Aspen Enterprises


	Home Performance Testing

	Customer Occupied Home Testing

	Performance Testing by House Model

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Home Performance Testing involves an inspection of an existing building structure and of the mechanical systems by using specific testing equipment and taking measurements. Often, problems have been identified and there is a desire to measure those problems and evaluate possible solutions. For builders, this process can be driven by high and repetitive customer complaints, lawsuits, poor customer surveys, or some other negative event. However, many builders choose to test their homes as part of a quality assurance program. By measuring a home’s performance, a builder can quantify the qualitative aspects of their homes, and gain a market advantage by providing a superior product and being able to express that quality to potential customers.

Negative Impacts of Poorly Performing Homes

Poorly performing homes will lead to callbacks, warranty claims, increased lawsuits, decreased customer satisfaction, lower profit margins, increased tensions within an organization and between trade partners, reduced future sales, problems between the builder and governmental oversight authorities, increased production times, adversarial relationships between the builder, the Home Owners’ Association, and the developer, and negative brand image. And those are only the impacts on the builder’s bottom line. Poorly performing homes can also lead to increased local and global pollution, safety and health concerns for the occupants, additional financial burdens for the customer, and accelerated deterioration of the neighborhood and community. However, an easily identified cost is allocated to certain preventative actions (the purchase order for the home performance test), while the other costs are more difficult to quantify (was it the high energy bill or the seventh callback that finally pushed customer to sue?).

There are three distinct motivations driving the need for a home performance inspection:

1. A particular customer has not been satisfied and has requested repeat service calls. These complaints may be high energy bills, uncomfortable rooms, water penetration problems, mold, or other other moisture related issues. In such cases, the builder may need a professional analysis of the the building envelope, mechanical system performance, measurement of humidity in ambient air or within wall cavities, an infrared scan of the home, or other specific services.Please visit our Customer Occupied Home Testing page for more information

2. A builder wants to learn about the performance of its product line and make targeted improvements. For such builders, home performance testing can be in conjunction with adjusting and improving house design and part of a continual improvement process. Testing can be the start of the learning process for the salespeople, superintendents, purchasing agents, and designers/architects in order to better understand how the builder’s different houses perform, and how the systems and attributes of a house interact with each other.Please visit our Performance Testing by House Model Page for more information

3. A builder is participating in an energy efficiency program or a green program and needs third party commissioning. For programs such as Energy Start for Homes, performance testing is a necessary component of the commissioning and sampling process. An Energy Star labeled house can qualify for financial rebates, add market differentiation, and allow more customers to qualify for a higher mortgage via Energy Efficient Mortgages. As a member of Resnet and employing both BPI certified and HERS raters, Aspen Enterprises can meet your building performance needs. If your company is interested in modeling the performance of a proposed model, please refer to our design consultation section.Please see our Commissioning page for more information

Depending upon your needs, Aspen Enterprises can offer home performance testing on customer occupied houses, on unoccupied houses during construction or after completion, or as part of the commissioning and sampling process pursuant to the the particulars of different programs.

Goal of performance testing

The purpose of home performance testing is to evaluate if a home is safe, healthy, and durable. This may includes checking that the appliances are performing as they should, that the house isn’t allowing excessive amounts of outside air, moisture or other pollutants to enter the living space, and that the house isn’t losing excessive amounts of conditioned air. If the building structure and mechanical systems fail to perform these basic duties, the durability of the home will be impacted (mold may flourish, materials may rot, accelerated structural failure may occur), the occupants may be uncomfortable (allergies, asthma, cold rooms, increased vulnerability to illness), or, in rare cases, the occupants may face a life threatening situation (dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide or of explosive gases).

Added Value and Market Differentiation

If a home is audited, its performance measured, and any necessary improvement work performed, this can add a level of assurance and value to any potential buyers. After performing the audit, we can help evaluate possible actions that can increase the salability of the home. This can lead to increased traffic, enhanced trust between buyers and sellers, minimize surprises after a homeowner moves into a house, higher customer satisfaction, and differentiate your properties from other properties currently on the market.