Warm
Keep heat in
Improving your home’s energy efficiency can have an added benefit that’s equally compelling: improving your home’s indoor air quality as well.
A comprehensive home energy audit with Penobscot Home Performance will include an analysis of your home’s indoor air quality and ventilation rates, and may include specific tests to ensure that toxins such as radon and carbon monoxide are not presenting a health hazard to you and your family.
During a home performance upgrade following the energy audit, we will work to ensure that indoor air quality issues stemming from such issues as mold and moisture are minimized, and that ventilation rates are adequate for your home.
We typically recommend installing one or more high quality bathroom fans to help deal with bulk moisture from showering. Oftentimes, a bathroom fan such as a Panasonic brand outfitted with a Smart Exhaust switch can provide the recommended amount of air exchanges ensuring your home’s air is fresh and healthy.
In addition to bathroom fans, we also install Heat Recovery Ventilators which remove moisture and indoor air pollution providing fresh air when natural ventilation is impractical. HRV’s work by exhausting stale indoor air while drawing in an equal amount of fresh outside air. They are energy efficient because they exchange the heat and can adjust the humidity of the incoming air with the outgoing air. We take care to space fresh-air intakes and exhaust vents far enough apart to prevent polluted exhaust air from being drawn back into the house through fresh air intakes.
The end result is a home that is more comfortable, more affordable to operate, and healthier and safer. A good investment? You bet.
Ice dams are a concern for many homeowners because not only can the weight of the growing ice dams cause damage to the eaves and shingles of a home, the pooling water can leak back into your home causing serious water damage.
What causes an ice dam?
Ice dams typically occur when the outside air falls below freezing and air leaks and/or lack of insulation cause heat to escape to your attic or knee wall, common in Cape style homes… The escaped heat warms the layer of snow closest to your roof causing it to melt. This melted snow runs down your roof to the un-insulated eaves where it refreezes. Over time, this ice will build up into a dam, making it impossible for the melting snow to run off your roof and pooling at the eaves instead.
Common causes of ice dams:
Our team specializes in putting all the pieces together and fixing the root causes of ice dams. How do we fix ice dams?
If you have ice dams there is most likely an issue with how well your attic or knee wall is insulated, how leaky that space is, and how well adjusted the ventilation is. This means that your home isn’t keeping heat inside the living portions of your home. Instead, air is making its way into the attic and out of your home. Ice dams are an indicator that your home needs insulation and air sealing.
We offer a free one hour home energy consult where our team of highly trained home performance professionals will not only investigate your ice dams but also identify other ways you can save energy and make your home more comfortable.
If you have ice dams, you can’t afford not to fix them. They can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage. If you have them then you are losing heat as well, which costs you money in the long run and makes your home drafty and uncomfortable.
Efficiency Maine offers up to $5,000 worth of rebates and there are many financing options available to help you address and get rid of ice dams for good. Additionally, a new program called EnergySmart Bangor offers Bangor residents an additional $100 rebate on top of the standard $400 air sealing rebate, and will pay ½ the cost of the Air Sealing with Assessment Program (ASA).*
As part of our continuing efforts to help our fellow Mainers save energy and lower their carbon emissions, we are offering the sale and installation of Nest® brand thermostats and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Nest products are a line of smart technology that are designed to help you save energy. It does this by learning your habits, such as when you’re awake or when you’re away from the house and automatically adjusts the energy usage in your home to optimize the comfort in your home when you’re most likely to feel it. These products are completely programmable from your smart phone so you never need to worry about whether or not you adjusted the heat before leaving the house. For more information on Nest’s capabilities, visit:
THERMOSTAT
https://nest.com/thermostat/meet-nest-thermostat/
SMOKE AND CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR