Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Recommended: Home Energy Audit Companies

Our companion email list, the Cleveland Park Listserv, is a treasure trove of recommendations. We want to share on All Life Is Local, on a periodic basis, the best recommendations that have been posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv. You'll be able to search All Life Is Local for "contractor," "plumber," "computer tech," "auto body shop" -- whatever you need..

***
Andrea Foss of Everyday Green does a great job and is local in DC.  You can contact her by email at: andrea @ everydaygreendc.com.

***

The District Dept of the Environment offers free home energy audits for homes that are no larger than 4000 square feet. If you qualify, then you can apply online by clicking here.

If you do not qualify for the free audit, then I recommend Access Green (phone: 280-2384) which performed the audit of my home under the DDOE program. I would not recommend Patuxent Energy Group which was an earlier contractor with DDOE. PEG was embroiled in a contracts dispute with the DC government which turned rather ugly very quickly and was the subject of a DC Council hearing this fall.

[Editor's note: You can also read more about this in the archives of the Cleveland Park Listserv.  The discussion begins on August 7, 2010 and continues over the next several days, with the last message in the thread appearing on August 18.  You can find instructions for searching the list's message archive on our FAQ page.  Use the search term "energy audit" to find the relevant messages.]

***

You might want to check and see if DC is still offering free energy audits. We waited a long time, but it was worth it (they did the blower door test and everything, which typically runs in the thousands of dollars). They provided both short- and long-term (i.e., investments!) recommendations.

If you are looking for short-term tips, I would suggest energystar.gov (I worked as a contractor for Energy Star for years) -- the home improvement section would probably be useful for you. There's a vast amount of free, very useful tips and ideas of how to move forward with energy improvements.

***

My friend used these folks, http://www.energyefficiencyexperts.com and was very pleased with the experience.

***

Energy Efficiency Experts: My colleague's impression was that she focuses on lower cost energy savings solutions for the homeowner-improvements that won't break the bank but will have an impact on the home's efficiency.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for posting. I just moved into my condo in October and it's really been tough keeping it warm. I'm going to try to schedule an audit.

    ReplyDelete