The nice thing about being a home inspector is its rarely boring. I get to go to a different location every day, meet many new people and in general it's a feel good job. The other great thing about inspecting is it's a diverse field. The knowledge and expertise of inspecting homes can translate nicely to other types of buildings and inspections.
One area I have become diversified into is energy auditing. I have done in the last three or so years audits on some smaller commercial buildings. So when I received a call to audit a green house I did not immediately dismiss the potential job as out of my sphere of capability.
As I spoke with the gentleman on the phone who was the maintenance manager of this facility I was curious about his idea to make a glass house more energy efficient. Glass can not in any way be considered an insulator. An entire house made of glass with openings all around, what on earth can be done to improve the efficiency of this building?
In truth there was something and he needed an auditor to help him quantify the data to get grant money to install a set of thermal shades.
The shades will be installed at the bottom of the domes you see in the pictures. What this does is reduces the ceiling area and volume of the building. Less area means less heat required to warm the house. The shades are able to be moved in and out to allow sun to penetrate in the day and put in place at night when heat is most needed.
Quite a simple but ingenious idea. The estimated savings for installing these shades, about 13%. That's pretty significant especially when a green house burns through a lot of heating oil when the temperature drops.
This was one of my most unique inspections and as always I learned something in the process. I do love this job!
James Quarello
NRSB #8SS0022
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC
To find out more about our other high tech services click on the links below:
Learn more about our Infrared Thermal Imaging & Diagnostics services. | Learn more about our energy audits, the Home Energy Tune uP®. |
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