Hi all! Wick here. Happy New Year! It’s 2018 and it’s time for some New Year’s resolutions. The Ashley’s decided not to buy anything for the month of January. Feel free to contact me mid month to see how that’s going:)

Portland has a new resolution! It wants to lower its carbon footprint. Or more precisely, it’s trying to get us to be more conscientious about our carbon footprint and motivate us to lower it. Enter the brand new Portland Home Energy Score.  This affects home owners, buyers and sellers.

Joining us today to shed more light on this topic is Nick Phillips with New Paradigm Home Energy Scores (see the video at the end of this post for more info on Nick).

The Top 3 questions regarding the Home Energy Score:

1) What is the home energy score?

The home energy score is a measurement of the energy efficiency in a home based on an on-site evaluation of the physical characteristics of the house. The score is a number from 1 to 10. 10 being the most efficient home. And 1 being the worst. The bulk of US homes fall between a 4 and a 7 with the majority of homes being a number 5.

1a) This is a fun side question: Does the mythical unicorn score of 10 exist? Or is that a hopeful concept?

It’s the unicorn to chase but they do exist! Yes. There are even examples of homes here in Portland that are perfect 10’s. But even 10’s have room for improvement:)

2) Is this a required test for all Portland homeowners?

Not necessarily. This is primarily for single family residence homeowners (there are exceptions!) who want to sell their house. Your home assessment score will actually be seen on the RMLS listing. This will be another piece of information for buyers to consider when looking at your home.

3) How can you improve your score?

The test is based on several factors about your house. For example, how much insulation is in your attic? In your walls? Do you have an oil furnace or a gas furnace? Do you have double or single pane windows? Any item that you can think of that uses less energy and/or tightens the outer envelope of your home are areas for improvement. Painting your house a new color? That won’t help. Buying an energy star water heater will help. Got a tube of caulking lying around? Use that to seal up any air gaps.

If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to contact us or refer to our other Home Energy Score blog post with more detailed information. And remember, at your next cocktail party you can share your home score with the Joneses!

For more information on Nick and New Paradigm Home Energy Scores, check out the website here. For all you special ARW clients, Nick is offering assessments at a discounted price of $175 through the month of March. Get it while you can!

Thanks for watching!