I ran a Home Performance Assessment call yesterday (you may call them Energy Audits) and the technician doing the testing noted that his company had replaced the furnace within the last year with a top of the line high efficiency model. He asked me if he should check to see if it was going to be properly sized after any sealing and insulating the customer might be choosing to do.
That was an interesting question. When the homeowner replaced the furnace last season I know the sales person did a load calculation (it’s required for permits) and so I was confident it was sized correctly for the house’s heat lossthen but would it be oversized after sealing and insulating? If it were, would it be oversized enough to cause problems such as short cycling on the high limit or excessively high temperature swings? If yes, how would we explain this to the customer? “Well, sir, we weren’t aware that sealing and insulating was a proper thing to do last year.” Or how about, “We forgot to mention it was a good idea.” That would be an awkward moment.
Maybe this isn’t a big problem right now but it’s going to be. Homeowners are learning that sealing and insulating is the right thing to do and that it may save more money and provide more comfort than replacing the equipment can. Or they might find out after we replace equipment.
Clearly the right thing to do, the only thing to do, is to make sure we offer home performance remedies every time we replace equipment. Doesn’t that make sense?