PA016770

	You get what you pay for. . . . . . every once in a while!
	Here, you can learn what is available in the audit market, and a little bit about audit lingo. What might be important to you is understanding no auditor ever walked through a bank and completed an accurate audit without collecting data, and no auditor ever protected that bank well by only looking at the inside forces at play in the bank. A good bank auditor looks at a bank in detail from the inside AND in the context of the financial world. The same is true for a good home energy auditor.  Anything but a thorough approach to a Home Energy audit is of no use to someone paying hard earned money for an audit.
	Walk Through Some “auditors”, trained, or not, will come into your property and “walk through” while trying to convince you they represent a value because they charge less money.  Don’t buy into it.  It does not take training to peek in your attic and see there is room for more insulation.  It does take training and a full audit to identify circumstances which could make that added insulation a waste of your money or a hazard to your health.  Further, a full and rigorous audit regimen when followed will deliver you a better shot at truly lowering your energy expenses and emissions with payback.    BPI Audit The Building Performance Institute certifies professionals as Building Analysts NOT as auditors. An auditor with a BPI certificate will come into a building and is required to obtain about only 60% of the testing and data collection which we may presently take. The BPI required data collection process will generally ensure your home combustion appliances are safe, and will look at your energy use. An auditor who tells you he is going to spend 2-3 hours on site is likely someone following only a BPI protocol. RESNET Audit A RESNET Rater is required to take as much energy information as is required to accurately give your home a HERS SCORE and to give you some choices about lowering your energy costs. An auditor following a RESNET only protocol might also take 2-3 hours. PA Home Energy Audit HOMETOWN GREEN is an Energy Star partner and a PA Home Energy service provider. A PA Home Energy service provider does much more than just an audit: and with reason. A PA Home Energy Auditor is required to be both BPI and RESNET Certified and is required to submit his audited buildings to PA HOME ENERGY, a third party organization which checks our work and acts as a quality control assurance for you. Often after an audit an auditor will recommend work be done for energy or safety reasons. This type of work is often called Home Performance Contracting. Beyond monitoring our auditing, PA HOME ENERGY audits the entire home performance contract. Such a contract is followed by our testing the building when we are through. For value, for peace of mind, for a validation of results, there is nothing offered in Pennsylvania that can even come close to a PA Home Energy service provider for a thorough audit. Hometown Green counts itself as being among the best PA Home Energy has to offer.  Home Performance with Energy Star PA Home Energy is the locally sponsored Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. A national program from the U.S. EPA and U.S. DOE that offers a comprehensive, whole house approach to improving energy efficiency and comfort at home, while helping to protect the environment. A drafty home, rooms that are too hot or too cold, and high energy bills are all common issues for homeowners. Installing a new heating or air conditioning system, buying replacement windows, or adding more insulation may fix part of the problem. But the way to better results is through an integrated "whole-house" approach that looks at your house as a system.