EnTherm approaches house as a whole

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Oct 22, 2004 by Spohr, George

SYRACUSE - Richard Kornbluth realizes houses are not simply boxes to be heated or cooled.

"They are complex systems of interacting parts and must be treated as a whole," says Kornbluth, president of EnTherm, Inc. "For example, if a house is insulated, it will become tighter. This is generally a good thing. However, it can become so tight that vented combustion appliances such as furnaces and water heaters stop drafting properly and start spilling the products of combustion such as water vapor and carbon dioxide into the house."

And so the business of outfitting a home's energy and environment systems is a delicate balance of fanction and form. If you don't know what you're doing, there are potentially fatal - often unhealthy - traps to be laid.

"In some instances, if the furnace or water heater is not working properly, the flue gases may contain elevated levels of dangerous carbon monoxide," Kornbluth explains. "The increased level of moisture in the house caused by backdrafting furnaces and water heaters can contribute to mold formation and other unhealthy building problems."

So a lot of what Kornbluth and his employees do is surveying, testing, and analyzing. When working on a project, EnTherm surveys the lighting requirements of a house to determine where energy-saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs might produce the greatest electrical-energy savings, for example. Then it makes recommendations for replacing old energyinefficient electrical appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines with new Energy Star appliances that can dramatically reduce electrical consumption.

The notion of treating a "house as a system" dates back two decades, Kornbluth explains. It was initially spurred during the Middle East energy crisis of the mid- to late-'70s and caught on years later.

"The energy crisis created a demand for energy-efficient homes and, in the early 1980s, there was a boom in building super-insulated houses," Kornbluth says. "As buildings became tighter and better insulated, there was also a corresponding increase in indoor air-quality problems. These problems stimulated research into how buildings actually worked in the real world. Technology was developed to do this research, and this technology is now being used to diagnose and treat problems in existing houses."

As EnTherm has taken on a "whole house" approach, the size of its projects has increased significantly. The company doesn't expect that the financing incentives offered through the Energy Star program - which are guaranteed through May 2006 - will last forever.

"We are exploring other financing options so that we will continue to be able to offer homeowners a comprehensive whole-house solution to their comfort, building maintenance, and energy-use problems," Kornbluth says.

As technology becomes smarter, so does its implementation, he notes. "We [EnTherm] have upgraded our computer network to allow remote access to the software that runs our company," he says. "This will enable EnTherm to efficiently and cost-effectively expand our services to other markets in New York State."

EnTherm, Inc. is located in a 5,500-square-foot site at 509 W. Fayette St. in Syracuse. Founded in 1980, it employs 45. In 2003, it generated $3 million in revenues.