Recently one of our our Home Auditors completed an Cameron Home Energy Assessment of a small brick colonial home in downtown Towson, Maryland.
The family that live here bought this house exactly a year ago and wanted to get a clear picture of efficiency (or lack thereof) before another cold winter season of high BGE bills.
Nothing was particularly surprising about this Maryland home energy assessment. The biggest opportunity for improving home energy efficiency here is air sealing the attic and installing spray foam insulation. All the major appliances checked out working fine. And the house will be eligible for BGE incentives and tax rebates.
Even the blower door test was somewhat predictable: there were moderate air leaks in the (replacement) windows, doors, and outlets throughout the house.
This particular homeowner was very engaged during the assessment and interested in learning about some of the more detailed information we were collecting. Even though these items will show up in the Assessment Report, here are two examples of how Noe was able to inform the owner about important energy efficiency items.
The first was easily fixable. The dryer duct vent was filled with lint, and it was also not properly closing which caused a major air leak into the house.
The second example is that the attic had vents properly installed in the soffit of the roof one three sides, but not the fourth side. This one seemingly small issue renders the ventilation process in the attic very inefficient. So one thing this family will want to do is have a small segment of their soffit replaced to include ventilation.
Following the home energy assessment, the next step is for us to provide the homeowner with a consultative report that summarizes our findings and makes strategic suggestions about how to improve the home’s efficiency in a cost-effective manner.
We like these “text book” cases where homes are in great shape but can greatly benefit from small improvements in insulation. We’ll post pictures on the blog when we move forward with installation. Stay tuned!