How many lightbulbs does it take to change an intern?
So I'm still plugging along on those Green Audit handout folders. They're almost done.
However, the real exciting thing today was going on a final inspection. I got to work early (8) and headed down to Springfield (~30 minutes) with Jonathan, one of our energy auditors. We went to three houses, actually, all around a little intersection in Springfield. The first house was a Final Inspection for EnergyStar. That means, the house is pretty much done, and all we're doing is running tests to make sure everything's in order, as well as installing compact fluorescents in all the light fixtures. Jonathan did the tests, I did the lightbulbs. It was great, because I was very useful: doing the lightbulbs usually accounts for about half of the normal 2-hour Final, and thus the inspection only took about half as long. I installed about 25 bulbs, though Jonathan did a few more in the basement and they had already used CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs) for the bathrooms. Jonathan did the Blower Door and bolometer tests, inputed some data into his laptop, and I measured the insulation depth in the attic. And that was this house done and on to the next two.
The rest of my exciting day after the jump.
Both of the next two houses were just Insulation Inspections, which means the house is fully framed and insulated, but no plasterboard or drywall on the walls, so you can still check the insulation. I measured stuff with a tape measurer, and walked around with Jonathan as he determined that neither house was that well insulated. The second house actually had some major problems; basically, they had uninsulated surfaces that separated inside from outside, and numerous points of air leakage. Air leakage means heat loss in the winter (and AC'd air lost in the summer), and thus much higher energy usage and higher energy bills. But we talked with the site manager and it looks like he'll get done the things that need fixing.
After the inspections, we decided to stop off at Jonathan's house for lunch on the way back to the office. Jonathan's housemate co-authored a book called "Edible Forest Gardening" (which my mom is obsessed with), and I got a chance to see their garden, which apparently is used for all the examples in the book. It looks like any other garden, but it's planned out so that the beds are all oriented toward the south (for maximum sun exposure), and all of the plants are chosen because they're edible or serve some other purpose, such as nitrogen-fixing in the soil. Also, many of the plants are native. And also, the "Forest" part is deceiving, because their house is fairly suburban. They just know what they're doing in the garden better than most people. It was cool.
Tomorrow I'm going to be tabling in Northampton. I just found that out today. Exciting!