Energy Audit

On Friday, we had an energy audit of our home. I had been really excited about it, too. The program sounds great- tons of rebates, air sealing, duct sealing, thermal imaging, and a ton of (arguably crummy but "free") lightbulbs.

For $99, I figured that even just the weatherstripping on the doors would be worth it. We also desperately need to replace our windows because the sills are so rotten they feel like a sponge. The program was offering a rebate of $50 per window. At least we got the weather stripping done on the doors, but that's about the only thing we got.

In the first 5 minutes, the guys spotted some asbestos tape sealing some ductwork below the bathroom. I don't remember if the building inspector had spotted that or not, but I don't remember it. One of the guys immediately said they wouldn't do the blower door test because it's too dangerous. The blower is powerful enough to agitate the asbestos and make it airborne. So that was that on the blower door test. They proceeded to do the weather stripping on the doors anyway at least. There was no doubt that the doors were drafty, considering you could see sunlight through the door frames when the doors were closed.

Then the other guy said they'd still do some ductwork tests to seal up where the ducts leak, and boy do they leak, but we encountered the same problem- that bit of asbestos tape. Not surprised, but disappointed.

When Guy #1 was doing the weather stripping, he left the plastic wrappers to blow across the yard. OK maybe he forgot? Then came the lightbulbs. Guy #2 went around and switched out our lightbulbs. We got 4 LEDs and the rest got changed to CFLs. Luckily, we got to keep all our incandescents, which we need for brooder lights. By the time the guys had left, we realized they didn't even leave us the extra CFLs we were supposed to get. The program supplies 25 CFLs, but they left with the extras. They DID leave behind 2 more LEDs and an extra showerhead, which was in addition to the one they installed. WHOOPS.

And as for the rebates, Guy #2 would only sign off on a few of them, and we only have 120 days to redeem them. No window rebate, and no insulation rebate. SHIT!!! Overall, I am really disappointed. At least we got our doors sealed up well. They didn't do any thermal imaging, but said we "probably" have insulation.

the white band in the center of the photo is the alleged asbestos

I don't mean to fault the workers for not performing those tests, but I'm definitely disappointed. I'm also planning on taking steps for remediation of the asbestos as well, and seeing what else I can do to make our house more efficient. On the advice of my friend Paul, I also plan on filing a complaint to Energize CT against the crew who came out and their lack of professionalism. I didn't go into a lot of detail in this post about all of the the things that went wrong that day, but they were numerous.