Second Week of Training Recap

During our second week of training, we spent less time in the (physical) classroom and had much more experience going out into houses and seeing and doing weatherization and energy audits. On Monday, we visited the renovated and retrofitted row-home of an experienced energy auditor, and helped examine the efficiency of the home with two other auditors. We learned of the techniques that the homeowner had used to reduce her energy usage – smaller refrigerator and freezer, tighter home, new heater system, floor cooling system that does not use forced air, white sloped and insulated roof. We also conducted blower door tests on the home and a blower fan test on the inner duct work used for heating with forced air. The homeowner had made these renovations in order to conserve energy, save money, and she wanted this audit performed in hopes of achieving LEED Certification, Platinum level.

On Tuesday, we worked with Marco in the Philadelphia ECA site. He taught us methods for glass cutting, window repair and replacement, insulation installation in both crawl spaces and attics, and saw zaw cutting. Not only did we learn these methods, but we practiced and exercised them as well.

On Wednesday we split up, that is, our group of six primarily went off individually with different installation teams from ECA to learn and help physically retrofit homes in the Philadelphia area. For the first time in our training, we were able to see and often do the work that helps homes become more energy efficient. Personally, I saw my crew put spray insulation in the attic, foam cracks in the basement, caulk windows, replace windows, and I myself replaced a window in one of the homes we visited. Similarly, the following day we went off with ECA Energy auditors and performed, depending on the jobs of the crews either audits or inspections, and saw what work was done before and after installation and overall how ECA actually makes physical and important changes in the surrounding communities.

On Friday, we worked with Dawn from ECA at Valley Forge, reviewed how we can perform audits and installation, and later visited both the Ranger Station and looked for any weatherization work that we could do, and wrote everything down in preparation for the future work during the week we would work at Valley Forge.