Home performance energy audit success

The energy audit was thorough, and included testing of the furnace (gas, forced air) and water heater (gas), examination of the walls with an infrared camera to determine current insulation levels, and a blower door test to determine how leaky the house was. Jeff is a certified tester and took his time doing a thorough job. He didn't seem to mind that I followed him around and watched (a very interesting process), and he explained what he was doing. He spent about 3 hours doing the audit. The audit confirmed much of what I suspected about our old house (1923, with additions from the 30s and 40s): the walls had no insulation, and the attic had very little. What had been installed by a previous owner was incorrectly done. There were many places where lots of air was leaking into the house. I took several weeks considering the insulation proposal. I was concerned about having foam put into our walls as I thought there would be risks of it expanding and cracking the plaster. I contacted one of the company's clients who had had this done previously, and did some research on the brand of foam that they used, and was reassured that there were not too many risks, and that they would fix them if cracks did appear. Once we had decided to go ahead, we were able to schedule the work within a week or so. The crews spent three days: 1/2 day to blow fiberglass into the attics, two days to prepare the walls for blowing in foam (removing siding, cutting holes) and blow it in and seal them up, and half a day taking care of miscellaneous air sealing measures. They did good work, and consulted with me about problems and decisions to be made along the way. They cleaned up after they were done and left things in good shape. The crew was a pleasure to work with. When it was done, Jeff Van Dyke came out to test and make sure the results were satisfactory. His office was very helpful about filling out the paperwork for Energy Trust incentive payments and figures for Federal Tax credits. A few weeks after I submitted Energy Trust paperwork, an inspector came out to check to make sure the work was done properly, and the inspection confirmed that it was. (We will receive about $2000 in Federal Tax credits and Energy Trust incentives.) There were a few problems in two areas where wall spaces bulged due to the foam, popping off the outlet covers in two places, and I called to have them resolve these problems. They sent out a drywall man who works for them (Emilio) to look at the problems and fix them. He did an excellent job, and returned things to their proper condition. It turned out that the foam had bulged the walls in just two small areas where they original construction had been poorly done. We didn't have any other issues in other areas. It is too soon to tell how the insulation will affect our energy use, but the comfort of our house has been improved significantly, and it retains heat for a longer time without the furnace coming on. We are glad to have this taken care of on our old home, and glad that it was done in an eco-friendly way. Green Energy Solutions was professional at all points of the process, they were easy to work with, and they responded to the few problems thoroughly. We are very happy with their work.