Energy Retrofit of Older Home Will Pay Off In Lots of Ways

At House Exam Inspection and Consulting, we’ve been helping folks learn how to save money on utility bills for nearly four years now, through our association with Home Energy TuneUp. We’ve helped dozens of families save on their energy usage, by giving them fully itemized reports on the energy-related upgrades and repairs they could make in their homes, how much they could realistically expect to pay for each upgrade, and how long it would take to re-pay the expenses based on energy savings. We’ve had good feedback from these Clients, and we are expanding this service to include full-service energy audits and thermographic diagnostics over the next few months. So stay stay in touch with our website. You might even consider linking to the RSS feed in the upper right corner of this webpage, so that you keep up with the new services.

Now for the big news: We are pleased to report that we (Victor and Carolyn Sedinger) are going to put the program to use in a personal way. We are beginning the retrofit process on our own 1948 bungalow on the west side of Fort Worth. We bought this home while it was a duplex, and rented out the one-bedroom side for the first several years. But as we approach retirement in a few years, we thought it would be nice to turn it into a nicely upgraded single-family home. We have drawn up the plans for the conversion. We have received the quotes from sub-contractors. We have secured the funding, and we will be starting the work on or about January 18, 2010.

Over the next few weeks we’ll give you the basic findings from our own Home Energy TuneUp Report, as well as the RESNET Home Energy Diagnostic Survey. We will use both of these reports, so that the results can be compared and we will have a measurable way to determine the similarities and differences in the programs. We will be able to document the before and after results of the house in relation to air leakage, weatherization, and other variables for energy efficiency.

So, join in and let’s make it a dialogue. We would love to hear from you about your own energy-related questions. Ask us anything energy related. If we don’t know, we will find out for you. And share your ideas and suggestions for helping others save money on their energy costs.