NORTHWEST INFRARED

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This was a wonderful experience. We had questions of what to do to our house and to see if new windows/ a new wood stove/ replacement of our water heater would improve the heat in our house, make it more efficient, and reduce our carbon footprint.
Brent was great to work with for all these issues. What seemed like good ideas proved to be quite ineffictive, expensive and not fulfillng the goals we wished to accomplish. He dealt with each one individually. He explained each issue clearly to us in our language. It was obvious he has great experience in this area. He was very accomodating working around our schedule and around us being present in the house, including the dog and several children.
We got his report in less than 24 hours. He had several cheap solutions and identified one area needing further insulation which would be the only major cost, although not much in the greater scheme of things. We saved an enormous amount of money and effort in what would have been fruitless changes.

Brent is the consummate professional -- he understands exactly how the thermodynamics of a house behaves and is a wealth of information about airflow, heating and cooling. Using an infrared gun and an airflow tester, he walks around the house with you and gives you an immediate view of where you are losing heat, and what can be done to remedy airflow and heat loss problems.
The best part about the experience is that Brent has no monetary stake in the repair of your house -- he isn't trying to sell you anything. Once the audit is complete, he can recommend reputable contractors in the area who can do the work. I'm in the process of working with one of the companies he recommended (Vesta) and so far, they share his professional and expert approach.
Brent follows up almost immediately with a detailed written report, with photos from the infrared camera, and makes suggestions of what should be fixed. He even suggests things you can do yourself, so you can save money. Best $300 bucks I've spent, as I know it will help me save money in the long term.

My wife and I were very pleased with Brent's visit. Not only did he do the work performed as expected, but he answered a lot of energy related questions we had (such as tankless hot water heaters, the value of duct cleaning, fireplace efficiency, etc..). The whole visit lasted about two hours.

Brent said our 1999 built house rated high in efficiency based on his readings, but we did have a few areas that Brent said we could improve. All were easy to do, and will likely cost less than $50 (and some of my time) to implement.

Overall we're very happy with Brent's service, expertise, and friendliness. We will recommend his services to our friends.

We had been interested in having an energy evaluation done for some time, but just had not gotten around to locating someone to do it. When we realized we were going to need a roof and possibly add more insulation to our attic, we thought this would be the best time to have the audit done before we contracted for a roof. This was money very well spent! When we found Brent on Angie's List, we were impressed that his reviews were all great, so we decided to give him a call, even though he works from Olympia and we live northeast of Seattle. Right away, over the telephone, we felt comfortable talking with him. It was no problem for him to travel up to our location, as he was scheduling more than one evaluation in the area. Once he knew when he would be in our area, he called and asked if the date and time would be suitable to us. On the day of our appointment, he was able to come even earlier than scheduled, and called ahead that morning to ask if that was OK.

The first thing we did when he arrived was to tour the outside of the house, looking at the chimney (about which he had some suggestions for keeping it in good condition), the siding, and the visible part of the roof. He was a fountain of information about various things we might want to consider, such as the type and amount of insulation we would want in the attic. Next, we toured the inside so he could see the layout, the location of the furnace and the heating vents. Once he started his evaluation, we followed him around from room to room, asking questions and getting wonderful information on what we could do to control air leaks, how to deal with the two fireplaces, and what to do about the leaks we found in the ducts at the furnace. He made his explanations simple and easy to understand.

Now, with his report in hand, and with the suggestions he made, both while he was here and in his report, we have good solid information to help us fix our air leaks and make our home comfortable- without resorting to buying new windows or otherwise investing in things that would not be so cost effective. We only wish we had known about doing this before we remodeled our house back in 2006! Thank you, Brent, for your help!

They only focused on determining what areas of the house were leaking energy and were able to identify that within the house. They took remedial action to correct the problem. I would use them again in the future.

When Brent arrived he asked that I "shadow" him throughout the inspection and ask questions. We started with a walk around the house looking at siding, windows, gutters, downspouts, and soffits looking for signs of water, rot, or any other defect. We then proceeded into the crawlspace and he inspected duct/pipe insulation, floor insulation, venting, and duct installation. He noticed the crawl space was dry (good) but warm. This indicated that some there was some ducting heat loss. He identified causes and recommended solutions. Next we moved into the attic space. There he looked for water infiltration, vent installation, any signs of defective installation or damage and of course insulation. He pointed out where additional insulation was needed. We then went inside the house and he set up the blower door and depressurized the house and measured the amount of air infiltration. With the blower running he took his infrared camera and checked all the ceilings, exterior walls, wall to ceiling, and wall to floor connections. He pointed out the significance of the various colors on the scan and where heat was escaping and cold air infiltrating. He pointed out cold spots which could be fixed like around can light, electrical outlets, etc. He also pointed out which couldn’t be fixed like ceiling to wall and ceiling to floor connections where there was all wood to wood connections with no opportunity to insulate. He also explained the relative importance of each. He covered all the surfaces and explained what he saw and where improvements could be made. I found the whole experience to be very informative. Brent was great to work with and provided a wealth of knowledge. He comes with some very sophisticated equipment and knows how to use it. Most of all I discovered to my surprise that my home was very well built and performs much better that average. Also, the things he found are very inexpensive to correct and can be done by me. This service confirmed that I did NOT need a new $50K set of windows or $500.00 worth of duct cleaning. This service is worth every penny and I recommend every home have it done by Northwest Infrared.

Brent utilized his thermography equipment to identify heat loss throughout our 1975 tri level home. He was punctual, professional, and thorough. My husband walked through our house with Brent who readily shared what he was seeing through his camera lens and what it meant to us regarding heat loss areas in our house. Brent then followed up the next day with a full written report and pictures which we utilized to obtain quotes from insulation companies to update/replace insulation and accomplish ductwork and venting issues to bring our house up to current code. Without Brent's information, many of the areas that needed insulation would have been missed by the contractor.

I've created a video which shows the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijvEtjluFA This is the single best upgrade I have done to my house.