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Does your house have rooms that are too hot, too cold, or drafty? Does someone in your family suffer from allergies or asthma? Does your house collect excessive dust? Are your utility bills too high? Does your house have musty or unpleasant odors? These are all signs that your house may be suffering from poor building performance. Most American homes--new or old, big or small--suffer from one or more of these symptoms.
Building performance is the science of measuring, diagnosing, and fixing these types of problems. We think every remodel is an opportunity to address the overall "performance" of your home. This area is just as important as the finishes you pick in the kitchen or bathroom and may have a greater impact on your enjoyment of your home.
We also offer Green Home Energy Upgrades as a standalone service to our clients.
Using state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, we perform a comprehensive evaluation of the home’s building envelope, heating and cooling systems, lighting, appliances, and hot water system. The procedure typically includes most or all of the following battery of tests, depending on the problems to be diagnosed:
- Utility bill disaggregation
- Exterior site inspection
- Combustion efficiency & safety
- Carbon monoxide testing
- House depressurization
- Air infiltration (envelope tightness)
- Infrared thermography
- Ventilation source, quality, and quantity
- Insulation performance
- Air barrier performance
- Window performance
- Heating and cooling equipment performance
- Duct leakage
- Room airflow
- Room pressurization
- Temperature stratification
The resulting Green Home Energy Upgrade evaluation presents the findings in an easily understood format, together with recommendations for a healthy-house transformation. Most building performance problems are caused by overlapping failures in different building systems, which is why you need a comprehensive, whole-house approach to comfort, health, durability, and energy efficiency. We also believe that there needs to be a cost-effective balance of initial cost, operating costs, health and comfort, system and structure durability, and ease of maintenance. This is not about selling expensive, “high-efficiency,” or silver-bullet equipment; it’s about finding and fixing these hidden demons inside our houses.
If you are interested in improving your home's energy efficiency, durability, comfort and air quality, call us at 925.209.9324 or submit this form to discuss your building performance options.
We are active in the building performance community. We are participating members of Build It Green, the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), the California Building Performance Contractors Association (CBPCA), and Home Performance with ENERGY STAR. In addition, we are a founding member of Efficiency First.