About

Glenn Hooper started Residential Energy Conservation in 2006 after building hundreds of homes in many neighborhoods on Long Island in almost 20 years as a project manager for Deerfield Homes Inc., one of long islands most respected builders. Somewhere during his training and discovering building science, a pivotal moment passed and is now one of the most knowledgeable and certified in NYS.

His qualifications are,

  • Deerfield Homes Inc Job Super / Project Manager- 1998 – 2014
  • BPI Building Analyst – 2006 to present
  • BPI Shell Specialist – 2006 to present
  • BPI Heating Specialist – 2006 to present
  • BPI Certified and Accredited – 2006 to 2014
  • RESNET HERS rater – 2006 to present
  • RESNET QA Designee – 2010 – 2012
  • RESNET Rater Trainer – 2010 -2012
  • BPCA QA Delegate – 2010
  • Passive House Rater – 2012 to present
  • DOE Qualified Home Assessor – 2013 to present
  • ANSI Level 1 Thermographer 2010 to present
  • Certified Manufactured Housing Research Alliance Hers rater 2007
  • NYS Trainer for RHVAC Manual J 8th Edition with Training for the Trades – 2010 to present
  • Prior Board Member of the Building Performance Contractors Association (BPCA), Long Island Chapter
  • North East Hers Raters Association Board Member, QA Chairperson – 2012

A few words from Glenn Hooper,

About 27 years ago I started working as a laborer for a high end residential builder on long island and found that hard work, dedication and perseverance would provide the vertical growth I needed. As the years went by and moving on to greener pastures I never said no to responsibility and I continually held more important roles. As I learned the business, I found out that when the builder stood behind his product and took pride in what he built that not only was the home built to a much higher standard, that most of his customers could recognized the differences. For over 20 years, I have been with one company. I loved building new homes and watching the communities I helped to create develop. I built every home if I was going to be the one moving in.

In 1999, I built my own home on a parcel of farm land in Baiting Hollow, exactly as I had built so many others. While living there I experienced comfort issues that almost all homes of that era suffered from. A home that was dry (and chilly) during the coldest winter months, and during the summer, only comfortable if the AC was set far lower than it should have been. In the winter I wondered why the thermostat read 70 degrees when it felt so much colder!  During the summer I also wondered why lowering the thermostat one degree could make such a huge difference in comfort. Being curious, looked into what the problem could have been and discovered that my home was too dry during the winter and too moist in the summer. I knew how humidity played such a large role in how our body perceived temperature. Thinking logically I purchased a portable whole house humidifier. The box said it would add enough humidity in a home twice the size of mine. I couldn’t  fill the water reservoir fast and often enough. Honestly, I could fill it 4 times a day and without feeling much of a difference. Thinking like everyone else, that more is better. I purchased a second humidifier. The 2nd one had an electronic humidistat. In the winter my house had less than 9% RH. With both humidifiers running full tilt I was only able to get my home to 11% RH. To put those numbers into perspective, the average RH of the Mojave Desert ranges from 10% to 30%. My home in the winter was dryer than the Mojave Desert.

All I could do was scratch my head and wonder why. Sure we have all heard that it gets dryer in the winter, but I wanted to know exactly why. This all happened around 2004. In 2006 I unknowingly enrolled in my first building science class. I though it was a class on fiberglass insulation, but it was a class that led towards a written test and if passed a field test ultimately earning me a Building Analyst certification by the building performance institute.  I was not expecting to learn so much and about so many things. I was absolutely blown away when I learned about what causes comfort issues, and even happier when I was taught how to test for and measure these issues. After performing a comprehensive home assessment on my own home I found out exactly what the problem was. The solution to the dryness took me 3-4 hours to correct, and the affect of this was huge. Including being much more comfortable in the winter, it literally gave me a $1,200 credit on my next years oil contract. I was honestly using $1,200 dollars less fuel per winter.

As you can imagine, I was a converted building science geek. From there I enrolled in, and passed every single course I could, Including the RESNET QA Designee test. That certification pretty much proved that I had the ability to teach and inspect other HERS raters any where in the country.

Sometime in 2006 to 2007 we built our 1st energy star home before it was mandated, in a community located in Ridge, NY. A year or two later, on that very same job site we were offered to build a home and enter it in the NYS Builders challenge. Our customer agreed to the upgrade without knowing exactly what would be changed and was happy to have the opportunity as it would all happen for free, he was charged nothing. Ultimately, that home had less than 1/2 the cooling tonnage that normally would have gone into that model type. Its boiler was also half the size usually put in and was rated at only 66,000 btus. The home actually needed about 40,000 btus for heating and used the additional capacity for domestic hot water. This home was 2 story’s, 3 bedroom, 2 & 1/2 Bath, Full Dining room, den and living room. In the course of the home owners 1st year living there, they never had one single comfort issue.

We built this home to an index of 45. We did this for less than $20,000. Since we were able to meet the target, NYS paid us back for every upgrade !
The home owner admitted he wasn’t quite sure of what to expect.
He understood his utility bills would be low, but not nearly as low as they were.
The customers utility bill for the entire year, heating and cooling was under 1,000 dollars.
His entire cooling bill was less than $200 dollars, for an entire year. This was for a 2 story, 2,600 sq ft home. At the end of his 1st year, he proclaimed that had he known we could do that, he would have paid full price for the upgrades, out of pocket. The home was that comfortable, that efficient.

I feel a huge sense of satisfaction when Im able to affect someone in such a positive way.

I have learned very quickly that I dont want to be every builders HERS rater. I have had many customers and I value those who actually choose to build a home well. If you allow me to do my job, I will make your job easy. I personally know what it takes to build a home, and I know that Its actually very easy to earn what ever certification you choose. The challenge is more a matter of trust. Trust that my suggestions are always in your best interests. Ultimately I measure what you have cut.  If you consider yourself as some one who is willing to learn, some one who hopes to build a better home, and someone who’s ethics value product as much as cost, may be when your ready, you will find out what sets me apart.