RM: Is financing available?
LL: We offer financing when we explain payment options. We have a financing program that they can apply for ? and be approved ? right in the home. Many take that path.
RM: Why do you refer to them as “home assessments” rather than energy audits?
LL: We start with a customer interview. What’s important to them? What are they trying to improve? Building science can improve efficiency, comfort, indoor air quality, and durability of the home if there are moisture problems. We start with why they called us to begin with. Energy audits are about the home. We focus on the homeowner, and take our understanding of building science and apply it to the issues they’re trying to solve. If we weren’t aware of those, we might come at it from a purely energy-savings perspective.
RM: What’s the average length of time your WellHome adviser is in the home conducting initial tests?
LL: It could be two to five hours depending on what problems they have and the complexity of the house. Things like how many additions there have been to the home, things that could make even a small house complex. In all cases our people are BPI-accredited and following those protocols. They are doing zone testing and carbon monoxide testing. It’s very thorough and it can take them a long time
RM: What equipment do your technicians bring?
LL: Blower door fans, carbon monoxide sniffers, infrared cameras, smoke wands. Those are really important for the diagnostics and in helping the owner see where the problems are, with insulation problems especially. This is really a science, and that’s the reason we can offer a guarantee. Then we take the data, feed it into computer programs on a laptop to model the building and improvements, and come up with a price.
RM: What is your average job size?
LL: It can range from $2,000 to $20,000 plus. At the low end is air sealing and duct sealing. I don’t think we’ve had a home that didn’t need that. After that [come] insulation upgrades. And after that, HVAC upgrades and lighting upgrades.
RM: You guarantee energy savings for the first year. Isn’t that a little risky? Is anyone else doing that?
LL: There are some who guarantee heating and cooling load reduction. Not sure if anyone is doing a whole-home savings guarantee. You can see window ads that promise 74% improved efficiency. All that means is that the opening is 74% more efficient. That doesn’t translate to what’s happening with their energy bill. We’ve already done 135,000 homes on the builder side, so we applied that experience in creating the guarantee.
RM: How big does the home performance market look to you? How many homes are potential customers for retrofits like the one you’re offering, and what do you calculate as the dollar volume of home performance work?
LL: Here is how I describe it. First, think about the home improvements that go to make up home performance. It’s the bundle I just described: weatherization, HVAC upgrades, window change-outs, a lighting package, energy-efficient appliances. Add that up and you’re already at anywhere from $30 billion to $45 billion a year that’s spent by homeowners, depending on what you include on your list of products and services.
Consumers clearly have a need. They’re already spending the money. The key is getting them to take a whole-house approach in spending it. We figure that right now less than half a billion dollars is being spent via a whole-house approach. If you look at Home Performance with Energy Star data, that’s maybe 10,000 homes a year. But it’s growing and it’s clearly the smarter approach.
That has led to the Gold Star portion of the bill. These aren’t risky technologies. They’re all proven. Take air sealing and duct sealing. They’re the most cost-efficient improvements you could make. But how many homeowners would know to look for that in the Yellow Pages?
RM: Is this a trend, or a wave that will die down once the Home Star bill is passed?
LL: We at Masco have looked at it really hard and we believe it’s a permanent change or we wouldn’t be launching a national business to go at it. It’s going to take market awareness and players to service it. I mean reputable contractors in the market who will take the whole-home approach. The need for it exists.
It’s a matter of getting the word out. That’s why the Home Star legislation can be so powerful. It will jump-start the market and create that initial awareness.
