Software program for energy audits/inspections?

[John McKenna]

http://texas-inspection.com/report/energyaudit.pdf

[Ben J. Gromicko]

Well... I all I have to say right now is... Wait. I'm working on something very BIG related to energy audits. I'll have lots to say in about a month or two.

[John McKenna]

Originally Posted by bgromicko

Well... I all I have to say right now is... Wait. I'm working on something very BIG related to energy audits. I'll have lots to say in about a month or two.

If I guess what it is, will I win a prize?

[dbelmont]

Hey Ben,

I think Energy Audit Certs are going to be one of those "mines bigger then yours" arguments we love to have. Can't wait for the blower door wars.

So far I've only found one energy audit software that produces anything the typical consumer can read and that's CMC Energy Tuneup. Now as a technically oriented person I'd agree it's a bit shallow if you're into a lot of numbers. But as a businessman I'll say that the report is accessible to the typical consumer who really doesn't give a c*** about technical stuff. They want a list, they want to know how much and they want to know how much they save. It can stand a lot of improvement but it's headed in the right direction. The ability to comment thye sections lets the knowledgeable auditor add information to expand depth if it's needed. (In a real pinch I just crack the report pdf and add a page)

I have loaded and tested every other piece of software that I could lay my hand on. (and if anyone has something they think is better I'll be glad to accept a copy and put it through the wringer.) Some is technically impressive but needs a real nerd to drive (I am one). Nothing has what I'd call a good reporting engine Nor did I find one with an intuitive front end (CMC's best of a bad crop).

My definition of a good piece of software is being able to produce a consumer usable report out of the box with no tweaking by the user. Just fill in the blanks of the data. The report should be customizable as well. And the software has to be intuitively drivable by anyone who has a reasonable kinowledge of the subject matter without having to crack a users manual to figure out the software. Yes, it also has to produce workably accurate results that are usable by the typical consumer. And the final criteria is cost. The vigorish has to be reasonable.

Right now I haven't seen any that can meet those criteria.