What is a Green Home Inspection and Green-Certified Status?  

Therma-Check, LLC is pleased to offer green home inspections in Maryland through the national Green-Certified Inspections program for  homeowners.  This service identifies environmentally-friendly or green homes for home buyers. In additon, we offer an Energy Sustainability Program for those who wish to document and offset carbon emission deficits from their home energy usage in order to benefit their local and global environment.

Green Certification

The Green-Certified program promotes houses for sale by home sellers that are documented through our Maryland green home inspection program as low-impact on the environment. Increasingly, home buyers and homeowners prefer homes that have a higher level of sustainability and they seek more eco-friendly or green homes. Having a documented Green-Certified Home can increase buyer appeal, bring more potential buyers to the home you are selling, and justify an increased asking price for the seller.

We are able to provide Green Home Inspections for certification as part of a standard Home Energy Audit, or as a separate service. An energy audit focuses on the energy efficiencies affecting the conditioned envelope of your home, and certainly, an energy-efficient home produces a lower impact on the environment than an inefficient one. However, there are many other features of a house and property, and the home ecology that affect ecological values and how they function with the surrounding environment. A Green Home Inspection evaluates the inside and outside areas of a house and its property as a whole, thereby emphasizing the overall energetics, ecological and environmental values.
 
This certification program originated through the joint efforts of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, Inc. (InterNACHI), the International Association of Certified Indoor Air Consultants, Inc. (IAC2) and MoveInCertified.com.  The "Green Certified" designation for qualifying homes identifies those that use design features, technologies and products that:
 

•      improve energy efficiency
  
•    reduce pollution
  
•    provide healthier air
  
•    increase comfort

Based on the Green-Certified Inspection results, a home may qualify for Class I or Class II, or Not Certified. If it qualifies the inspector will nominate the property for certification status with InterNACHI, upon which the homeowner will receive a certificate of designation. This is especially useful for home sellers as a means to attract buyers that are seeking a property with features that have significant environmental values. If desired,Therma-Check, LLC can arrange to provide special yard signs for the homeowner and their realtor to display with the Green Certified logo. This can provide a unique and highly positive visual impression on potential buyers, which may accelerate the sale relative to competing local properties.

How the Services Differ

Green Home Inspections and Energy Sustainability Investigations are independent programs, although they are typically combined. Some homeowners, such as those selling their home, may wish to obtain a Green Home Certification in order to increase the marketability and buyer appeal of their house, and would not necessarily need an Energy Sustainability Investigation. Although combining both services could offer substantially greater benefits for a home seller than either one alone.

Existing homeowners usually desire both services to increase their home's market value and improve the ecological and environmental benefits of their property. Many also wish to lower their overall contribution to planetary carbon emissions through this unique combination of services, including a full energy audit.

No other energy audit firm or any company, as far as we know, offers the combination of services that includes energy audits, infrared thermal imaging, Green Certification Inspections and Green Sustainability Investigations. Therma-Check, LLC is able and qualified to do so because in addition to being Certified Energy Auditors, we are also Certified Ecologists and Professional Enivironmental Scientists (see our Qualifications).