Energy Beyond Design - San Francisco Bay Area Home Energy Audits
Energy Beyond Design - Home Energy Upgrades and Rebates for PGE Customers

Frequently Asked Questions

 Find out more about the energy analysis and retrofit services provided by Energy Beyond Design

Please note: As of March 2011, Energy Beyond Design is no longer providing residential services.

What does Energy Beyond Design mean?

Energy Beyond Design is our way of making your property better than it was designed in terms of energy, health, comfort and efficiency. Most properties are up to code when constructed or remodeled, but codes continually change and adapt to the changes and further enhancements of the industry. Even today, code allows for 6% air leakage in your duct system and insulation levels that are sub-par. Code is simply the bare minimum accepted, not what is best. Did you know that many older homes were built with little to no attic or wall insulation, materials containing asbestos, and so much air leakage  it’s like leaving a window open all day long every day of the year?

What is Home/Building Performance?

Home/Building Performance is the all-encompassing term for describing how well a house or building functions in terms of energy efficiency, water consumption, and indoor air quality. It is an evidence-based evaluation using building science. We measure your structure with sophisticated tools and complete a thorough analysis which is presented to you in an easy to understand way. For instance, we use a duct blaster, which is the equivalent of a fan with a computer attached to blow air into your vents. The computer tells us how much the ducts are leaking and our infrared camera helps us find the leaks. We then fix or replace the ducts in all the leaky areas. After fixing the problems we rerun the test to ensure that we have found and made the proper repairs. We hate leaky ducts and so should you, here’s why:

Leaky ducts create hot/cold rooms, allow air in from wherever the ducts travel including attics, crawl space and/or basements and leaky ducts let the air you pay to heat or cool escape. A brand new structure is allowed to have 6% leakage. From the damage done by rodents, insects and time, this figure climbs to more than 30% in many structures. We’ve had clients with ducts leaking as much as 70%! No wonder the house never warmed up properly!

What is a Home Performance Retrofit?

Most people do not realize that the air they breath while indoors does not all come in via the filter in the heating or cooling system. Much of the air creeps in through a damp, musty crawl space, between fiberglass insulation or worse via a leaky duct covered with asbestos. Your surroundings can literally make you sick. When we assess “the guts” of your building or home, we will be able to tell you exactly what is happening “behind the scenes.” Retrofitting your home, based on your priorities, can help make your house more comfortable, warmer, and safer–while also saving you money on your utility bills and helping the planet.

Do you provide a clipboard audit?

No. And as some people will find out the hard way, a clipboard audit is simply a checklist that has no measurable performance value. A clipboard audit  is simply a list of recommendations for improvements based on a quick evaluation, but there will be no sense of priority, no data evaluation and there will be no way to test in and test out to prove results. Energy Beyond Design is different because we test all systems in the home, including health and safety problems and then provide a detailed proposal for actually doing the retrofit work highlighting the most cost effective upgrades. We will give you a path that shows the importance of certain upgrades vs. others so you can choose what is convenient for your situation.

Do you only do existing residential homes?

No, we also currently work in small commercial and offices and offer consulting for new home construction. Most new homes will perform well, assuming they are built to current code or better, but it’s up to you to assure that certain items, like higher insulation values, zero duct leakage and proper sizing of HVAC equipment are considered. If you have a recently constructed home and are experiencing energy shock because your utility bills are too high, call us for an evaluation and we may reveal areas for further improvement.

How long does it take?

Depending on the size of your home or business, and the amount of operating systems, you can expect the process to take 3-5 hours. We welcome questions and encourage your participation as we do all the testing and data collection. Our number one goal is to educate you on the status of your home, and we hope by the end of the day, you will understand more about where you live or work.

Is it mandatory that I’m there during the evaluation?

If you are busy and cannot stay for the evaluation, no problem, we understand. We would only ask that you provide us a brief interview prior to beginning our work, and we may require a short time upon completion to go over the findings. If you decide to have retrofit work done, you can expect anywhere from one day to two weeks depending on the work scope.

How much prep do I have to do?

There are 4 kinds of prep we require to conduct a home energy analysis:

  1. Providing access: We need to be able to open all the interior doors, close off the attic/basement, and inspect the mechanical systems and building structure.
  2. Eliminating hazards: Exotic birds must be moved off site during the test (low temperatures can affect a bird’s health); if you have a fireplace, you will need to empty the ashes and close the flue.
  3. Providing bills: For the best analysis of your property’s performance, we need copies of your water, gas, and electrical bills. If you are not comfortable giving us literal copies, we can provide you with a worksheet to fill out. These can also be made available simply by calling your utility company.
  4. If using an IR camera, we will have better results if the temperature difference between inside and outside are roughly 15 degrees. We may ask you to run you heater or A/C prior to our arrival in order to enhance the temps.

Will I have to clean and organize my attic or crawlspace?

To conduct the assessment, we just need decent access to get through the spaces and inspect the structure and mechanical systems.

What are the 5 most common problems keeping my HVAC system from delivering comfort?

1) The Duct System has Large Air Leaks.
2) The Duct System is Restricting Airflow.
3) The Wrong Sized Heating and Cooling Equipment was Installed.
4) The Heating or Cooling Equipment was Installed Incorrectly.
5) The House has Large Hidden Air Leaks which Create Hot or Cold Rooms.