Contractor Profiles: Dave Robinson

Dave Robinson of Renaissance Inc., a home improvement contractor in Fresno, knew that his customers could reduce their energy use and save money by participating in the Green Home Energy Upgrade program, but even he was surprised by the savings from one particular project.

“The unusual part was how great the savings were compared to how little work we did to achieve the savings,” said Dave. “I think there is a niche of homes that fit this category that may be worth studying for a specific marketing approach. I’d be interested to hear if others have had similar experiences with this type of project.”

The Story in a Nutshell
In August 2006 the call came in from a friend of a friend who had just moved into a new 2,700 square foot semi-custom tract home. They had paid extra for all the energy upgrades, but their July bill had been over $800.00 so they were upset. Dave performed the typical diagnostics, along with the Enalasys Charge Test to ensure that the air conditioner was properly installed. read more...

The evaluation revealed a wealth of issues to address:

• Forty-four unsealed can lights, all incandescent and some left on in the middle of the day
• Five ceiling fans, all on at the time of the interview
• A pool pump running six hours per day
• R-38 CertainTeed Attic insulation, with poor coverage at eaves near ducts and vents
• R-4.2 ducts strapped high in the attic above the insulation
• Poor and non-existent duct sealing
• Really bad knee wall application, with lots of drywall showing
• Thermal bypasses at columns, arches, entertainment centers, and
  fireplaces
• Undercharge on both 2.5 ton air conditioner units
• High static pressure (.79 and .82) on each unit
• Cold air blowing out of the improperly installed condensate drain
• Clothes washing and dishwashing done without avoiding peak electricity use hours
• Two plasma televisions running mid-day at the time of interview
• Several deficiencies identified by the infrared evaluation

A Surprising Meeting
Dave wanted to avoid conflict with the builder of this 11-month-old home, but after he delivered his report to the homeowners, contact became inevitable.

“Sure enough, they took my report, complete with photos of all the deficiencies, straight to the builder,” said Dave. The builder called and wanted a meeting with me in their office. “I wasn’t sure if they were going to be defensive or cooperative.”

Dave’s hesitancy to meet turned around quickly when the builder negotiated with him to fix not only that home, but also to provide basic repairs on 28 other homes in the tract.

“The builder was a rookie tract builder and had gotten caught up in the craziness of the last building boom. Using the cheapest subs, along with poor supervision, was his recipe for disaster,” said Dave.

A Collaborative Remediation
“You’ve heard it said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear,” said Dave. “That huge utility bill got the students ready. When they called for help, I showed up with my comprehensive list of recommendations.”

Here’s what was done to lower the energy bill at that first house:

• By the following day, the owner had changed out the 44 lights to CFLs
• The family started turning off lights, televisions, and ceiling fans
  The owners reduced the pool motor use from six to four hours a day
• Clothes and dish washing was planned, rather than random.
• The insulation subcontractor agreed to came back and cover all the drywall at the kneewalls and addressed most of the thermal bypasses
• The air conditioner subcontractor was out of business, so Renaissance was retained to charge both units properly
• One new return was added
• Ducts, plenums, and coils were sealed
• Condensates were re-run with the correct traps

The job was a joint effort with the builder, the homeowner, and Renaissance. Renaissance performed the work, with the builder paying about $1,000, and the homeowner paying $1,800. The insulation sub repaired the insulation at no additional cost.

The HVAC sub was out of business so the builder paid Renaissance to do the duct sealing and AC tune-up. The owner paid for duct renovation that the original contractor didn’t cover, such as the new return.

The Results: Happy Customers
After a year, Dave ran into that customer by chance and was understandably interested to hear about his summer bills. The customer said this summer’s high was $300, with the other summer months at $250.

“I was relieved and surprised that we had achieved that great a savings with the small amount of work that we had done,” said Dave.

The changes were a result of repairs, lifestyle coaching, and the motivational shock of the previous July’s bill. Dave believes that the family’s “behavior modification” was an essential part of achieving such a high level of savings. “The homeowners showed their desire to do their part by immediately replacing all the incandescent bulbs, and this level of motivation carried over into the rest of the family’s habits, such as turning off lights and fans and wiser washing and drying.”

Incredibly, even greater savings could have been achieved. “The home still has its long R 4.2 ducts and the cheapest 12 SEER unit available,” said Dave.

Still, he understands why his clients stopped where they did. “This customer is very happy and unwilling to upgrade the rest of the almost-new system. Like many of his neighbors, getting into the new home had financially stretched them to the max, so they are going to live with the equipment and ducts now that our basic retrofit has made the utility bills livable.”

And he’s also confident that the end of the job wasn’t the end of his association with that client. “Our company didn’t make a lot of money on such a small amount of work, but we will definitely be the ones they call when it’s time to upgrade, and also the ones they’ll refer.”

As for the other 27 homeowners in the subdivision, the builder alerted them that Renaissance would be contacting them to address some deficiencies in the original work. About half of them invited Renaissance to do the repairs, and the other half either didn’t reply or said they were satisfied with the systems as they were. So Renaissance took care of duct sealing and tested refrigerant charges in about half of those homes, and the builder paid for that work. As a result, the builder was able to make good on his earlier mistakes, Renaissance was able to expand its customer base, and the original homeowner and half of the others in the subdivision will benefit from increased energy efficiency and cost savings.

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