Powersmith
2013 Housing Innovation Award Winner
The homeowner comes first for Powersmith.
Long Island-based Powersmith Home Energy Solutions is committed to solving customers' energy issues and providing unmatched service, hallmarks of the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. "Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for homeowners to have an audit, learn about their home, and continue on to a retrofit," says Dan Kartzman, president of Powersmith. "To do that, we must seamlessly educate, price, and present the solution to our clients." From the first interaction with the homeowner where contractors are helping them understand building science concepts to assisting with access to rebates and financing to quality assurance visits, Powersmith's highly trained contractors provide customers with quality service.
Powersmith contractors understand that energy issues at home are not always obvious to the untrained eye. But homeowners can feel the effects of poor building performance, so when Powersmith contractors meet with homeowners they ask about common symptoms. Is your home drafty? Does the temperature between rooms vary greatly? Do you have excessive dust and pollen in your home? How about problems with mold or mildew? Kartzman explains his company's approach to talking about home performance with homeowners unfamiliar with it. "We take a scientific approach to understanding how a house operates as a system and give examples of some of the symptoms homeowners' experience. We ask 'have you experienced any of these symptoms?' The answer is almost always yes. From there we explain a few of the potential underlying reasons for that symptom. We use our data-driven process to identify solutions before we do the before we do the work to determine what is actually causing that symptom in their house." Powersmith often encounters homes with inadequate insulation and drafty rooms, and homeowners struggling with the high price of heating oil during long cold winters.
Powersmith uses the whole-house approach to improve homes, a concept that is fundamental to the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. Rather than focusing on a single problem, like an old heating or cooling system, insufficient insulation in the attic, or leaky windows, Home Performance with ENERGY STAR participating contractors look at how improvements throughout the home can work together to give the best results. "We work smart based on science as opposed to just doing the contractor status quo," says Kartzman.
Participating in local Home Performance with ENERGY STAR programs sponsored by the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Powersmith is passionate about their home performance work. In fact, over 95% of the company's business is related to Home Performance with ENERGY STAR. According to Kartzman, "What sets Powersmith apart from the competition is our commitment to continually tweak our operational model with a focus on scale. As a part of that, superior customer service is critical because if you're not taking care of your clients you are unlikely to get more."