The Challenge

Michael and Carol Atchison live in a unique, contemporary one-story home. Carol is an accountant and Michael is a professor at UVA. Several factors motivated this couple to retrofit their home. One, a group of LEAP trained interns performed a home energy review in the summer of 2011, which led them to copmlete a home energy assessment later. Secondly, their electric bill always came out higher compared to their neighbor despite behavioral adjustments.

Living in a relatively new home, Jim Duncan and his family were confused and concerned about their excessively high energy bills and very drafty house. He decided to enter the 2011 PowerSaver Home Energy Makeover Contest to get to the bottom of his home’s issues but also, as one of the area’s leading real estate agents, to learn more about the home energy assessment and improvement process to share with buyers and sellers.

The Challenge

Margie Garmey and Melinda Baumann knew something was wrong with their house. The second floor of their home offered little relief from oppressing summers, but for years contractors gave them limited solutions. A full home energy assessment with LEAP changed that, and the team that completed a suite of home energy improvements finally helped them achieve a comfortable home.

The Challenge

The Collmus family felt that their energy bills were too high. Mr. Collmus teaches at the Covenant School and his wife runs a florist buisness during the wedding season. They first tried to attack the problem over 10 years ago, by buying some new equipment and switching to CFL lights, but the home remained uncomfortable and pricey to heat and cool. The house was built in 1983, so it is not brand new but certainly not as old as many of the  historic homes in Charlottesville.