What does efficiency look like?

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Energy efficiency is fairly easy to define. But what does energy efficiency look like? And if you can’t see it, how can you engage with it?

That’s what Geoffrey Hay, an Associate Professor of Geo-Information Science at the University of Calgary asked the TEDx Calgary audience last summer. He’s the force behind Heat Energy Assessment Technologies, or HEAT, a free GeoWeb service that shows homeowners where their homes are wasting heat and how much it’s costing them.

“We believe that if people could see the waste heat they generate and if they knew how much it cost (financially and to the environment), that they would want to take action,” says Hay.

HEAT maps look a lot like Google Maps – except in addition to street view images, they show waste heat leaving homes. The data, which is captured by an infrared camera during nighttime fly-overs, is used to generate a Residential HEAT Score map (left).

Users can navigate through the map to zoom in on an individual home, view a ranked HEAT score (below, left), and compare an infrared image with a Google Street View image (below, right) in order to identify the top six areas of heat loss.

Of course, just because you can see those problem spots doesn’t mean you know what to do about it. That’s where a certified energy advisor and contractor like Evergreen Home Performance comes in. Whether motivated by cold floors, high energy bills, or a less-than-stellar HEAT score, homeowners turn to Evergreen for a free energy consult that helps them understand their homes and plan comprehensive improvements, including insulation, air sealing, and wet basement remediation.

Hay hopes that by making energy efficiency visible, the HEAT app will inspire that kind of action on a large scale. MIT Climate CoLab certainly sees the potential: Hay and his team earned top honors at the annual Crowds & Climate Conference last week. The award will help HEAT scale up from the pilot project of almost 38,000 homes in NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

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Ryan Adams

Led by Brian Robinson, the Evergreen Home Performance team just completed an insulation refit at my home. It was truly a great experience from start to finish, a period of time that was a fraction of the time that I originally anticipated due to the team's unbelievable work habits and professional knowledge of their tasks. As impressive were the communication skills and friendliness of each and every member of the team.

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Rockport

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Yarmouth

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Rockland

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St. George

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Saco

We just finished a large project of air sealing and reinsulating our 1890s basement and attic which had been completely renovated 8 years ago but still felt cold and lacked proper energy assessment and corrections. We met with Justin in December and were very impressed with his knowledge, professionalism and communication skills and knew Evergreen was who we wanted to work with. Dave was our on hands project manager and was excellent. The office staff has been quick to respond and helpful as well when needed.

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Belfast

Evergreen was so helpful in securing us Efficiency Maine funding for a big attic insulation project early this winter. They did all of the paperwork, and totally guided us through a vermiculite removal process that included a payment from a trust for the procedure. I could instantly feel the second floor being so much warmer than before. The boiler does not kick on nearly as frequently since they completed the job. It was worth every penny! Brian Robinson was so thorough throughout the whole process including a full walk through after the job had been completed.

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Camden

Thorough, smart, informative, integrated, and communicative -- that's how my experience was with Evergreen even with the covid interruption midstream. The team picked up where they left off, insulated basement and air sealed attic and knee wall in 100' temps under the eaves! This business group was a pleasure to work with.

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Gray

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St. George

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Rosalind J

Damariscotta

We initially contacted Evergreen through Efficiency Maine for an energy audit, which was conducted promptly and professionally by Justin McEdward, one of their Energy Advisors who is BPI-certified. After a thorough inspection of our newly purchased home, Justin explained in great detail what we needed and did not need. It was agreed that Evergreen would remove all of the existing attic insulation, which was not adequate, and replace it with blown in cellulose, to a rating of R-60.

Thomas W.

Scarborough

We absolutely loved our experience with Evergreen. The team was incredibly kind, professional and great to work with. We're very impressed with the quality of work of the Evergreen team and how easy they made everything! Our house had barely any insulation ahead of this project and the results are amazing. Insulating the attic, walls and basement with Evergreen allowed us to tear a 50-year-old furnace, ductwork and oil tank out of the basement and now heat the home with new heat pumps. Evergreen also added 100 sq ft of clean, new storage space to the attic!

Nick S.

South Portland

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