I contacted Charlie Rogers
after hearing him interviewed on KUOW, the local NPR station. Our house
is old - built in 1918, and it's always had a stale old house smell that has
bothered me - especially when I was pregnant. We’d had our ducts cleaned,
and that made a difference, but the smell was still there. When I heard Charlie talk on the radio,
he mentioned that a lot of people are basically breathing the air from their
basement, and a light bulb came on in my head: THAT's the old house
smell! I emailed him that same day.
Charlie had told us to
expect his visit to run about six hours at our house. The first 30 minutes were spent talking to us about our reasons for
doing the energy audit and what type of work we plan to do on our house. Our
reasons ran the gamut from lowering our house's carbon footprint, making it
warmer and less drafty in the winter, saving money on energy costs, and of
course, getting rid of that old house smell.
It was clear from the
start that Charlie considered the meeting a critical part of his work. He knew that we weren’t taking out a
massive loan to get a contractor to do major remodeling. We let him know that
we wanted to be able to do as much as possible ourselves and that we wanted to
get the most energy saving bang for our buck. I already knew that the
return on investment is a lot higher for sealing our windows and doors than for
installing solar panels. Charlie’s report and suggestions were keyed to
the insights he got at this stage of his visit.
After speaking with us,
Charlie was off on his own. He brought his own equipment, and over the next six
hours, he checked out every nook and cranny of our house, inside and out -
especially the basement, attic, bathrooms and kitchen. Nooks and crannies
they were, truly: he took
photographs of ducts in the basement that only an outstretched hand holding a
camera could see, as well as wall
joints only visibly under layers
of attic insulation. He did a “blower door test” to create air suction out of our front door to find every tiny place that air
was leaking in our house. He
checked the efficiency of all our appliances and tested our water and air
temperatures. He also analyzed our energy bills, both gas and
electricity.
When he was done, he took
my husband on a tour of his findings.
Mark was able to ask all his questions, and the answers were extremely
helpful. Through it all, Charlie
reminded him that all the information would be in the report (which it was),
but to be able to ask questions in person on the spot was invaluable. Based on a combination of our initial
meeting and the needs of our house, almost all of the findings focused on
manageable projects, both in terms of scope and cost. Most involved insulation, caulk and Great Stuff (expanding
foam).
Within a few days he
emailed us a 21-page report with loads of photos he took of the trouble spots
in our house. The report was divided into categories: health and safety,
billing analysis, furnace/heating, insulation, lighting and appliances and air
sealing (He told us that, "If all the leaks in your house and ducts were
added together they would equal a hole approximately 300 square inches). Within
each category there was a prioritized list of suggested actions to take, based
on their rate of return. He also included lists of PSE energy-efficiency
rebates and tax credits for which we could qualify.
As soon as we got the
report, Mark got started on the sealing the cold-air returns in our basement,
and it did indeed get rid of the old house smell, so I already consider the
audit money well spent. The total cost of the audit was $340. This
was based on the size of our house and what appliances needed to be inspected. I
do feel like it was worth the cost. The guidance we've gotten from
Charlie is already saving us money and making our house cozier as the weather
gets cold.
After we have completed
our air sealing and insulation work, Charlie will return to inspect the work
and conduct a few short, diagnostic tests to make sure the work was done right
and that there remains no further health or safety concerns.
