Advanced Home Energy

Lack of follow-up and they did not clean the mess they made in the fireplace. Thhey were much more interested in selling me unaffrdable and unrealistic products than providing a truly individualized report.

I was disappointed. It was a great idea but they tried to convince me. I don't think I purchased either things from them. They tried to tell me I needed all these extra insulation in the sub area. It was kind of an overprescription and pushing to sell. I wasn't happy about that. I ended up not paying more than the deal I purchased.

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It was okay but I wasn't blown away. They cleaned up well. They were personable. The left hand didn't always know what the right hand was doing. There were several different people that we talked to and in each case they weren't the ones we found next time. They were pretty responsive.

They came out and inspected our heating and cooling system, looked at our duct work, went into our attic, did a pressure test and some other tests. He explained every thing that he was doing and went over everything. He came back after they had processed all the data that they had taken in and explained everything and gave a very complete list of recommendations of things to improve our home energy usage. I was very, very pleased. We're going to be doing work with them to make those improvements.

I was expecting to get a rebate and I never did. And that's one of the reasons we did it because we thought we'd get mail and rebate. The experience was good. They called ahead. They were there when they said they'd be there. They were done when they said they'd be done. They did the job.

It was great. They were on time. They did exactly what they said they were going to do. They were very efficient with their work. I didn't look at anyone else because it was on Angie's List. They were very courteous, respectful and really good. I thought it was an awesome deal. I need to contact them to do the tune-up.

These guys were awesome!  We have been wanting to upgrade our home for a long time but just never seemed to get around to it. We got a letter from PG&E telling us about some rebates available for energy efficiency work.  We looked around and found several reputable contractors.  When Advanced Home Energy's auditor came out he spent 2 hours in our home walking around, talking and sitting down to really understand what we wanted to do.  He then gave me a proposal with pictures and information which was leaps and bounds above the hand scribbled estimate that we got from the other guys.  It wasn't a difficult decision to go with them, and it was definitely the right one.
They showed up promptly the day of the work.  It was raining that day and the guys were great about putting down tarps and wearing booties in the house (I didn't ask them, they just did it).  Jose, the main guy, let me know the plan and went over the scope again with me.  He and his crew were super nice and very professional.  They were in my house for two weeks doing all the upgrades.  It's construction, so there was definitely noise and disruption to the house, especially with the wall insulation where they drilled into the walls and pumped their insulation into the wall.  It was pretty neat to see the process.  Each day they cleaned up nicely and overall were very courteous and careful around the house.
The solar took a while longer to get installed.  A different team came a couple weeks later to install the system.  That went very quickly, only took a couple of days to install.  And now we finally have solar panels on our roof!  I haven't gone up on the roof to look at the work but our bills have gone to $15/month from around $125/month before.  I wasn't expecting such a big drop so I'm super happy about that.
Overall, great people and great company!

It's excellent.  They came in stages and explained what they have to offer and that person was really good; he answered all my questions.  The second day, they had the construction form and told me what to do.  He looked all over the place and he looked it over again; the salesperson too.  He was passing on the information to the other former construction to tell them what they were going to do.  The actual crew who came in were very open to what they were doing; open to the changes I was requested.  They were open to addressing my concerns but noise; that was what I really concerned about.  The same company came in to do the energy audit.  The third group; she was doing the rebates for me and I didn't have to do anything.  They're really on top of it all and the guy who does the billing; he's giving me breakdowns on what they're asking for payment.  It was halfway was 45 % and the other was another 45%.  All this groups are really specialized.  Everything they promised me; I got and it's really hard quality.  I like this quality.  They had my business.  They were very well-staffed and they're really top-notch.  They really know what they were doing.  It was just spontaneous and it was really nice.  The inspector was genuinely impressed on what he saw.  The inspector was quite meticulous.  They said they would be there and they were.  The office is only 5 minutes from my house so that really helps.  Everything they did was excellent.  Everything was placed nicely.  He put a lot of thought were the switches would be; the light fixtures would be.  It is functional and effective.   They're very reasonable.  They're very trustworthy.  They're legitimate.

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Windows Great A

Sealing and insulation caused problems in other areas D



Early on I complimented them for efficiency. Certainly the window work was excellent. However we suffered from disrupted telephone service. I paid $85 to Verizon to discover that the problem was with the house wiring. A good friend helped me to partially fix that and in the process discovered that while sealing and insulating the workers had disrupted some phone wires. Rubbed the insulation off the ductwork, knocked some 4x4s I had sitting on piers under the house onto the dirt and spilled some of the sealing material on the driveway. It seems to me that insulating the ductwork would have been a very practical thing to do instead of rubbing what was there off. Also insulating water pipes would have been a good idea. After these discoveries I've had repeated correspondence with them. Windows great! Energy efficiency questionable with the duct issue. Care in doing the job questionable.Given the experience I am reluctant to follow any of your suggestions.

Advanced Home Energy did a complete home efficiency upgrade to our house which was built in 1986 and was drafty, cold, and not energy efficient at all, as reflected in our PG&E bills.    It was a significant investment and therefore we were nervous about taking the plunge, but we are so happy that we did.
First, we met with Patty who conducted the initial evaluation of our home along with Blake, who evaluated the leakage of air in our home with a blower door test and the leakage of our ducts as well.  Within a couple of hours, Patty provided us with a very thorough report on all of the issues with our home and proposed solutions.  Over the next couple of weeks we considered the report, did some research, had several calls with Patty to both negotiate the scope of work and the price.   We felt absolutely no sales pressure throughout the process, which was refreshing.  
One of the recommendations that Patty made was to replace our old aluminum leaky windows with new efficient vinyl windows.  In doing our research on windows, we found a brand of window and price that we liked better from another vendor, but we were concerned that we would lose out on valuable rebates that AHE was processing for us as part of the package if we did not use AHE.  We discussed this with Patty, and she said "No problem!"  We agreed that we would use another vendor for the windows (Custom Exteriors in Pleasanton who I reviewed seperately) and that AHE would handle the processing of the rebates for this for no extra charge... awesome!
Next we were visited by Ramon, the construction manager, who came out and discussed the entire project with us, answered questions, and provided us with his personal contact information inviting us to reach out at any time if any issues came up at any point during the job. 
Once everything was agreed to, the job started.  The AHE crew that came to our house was led by a young, energetic and intelligent guy named Pavel.  He oversaw three other guys and they got right to work.  First they explained everything that was going to happen so we knew exactly what to expect.  Then, they did an exceptional job of putting down plastic and tarps to ensure that our home was protected from any mess.  Throughout the entire job, which went on for a couple weeks, they cleaned up every night and continually asked us if we were happy with how they were keeping things clean.  They also posted signs on the doors to remind everyone to keep the doors closed in order to avoid the escape of our cats.  Additionally, throughout the job, Pavel kept us up-to-date on what was going on.    For a couple of days we were without heat while they replaced our furnace and ducts, so they provided us with electric space heaters.
As we watched the work being done, it became very clear that the attention to detail was a priority for the crew.  Not only were they installing everything well, but making sure that it looked good and that we were happy with it.  There was no corner-cutting going on either on materials or time.   I never thought that I would be impressed by a furnace and duct work before this... but I tell you, the whole thing looks and works great.
Once the job was complete... between all of the air sealing, new windows, new ducts and a much quieter and efficient furnace, we are enjoying a much more comfortable home.    It's too early yet to see how much impact we are going to see on our PG&E bills, but we clearly are running the furnace much less than before and the temperature of the home is consistently comfortable throughout the day and night.
For people who are looking to upgrade the energy efficiency and comfort of their home, we can wholeheartedly recommend Advanced Home Energy based on the experience we have had with them.  

I didn't like the service. There was one person who was very helpful, but the people who came to my house and did the work were not what I was expecting. I was very disappointed. I felt like I was throwing away my money on this service. It took me about a month to get the report. The report was misleading and missing a lot of information based on the description on the Big Deal. I called and complained. I spoke to the account manager. She tried to rectify by sending a second report. She was extremely helpful. The second report was better, but still not matching the description. In the end, it was worthless for me. I also think they may have sold my email information because of the type of SPAM I'm getting now. The original appointment was easy to schedule. I got more information from the technician that came to my house than the report I was provided with.

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I purchased a big deal for this service.  It was okay except that their prices was not something that I wanted to purchase.  They did a report for me.  My handyman said a lot of the prices were really high. The $89 was for the proposal of what they would do.  They were fine.  There were two people who came out a woman and a man.  They were professional.  I can't remember anything being unpleasant.

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The technician Rahsan arrived and started the audit on the scheduled time. The auditor Patty came afterwards.  Both inspected the house wearing foot protectors to protect the carpet,
AHE was very courteous, very well organized and very knowledgeable.  It became very obvious they had alot of experience conducting audits.  At the end of the audit (lasted 3-4 hours), Patty made a presentation of AHE's recommendations with pictures, work scope, and approximate costs.  I will  use these recommendations to prioritize and schedule future work.
AHE did an excellent job and I highly recommend them for conducting energy audits.

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The service went well. They came out for a consultation, but I have not followed through on buying additional services from them. Both technicians who came out were very professional and well informed. They were very nice and came to the appointment on time. I had no issues with scheduling. I was very happy with the service, overall.

They didn’t complete the job. One of the guys was late and rushed through. It was not a comprehensive finished product. I felt it was a waste money. The price was good, but the work was so poor it wasn’t worth it. I have tried reaching them to get the work completed and they have not responded.

They did a good job with the audit and followed up with the report.  I felt like the audit was just a vehicle to sell me a large insulation job when I what I wanted was to focus on a number of smaller, low-hanging fruit jobs (e.g. air sealing leak points around pot lights and outlets).  Obviously that's a better business for them (more of my money), but less value to me.  They told me to "hire a handy man" for air sealing (I would prefer to have someone who knows what they are doing).  When I asked about payback on the larger job, they told me that if I was doing it to save cost, then it wouldn't be a good payback.  And the reason to do it would be comfort.  I think if your house had little or poor insulation in the attic or poor insulation around the pipes, then this would be a good fit.  For me, I think it would have been better to have someone with a thermal imaging camera identify points of loss and just fix those problem areas.

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