Ecobeco

very informative report. found issues and proposed solutions

The audit went very smoothy and Eco Beco recommended a series of improvements (insulation, air sealing, and a heat pump replacement - the latter which we delayed until our existing unit failed about 1 year later), which did indeed result in substantial energy savings. They also returned and did a thorough follow-up audit after the improvements had been done by the contractor they recommended. We highly recommend Eco Beco for any such energy audit work you may need. We give them all A's except for responsiveness, which we downgrade just one level - though we suspect that was due to them being overwhelmed by the response to the Howard County free energy audit program and the expiring tax credits/rebates that were then approaching. We suspect responsiveness would be great during more "normal" times.

Ecobeco was fantastic. I first heard about them when they spoke at my neighborhood association meeting where they presented on the merits of doing an energy audit and that the bulk of the cost was covered by stimulus funds (and would cost us as the homeowner $100). Boy did I get my hundred dollars worth! I had an Ecobeco guy there for several hours, combing over all aspects of my home for safety and energy efficiency issues. About 10 days later I received a detailed report on the safety and energy issues, followed by a 30 minute call with the auditor to ask questions. The detailed 'hit list' of things to address in my house was much more comprehensive than the inspection that is typically associated with the purchase of a home. As a result of this, I highly recommend home purchasers do an energy audit in addition to the regular inspection. You learn SO much more about your future home and investment. Some of which you may choose to act on right away, and others serve as your To Do list for future action. I am slowly working my through several upgrades in my home (replacing the hot water heater with a high efficiency tankless, adding to the attic insultion). My experience of this firm is that they are real 'straight up folks' out there to provide a good service, and do a great job doing so. Get an energy audit done and have Ecobeco do it! You won't regret it.

Jim Singer performed the audit. Excellent technician and responsive on-site and afterwards by email/phone. Testing revealed air leaks along the basement joists and additional attic insulation was recommended - I hired Devere Insulation Co. (recommended by ecobeco) to seal and add insulation. My home was built in 1954, has plaster walls and storm windows. If/when the exterior siding is replaced, insulation will definitely be added then but is otherwise cost-prohibitive and undesirable to attempt insulating from the interior. The test-out failed; however, ecobeco and DeVere staff worked to find a solution, ultimately recommending replacing the water heater (which was only seven yrs old) with a sealed combustion unit and helped defray the cost. Once the new unit was installed, the test passed and the insulation and sealing work was approved for a PEPCO energy rebate.

I am in the service industry and was very impressed with ecobeco's service. They have a terrific call tracking and scheduling system - and great training of their staff - that I almost envy, as a business person. Everyone in ecobeco’s operation provided superior service, from my initial phone call to helping me with PEPCO and County rebates. I have a fairly complex old house and had no idea how involved the job would be nor did I anticipate the huge improvements to comfort I would have. Not to mention dollar savings on my energy costs. I was really impressed with everyone's knowledge and performance. Ecobeco staff are thorough, polite, on-time, excellent communicators, respectful of my home and property and careful to leave things in good condition.

I elected to hire Ecobeco after observing Mr Walder at local Environment / Green events. His presentations and audience exchanges demonstrated both his competence, and his willingness and capabilities for interacting and educating. He impressed me as caring for the environment as well as being professional in the inspection area. Mr Walder was very thorough in his long and comprehensive examination of our home. A side issue discovered during his examination led me to climb onto my roof and check the furnace / gas water heater exhaust vent outlet. I found the metal supporting the rain cap had deteriorated to the extent that the cap was partially restricting exhaust flow. I was able to fix this defect, as proven by Reuven returning (at no added cost) to retest the flue draw properties after my modifications. Thus, a very significant unexpected bonus of the Energy Audit was alerting me to eliminate a potentially very dangerous worsening situation. I am a research physical scientist and am long acquainted with the technologies, instruments, and computer protocols employed during this home energy efficiency audit. Mr Walder was quite competent to discuss and respond to my probing questions, without talking down to me. This gave me confidence that he knew what he was doing; not a tech trained to follow a menu and tick off boxes. Following the home examination, I received a detailed illustrated report with prioritized suggested actions listing estimated costs and savings for each action. There was then a follow-on phone consultation for any remaining questions or advice I needed. A very satisfying experience. When you have a home energy efficiency audit you will learn, in a prioritized listing, what can be done to reduce your energy usage, and estimates of resulting savings. You then will have the required documentation making improvements eligible for subsidies. This is win-win. If you go ahead with good payback energy conservation modifications, you save money, may have a more comfortable home, AND are contributing to helping our environment. The one complaint I had is delays in scheduling. In fairness, it was probably a very busy period for all good firms last winter.

The company did an extremely thorough analysis of the home. In fact, just by walking around with the individuals evaluating the home, I learned a lot more about my house and appliances. It was clear that they were both knowledgable and passionate about their business. After the work was performed, they created and delivered a full home energy audit. This ~15 page document was incredibly detailed and had a lot of useful and actionable information. I work in the commercial real estate business, and when showing the report to my coworkers they were all very impressed by the thoroughness and useful information. After the report, Ecobeco helped me identify programs through our local energy company and county to help pay for work on our house as a result of their energy audit. They were very helpful in guiding through the process, and when an unexpected hiccup occurred they went above and beyond to make sure that we received the appropriate credits based on how the programs had been set up. I am very grateful for their work. My house is better off, my energy bills have come down, and I was able to make the improvements for very affordable prices due to their efforts.

This was helpful beyond expectation. This is the first time in a long time that I feel like I'm seeing an actual return for taking care of my house. I didn't realize how much money I've been throwing away. Ecobeco showed up on time and the rep what he was going to do and why. The rep was friendly and very knowledgeable - and when he did not know the answer to a question, he told me so and offered to get back to me and also identified where I could get the info on my own if I wanted. I did have to go through and vacuum afterwards because they walked all over the house and left little leaf tracks. But they brought/wore surgical booties over their shoes for when they went in rooms with white carpets. Regarding the evaluation and possible improvement/renovations, we had some in the plans already, but we found out what the industry standards really mean, how to tell if contractors are lying/just giving us a sales pitch, and what we should really pay attention to when we order windows, siding, etc. As for what we have now - we were unwittingly living with a few money/energy hogs. Our old full sized freezer was using so much energy that our brand new one is going to pay for itself within three years! The best part was probably that the rep showed us all these subsidies that PEPCO will give us to make our house more efficient. We are essentially going to get free upgrades that are going to lower our energy bill. Can't beat that. Our energy bill seems to constantly go up, and PEPCO says we use more energy than our neighbors, even when we aren't home! Some of the problems the rep told us about are things that we can't do much about, but they are good to know. I just wish we had done this years ago - or that someone had done it when they built our house.

It went wonderfully. ECOBECO contacted all residents of our mutual by letter scheduling a tentative appointment. They the followed up on the appointed day with energy saving devices.

Jonathan was awesome. What stood out for me was how thorough he was, how much he knew about building codes and industry codes. He diagnosed a fairly large problem in our home, and gave us some very cost-effective remedies. He took his time with us. He didn?t make me feel that he had to rush off to another client. I felt that ecobeco was very communicative. The company followed my rebate (for remediation work), which saved me some headaches. I didn?t know about the Pepco rebate for home energy audits; I thought I would pay $400 for the service,but ecobeco told me that, as a Pepco customer, the charge would be only $100. I appreciated the company?s honesty. I refer them to everyone!!!

See above. Mr. Ferebee was extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and was a pleasure to deal with.

Jonathan Ferree performed a comprehensive energy audit that was quite thorough. It included everything from examining the front door and providing suggestions for weatherstripping, to examining the attic including its roof and 'floor', to appraising the age and condition of the major applicances, to conducting a door blower test to measure the degree of air leakage. Throughout the process, he had a number of practical, cost-effective solutions. He analyzied the information and sent a full energy audit report within a few weeks. The audit is also quite detailed, including recommendations with estimated costs and annual savings. Last but not least, Jonathan conducted a follow-up interview, with more information about a Pepco incentive program.I'm pleased with the entire process, with the report, and with the quality of the recommendations.

Process was efficient. Report was very informative. Staff was very professional and knowledgeable. We chose to follow-up with their recommended vendor to address most of the issues identified in the report.

Let me start out by saying that if you have been paying high energy/utility bills and don't know where the issues in your home lie then an energy audit completed by Ecobeco is for you. Over the last year and a half since I purchased my home I have been dealing with sky high bills and have been contemplating having an energy audit done. Like the saying goes, everything happens in due time. Unfortunately AND fortunately the time and opportunity to have an audit done (virtually) free of charge arrived. After perusing PEPCOs home energy star program and their affiliated providers list and Angie's list I decided that Ecobeco (don't you just love that name?) was the company for me. I contacted the company via their online site for an appointment and received a return phone call in about a day. The appointment times that were available fit my needs and they were very accommodating. I was asked to fill out a questionnaire which highlighted the issues/concerns that are in my home to allow the auditor the opportunity to gauge my home before his visit. Ecobeco even called to remind me of my appointment a day prior to them coming. On the day of my appointment the auditor was a tad early, but rang my doorbell at the exact time of my appointment. The auditor, Jonathan Ferree introduced himself, explained what he was going to be doing during his visit, reviewed my questionnaire and then he begun the energy audit. Jonathan was very good with making suggestions on improvements, answering questions and because of his personable and informative nature I didn't even realize that he had been in my home for about 3 hours. I was able to do things that I would do if Jonathan had not been in my home and because of the swift and concise nature in which he works I hardly noticed him at all. I am looking forward to my final report from Ecobeco so that I can make my home more energy efficient. I found the audit to be a very informative and wish I had done it sooner. However, now that the MEA- Maryland Energy Administration- is offering a $100 rebate I guess that the audit happened at just the right time. I was educated on energy, my home, and only had to fork over $100 which will be returned once my rebate is processed. So, this is truly a win-win situation as far as I am concerned. If you are thinking about doing an energy audit STOP THINKING and START DOING!

They contracted out the work. There was a rebate through Pepco, our energy supplier for which we paid $100 for the audit. It took about two and a half hours. They were very thorough. They recommended contractors to do our air sealing and insulation. That has all been done. There was also a Maryland Energy Administration rebate for the work, which made it much more affordable.

They were pretty highly rated on Angie’s list. They are pretty good. Their analysis was quite thorough. I thought their recommendation for the attic was little bit excessive because they wanted blowing insulation material up there. They took a little longer to come out and get the report done. It was supposed to be done within three weeks and it took almost a little more than a month. I think that they just had a lot of business and they were really busy. Their price was fine. I would use their service in the future too.

It was only $100 because it was subsidized by our energy company. It went well and they had some good recommendations. They seemed very thorough and the guy who came out seemed very knowledgeable and helpful.

ecobeco did a fantastic job for me. I took advantage of the PEPCO $100 audit, saving several hundred dollars right away. I called to book the audit, and there was a backlog by eight weeks, which was no problem for me. Many homeowners were trying to get the audit and work done before the $1500 Federal Energy Credit expired at the end of 2010. Cindy in scheduling was polite and efficient. She called to confirm several days before the audit and the two follow ups. Jonathan Feree came to do the audit. He was right on time.He was a true professional. He definitely knew what he was doing, and had a genuine interest in helping me make my home more energy efficient. He did a blower test, and then went floor-by-floor, room-by-room and into the attic with all of his gadgets. The blower test showed the house was leaking a lot of air. He checked the chimney, used the infrared camera to look into a few walls, took pictures, and generally did a very thorough job that took several hours. He than sat down with me to explain the general results, and I understood most of it. Rim joists and top plates are hard to imagine...but he showed me in my basement. He said he would send me the report in a few days via email, which he did. The report was impressive, 13 pages with pictures of my home and my lousy insulation, pointing out what changes I could do myself and recommendations for an insulation/air sealing company. He then called and we went over the report in great detail, until I understood everything. I had given him my permission to forward the report to a highly rated insulation company, and heard from them also. He also gave me links to apply for available rebates from the Maryland Energy Administration. He said ecobeco will handle the PEPCO rebate for me. I qualify for Property tax and Federal tax credits. (up to $250 for Montgomery County/ $500 for Federal on a percentage of cost of materials used). I decided to have (Energy Services Group) do the recommended air sealing/insulation. I did some weatherstripping on my own of some french doors, and put in a fireplace damper-sealing device called a Battic. ecobeco carries these in their online store, and I did notice a difference in some of the cold air coming from the fireplace. All of the exterior doors need new weatherstripping, the existing 23 year old stuff has had it. On my to do list. Also ordered a Battic for my dryer vent, which keeps cold air and critters out. My husband installed two new bathroom fans that more efficiently vented the bathrooms, hopefully preventing new mildew. A low flow shower head was recommended. Also my dishwasher is at the end of it's useful life..but that is going to wait. After the air sealing/insulation work was completed, I noticed quite a difference in the comfort level on all three floors of my home (including the basement).The cold/drafty areas in my bedrooms were gone, and the temperature went up 3 degrees in one very cold room. I am glad I am no longer heating and air conditioning my attic! The insulation R-factor went from R19 to R40 up there. I will soon receive my first electric bill since the work was done, and expect to see some savings. Jonathan came back out to follow up after the work was finished (in April 2011). He looked all over and checked off the changes that had been made. He always answered all of my questions. He is sending me a final test-out report so that I can apply for the rebates/tax credits. I highly recommend having a Home Energy Audit done by ecobeco. I am very impressed by them.

They were fine. They were good and efficient. They got it down on time. They came on time and left on time. They were pretty quick and did not leave a mess. I thought they were little bit expensive. Probably I would not do it again. It is one of those things you do ones in a lifetime. If I had to do it again I would look for someone less expensive.

They did a standard energy auditing. I guess they also offered some other services after they did the auditing; but we haven't done anything. We had mixed feelings regarding their work. We got some useful information; but we weren't that impressed with the guy who came out to do the work. He was trying to talk a little bit above my husband's head. He was kind of hard to communicate with. They do provide a fairly thorough evaluation of the energy problem related to your home. They are very thorough. The guy showed up late for the appointment and then apologized. I would probably not use them in the future.

I was very pleased with the audit. The auditor, Jonathan, was very personable, took the time to answer my tons of questions during the time he was at my home. The report was comprehensive and gave me a good blueprint to work from in increasing the energy efficiency and comfort of my home. I've already recommended Ecobeco to several friends and relatives.

We had been thinking about obtaining a home energy audit for a while, since some rooms were drafty and cold in winter which seemed to indicate that we did not have enough insulation. Also, we noticed that some stink bugs were getting into the house, so we figured there must be air leaks. With Pepco's promotion (they paid $300 out of the $400 for the audit), we decided to go ahead. Pepco lists a few companies that can do the audit, however, after looking through a few websites, we decided to go with ecobeco since they seemed very sincere. We are very very happy we chose them. Setting up the appointment was a breeze, they also email you a confirmation and ways to prepare for the audit. Jonathan Ferree did our audit, he was on time, very friendly and professional. He listened and took into consideration our reasons for conducting an audit and during the process, recommended things as well as pointed things out. He also suggested that he could forward the data he found to an insulation company before finishing the report so that we could get the work done promptly. The report was clear and concise, included photos, recommendations, and energy costs savings. We're enjoying the higher levels of comfort in our home (even through the >90 degree heat) and look forward to winter! We highly recommend ecobeco.

We went through a list of questions, he did a blower test, and inspected my appliances, windows, etc. Since my unit is pretty small and he had extra time, as a bonus he did the infrared camera as well to look for areas where I was losing the most heat (normally this costs extra). I was very happy with the experience overall.

It went well. Reuven contacted me the evening before the appointment to remind me and called when he was on the way. He informed me promptly that he would need to return later in the week to do one test because one piece of the equipment was not working. I agreed and he did return as promised. He explained things as he went and pointed out things. It was very useful and informative. The formal report restated what he told me during the inspection.

Curt Christenson arrived a few minutes early for our energy audit. He was unfazed by our boisterous dogs and had a cup of coffee while he explained the process. He conducted the audit professionally, explaining his actions and initial findings thoroughly and completely. He spent almost six hours with us as he crawled through the attic and under the house, demonstrated air leaks and showed us heat losses (with his infrared camera). We were VERY pleased with the comprehensiveness of his investigation. We received an e-mail copy of his report, followed by a hard copy. The report was easy to understand and follow. The firms that provided the cost estimates to fix the problems were named, so we could follow up with them for repairs.