When Beth was seeking out better energy solutions for her home, she approached Efficiency Vermont, who connected her with Building Energy. She began the process with an energy audit by one of our BPI Certified Energy Auditors, to assess the current insulation condition and find ways to increase comfort, as well as lower her utility bills.
“Building Energy has been wonderful right from the start.” says Beth. “Jacob explained every little thing, was very patient and answered any questions that I had.”
During the audit, Jacob found that a lot of air sealing was needed in Beth’s attic, due to wire chases, plumbing holes, and wall top plates. It is a large, unconditioned space that warm air was drawn to, which leads to inefficiency.
Moving onto the main parts of the house, Jacob found that there was air coming from the baseboards inside an addition in Beth’s home. There was also air escaping the band sill in her basement, as well as through her doors.
An energy audit with Building Energy will show you things about your home that you never would have known about otherwise, both big and small, we catch it. In addition to the aforementioned issues causing inefficiency in Beth’s home, it was also discovered that a duct that was connected to an indoor stairway was crushed under insulation. This duct had to be replaced to ensure it supplies and returns air at its intended flowrate. There was also a crushed bath fan duct, which hindered air flow and would not work efficiently to exhaust moisture.
Building Energy got started with the weatherization portion of Beth’s home improvements. In the attic, we implemented air-sealing and insulation techniques to prevent any more heat loss. We removed the existing cellulose and fiberglass insulation so that we could seal the attic penetrations with closed cell spray foam. Once that spray foam was dried, we re-filled the attic with loose fill cellulose.
When we moved down to the basement, a similar process was followed, as we removed existing insulation and sealed the band sills with closed cell spray foam.
Since we found that the baseboards in her addition were losing heat, we removed the baseboard trim, gave them a proper seal using spray foam, and put them back up! Then, we moved onto weatherstripping the doors, replacing the crushed ducts with new rigid ducting to ensure longevity, and also replaced the bathroom fan switches!
After all of these insulation improvements, Beth still felt chilly in her home. Something wasn’t quite right. She called the crew at Building Energy to come out and double check anything they may have missed. What they found was not anything Beth had expected. Her furnace wasn’t working! The reason is, there was piping in the walls which was not connected to the furnace.
“The insulation crew immediately got to work to fix that piping, free of charge! They came into the home, made a big hole in my wall, fixed the piping and sheet rock sealed it all back up again. I was so grateful to them.”
Beth also added four Mitsubishi heat pumps to her home, to increase efficiency and lower her reliance on fossil fuels.
Since having all of this work done, Beth has rave reviews saying:
“Both my electric and my heat bills are significantly lower, and my house is toasty warm! I would hire Building Energy to do anything in my home! The Crew was friendly, fun, and respectful. They cleaned up after themselves and were so professional. They were even great around all of my animals, ensuring that none of them got away or out of the house!”
Beth has 12 birds and 8 cats. We love hearing her animal stories, and it was a delight to serve her!
We look forward to continuing to help in her journey to better energy efficiency and perfect comfort, for many years to come! Our animal-friendly staff love hearing about her efforts rescuing animals, too!