The great escape
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The RTK Environmental Group of Stamford is giving homeowners and commercial properties a new option to hunt down energy leaks and a chance to cut power bills.
 “Changing your light bulbs helps save energy, but now you can really zero in problems you couldn”™t detect before,” said Robert Weitz, chief operating officer of RTK.Â
 RTK is an environmental consulting firm that began to develop an energy audit business two years ago. Launching the service over the past six months the 14-year-old company has integrated its environmental testing processes with thermal imaging devices, negative-air-pressure doors, watt-o-meters and computer-aided analysis to calculate potential savings.
“In doing the energy audit, we”™ve seen how people very much don”™t know how to maintain their homes,” said Weitz. “A lot of times, lack of maintenance is what contributes to poor energy usage.”
In addition to the normal energy audit, the company offers a maintenance audit to help people understand their homes and how they work.
“What we do is to help people live better lives,” said Weitz. “That”™s the real goal of our business.”
According to Weitz, RTK will not look at the house on a single-problem basis, but will deal with the many problems that contribute to the loss of energy.
“There”™s always something in houses new and old,” said Gene Burch, senior project manager of RTK.
Burch said that energy control can be improved in any home.
RTK is strictly a service that helps clients identify faults in energy systems and, according to Weitz, has no conflict of interest because it does not fix the problems it identifies.
“It”™s amazing what people don”™t know about their homes,” said Weitz. “Many times there”™s no concept of how a house works. Many times there are simple things that can be done.”
According to Weitz, he constantly encounters intelligent people who don”™t understand that simple things like curling shingles or proper caulking will save you energy.
“Doing environmental testing has always been a green process,” said Weitz. “We offer something that enables people to improve their homes and improve their lives. It can be overwhelming, but we are quick to point out it is a process; you don”™t have to do these things all at one time. You can start at a very simple point.”
“Even in a newer home you can usually save people 10 (percent) to 20 percent on their energy bill, with easy fixes,” said Weitz. “In an older home, up to 50 percent.”
RTK”™s energy audits range from $300 to $700.
“The little bit more that you”™re going to spend is the lot more that you”™re going to save,” said Weitz. “People see the value of spending just a little bit more to get so much more information.”
According to Weitz, 90 percent of RTK”™s energy audit customers are repeats or come to them through word of mouth.Â
Burch and Weitz, both former contractors, said their eyes are trained to see things about how a house is put together that the people living in it wouldn”™t.
“It”™s a very niche service and product that we sell and no one does what we do in the way that we do it,” said Weitz.
RTK”™s energy audit clients are split evenly between commercial and residential.
“Our business everyday is education,” said Weitz. “We bring a lot of experience to the table.”
RTK services the tri-state area with additional offices in New York City and Newington with 12 staff members.
“We find that people especially in this area, they want to do something,” said Weitz. “They say they want to reduce their carbon footprint and this is a way to be able to do that, as well as to save money.”