NAPERVILLE HOME TRANSFORMATION

 Certain milestones have a built-in urgency—and there’s nothing quite like adding to your family’s number to generate some giddy-up.
Such was the case last year for Andrew Klemens of Naperville, as he was approaching an August wedding date and the corresponding move-in of his new wife Cindy and 14-year-old son, Alexander.

 For years, Klemens’ townhome had been a model of energy inefficiency. Especially on the second floor, it was swelteringly hot in the summer and intolerably cold in the winter ever since Klemens moved there in March 2007.
On 90-degree days in the summer, the upstairs would get about 20 degrees hotter than the first floor. During the winter months, the upstairs bedrooms were unlivable.

Into the picture entered EnergyMen, a Chicago-based home performance contracting firm.
With only four weeks remaining before the wedding, Klemens hired the company to conduct a whole house home performance assessment. EnergyMen inspected and analyzed the structure, depressurizing it to test for its “leakiness,” often the cause of comfort problems and energy waste.
A report featuring infrared thermographic images revealed the main problem areas, including the attic.

First providing an overview of various fix options and then working within Klemens’ budget, the company charted an improvement path that would give “the biggest bang for my buck,” said Klemens, a tax accountant and licensed CPA.

 “I noticed the impact of what they did the very day EnergyMen completed the project,” Klemens said. “I went upstairs and my house wasn’t hotter up there. It was remarkable—the change in just one day.”

With the arrival of winter, he is likewise noticing the change on the other end of the thermostat’s spectrum. “Now that I have had it done, I am amazed at the difference this winter compared to last.”

In 2009, when relatives visited over the holidays and stayed in two upstairs bedrooms, they each angled to get time with the single available space heater.
“There were two groups in those corner rooms fighting over the heater,” Klemens recalled. “One would get it before bedtime to heat up the room and the other would have it during bedtime. This year, nobody used the heater.”

“I got great service from these guys. Once I decided which improvements to make, with less than ten days before our wedding, they scheduled my project and completed a three-day job in two very long days,” Klemens said. “They went out of their way to accommodate my schedule.”

“After hearing them forecast the results of their work, I thought, `Well, if it does a little piece of what you’re describing, then I’ll be happy,’” he added. “What they did exceeded my expectations.”

Among other surprising findings, EnergyMen used thermographic imaging to reveal that cold air coming from the home’s windows was due to improper installation of the windows—and not stemming from any flaws with the windows themselves, as Klemens had assumed.
“That was probably the coolest thing that I learned,” Klemens recounted. “Instead of getting $10,000 worth of new windows, all I needed to do was address the flow of air coming from around the windows’ edges. I dealt with that on my own and put the money toward other work.”

After performing the upgrades, EnergyMen returned to conduct another analysis of the house. It revealed that excessive air flow—the primary force that causes discomfort in the winter—had been reduced well beyond Klemens’ expectations.

“Before, I kept the house cold in the winter. Now my wife has it at a steady 70 degrees and I’m paying the same price as last year,” Klemens said. “Certainly I’d be paying a lot more if I hadn’t taken these steps.”