As part of the new era on energy conservation, one way to save energy and money is to have us work with you in the early stages of planning and design along with your architect and home builder.  As Certified Energy Advisors, we work with all parties involved to help optimize your homes energy efficiency from plan design, to mechanical and indoor air quality.  The earlier we are brought into a project the better.  As design is a critical component, orientation, construction, and overall design have a tremendous effect on a homes overall performance.  By having us review the early design plans, we can provide feedback on how best to improve the overall performance.

However, we are often brought into the project a little later.  In these cases we provide feedback on how well the home will perform.  In these cases, often the house plan is complete and there is not much room for design changes. When this is the case we can still provide a plan review, and with the plan review we provide option on how to increase the overall performance - however, because the plan is complete - there is less room for upgrades - mostly in building envelope or with upgraded mechanical. We endeavour to provide you the client with the necessary feedback so that you can make informed choices on how to increase the performance of your house in a way that meets your budget.

What this plan review does not do is promise that you will meet any of the desired program requirements such as Built Green, PowerSmart, Energystar or LEED for Homes. We only provide unbiased feedback on your home plan that includes the building envelope and mechanical systems as you have explained it to us. 

Deliverable:

We provide a 1-2 page report on the home as proposed. A 'base case' - as it is designed. With this report we provide an 'upgrade strategy' on how to increase the overall performance of the home.  This is only a 'suggested' plan and it is up to the client to implement the suggestions.

The plan provides an Energuide number for the base case and the 'potential' Energuide number if the suggested upgrades are implemented.  We do not promise any Energuide numbers without a plan review.  We are often asked "what do you think this house will achieve" and we try to provide some feedback - but until the plan review is completed any feedback is purely speculation.  We have completed over 1000 plan reviews and over 3000 air leakage tests and we have a good idea - but the proof is in the numbers. 

We will gladly work with you to review the plan through a number of iterations to get the Energuide for New House value to where you the client would like it - however this service is not part of the base price unless otherwise specified.  We charge at an hourly rate to provide sample upgrade scenarios.

See the following plan review for a sample >>