ShareThisIt Ain’t Easy Being Green: A Day in the Life of a Field Technician
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A morning inspection at a home built by W. A. Hughes home -- Oregon High Performance Home, Energy Star, Earth Advantage Gold Certified |
Being an Earth Advantage field technician requires juggling. Not the flaming sticks kind, but close to it. The team has to be highly proficient in time management, building science and above all, communication skills. With hundreds of new homes to verify each year, field techs need to distinguish what type of job they are inspecting -- Earth Advantage New Homes with ENERGY STAR energy features, ENERGY STAR-only home, a LEED for Homes project or a basic home that only gets an Energy Performance Score (EPS). Once this is recorded, the tech then needs to look at project location (Oregon or Washington) to determine what set of inspection criteria to follow.
The EAI field techs start their day by downloading specific job files assigned to them from the EA New Homes Scheduler. Once the files are downloaded, they plan out a geographic route that takes them to all of their jobs and hopefully ends up near their home or close to the office to end their day. This can become challenging depending on “windshield time” (miles to drive) and in what direction and/or if any of their inspections are time-sensitive. We strive to finalize scheduling within the 1st hour of the work day so we can “escape” before being pulled into other office functions that are not necessarily related to inspections. A delayed departure can cause extra stress on the field tech as they know they have a certain amount of work to perform at each site that can take anywhere from 1 -3 hours depending on the type of inspection.
There are several types of inspections that a field tech will have to conduct each day. If they have what’s called a “rough” inspection (the house is in pre-drywall stage) the tech will need to look at the quality of the installation and the thermal values of the insulation -- in the walls, under heated floors, in garages and around the HVAC ducting as well. Field techs will also inspect for air sealing of framing members throughout the house, which prevents air infiltration after the house is finished. This is a crucial inspection process because once sheet rock is put up, these areas that need air sealing cannot be accessed after whole-house air testing is completed. There will be times that the EA field tech will need to perform a HVAC duct blast test to calculate the amount of air loss (cfm) through any leaks in the ducting. This test can be very time-consuming, especially if the duct system does not pass the CFM loss target. This target is calculated by the size of the home and varies in every home.
Luckily for us, most of our data input is done using tablet computers so we can directly upload results later on at the office or at home. We also use smart phones to snap photos and document certain conditions that we might need to explain to a builder or superintendent.
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Builder John Mead of Cellar Ridge is ready to seal potential spots for air leakages to ensure this home is airtight. |
Once these major inspection items are completed, other areas of the project are also looked at to ensure they meet EAI’s “energy path” specifications: window thermal values, furnace efficiency ratings, certain erosion control methods (around the outside of the project) and approximately 6 -10 other measures. Once these are completed, an email is sent to the builder’s project superintendent (copying other involved EAI staff) attesting that this phase of the inspection process is complete and that either everything has passed or that there are discrepancies another inspection is requested at a later date. Occasionally a photo sent by the superintendent will suffice to insure the measure has been successfully completed to EA standards.
The 2nd type of inspection completed by a field technical is known as a final inspection. This inspection is conducted when the home is totally finished and ready for homeowners to take possession. The main duties of the field tech at this inspection are to check the under floor and attic areas for quality and thermal value of the insulation. A whole-house air test (blower door test) is completed at the home to ensure that the air sealing that was completed at the rough inspection was correctly applied to prevent air infiltration. This helps avoid a major heat loss that can cause the furnace to activate more frequently, wasting energy. Other measures assessed by the field tech during the final inspection include checking faucet water flows to ensure low-flow fixtures are installed, tallying compact fluorescent bulbs to validate that they make up at least 75% of the house’s lighting fixtures, and that the correct size of high-efficiency water heater is installed. These measures represent only 1/3 of the total measures inspected during the final visit. Assuming that all measures have been met (and we prefer not to come back out again, either!) we will again send an email to the superintendent with the good news that this project has been completed and certified. The inspection and tests also allow us to ascertain the final Energy Performance Score, a miles-per-gallon (MPG) style rating for your home that can provide proof of the energy efficiency and expected energy consumption of the home.
Time for the drive back home!
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