Mission:
Refresh Homes strives to provide affordable, accessible, useful, and accurate information regarding residential and commercial energy efficiency, safety, comfort, and durability.
Experience:
Refresh Homes has been in business for over ten years. Initially providing renovation and design services, we quickly realized how most buildings and homes were built to be incredibly inefficient. Many were not up to minimal local building code standards, much less up to recommended building science standards.
Owner Marshall Minshew graduated from the College of Architecture and Design at Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Architecture. After graduation, he moved to Kansas City and founded Prefix Designs --a space planning and adaptive reuse design firm. Prefix Designs worked with local and regional architects on projects as varied as historical preservation (Topeka Independent Living Resource Center; five-story building in downtown Topeka) to national retail design accounts (Hallmark Cards, Inc.)
Hallmark Cards, Prefix Designs' largest account, eventually hired Marshall full-time where he stayed four years designing for independent retailers nationwide. He designed plans, fixtures, and lighting, as well as developed and implemented new store concepts for corporate prototype stores.
After Hallmark, Refresh Homes was established to provide renovation and design services, energy audits and thermal imaging for residential and commercial clients in the Kansas City area.
During 2006 to 2008, Conservation Services Group (CSG) hired Marshall full-time to help implement New Jersey's Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® Program by providing Quality Control and training contractors for BPI certification. Marshall also served as the Lead Solar Inspector for New Jersey's Clean Energy Rebate Program.
Since 2008, Refresh Homes has been a BPI Affiliate, offering individualized training and testing towards BPI certification and accreditation of home performance contractors. We also offer residential and commercial thermal imaging services and BPI-recognized Continuing Education.
Credentials include: Level 1 Thermographer certification training from the Infrared Training Center (in accordance with the American Society for Nondestructive Testing), Building Analyst and Envelope Specialist certification from the Building Performance Institute, and Home Energy Rater certification training from the Kansas Building Science Institute (an EPA program under the guidance of RESNET.)
Refresh Homes is proud to be an official ENERGY STAR® Partner
ENERGY STAR® qualified products and practices help you save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. EPA and U.S. DOE. The ENERGY STAR® label also designates superior energy performance in homes and buildings.
Additional information is available at the ENERGY STAR® Web site.
Refresh Homes is also proud to be an official BPI Affiliate offering BPI-Recognized Training and Testing.
Refresh Homes believes everyone benefits financially by continually improving their management of energy resources which can help our environment by reducing levels of related pollution. We are proud to offer services and products that may assist businesses and individuals who have committed to the goals of ENERGY STAR® and the Building Performance Institute, Inc.