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Education

View an assortment of great informational and training videos including demonstrations of the NuWool installation process and how NuWool differs from traditional fiberglass insulation.

Interested in joining the AppleBlossom team? Click here for more information about our career opportunities.

Energy Audits

AppleBlossom Insulators will provide a complimentary Energy Audit for your home or building in order to evaluate how best to improve both your energy and financial conservation.

During the assessment, we evaluate air loss at windows, plumbing pipes, bypasses (places or little cracks where warm or cold air escapes) or any place where energy could be lost. This will determine which areas need shoring up or new insulation solutions.

Leakage in an air distribution system can cause up to 50% of the climate-controlled air to escape prior to reaching your living space. This type of leakage also pulls in mold spores, moisture and dusty air from crawl spaces and attics.

Our skilled technicians will also measure the efficiency and performance of your major appliances, including furnaces, lighting and more.

See Sample Audit

Based on the audit results, AppleBlossom's highly trained staff will design a solution to meet your needs and budget in order to conserve energy usage and reduce energy spending.

We can also help you obtain an ENERGY STAR® label for your home or business.

ENERGY STAR®-certified homes receive a rate discount from power companies and traditionally provide additional value during resale.

With certified Energy Raters on staff, AppleBlossom Insulators is uniquely qualified to walk a homeowner or builder through the ENERGY STAR® certification process.

Three Types of Energy Audits

1. Basic Walkthrough

2. Diagnostics

3. Comprehensive (using software and calculations)

What is an Energy Audit?

A home energy audit is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient.

An audit will show you problems that may, when corrected, save you significant amounts of money over time. During the audit, you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy.

Audits also determine the efficiency of your home's heating and cooling systems. An audit may also show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity. You can perform a simple energy audit yourself, or have a professional energy auditor carry out a more thorough audit.

A professional auditor uses a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of a structure.

Thorough audits often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.

Professional Home Energy Audits

Professional energy audits generally go into great detail. The energy auditor should do a room-by-room examination of the residence, as well as a thorough examination of past utility bills.

Many professional energy audits will include a blower door test. Most will also include a thermographic scan. There's also another type of test—the PFT air infiltration measurement technique—but it is rarely offered.

Preparing for an Energy Audit
Before the energy auditor visits your house, make a list of any existing problems such as condensation and uncomfortable or drafty rooms. Have copies or a summary of the home's yearly energy bills (your utility can get these for you).

Auditors use this information to establish what to look for during the audit. The auditor first examines the outside of the home to determine the size of the house and its features (i.e., wall area, number and size of windows). The auditor then will analyze the residents' behavior:

Is anyone home during working hours?
What is the average thermostat setting for summer and winter?
How many people live here?
Is every room in use?

Your answers may help uncover some simple ways to reduce your household's energy consumption.

Walk through your home with the auditors as they work, and ask questions. They may use equipment to detect sources of energy loss, such as blower doors, infrared cameras, furnace efficiency meters, and surface thermometers.

Blower Door Tests

Professional energy auditors use blower door tests to help determine a home's air tightness.

These are some reasons for establishing the proper building tightness:

Reducing energy consumption due to air leakage
Avoiding moisture condensation problems
Avoiding uncomfortable drafts caused by cold air leaking in from the outdoors
Making sure that the home's air quality is not too contaminated by indoor air pollution.

How They Work

A blower door is a powerful fan that mounts into the frame of an exterior door. The fan pulls air out of the house, lowering the air pressure inside. The higher outside air pressure then flows in through all unsealed cracks and openings. The auditors may use a smoke pencil to detect air leaks. These tests determine the air infiltration rate of a building.

Blower doors consist of a frame and flexible panel that fit in a doorway, a variable-speed fan, a pressure gauge to measure the pressure differences inside and outside the home, and an airflow manometer and hoses for measuring airflow.

There are two types of blower doors: calibrated and uncalibrated. It is important that auditors use a calibrated door. This type of blower door has several gauges that measure the amount of air pulled out of the house by the fan. Uncalibrated blower doors can only locate leaks in homes. They provide no method for determining the overall tightness of a building. The calibrated blower door's data allow the auditor to quantify the amount of air leakage and the effectiveness of any air-sealing job.

Preparing for a Blower Door Test

Take the following steps to prepare your home for a blower door test:

Close windows and open interior doors
Turn down the thermostats on heaters and water heaters
Cover ashes in wood stoves and fireplaces with damp newspapers
Shut fireplace dampers, fireplace doors, and wood stove air intakes.

What Our Clients Say about Us...

When I found out that someone local was installing cellulose insulation in existing houses I admit I as a little shocked. I was sure I could find someone to install the pink stuff. I can rent a machine from The Home Depot and blow it myself but I was looking for a better isolative product. I wanted something that would work better and I found it with Apple Blossom Insulators.

I knew cellulose was superior to fiberglass but until I met John Meeks I didn't know just how superior it really was. When John cranked up his "birdhouse" display and started to explain how much better cellulous is in comparison to fiberglass I was shocked. I know what you're thinking, I've already used the "shocked" twice in the first two paragraphs of this description of our experience with Apple Blossom but brace yourself because I'll probably use it a couple more times.

John and his crew came and did an assessment of our home. Wait let me back up. When I met John my wife was six months pregnant with our second child. John and his crew went to great lengths to make the process of insulating our house a great experience despite the fact that we were experiencing a time of great transition in our lives. Ok so John came out and looked over our situation and did a blower door test. This involved temporarily installing a special "door" in one of our exterior doorways. It then pumps air out of the house and the resulting negative pressure made it easy to calculate the amount of air flowing into our home. We live in an 80-year-old house so as you can imagine, there was a lot of air flowing in. His crew set out to seal leaks which were easy to find with the blower door running. Even before any insulation was added to the house was much more efficient because our heating and cooling system could re-circulate more air from inside our own home and mix it with less air from outside- air that in the winter is much colder and in the summer is much hotter.

Then John's crew took to the task of blowing insulation into our attic and into our walls (which previously had NO insulation!). They finished by adding insulation between the floor joists beneath our house. What was the result? Well get ready because I'm going to use the word "shocking" again. We were shocked. Our heating and cooling costs during the last year are down between 25 percent and 75 percent depending on the month. I can't even get home from work on the first day of the month without hearing about our latest bill. My wife calls me at work when she receives our bill electronically on the Internet. "Guess how much we're down this month?" she'll ask me. The tax rebate we got for energy efficiency coupled with the reduction in the cost of heating and cooling means this insulation pays for itself very quickly.

Let me mention two other advantages. We've noticed a significant reduction in noise from outside. It was strange actually because we were used to some noise from the street in front of our home and after the insulation installation was complete, it almost completely went away. It's also nice to know that the burn rate of our insulation is much slower than typical insulation. It's nice to know that if we were to ever have a fire that our walls would burn more slowly.

John Meeks and Apple Blossom Insulators provided my family with an excellent service, and did so in a timely manner, exceeding all. This country can be more energy efficient and companies like Apple Blossom can lead the way. I highly recommend them.

~ Aaron Newton, Concord, NC

The entire process was very easy. His prices are VERY competitive and his work superior. Anywhere my furniture or doorways came into contact with his equipment, they were protected. I had no marks anywhere. This man knows what he is doing, and he does it right the first time... no cutting corners. I would recommend him highly!

~ Troy C., Charlotte, NC

AppleBlossom did a great job and I would highly recommend this company. The owner, John Meeks, was professional and prompt. He called us to make sure we were happy with the job his crew did, and he even asked his crew to come back and adjust the attic dam to make it easier for us to access the attic. The final cost was lower than the estimate, and I feel like I got more than my money's worth.

~ Christine D., Charlotte, NC

They were prompt, professional and very knowledgeable. They did a very thorough job and the crew members were very hard workers! I am very satisfied.

~ Pamela W., Albemarle, NC

I would highly rate John and AppleBlossom Insulators. John is the owner and the person that I dealt with from the first call to the completed project. Our job and attic was a very difficult job due to the tight quarters and age of the house, the heat, and the animal droppings. John was great. He returned my calls very promptly, and he was timely with meeting for a quote. Our job had some minor setbacks and complications; however, John was very timely in correcting those and was genuine in his concern for our satisfaction. He is a great example to the commitment to excellence of a small business owner. I am delighted with the finished product and the man that stands for the company.

~ Donna B., Charlotte, NC