An Overlook resident shares her Hammer & Hand energy retrofit experience.
I recently chatted with Sara Goodwin, a Certified Residential Appraiser with 10+ years of experience, about her 1920’s home in North Portland and the recent home energy retrofit we performed for her through the Clean Energy Works Oregon program. Like many of our energy remodel clients, Sara owns an old Portland home that she adores. That home’s performance? Not so much.
“Our house is really simple,” Sara told me. “Everything about it is just thicker and sturdier feeling. I love old homes, but not their energy efficiency. I want to insure that this old house is worth enough to avoid the wrecking ball in the future. Before the retrofit the heat didn’t make it upstairs.”
Sara felt a marked improvement in the comfort of her home after the home energy retrofit.
“Hammer and Hand installed foam insulation in our attic, cellulose insulation in our walls, an external furnace intake, and an exhaust fan,” she said. “I didn’t notice the cold air drafts in the house until they were no longer present. The temperature upstairs is definitely closer to the rest of the house. The furnace isn’t kicking on as often. We turn down the thermostat much quicker now because the house warms up so fast.”
“I work out of the home much of the week and my partner does on average a day per week. I used to a have a space heater at my feet running constantly. I think it’s pretty close to breaking down from overuse, which is good because I don’t turn it on nearly as often as I used to.”
Sara noticed that heat was no longer escaping from her roof when one afternoon, during a spate of bad weather, she noticed that that her roof was the only roof in her neighborhood that still had hail on it.
“It was pretty amazing. That day I had been through several neighborhoods without noticing any hail on the ground or roofs.”
Would she recommend home performance process to others?
“I’ve recommended it to several friends and family, already,” said Sara. “I tell them about the immediate difference it has made in our utilities bills and the cozy feeling of our house.”
Check in later to read Sara’s thoughts about the appraisal industry and how it values home performance and other green building measures.
-Cody
Back to Field Notes