Companies' Work Helps Reassure Homeowners
by Jean Torkelson If the approaching millennium and Y2K represent uncharted seas, Dennis Brachfeld is one of the skippers in charge of battening down the hatches. Brachfeld has been in the retrofit business since 1975. He makes homes energy efficient through his business About Saving Heat. Recently, he noticed a new aspect to his business, one that could scarcely be imagined in the days of computer punch cards and paisley shirts. The trend is a reaction to concerns about Y2K problems brought on by computer's inability to read the calendar rollover to 2000. More people want to make sure their homes will work. They want at least one room to withstand the effects of heat and electrical failures, as well as food scarcities, and even armies of desperate, have-not neighbors. In the midst of such uncertainties, Brachfeld has nailed down a name for these self-sustaining havens. Finding millennium rooms a mouthful, he's coined the term Y2Komfort rooms. "My guess is, about 10 percent of homes I'm doing are motivated by Y2K," he says. Then again, some people may just not be telling. "It's funny; there's a little bit of secrecy about this," Brachfeld said. "People don't want other people to know their house is really prepared if things get bad. They feel people will be knocking at their door for survival." Brachfeld was chatting with a client one day as he worked on what he considered a routine insulation project at her 93 year-old home in Denver's Cherry Creek North neighborhood. In passing, he mentions the boomlet for Y2Komfort rooms. Brachfeld chuckled as he recalled her response: "She said 'Why do you think you're here?'" His clients are turning the adjoining kitchen and family room into a self-sustaining Y2Komfort room. The woman said the $6,000 project includes insulation, storm windows, an insulated cover for the skylights, heat trapping window shades and a cast iron stove fro heat and cooking. Originally, the goal was to tweak the home for more energy efficiency. When her husband, an investment advisor, wanted to expand to include Y2K considerations , that produced some tension. "We had some differences," she said. "My husband has a bug about it. He was looking at all these expensive things, like solar panels and a big generator. We decided to go with what was easiest." And what about possible Y2K envy from the neighbors? "I've thought about that," she said, "and I've decided, 'Oh, let them come in.'"
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