Installing lightbulbs during the energy audit
With our upcoming W2O event Water Rising: The Impact on Humanity right around the corner, we are taking another look at our own energy usage and thinking about how to curb emissions right here in our homes. Making everyone’s home energy efficient would go a long way to curbing human induced climate change that leads to our warming oceans and sea level rise. Getting a home energy audit is the first step and it is FREE! All it takes is a couple of hours of following a trained auditor around your house. We stumbled upon Martha Stone-Martins personal testimony of her experience with Homeworks, an energy company from Woburn Massachusetts. The disclaimer to this testimony, which reads like a love letter, is that Martha’s web design business, Linkwell, helped Homeworks build their webpage five years ago. Our personal relationship with Martha validates her testimony which came into our mailbox as a neighbor to neighbor “wow, I loved this” moment completely unsolicited! Here is Martha’s unedited email:
Sorry for the blast but thought I would share this favorable home owner experience. A few years ago, Linkwell did a website/logo for this firm in Woburn called www.homeworksenergy.com. They are a firm that does insulation, weatherstripping etc. But most interesting is they are a contractor for MASS SAVE which offers free energy audits of your home. It took me a year to finally call to do one but it was so worthwhile that I had to share.
You can call MASS SAVE for a list of contractors or go to homeworksenergy.com to schedule.
Blair came to my house (she has been doing home audits for 5 years and has a master’s in sustainable energy) on time, armed with her computer, tools and printer. 3 hours later, I had $1000 worth of free LED bulbs (nice ones that emit warm light), 2 programmable thermostats and a special energy saving power strip. We went room by room with her infra red tool that measured heat loss. Happily we learned that our house has good insulation and the windows are in pretty good shape. But she could have showed you exactly where your walls may needed more or a window needed weatherstripping. She showed me the impact of shutting blinds or curtains in the winter. She checked the flues in both the heating system and the hotwater for CO2 leakage. All the data was loaded to MASS Save and I received a final report with her recommendations. She prepared a quote on site to do a a bit of foam insulation where the exterior walls hit the stone foundation in the basement and weatherstrip the doors. This quote for work which will be done by homeworks came to about $550. But with the MASS Save incentives, it will cost us $64.00.
Blair Kershaw from Homeworks Energy writes up a detailed report, given to the home owner, to complete every energy audit
Homeworks also recommends Window Woman, window-woman-ne.com from Peabody who can renovate existing single pane windows in old homes. That was also a very positive experience. Alison came out and looked at all our old windows that I assumed we would have to replace someday. She commented that in shape single pane windows with storms are almost as energy efficient as new double pane. They offer services to tune up (check glazing, replace ropes with more stylish chains, fix broken parts that hold the window in firmly) as well as restoration and complete replacement. She also pointed me to a storm window person if I wanted to replace some of these.
So with the MASS Save 40 free LED lights and the rest I just purchased onsale at Lowes last weekend ($15 LED floods for $5 and $10 LED reg size for $5), and a few cranky hours with a teenager on a ladder, we are all LED. All warm light, all dimmable. Looking forward to our next energy bill.
Martha Stone-Martin
Principal, Linkwell Services, LLC
www.linkwell.com
