Stellar Windows and Insulation

Two individuals came out and performed a very thorough home energy audit. A week later they followed up with a sales call to present the findings in the report and sell services to address the problems they observed. The sales call was very low pressure and presented a solution to the problems observed. We will perform some of the recommendations ourselves (swapping out CFL and LED lightbulbs) and allow Stellar to preform some of the recommendations regarding extra insulation, weather stripping and caulking. We had done a home energy audit in the past and the reports were fairly similar in the findings, the nice thing about Stallar was that they then gave me an alternative to deal with the findings rather than me having to chase down another contractor to deal with the findings.

I recently moved to CO after purchasing my house which was built in 1928. I was interested in reducing my energy costs and purchased an energy audit form Angie's Big Deal. Stellar called promptly and set up a date for the audit. The two women who performed the audit were extremely thorough and professional. They explained what they were finding and told me what their recommendations would be before they left. Then Mark contacted me for a review of the audit. He was also very informative and professional. Their recommendations are reasonable and they were helpful in helping me prioritize what would recoup the greatest energy savings.

They were great. They did exactly what they said, there were no extra charges. They were timely and good. They did a good job on the windows.

It went just fine. She showed up on time, was thorough and presented her report upon completion.

The energy auditors were professional and explained their findings in depth. The energy upgrade work consisted of insulation, duct work improvements, sealing leaks in walls and around windows, and testing energy use machines. They helped me get all the rebates for which I qualified for. Punctual and professional. They did reduce prices and charges when I assertively asked for this (rebating $99 for energy audit since they did audit and upgrades). I pays to go over the recommended services to be sure you get value for money.

My house had a really bad draft to the point that you could see the curtains on the windows moving. The guys showed up early in the morning, did their thing (promptly & efficiently) and was out mid afternoon. They were professional, honest (when asked how much would it be to replace the windows ) and very nice.

We started with an energy audit and that went well. The initial appointment went as described and I received a report along with some quotes to remediate some of the issues found in the audit. Most of the prices were fair but the attic insulation was ~35% higher than comparable quotes. I used Stellar for all the work except the attic insulation. Stellar is an Xcel Energy certified contractor, which is a required status of any contractors you use if you want to collect on any of the Xcel Energy rebates, but when it came to the attic insulation the money for the rebates would not have been nearly enough to cover the difference of price in services when compared to other companies. The Stellar crew that actually did the work, insulating two crawl spaces and air sealing the windows and vents in the entire house, was professional and friendly. All but one of the guys did a fantastic job but luckily the crew-chief was conscientious enough to follow-up and double-check everything, correcting the things his guy missed. I would use them again and would make sure to get at least one other quote.

They were able to come out the next day and give a quote. They were helpful and easy to work with so far. We were very satisfied with the price.

I had contracted Stellar to perform an insulation upgrade in one of my rental properties to help my tenants out on their energy bill and to prevent some wear on my furnace. I purchased one of their big deal coupons off of Angie's list for an $1100 attic insulation upgrade package. Stellar contacted me the same day I purchased the coupon to set up the attic inspection and I had them out by the end of the week to inspect the attic and put together the quote. I was talked into the optional air sealing package and though I personally haven't experienced it, my tenants have told me it has made a big difference in keeping the heat in. Though I also personally didn't meet with any of the contractors performing the work my tenants conveyed that they were very professional and did good work keeping everything clean. My only complaint about my experience would be that after the getting the quote and signing a contract it took them about a month to perform the work due to them being busy, though I can cut them some slack on that since it was around Christmas. Overall they performed good work and I would hire them again.

I was impressed by the professionalism and detail of my estimate. I did not go ahead with the work becuase I wanted to explore other options for solar and because I was not quite ready to make the financial investment in the work. Should I decide to go ahead with it, I would feel comfortable hiring this company to do the work.

Overall the experience went well, we were informed as to what they were looking for and we walked around with them to see for our selves on camera as to where we needed to focus our work. When done they came back and had the report and pictures of the troubled areas and what they recommended be done. Good experience overall. I recommended that you move all your breakable yourself. As they don't have time to do that. If you have pets keep them out of the way as doors will be opened at different times.

I thought the estimate was a little high overall, but I had already purchased a coupon from Angie's list so I pretty much had to use them, and didn't get other estimates to compare. I had two double-hung windows installed and a bit of trim work around them. The estimate was accurate and the time between the estimate and installation was about two weeks. The workers doing the install seemed to be expecting a simpler job when they showed up and balked a bit about having to do trim work as well. Nevertheless, the install proceeded quickly and the end result was quality work. The windows themselves are very good and the trimwork was relatively tight and sealed well. I would use Stellar again, but would remind installers that they should be eager to do the work and never appear to balk at additional items like trim work to be done.

Very friendly. They did a very extensive job. They were professional.

Overall, it was a very lengthy and frustrating experience, taking 4 weeks from the start date to complete the job. I understand that workers get delayed and that equipment fails, but it would've changed everything if there had been communication and responsiveness. Quite frankly, based on the experience, I don't trust the quality of the work, but don't know how to judge it, since I know nothing about insulation. According to Stellar, the test numbers improved by 800 points when they had finished insulating. I will say that our upstairs seems to maintain the heat better. Unfortunately, the net result of that is that the downstairs of our bi-level is colder, since the thermostat is upstairs and the heat kicks on less frequently, something I hadn't anticipated, and wished the sales rep would have mentioned as being a possible result of insulating the attic. We were told the job would take 2 days to complete and that they couldn't do it on a weekend, so since my husband and I couldn't take off work, we arranged to have our in-laws be here for the crew. The crew came out on time on Tuesday, but left at 2:30, saying that they were going to eat lunch and return with more materials. They never came back, and didn't bother to call. As an aside, my father-in-law commented that they were so disorganized while preparing everything and drilling the holes that they reminded him of the keystone cops. They came back on Wednesday, but still didn't finish, saying that someone would contact us for them to come back on Saturday, but by Friday night, we hadn't heard anything, so I called. The sales rep called back making a time for the next day at 8:00 am. By 9:30 they were't here and no phone call, so we called them; apparently there was some kind of emergency, so he told us they'd be here by 12:00. At 1:30 they weren't here, so we called again, and they did finally show up around 2:30. Unfortunately, the equipment didn't work, so they left and came back on Sunday. He told us they were finished, but I pointed out that they hadn't done the caulking around the baseboards and windows yet, which he was apparently unaware of (that part of the job was $450). He also told us that our furnace would have to be re-vented because the insulation changed the dynamics of the airflow in the house. He told us what parts to get and that he would come out to help us and to re-test for carbon monoxide, because they wanted to ensure safety. My husband arranged for him to come out the next evening, but he didn't show up or call. When we called, he arranged to come out the next night, but again didn't show and didn't call. That was on Tuesday. By Friday, nothing had happened, so we called the main office, who told us a part had been back ordered and we'd get a call when it came in. One week later, we still hadn't heard from anyone. We emailed the sales rep twice, with no reply, so I emailed the president of the company, complaining that a 2 day job was 3 weeks out with no plan for finishing it. He didn't respond to us, but we did suddenly get a call from the sales rep, saying that they would either come out and do the sealing, or take the money off the bill; we opted for the second. He said they would send someone out to take care of the furnace venting, but we would have to be charged. When I put up a stink about that, they offered to pay for the heating contractor to come out and do that part of the work, which they did do. The sales rep came out with the contractor, and I'm glad I had him fill out the paperwork for the government rebate, because I think I wouldn't have ever gotten that done otherwise; as it is, I'm having to work at getting them to send me a receipt, which has to accompany the paperwork. Oh, and when I called to put it on my credit card ($3200 mind you), she said I could, but they charge a 3% fee for that, which would've cost almost another $100 (my understanding is that they're not supposed to do that, either. My experience with merchant card agreements is that a merchant can give discounts for cash payments, but they can't charge a fee for credit card payments). So the check has cleared, but I had to call about the receipt, and no one's returned my call yet or sent it to me. :::UPDATE::: They came back out and assest everything. We ended up getting a new fernice and a new water heather which we paid for. They did some other things around the house that totally fixed our heating situation. He also inspected the insulation to make sure it was installed properly and he found it was. We were very happy with the level of customer service he gave us. They did a good job and we are really comfortable now. The reason why I am updating this review is because the provider that came out was new to the business and really was able to turn things around for the better.

The home energy audit was a good experience. I was working with the Denver Energy Challenge to get Denver rebates as well as Xcel rebates and after the audit, Stellar provided me with a bid for the cost of the insulation and air sealing improvements. As they were a Denver Energy Challenge approved contractor, they knew the work had to be completed by 12/31/12 to get any rebates. I signed the bid and faxed it to them around 12/7/12 and then waited to get a call back as to when we could schedule the work. A week passed by without any contact and I was getting antsy as with the holidays and the looming deadline, I was about to be up a creek if we didnt get the show on the road. Someone finally called me on the 14th or 15th to tell me the person doing the scheduling would call me in a couple of days (10 days later I still have received no call). Then he proceeded to tell me they couldnt get to me until the 2nd or 3rd week of January as they were completely booked up. I was not happy and felt like I had been strung along and possibly screwed out of getting anything done thanks to the late notice. So with 15 days left til the end of the year and the holidays to boot, I found a smaller company on the Denver Energy Challenge approved contractor list that gave me a $1000 cheaper bid than Stellar and also managed to get the job done immediately. Would I use this company again? Possibly, but I suspect I would check the smaller mom and pop companies first as they appear to be more up front with that they are able to do in the time frames proposed.

Technican that performed the audit was very nice and knowledgable.

The day of the audit, Pam and Vivienne phoned to say they hit a road block, and was there another direction they could go. They got to the house and began the audit promptly. They started in the crawl space and the house simultaneously, as their were 2 of them, checking lights (lightbulbs), and crawlspace insulation. Then, they set up the whole house vacuum fan to check for air leakage. During the audit process they also used infared scanning to check insulation, hot/cold spots, and water leakage. They seemed to be knowledgeable in their field of work and were very quick to respond in phone correspondence. If need be we would hire them again. They were easy to work with and answered our questions satisfactorily.

They were very professional and appeared to be knowledgable. During the entire process they kept us informed on what they were doing and when they came back to present the results they took the time to educate us on what each component meant. After reviewing there were a couple of items of follow up which they did timely. I rated b on quality only because I am not knowledgable enough to know. And the issue on punctuality was generally out of their control (unexpected road work). Didn't seem to have the tools (GPS or map) to work around the issue. In reviewing the proposal they were not pushy and it was presented in the context of the savings that might be generated (based on the Xcel Audit tool). Overall, a good experience.

First off, I want to start this review by saying that any criticisms should not be read as conveying a negative tone because overall I think the company did a very good job, but there were a few deficiencies as well. I was first turned on to Stellar through a deal on Angie's List for an energy audit. Since we had just bought an older home it seemed prudent to see what type of shape it was in and to determine what improvements needed to be made. So I bought the deal in mid June, and called them a few days later to schedule the audit (they apologized for not calling me first - this would be a recurring issue over the following months). The general manager Mark came out to our house and did the audit. I had to be proactive once more to schedule the follow up meeting to go over the audit results, and ended up doing so about a month after actually purchasing the deal. By early August we had agreed on the scope of work to be done and scheduled a couple of days to have all of the work done. Marion and his crew were great and did a very good job. The job was supposed to take just two consecutive days, however, it was not until over a month later (and MANY phone calls to the company) that the job was actually finished. First off, when the work crew showed up they discovered that an entire attic in our house had been missed in the audit because there was no access to it. This meant that they had to cut a hole in the ceiling in order to get in there and blow insulation. The company covered the cost of repairing and restoring the ceiling, but that took a bit of haggling too. As the crew was wrapping up I asked them about the Aeroseal vent sealing that was in our scope of work and I was told that that was done by a different sub-contractor. Well, this was the first I heard of this. Here I thought EVERYTHING would be done in 2 days and at the end of the 3rd day I discovered that there would need to be another crew to schedule, so more time off work, etc. Needless to say, it was not the most convenient development. While I hoped to get this done quickly after a few more phone calls/weeks, I was told that the Aeroseal contractor they use up and left the state without notifying their clients and that they were in the process of negotiating with a new company. I understand that this was a unique circumstance, but at the same time the transparency in communication was not there. It was the little things like calling on a Monday, being told I would be contacted by Wednesday, then having to call on Friday because I had not heard anything only to find out the deal still wasn't done. Even if there is no progress and you say you're going to call on Wednesday, call then and let me know there was no progress. There were A LOT of little instances like that by both phone and email. Well we finally got the Aeroseal folks out, and then the Stellar crew came back out to finish up a few small things and do their final check. In summation, my opinion is this: I am very satisfied with the quality of the actual work done. I think the crews did a wonderful job and it has made a markedly noticeable difference in our house. However, I was not satisfied with the pace/transparency of communication, the fact that I needed to be VERY proactive in order to get answers, or the total time to completion for the job. Even when the job was done it took longer than necessary to get a correct invoice. I would think that would be the MOST efficient part of any business. (I will say, that Stellar certainly did recognize that we experienced several inconveniences during this entire process and gave us several generous breaks on our bill.) To their credit, when I did talk to anyone about any of the above, they were very friendly and I got the sense that there might have been some massive transition in their office that explains the disorganization. I would certainly recommend others to use Stellar for home efficiency improvements, however, just be prepared to be proactive when it comes to communication, scheduling, etc.

I had the energy audit done and we reviewed it. Then I contacted the company to do the work as outlined on the energy audit. We scheduled the work and the workers showed up on time on the date schedule. They completed the work then I received an invoice. I was visited by the General Manager to review the work accomplished and to submit a rebate request to Xcel Energy.

Overall, we were pleased with the service. They were knowledgeable, personable and accommodating, even after the power went out on the block right before a critical piece of the audit. They were able to reschedule to complete the audit within a couple of days. Our only complaint was that they indicated that the report would be completed within two weeks, but it was nearly three weeks before we finally called for a status update and all of a sudden the report was done and ready for review. That part felt a little bit odd, but they were prompt again to schedule a time to review the report, and when they arrived, the review was thorough and comprehensive. We were able to ask questions and receive thoughtful answers. I appreciated that they provided estimates for Stellar to complete the work, and although we are still making decisions about the work we'd like to have completed, I felt like we have all the information we need to make good choices. We were pleased with their work.

Marion was the crew leader and each day appraised me of work that was being done. The crew was extremely curtious, hard working and cleaned up after each days work for a total of 5 days. All my questions were answered and the crew worked well around my schedule. We have had a lot of work done in this house over the past 17 years and this crew was by far the best in tackling problems and solving them. We have recommended Stellar to our neighbors and would call them again if any unforseen issues come up. Our Excel energy bill has substantially been reduced and we noticed this summer how much better the AC was able to keep this 5600 square foot home cooled.

I called them on a Friday and they were out the following Monday. I was impressed with how quickly they came out and got the report to me.

Kristian, one of the owners called me to let me know who was showing up for the job and when they would arrive. The project manager, Marion was terrific and took his time. When they couldn't finish in one day, they immediately called to find a conveniet time to complete the work. The two other guys on the job, Harrison and Troy worked incredibly hard to get the job done right. I would highly recommend Stellar.

Initial window measurement was incorrect and custom window did not fit at time of scheduled installation. 6 + weeks for the customized windows to finally be installed. General manager, Kristian, is very professional and was apologetic for the error and he followed through on subsequent dates. Window installers were efficient, pleasant, and thorough in their clean up. Would definitely use this company's services again.