April 2010 - Increased Comfort and Savings from Foam Sealing the Attic and Sealing the Duct Work

We hired Home Energy Detective initially to perform an energy audit on our house. Even though we had replaced both of gas furnaces and both A/C units within a period of 3 years, we still were not seeing much in the way of increased comfort or reduced costs due to the newer, more efficient models. Troy was able to identify a number of trouble spots, some of which we were aware of, some of which we were not. Troy uses state of the art equipment to give a very good picture where your home is leaking.

Not only does Home Energy Detective perform the audit, they will perform the work as well. We ended hiring the company to perform all of the recommendations. That being said, Troy does not do a hard sell. The energy audit stands by itself; he's not trying to push a bunch of products that are of questionable value. We had the attic foam sealed so that the temperature of the attic is within 3-10 degrees of the inside temperature. This is definitely the way to go. Our kids' rooms were always cold in the winter and hot in the summer; now they are quite comfortable.

Another service we had done was sealing the duct work. I was a little skeptical about this, but decided to go ahead with it. I'm glad we did. There is a significant increase in the air output from all vents. Additionally, they found a problem where a duct was pouring hot air directly into the furnace room. We had talked to our regular HVAC contractor about this numerous times but they were never able to find the problem.

Troy a pleasure to work with, presents his findings in a clear no nonsense manner, shows up when he says he going to show up (or calls ahead), and is an honest and reliable contractor.

Robert Roll
Arlington, Virginia