The energy auditor has seen houses messier than yours. Let her look under the sink :-)

It's a common problem. I get to a house, we start going through the building and then I reach for the cabinet door. I always say "may I?" but usually the answer is a question; "Do you have to? It's such a mess."

Let's go to the pictures:

The first image is what I am interested in. This particular image was taken before I started the blower door. There is a lot of cold air coming in and that's a very, very important thing to find.

This is the visible image taken simultaneously with the IR above. Some people might see a slightly messy storage cabinet; I see a place where air is leaking and a place that needs to be checked for water leaks as well. This one is is probably slightly neater than average, but I don't know or care. Really.

When an energy auditor comes to your house take heart. We have all seen some really messy (and dirty) houses. As long as I can get to the places I need to and see what I need to see your house is fine. If you don't have time to make your house look like a magazine layout don't worry. I don't talk about my customers housekeeping and my conversations with other auditors have never been about messy houses.

That eliminates that as an excuse, but there are things you can and should do to prepare for an audit.

• Make way to attic hatches. Often these are, inexplicably, in closets. Please at least remove enough stuff so I can get to it.
• If you have a duct system I need to get to all the supply and return registers. If you feel warm or cool air on your feet when sitting on the couch there might be a register under it.
•  I need to be able to close all windows, exterior doors and skylights.
• If you have a wood, pellet or coal stove or boiler/furnace it need to be out and fully cooled when I arrive. Otherwise I will not be able to do the pressure testing that is so critical to evaluating your house. If these are your only source of heat we should reschedule to a warmer time of year.
• Please be home at the time of the appointment. I will be on time because I want to have the opportunity to meet you and discuss what I'm seeing with you. If you want your contractor to be present too I'm comfortable with that. If you are using another auditor please check with them on this.

That's about it. When we are talking on the phone prior to your audit I will ask some questions to find out if any other preparation will be needed.

Your house doesn't need a complete spring cleaning to schedule an audit. I think I can do enough good for your house(and you) that a little embarrassment is a small price to pay. But don't be embarrassed. Just call, I'll like you and I promise the state of the house won't make a difference.

Comments or questions? put them in the box below.

Old houses are like old people. You can learn a lot from them if you take the time and respect them.

One of my indulgences is taking time to look at a detail in an old house and trying to get into the head of the craftsman who made it. I can't say that every try is successful, but when I do figure it out there have been some great "Aha!" moments. More than a few times it's taken years and some other discoveries to see what was going on.

Sometimes it's a structural choice; how were two pieces of wood joined, why was that support here and not there. It could be material choice or why did that window go into THAT corner. Sometimes there's a really good, smart reason, other times it's tough to figure and there are some clear mistakes. These are lessons that are sitting right there waiting to be learned and many of them are still applicable today.

One important thing about successful (surviving) old buildings is that they could dry out if they got wet. Quickly too. And that's the important part, if wood stays wet it rots. If it dries quickly it's fairly forgiving of some periodic wetting. If you let it get too wet too often your building won't survive for future generations to see how stupid you were.

How did they dry and are there lessons about that for today? They dried because of lot's of air and energy flow and materials that don't trap moisture. No insulation and free air movement in wall cavities are a recipe for drying. Interior horsehair plaster dries very rapidly which also helped keep the walls dry. Of course in the 18th & 19th centuries showers and hot tubs were in short supply and indoor swimming pools were even rarer. So buildings had lower moisture loads to deal with and had good drying potential. That's a good way to make a building that will last.

We have become more regular in our hygiene and with high energy costs we want insulation in our walls and ceilings. This puts us in a bit of a bind because we just messed up our building longevity strategy. What to do? Let's go back to our original building and see what else we need to change. Well, if the walls won't dry, maybe we should keep them from getting wet! Some of those old details will still work for us and some won't. If we are expecting better thermal performance we need to give the walls (and other building parts) better water management so they can make it to the next generation and beyond.

With future posts I'll explore the details, but new construction will have different solutions than rehab, probably. With rehab or retrofit you have to think more carefully about what the strengths and weaknesses of the building are, what the extent of the planned work will be and what can realistically be done within those constraints. The reason I love working with older buildings is that I can use all those lessons I mentioned earlier and, with luck, get some more.

Oh, one more thing. When you do undertake a rehab on an old building remember to leave a penny with the year you completed the work where someone will find it when they get around to their own project in the future. They'll know that you were thinking about them and maybe take the time to learn a few lessons of their own.

Dot Edie Ewe

I harp on this subject constantly so I thought it rated a blog post. The most important thing we deliver to our customers and clients is education.
We should be delivering the specific tasks we are asked for, whether analysis of building flaws, recommendations for new equipment or building shell improvements. That is what we were hired to do. But unless we leave them with a broader understanding of the hows and whys have we accomplished anything?
There are and always will be clients who want only specific answers to specific questions. I guess they are good for business because they will pay you over and over to answer the same questions on different projects. I have a hard time enjoying that kind of work, there is very little challenge.
Answering the same question for different clients can be interesting because it is an opportunity to teach the answer, not just supply it. The client may not need you to answer that same question anymore but when other questions need answering your name should come up.
That is an opportunity for you to learn something else to educate on. And to then create a more interesting client who will ask more interesting questions which will require you to learn something... It's almost like perpetual motion. Hmm, I wonder if I can attach a drive shaft to that.
Ultimately a client who you have educated is a client who will respect you. It is also a client who will advertise for you, which is not a bad thing either.