We're here because we're home owners like you. We live here in Oklahoma City and pay utility bills, just like you. Maybe a story will help me elaborate...

My wife, Anna, and I bought our first home in one of the older neighborhoods in NW OKC. Our lovely little house was built in 1951. Back in 1951 energy usage in homes was only beginning to ramp up, and our country was self-sufficient in supplying the energy we needed. In short, energy was plentiful, cheap, and research into energy efficiency was essentially non-existent. Couple this, with the theory that a home must be built to "breathe" in order to provide the proper air exchange in the home and you end up with homes like ours. It has no insulation in the walls...or anywhere for that matter. And it's built on a vented crawlspace.

So, the beautiful little home with lots of historical character that we moved into is a total energy hog because of the way it was built. All of the air in the attic and crawlspace (which is unconditioned) fill the walls and our hardwood floors leak cold or hot air, depending on the season. To make matters worse, the heating and air ducts reside in these areas as well. Whatever air we condition has to fight its way through a hot or cold crawlspace before it even enters the space we are trying to keep conditioned. Our bills were almost as much as our car payments...

Now, I've always been a big fan of the environment. Some might say I was a hippie kid... I was aware of home energy raters and what they could do to help me out. After all, we had just purchased our first home...we didn't have much extra money to spend on a complete energy retrofit. With the limited knowledge that I had at the time, all I knew is that my home needed a complete energy retrofit. I knew what to do...we needed to insulate everything from the roof to the dirt, get new windows, and get a more efficient air conditioner and furnace. But, realistically, we only had a budget to do some of these things...so I really didn't know where to start. A full retrofit was not an option. The first thing I did, was to try to find an energy rater or auditor to help me choose what items to tackle first. (no luck)

Now to change gears here... Anna and I had just returned from Costa Rica where we stayed in 4 different eco lodges in various locations throughout the country. While on our trip, we were inspired. We were staying in these wonderfully comfortable huts and buildings in areas much less developed than our home town, Oklahoma City. Not only were these places luxurious and relaxing, they were sustainable. I was completely inspired... If someone could do this in the middle of the rain forest, why couldn't we do this in Oklahoma?

As soon as we arrived home from Costa Rica, I began to research what it would take to start bringing some of these old/new philosophies to my home town. I was severely disappointed at what I found... Other than salesmen trying to sell me expensive "green" technologies and gadgets, there was no real help here in Oklahoma City. And if there was, I couldn't find it. No green builders, no home performance contractors, no distributors for useful green technologies, and no energy raters to be found. So....I changed my plans. My mission was becoming clear.

If I ever wanted to see any sustainable homes in Oklahoma City, I was going to have to pitch in and help build the infrastructure that we needed in order to make it possible. In order to make any of this happen, the first thing we needed here was a group of certified home energy raters that could help connect the dots, so to speak, between the builders, tradespeople, and home owners. I started researching, and my partner Jason Branson and I went back to school, and became certified home energy raters. And Enersolve was born.

Our mission is simple: We're enacting the change that we want to see in our community. We're here to help. We're here to educate and share knowledge. We're here as the home owner's advocate and we're here to help tradespeople and builders provide what their customer's want. We're here to help bolster the new green movement here in OKC and provide some much needed infrastructure to the cause. We're doing this because we want to leave something for our kids. We're doing this because we love Oklahoma and we want to see our families and neighbors benefit from what we have to offer. (Trust me, there are easier markets to start an environmental company). We're here to save the world, and we're starting at home.