Design Consultations are Critical

for Both New Construction and Remodels

For those who need to meet the city of Santa Fe’s building code for efficiency or who wish to gain a New Mexico Sustainable Building Tax Credit, part of the HERS rating system requires that a certified auditor  inspect the home at key points during the building process to verify construction methods comply with rigorous guidelines.

In our work as home energy auditors we are often brought in to audit a home after construction is complete. Sadly we are there after the fact, finding all of the missed opportunities and deficiencies in construction practices that affect the building’s energy performance. At this point correcting the errors is costly and not correcting them adds to the long term cost of operating your home. Working with an energy auditor during the design stage will guarantee that the home meets strict industry standards.

There are a lot of interesting and innovative ideas out there for saving energy, but as we learned from the solar boom in the 1970s, a lot of seemingly great ideas don’t perform all that well in the long term. Today home energy professionals, like ENERGY SOLUTIONS NEW MEXICO llc, have the technical training and computer modeling technologies to evaluate these great ideas before they are field tested on your home.

Architects and builders often feel that they can provide the design service, but generally their advice is based upon personal experience, traditional practices, gut feelings or advice from other building professionals, not sound scientific analysis. A design consultation with a professional home energy consultant can help debunk the myths that lead to energy wasting building practices. In addition, a lot of new innovative methods are springing up to build more energy efficient houses. We network with energy professionals across the country, who are modeling and field testing these new ideas to weed out the ones which really work from the neat ideas that fall short.