Home Performance Rewards
“We now have world-class insulation, and we’re seeing substantial cost-savings, too. I’d estimate that the air-source heat pump alone has offset our reliance on the gas furnace, and the associated costs, by about 40%,” Patrick proudly reports. “At this point, we really only depend on the gas furnace during the dead of winter.”
No small accomplishment, particularly in light of the unique challenges that Maine poses from a home performance standpoint, which Patrick readily acknowledges.
“Maine is a really beautiful place to live, but it also has some of the oldest housing stock in the country, most of which is highly reliant on home heating oil,” Patrick explains, “and that can make the winters here exceptionally expensive for homeowners.”
Fortunately, though, as Patrick himself can attest, that’s starting to change. The state recently announced that it’s a full two years ahead of its goal of installing 100,000 new heat pumps by 2025, for example. Hopefully, what’s more, positive experiences like Patrick’s will help dispel the common misconception that heat pumps don’t operate efficiently in colder climates.
Looking ahead, he said, “I see a huge opportunity for homes in Maine and elsewhere to become much more energy efficient by taking advantage of local contractors, as well as public policies like tax credits and rebates. Personally, I’m happy to say, on behalf of my whole family, that we now feel like we have a much more comfortable and sustainable home to live in.”
Related Post: Is a Heat Pump Right for Your Home?
How Patrick Brought His Vision to Life
No man is an island, and Patrick, for his part, certainly wasn’t alone in bringing to life these initial home performance improvements. Specifically, help came in the form of tools and resources available for free on the Green Door app from Pearl Certification.
So far, Patrick says he’s primarily taken advantage of Pearl Points, a scoring system designed to help you recognize and track high-performing assets and energy-efficient home improvements. Think of it like a credit score — it translates directly to resale value, after all — reflecting the following asset categories:
Building shell: insulation, air sealing, windows, and doors
Heating and cooling: heating, cooling, and distribution systems
Baseload: water heater, appliances, and lighting
Home management: monitoring systems, controls, and planning
“The scoring system is sort of addictive,” Patrick says with a laugh. “By that, I mean it’s like the way you want to reach the next level in a video game.”
More seriously, he intends to wrap his points into a Pearl Home Investment Plan, which can help homeowners like Patrick prioritize and plan for home performance improvement projects based on their existing assets, then connect with Pearl Network Contractors for certified installations, among other things. It’s directly actionable, in other words, and helps make the financial planning piece more transparent, too.
Reflecting on his experience so far, Patrick said, “A lot of my existing home assets were used and/or fairly old, so I’ve been really grateful to the team from Pearl for being so hands-on and responsive in helping me understand the value of each asset. I’ve been able to be much more strategic in mapping out my investments because of it.”
And for anyone considering undertaking similar projects on their own homes, Patrick had this to say: “Doing so will help you save on bills, for sure, but it can also become fun and a little bit of a hobby. Personally, I hope that, by making these and other improvements over the next decade or so, I can leave my kids — the next generation — in a position where they’ll not only save energy costs and live more sustainably, but also get to see a much higher appraisal value when the time comes, too.”
Related Post: What Is a Pearl Home Investment Plan?
Ready to Start Your Home Performance Improvement Journey?
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