David
Well this is my first blog entry so I think I should introduce myself and my background. My name is David Zapf. I graduated from USC with a Bachelors of Architecture degree in 2008. Upon graduating I worked for my father for a year repairing termite damage to apartments and putting in tenant improvements in office buildings, until he passed away. After that I was unemployed for a year. I couldn’t find a job in construction or architecture, so I just did side jobs for friends. After looking for jobs for a year, I found an ad for the job I have now. I have been working for Eco Performance Builders for 6 months now.
Most of my work consists of doing energy audits, installing new HVAC systems, and repairing old HVAC systems. Since I am the smallest guy, I am the one that crawls into the small spaces in the attics and crawlspaces most of the time, although everyone in our company has to climb into those places at some point. I install new ducts, repair old ducts, air seal, and insulate. Depending on the scope of the work I end up doing a lot more tasks than just those, but they are the main ones. Enough talking about me, now on with the blog.
A lot of people associate home performance, green buildings, and energy efficient buildings with high cost. They think about new a/c systems, or solar panels, or a ton of insulation, or new windows, but that is not always the case.
We can do minimally invasive air sealing, duct sealing, air balancing, and insulation upgrades that only cost a few days labor and minimal material costs. These small additions can yield amazing results depending on the quality of your built home.
Most modern duct systems leak on average 30%, old systems 50% or more. We can bring this down to less than 10%. 50% of fiberglass insulation in each home ends up getting installed with flaws. We can fix the insulation in your attic, and add some where it is missing or lacking. Homes leak 2500cfm on average, while 1500cfm is the accepted standard. Air sealing will bring your home closer to the standard for air quality. These are three things that we can easily test for and fix.
You might be thinking, why do I need your company? Why don’t I just do all of these things by myself? Eco Performance Builders has a lot of expensive equipment and vast experience that allows us to pinpoint exactly where the flaws are in your home, saving us time finding the flaws, and not wasting time and materials on places that don’t need to be fixed. It also allows us to test how bad your home was before we fixed it, and how much we improved your home. That is why I can say that we can bring your homes duct system below 10% leakage, because we have tested many systems and proven it.
If you’re a/c or furnace broke, you already have to spend $3000-$7000 depending on your systems size. Almost all companies are going to just replace your old system with a new efficient one of the same size, and they will say that you are good to go. But we find that most old systems were oversized. Just replacing them would result in excess energy costs. On top of that they don’t do any duct sealing, or room balancing, leaving your home just as uncomfortable as before. For a few hundred dollars more you can have a home that performs the way it should.
You can always go with another company, but before you do, ask them if they can guarantee comfort. Most may say that they will make your home comfortable, but if they aren’t performing the tests and modeling your home in HVAC software, then they are just guessing. We can guarantee comfort for your home.
My whole point to this blog was to show that homes don’t perform as well as most people assume and that you don’t have to spend very much money to make your home perform well. I’m not saying go with the cheapest option, I’m saying that you should go with the smartest option for your specific home. Eco Performance Builders is that option.
I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and I hope you return to read future ones. I should be posting about one a week.
Future topics will include:
Net-zero energy buildings and their cost effectiveness
Why you should wait to put solar panels on your home
Measuring the energy usage of appliances in your home and why it is important to know
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