Hello everyone,
This is my first post here. I’m trying to get an idea of what home traits/characteristics an energy auditor will look for as an indication that a home has a good potential for energy savings. I know that sometimes auditors/retrofitters will reach out with surveys before taking a job. The specific information sought in those surveys might vary by contractor–this will obviously depend on whether any services beyond auditing are performed, and what those specific retrofits might be (IE, someone doing window glazing versus insulation versus air-sealing during the audit).
I am interested in matching the traits and characteristics to variables in the RECS survey. So things like the age of the home, number of occupants, type of home (ranch, raised ranch, etc.), type of heating equipment and fuel, etc.
Ideally I would like to know:
- What type of service do you offer beyond the audit, if any?
- Do you use a survey to screen homes? If yes, what type of information do you look for?
- Given the type of retrofit you offer, why do these home characteristics indicate that a home has potential for energy savings?
- Are you apart of any programs that encourage you to perform work on particular types of homes? (e.g., a utility based program rewarding the auditor per CFM reduction post air-sealing might encourage those auditors to focus on finding homes whose characteristics indicate a high potential for energy savings from air-sealing, rather than looking at characteristics that might indicate potential for other improvements to the BE, like insulation).
Obviously these are very specific questions. Feel free to use this format, or just to provide general input. I understand that everyone here might not use surveys, and may have other methods of screening homes (like town records and other publicly available information, etc.). The emphasis here isn’t even so much the survey/medium, but the idea that certain home characteristics are appealing to you, and that the characteristics sought may be heavily dependent on the structure of your business, and what other services you might offer in addition to auditing.
Any info at all would be very much appreciated! Thanks again,
Henry Sims