California Energy Consultant Service

When California Energy Consultant Service moved from Rancho Cordova to Orangevale, we had an opportunity to get to know this community even more than we did previously. While we had performed work in Orangevale for years (and have worked with properties throughout the entire Greater Sacramento area), moving to a new community meant we were meeting more local residents, and that provided an opportunity for us to discover the differences between Orangevale and other regions.

Rancho Cordova, specifically, was a community with frequent development and a rapid turnaround of new residents. Many of the people that met us here chose our services in order to upgrade their properties for largely aesthetic reasons. Orangevale, however, was different.  

Issues That Affected the Orangevale Community

When a home is over 60 years old, things start to age and fall apart. But the quality of the construction from that era was also pretty amazing. It was not that anything was necessarily breaking. It was that there were minor issues that were becoming larger issues, especially with our extremely hot summers.

Windows

Many properties in Orangevale had single pane or older double pane windows. The windows were largely suiting their aesthetic needs (although many did not like the aluminum frames of single pane) but the seals were staring to wear away and the heat transfer of these windows was terrible. Their homes were getting way too hot in the summer, leading to expensive energy bills.

Because this area is also getting more populated, noise is becoming a larger concern as well. Homes with single pane windows near busy streets like Greenback and Madison were experiencing a lot of excess noise. Modern, energy efficient double pane windows prevented this.

Siding

In other parts of the country, wind, rain, hail, and more can all lead to severe siding damage. We don’t really have that here. What we have is sun damage. Sun damage is more of a “slow burn.” The siding isn’t likely to break, but it can cause fading, cracking, and warping – all issues that reduce its energy efficiency and appearance, but are less urgent.

Energy efficiency is also a major problem with siding in Orangevale, because the older homes have very little insulation. That is why replacing siding, like replacing windows, is typically not urgent here, but still very important and useful.

HVAC

HVAC systems are the only services that do not necessarily fit the mold. Most of our clients here contact us for AC repair and AC maintenance, as we provide the tuneups and minor repairs that all HVAC systems need. In addition, the lifespan of an air conditioner or heating unit is typically limited, so replacements are fairly common.

Still, there are some differences between HVAC customers here and those in other areas of Sacramento. Orangevale is home to a lot of mid century modern properties that have very high ceilings and large windows. That means that, all things being equal, they’re always going to get hotter than new homes that do not have high ceilings.

So many people replace their AC because it simply isn’t able to cool their property effectively. While that is true of any location, it is more common here. Air conditioners that are nearing the end of their lifespan often need to be more urgently replaced in Orangevale than in places like Rancho Cordova because the older home styles get far too hot as soon as the AC starts to be less efficient.

Energy Efficiency Upgrades of Orangevale

Even within a small region, like the Greater Sacramento area, there are often minor differences between properties and their energy efficiency needs. Though the services remain the same, the trends in Orangevale differ from the trends even in a nearby community, like Rancho Cordova. No matter where you’re located in our part of Northern California, contact California Energy Consultant Service to learn more.