New Construction Services

We want to be there through the entire construction process to ensure that the home you are building will meet all the performance goals you seek. We recommend contacting us as early as early as possible, i.e. by schematic design phase, but if you have already begun we can begin consulting at any point through construction. We offer design consultation and performance testing through the various stages of construction to ensure your house works properly from the inside out. We will work to help you achieve your performance goals through a specific combination of the following services:

Performance Goals Meeting:
A meeting to review plans and discuss what will be necessary to have your home achieve goals such as:

A 5%, 25%, 50%, etc. reduction in current utility bills after the remodel.
Comparable performance to a newly built house which meets ENERGY STAR^®, Built Green or LEED for Homes standards.
Increased overall comfort. For example, no more than 3 degrees of temperature difference between any room in the house.
Indoor air quality/safety that meets ENERGY STAR's Indoor Air Package (IAP) standards and
Environmental stewardship through “green” building materials.

Passive Solar design consulting & calculations:
With Colorado’s “300 days of Sun,” designing a home or strategically placing an addition to optimize absorption of the Sun’s heat in the winter and release warmth to the cool evening air in the summer can cut utility bills by 25% to as much as 80%. Since passive solar design requires no moving parts it becomes the most reliable renewable energy source you can have, so long as the design has been carefully analyzed and engineered. Through design review, calculations and/or computer modeling and modifications to your plans, we will help you optimize this emission-free form of warming and cooling your home.

Active Solar Design Consulting:
With our knowledgeable House Doctors we can identify possible locations for solar PV or water heating and through our computer modeling we can help tell you how much you will save on your utility bills and how much benefit you will provide for the environment by installing these systems. Additionally, we will put you in touch with high quality certified contractors who can provide you with detailed bids and actually perform the installation of your solar equipment.

Computer Modeling of the house’s performance (i.e. Projected Rating):
Through certified (i.e., HERs) home performance computer modeling of your house’s:

insulation levels,
air-leakage,
windows & doors,
heating/cooling equipment,
water heating,
lights & appliances, and
renewable energy options

we quantify how much utility bill savings and reduced global warming emissions are possible through quality building materials and construction practices. Once we have identified options, the builder/remodeler’s pricing can be included to provide accurate Return-on-Investment (ROI) data to help you see how these energy savings improvements compare with other investments you could make.

Quality Assurance Inspections (predrywall):

Frame-Walk consulting meeting with framer, builder and representatives of Lightly Treading to be sure Energy-Star Thermal By-pass Checklist (TBC) requirements will be met.
TBC and Insulation Grading to ensure performance details around insulation, air-sealing and HVAC are correct before the drywall goes up.

Duct-Leakage Testing:
If you have forced-air heating or cooling in your home you can think of the furnace & air-conditioner as the heart of your house and the ductwork its arteries. And, just like arteries if you don’t have good flow to extremities you’ll experience discomfort, i.e. cold hands in the case of your body and cold rooms in the case of your house. Whether you are in your existing home, remolding that home or building a new home we can test to see if there is too much duct leakage or restrictions because of a poorly designed string of ductwork. We highly recommend having your ducts tested at the frame stage, allowing for easy access to fix problems, and re-tested after the construction process is complete. We can then help identify the problems and provide recommend solutions without ever pressuring you to buy a specific product because; we don’t sell products, we sell knowledge.

Performance Testing at the time of project completion (Final Testing):
To ensure that the house is “working as a system” and the goals of the new or remodeled construction have been achieved we:

Perform a blower door test for air-leakage,
Complete the Thermal Bypass Checklist,
Conduct thorough insulation and window inspections,
Inspect the water heater,
Test furnace heat-rise,
Perform a lighting & electrical assessment, and
Update the computer modeling to quantify the performance.

In new construction this testing is required to achieve compliance with Energy-Star, Built Green, LEED for Homes or to have a chance to qualify for the $2000 federal tax credit.

Specialized HVAC work; Manual-J Heat-load calculations & performance testing:
Determination of the proper sizing of your furnace, air-conditioner, boiler or evaporative cooler as well as how much heating and cooling is needed in each room is vital to ensure comfort and energy-savings in a home. Our engineers and analysts can perform Manual J & S calculations to provide proper sizing information without the concern that we are trying to sell the largest and most expensive equipment because, again, we don’t sell products we sell knowledge. If you already have an HVAC contractor that you trust to do these calculations we can also serve as another set of educated eyes to review their work and make sure nothing is overlooked.

In a home with comfort problems that are not determined to be solely from insulation or air-leakage issues, we can conduct Pressure Balance & Supply & Return air testing of supply and return air to each bedroom to identify comfort risks resulting from imbalanced air-flow. If there has already been a room-by-room Manual J calculation done on the home we also can compare our measurements against the calculations recommend air-flow levels.

Please call us at 303-733-3078 for more information or to schedule a service.