Home Performance Contracting

As a Home Performance Contractor, we approach your house as a system, applying the principles of building science to your project. We will conduct a comprehensive Home Performance Assessment (aka Energy Audit) using state-of-the-art diagnostic tools and procedures, presenting you with results and a proposal. We carry out the renovations, and follow up with verification and a quality assurance inspection after the work is complete.

Since your home is likely the most significant purchase you make, and good health is priceless, knowing how to protect both is essential. A house is an interactive system made up of many components such as structure, ventilation, and filtration. Each component influences the performance of the entire system. We believe that your home should be a safe haven and provide you with a healthy place to live. We also believe that energy efficiency is one of the most important challenges of our time, and that through this process your home will produce less greenhouse gases and be more affordable to maintain.

Reasons For This Approach

There are four main reasons that we use this approach:

1. Energy & money savings
2. Health & safety of the occupants
3. Comfort of the occupants
4. Durability of the structure

How does this approach work?

Before making any recommendations we will conduct a Home Performance Assessment, including a physical inspection and testing, which together diagnose inadequacies in your home, and help prioritize the recommended retrofits. The Assessment has a major health & safety component and proposes energy conservation measures from a whole house perspective.

You will be included in the process, and be given a report, so that you will understand in simple terms the science behind how your home functions. Knowing the basic principles that govern your home's performance will help you become more aware of the factors that affect the health of your home and its occupants. We will supervise to ensure that the recommendations are being applied and installed during the construction phase. After construction, a reassessment will be done to determine the effectiveness of the retrofits, and to ensure that new problems have not been created. The end result will provide improvements that are real, effective, and reasonable in the long term.

Diagnostic Testing

The following diagnostic tests can be performed:

• A blower door test will estimate the tightness of the envelope and pinpoint air leaks in the home. This allows us to recommend retrofits that will stop unhealthy air from entering the home, reduce the load on your HVAC system, and determine if your home has sufficient fresh air ventilation to be healthy and comfortable.
• A Duct blaster test will estimate the tightness of your HVAC system & ductwork. It will pinpoint leaks and inefficiencies that, once fixed, will make the system perform better & save energy while providing more comfortable heating & cooling.
• An infrared scan will 'look inside your walls' to find the sources of air & moisture as well as inadequacies in insulation.
• Gas & carbon monoxide testing will determine the combustion safety of your home.

Increased Property Value

Verified results can be provided to use for marketing a home for sale.