carbon monoxide alarms. Q: If you are so green, why are you driving that gas guzzler? A: We can’t fit all our supplies in the back of our hybrid, golf cart, or bicycle trailer. Our dream is to someday have an electric (or hybrid plug-in) vehicle large enough for our supplies and size a solar array to power our vehicles. Q: Was that a golf cart I saw with your logo? A: For meetings and errands in the San Carlos, Redwood City, and Belmont areas, we proudly drive our new Ford "Think" Neighborhood Electric Vehicle. It is electric, plugs into a regular outlet, has fuel costs approximately 1/3 the price of our other vehicles, goes 35 mph on flat roads, and is street-legal on roads with speed limits up to 35 mph. And, as one fan put it, "it's like a Disney ride every day!" |
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