WellHome of Harrisburg

We contacted several contractors in late summer of 2011 to get quotes for making our home more energy efficient. We were required to get a home energy audit, make recommended improvements, and demonstrate a 25% reduction in our HERS (home energy rating system) number for a loan program. We decided on Wellhome because of a low guesstimate for the work of $5000 and our positive impression of the estimator and manager, Leslie. Wellhome was also an approved auditor/ contactor with the MetEd energy rebates, so we anticipated receiving some of our money back through our power company. The Wellhome workers that I met and who worked on our house seemed like nice, conscientious people. Once I eventually met Dan Putt, the person in charge, he also seemed like a nice guy. And our home IS more energy efficient now. But this company did not, in its interactions with me, seem competent. I was forced to become general contractor for a bunch of subcontractors because of a lack of communication and oversight from Wellhome. I was charged much more than I anticipated and had been led to believe based on both rough quotes and specific quotes (like for the windows). I was delayed and inconvenienced by late paperwork, and I also received none of a rebate that should have saved us substantial money, and I can only guess that this was due to incompetent completion of paperwork. Here are more details on the various problems we encountered: First, we were dependent on Wellhome for completing and sending various sorts of paperwork for our loan. We had to delay other contractors several times because of Wellhome had not yet completed their part of the paperwork. Second, this delay ended up pushing us against a hard deadline that seriously limited our ability to negotiate. Leslie initially quoted me a price of $4074 for new storm windows, but ended up changing the quoted price to $5370 once we were against our hard deadline. She claimed she had used the wrong price list for the initial quote, but it certainly seemed unfair. Third, the final price ended up being MUCH more than the rough estimate we started with. Certainly, the rough estimate was given to use before the blower-door test that showed how much energy savings we were going to need to meet our 25% HERS benchmark. However, there is a HUGE difference between a rough estimate of 5000 and 12,000, which is what we ended up having to spend. Fourth, the company subsequently merged with another company and eliminated Leslie?s position, at which point there no longer seemed to be anyone in charge of our project. Nominally, we had a new person in charge of us?Dan Putt?but we never met him until the work was totally completed. Various contractors and subcontractors started showing up at our house and they were never sure what they were supposed to be doing. There seemed to be no one in charge directing the work going on in our house. I ended up having to play general contractor with no knowledge of the field. Fifth, once all the work was done, we began working on getting our MetEd rebate. Wellhome's participation in this program was part of why we chose them to do the work. MetEd was offering the following rebates: $150 for test-in energy audit, $150 for test-out energy audit, and up to $900 for qualifying improvements based on energy savings. Though the work was completed in January, when I didn?t receive a rebate by May, I began contacting MetEd. It became clear in August that they had not received all the necessary paperwork from Wellhome, and it took repeated emails and calls to get that paperwork completed and turned in. Though we finally received the rebates for test-in and test-out, MetEd said that the paperwork submitted by Wellhome showed no energy savings in our home, so we received none of the potential $900 rebate. I had been told ahead of time that MetEd?s system for calculating savings was a bit strange, and that we shouldn?t expect to get the full $900. I understood that. But it?s very strange that after spending over $12,000 on insulation and windows, the paperwork completed by Wellhome failed to demonstrate ANY energy savings. Because I can feel that our home is more efficient now, I can only attribute this to a failure to properly complete MetEd?s paperwork.

They were very good. We have an issue with the water heated but that is not their fault. It is a problem with the manufacturer.

They did really good. They were prompt. They did what they said they would do. They did an energy efficiency audit prior to that and gave different option as to what services they could provide. We chose the package we wanted. They did it and did it well.