Home inspection and energy evaluation together

Two different things, frequently confused, occasionally worth doing at once.

A home inspection tells you about the condition of a house: the roof, the wiring, the foundation, whether anything is about to fail. An energy evaluation tells you how the house performs and what it costs to run. Neither substitutes for the other and a report that claims to be both is usually neither.

Where they genuinely combine is at purchase. A buyer who is about to take on a 1955 bungalow benefits from knowing the furnace is eighteen years old and from knowing the house rates at 400 gigajoules a year with an uninsulated basement. The first is a negotiating position. The second is a renovation plan and, if the purchase is insured with less than twenty per cent down, a route to a twenty-five per cent mortgage insurance premium refund.

We do the energy side. We will say plainly where a question belongs to a home inspector instead, because telling a buyer their roof is fine is not our licence to give.

For homeowners — the rest of it