Green Energy Remodeling
Construction Services
Recurve offers a wide range of energy remodeling and construction services which also go under the name “home performance retrofitting”. We are a true turnkey operation, and our aim is to make it easy for you to bring your house up to health and Energy Star efficiency compliance. Recurve is a one-stop shop, taking care of all permits and construction. You can feel confident that we will get the job done right and on time. All work is performance based and quality assured by your Recurve account representative.
Air Sealing and Building Envelope Sealing
A blower door test will reveal where your home is losing air to the outside world and pinpoint opportunities where – with the proper sealing – your home could do a better job of retaining energy.
Insulation
Insulation allows your home to retain heat; without it, your home can’t maintain temperature. We figure out what insulation you have, how it’s performing, and how much insulation we need to add to bring your home up to a level of performance that is optimal for your family’s comfort and for energy efficiency.
Duct Sealing
Duct leakage causes severe Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) problems, and increases energy use. The average duct system leaks 30% of conditioned air.
Duct Design & Installation
Properly designed and installed ducts are essential for optimal energy performance and comfort in the home. If your furnace is frequently turning on and off, if you have some rooms that are overheating, some that are too cold—these are signs that your ducts are poorly designed.
Furnace Sizing & Replacement
Is your furnace the right size for your home? A properly sized furnace heats the home with optimal energy efficiency. How old is it? We’ll size your furnace and assess its efficiency relative to its useful life. Furnaces have a useful life of 15 years and lose efficiency the older they get.
Lighting Efficiency Analysis & Replacement
We analyze existing lights and energy consumption, identify lighting efficiency opportunities, and make recommendations to reduce energy consumption. We’ll either do the installation work necessary to reduce consumption at your home or make recommendations—the choice is yours.
Recommend Appliance Replacement
Chief candidates include replacing top-loading washers with front-loading washers, electric dryers with gas, refrigerators older than 1995, dishwashers older than 1995.
Crawlspace Sealing
As a home owner, you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your crawlspace. A properly sealed crawlspace can make a big difference in your home’s indoor air quality, comfort, and energy efficiency. We seal your crawlspace to prevent moisture and air infiltration.
Whole-House Fan
Quick, easy way to flush hot air out of your home on a regular basis, thereby cooling off your home during the summer months. Unbeknownst to you, hot air accumulates in your attic and needs to be removed from your home before it can cool down. While air conditioning is one way to do this, a whole-house fan is a far more energy efficient solution.
Solar Thermal
We install and design systems that use the sun to create hot water. Ideal if you have a pool or for your hot water needs.
Hydronic Heating
Using hot water to heat your home. We design and install hydronic-forced air systems as well as hydronic-radiant-baseboard systems. (Cosy!) One of the big benefits here is that water is used in a closed-loop system to create the energy that heats your home, which is ultimately very efficient.
Also, it’s worth mentioning:
AC Improvement
We prefer to reduce your need for air conditioning but – depending on your house and your family’s needs – we’ll work with you to right size your AC unit and upgrade your condensing units to high efficiency SEER 14 or greater units.
On-Demand Hot Water
Tankless water heaters are a great solution depending on your family’s needs. In the right situation, they can cut energy consumption by 40% and provide endless hot water. If you have a large number of people taking short showers, you are better off with a traditional solution storage-tank unit.
Mold Identification
We get to the root cause of why you have mold—which means identifying what conditions in your home are causing mold to form in the first place. Most of the time, this involves finding sources of moisture and humidity and putting in place solutions to manage those sources.
Solar Electric
Recommend and suggest qualified installers and designers of Solar PV systems. Remember, not every home is a good candidate for solar. Also, you must invest in making your home more energy efficient first before it makes sense to look at investing in solar PV.
Water Filtration
Reverse-osmosis units for areas with poor water quality, sediment filter & activated carbon filters (for areas such as Marin with better water).
Heating plant improvement: condensing, 2-zone w/dampers, variable speed fan furnaces save around 40% of the energy of a 20 year-old unit.
Glazing
While we very rarely recommend replacing windows, we do recommend adding a low-e coating to existing clear windows to reduce heat transmission as well as sun bleaching.
Electric-to-Gas Appliance Conversion
Washers & Electric water heaters and possible hot tubs are the primary targets.
Pipe Insulation
Insulate hot water pipe and heater to improve efficiency.
