Home Energy Saving Solutions

This is the second time I have used Home Energy Saving Solutions in the past few years, and I have been very pleased. They tightened up my three level home about three years ago and the results were dramatic. It was so hot in the bedrooms that we installed a separate AC unit just for the upstairs. But, it was still too hot. After HESS tightened up my attic and blew in more insulation, the comfort level increased significantly. Indeed, I am pretty sure if I had had HESS do their magic three years earlier, I wouldn’t have needed that second AC unit. My second job with HESS was July 2015 at my sister’s three level townhouse, circa 1970, where the temperature differential between the first and second floors on a hot summer day has been 10 – 12 degrees, making it extremely uncomfortable for sleeping. HESS discovered that the attic had only the original three inches of insulation, which was about worthless. I have been somewhat of a fanatic about insulation over my four decades of home ownership, but never really appreciated caulking and weather stripping until I met Mo from HESS. All those little holes between the upper story and attic which are conduits for pipes and wires allow a «stack effect» to be created where a the conditioned air from inside the house gets sucked into the attic. Well, HESS has some brave workers who climb into your blazingly hot attic and spray foam over all of these «penetrations» and only then do they blow in about another foot and a half of fiberglass insulation. I was impressed with HESS when they candidly told me about kind of remediation that just didn’t pay off; they prioritize the different work that can be applied to your house so you can focus on getting the most bang for the buck. My utility bills dropped significantly after HESS worked on my house and I expect the same for my sister’s house. I can’t recommend HESS highly enough. HESS has offices in Maryland and Virginia.

Home Energy Saving Solutions, LLC is the best! We first had an energy audit done by them, which — as we had feared — showed that our newly purchased townhouse was as leaky as a sieve. Warm air was escaping everywhere. Mr. El-​Ghoul made a great analogy: it was as if we had windows open in our attic. He then gave us a proposal to fix the problem, which included spraying foam insulation into the attic, adding rigid insulation and weather-​stripping, polystyrene stops, and loose fill borate stabilized cellulose insulation. If these terms don’t mean much to you, let me just assure you that it worked. There was a 25% improvement in terms of what our HVAC system has to heat (or cool) and air being lost to the outside. Working with Mr. El-​Ghoul and his team was pleasant and worry free. We highly, very highly, recommend HESS.

Based on positive reviews from Angie’s List, I contacted Home Energy Savings Solution to conduct an energy audit for our townhouse, which was built in the 1980s, but had been renovated in 2005.
Mohammed, who is the lead energy consultant, promptly emailed to schedule an appointment in November 2014. After doing a brief tour of the townhouse and discussing problem areas, he spent about 1.5 hours doing the audit. I was surprised by how comprehensive the audit was and the report which came about a week later. He noted the attic insulation was extremely poor and lower wall areas were completely exposed, resulting in major heat loss during the winter and discomfort in the summer. We had suspected this was a problem, but seeing the pictures of the attic in the report was compelling. The audit was about $ 275 and well worth the investment for a comprehensive audit.
The report suggested two strategies for insulating the attic. I appreciate that Mohammend prioritized the strategies and did not try to force us to take the more expensive option. His professionalism was great and he answered several questions that I had about the report. We scheduled the attic insulation project for December 3, 2014 and requested that 2 doors (front door + garage entry door) have the weather stripping replaced at $ 60 each. I appreciated that Mohammed said it would be a full-​day project and take up most of the morning and part of the afternoon.
Luis and a partner came at 8:45am to remove the old attic insulation and install the new material. Mohammed came around 10:30am to check the work and see if everything was OK. Overall, the work went really well. I am very satisfied with the work that Mohammed, Luis, and Juan did. The attic insulation project was about $ 2,800, including a credit for the cost of the home energy audit. Would strongly recommend working with Mohammed if you are concerned about improving energy efficiency in your home!

Pepco subsidizes home energy audits at the cost of $ 100 to the homeowner (that is paid to the contractor). I selected HESS for this work. The initial report was amazing detailed, informative and professional.
Based on the report, I contracted with HESS to undertake the two major energy-​conservation upgrades: improving the attic space and improving the crawl space beneath the house.
I was skeptical about undertaking the project, but the incredible amount of work that HESS performed showed that this was a great improvement project to undertake. The crew was supremely professional — I’ve never seen so much plastic sheeting for protection in my life. They were here three days, and installed the sheeting every morning to protect the home, and removed it each evening as part of their clean up. Needless to say, they were super clean in their work.
I was amazed how HESS was able to get around to all sorts of small spaces in seal up air penetration. Everything is super neat, tacked down, and the like. They obviously are proud of their craftsmanship.
Follow up testing showed a nearly 50 percent improvement in stemming unnecessary air leakage from our home. This will reduce our energy consumption and makes our home more «green» for the future.
We expect to receive a rebate on the work done through a PEPCO program ($ 2000 max). With the PEPCO rebate, the work still ended up costing a not insubstantial amount, but I am absolutely convinced it is worth it. There will be a pay-​back overtime in reduced energy usage, but I also feel that the house is upgraded in terms of craftsmanship and its more «green» footprint. So, even though a lot of the work is out of sight, I receive the psychic benefit of knowing how good a job HESS did.
Because this is something that pays back over time and PEPCO has the current rebate programs, I recommend that one undertake this kind of project sooner than later. You’ll find Mohammed, who conducts the audits, to be a great guy and super professional. Juan, who is effectively the work supervisor, has more than a decade of experience in energy-​conservation upgrades and he exudes professionalism and craftsmanship.
I cannot imagine another company doing a better job or for a fairer price.