Altmann Construction launches energy-efficiency unit

Mostly, Fred Altmann wants to get his folks back to work.

Altmann, whose Altmann Construction Inc. has built homes in northern Nevada since the mid-1970s, this week formally launches a new company that targets residential energy efficiency.

The Better Building Co. will provide detailed energy audits of homes, help homeowners get the construction services they need to increase their homes' energy efficiency and work as a dealer of alternative energy equipment.

"We're builders," says Darrin Indart, who heads the new company's operation. "We can do what needs to be done. We're going to take care of the customer from the beginning to the end."

The beginning, he says, includes a detailed energy audit it typically takes six to eight hours that uses infrared cameras and blower door systems to measure loss of heated or cooled air from a home.

From there, the company's staff offers suggestions for retrofit improvements ranging from improved attic insulation to installation of new windows. They will help homeowners calculate the potential tax credits and the return on an investment in energy efficiency.

The potential returns, Indart says, are likely to be an important sales tool. Even though consumers are reluctant these days to part with a dollar, they may be open-minded about getting returns that exceed what they're earning on a savings account.

Altmann says he's long had an interest in developing more energy-efficient homes in northern Nevada, and last year's sharp increase in energy prices brought the issue into focus.

For the homebuilding industry, he says energy efficiency helps calm the fears of buyers who wonder if they'll be able to afford to cost of operating a new home.

"People have to be more comfortable in their homes," Altmann says. "We have to redesign the way we live."

And if The Better Building Co. can get some laid-off home construction tradesmen back to work, that's so much the better.

Indart says he hopes the new company some day will employ 20 to 30 workers. For starters, it has two full-time employees supported by the staff of Altmann Construction.

"We're trying to be smart about getting this thing going," says Indart, a former executive in Reno with Lennar Homes.

Altmann is making a statement about the new company this week with the installation of a Windspire wind-energy appliance at his Reno-area home. The new company has signed on as a dealer with Reno-based

Mariah Power Co., maker of the Windspire.