Meet Our Team
Behind Home Energy Decisions (HEO Hub) is a team of energy analysts, building-science nerds, and electrification advocates dedicated to helping homeowners cut bills, improve comfort, and plan upgrades with clear trade-offs and real numbers.
Questions or corrections? Email hello@homeenergydecisions.com.
Erin Kessler
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Home Energy Decisions
Erin Kessler founded Home Energy Decisions after years of watching friends and neighbors make expensive upgrades in the wrong order—only to discover that comfort problems and high bills were still there. She wanted a place where homeowners could get clear guidance, realistic numbers, and the trade-offs spelled out without sales pressure.
Growing up in a 1920s duplex in Minneapolis, Erin learned early that “old houses have personality” often means drafts, ice dams, and surprise repair bills. Helping her parents troubleshoot cold bedrooms and condensation issues sparked a long-running curiosity about how homes actually work as systems.
Erin studied economics and environmental policy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, graduating in 2005. She was drawn to the intersection of household budgets and climate: how to reduce energy use without making homes harder to live in—or financially out of reach.
After college, Erin worked in utility energy-efficiency programs and later in consulting, building cost and savings models for insulation, HVAC upgrades, and electrification projects across different climates. The work taught her a simple lesson: homeowners don’t need more opinions—they need decision support, with assumptions stated plainly.
In 2021, Erin began turning her internal checklists and “what to do first” spreadsheets into public guides. What started as a weekend project evolved into the HEO Hub: a set of tools and articles designed to help people prioritize upgrades by comfort impact, payback, and practicality—not by what’s trending.
As Editor-in-Chief, Erin sets the editorial standards for the site: plain language, transparent assumptions, and no pretending every home is the same. She also helps shape the calculators and checklists so readers can go from “I’m overwhelmed” to a short, confident plan.
When she’s not editing or testing tools, Erin is usually chasing down weird edge cases—like why a specific thermostat setting changed usage—or working on her own never-ending list of small home projects.
Marcus Delaney
Building Science & Retrofit Advisor
Marcus Delaney is the person on the team who asks, “What would actually happen in a real house?” before a guide goes live. With a background in home performance and retrofit work, he helps keep recommendations grounded in field reality—messy basements, uneven framing, and all.
Raised outside Pittsburgh, Marcus grew up around contractors and renovation projects. He started in the trades as a young adult, then pivoted toward building science after realizing that many comfort and moisture issues weren’t “mysteries”—they were predictable outcomes of airflow, insulation gaps, and mechanical systems that weren’t matched to the house.
Marcus studied construction management in Pennsylvania and later completed specialized training in residential energy auditing, blower-door testing, and infrared diagnostics. He’s a believer in simple fundamentals: control air first, then add insulation, then tune mechanicals—and always keep safety and moisture in the conversation.
Marcus spent much of his career supporting weatherization and efficiency programs, working with homeowners across a wide range of housing stock—from post-war ranches to century-old rowhomes. He’s especially focused on the early wins that improve comfort quickly: air sealing, duct fixes, and smart sequencing before major equipment replacements.
At Home Energy Decisions, Marcus reviews retrofit guidance for safety and practicality. If a step has a hidden gotcha—like combustion safety considerations, venting changes, or a common contractor shortcut—he makes sure the guide calls it out.
Marcus also helps translate building-science jargon into homeowner-friendly language. His philosophy is that you can respect the complexity without forcing people to learn a new vocabulary just to make a good decision.
Outside of work, Marcus restores old tools, tinkers in the garage, and can usually be found planning his next DIY project—after, of course, checking whether it’s actually worth doing now or later.
Sofia Nguyen
HVAC & Electrification Writer
Sofia Nguyen writes Home Energy Decisions’ heating and cooling content with one goal: help people choose equipment that makes sense for their home—not just what’s “best” in a vacuum. She’s passionate about heat pumps, but equally passionate about making sure they’re sized, installed, and ducted correctly.
Sofia grew up in Northern California, where wildfire smoke and heat waves made indoor air quality and cooling resilience feel personal. That experience pushed her toward mechanical engineering and a career focused on practical comfort: temperature, humidity, noise, and the real-world performance homeowners notice every day.
She earned her mechanical engineering degree in 2013 and started her career on HVAC design and commissioning teams, learning how to translate plans into performance. Over time, Sofia gravitated toward electrification retrofits—where constraints like existing ducts, panel capacity, and building envelope quirks make “best practice” a moving target.
Early in her career, Sofia worked alongside HVAC designers and commissioning teams, learning why the same model heat pump can perform beautifully in one home and disappoint in another. The details—load calculations, duct leakage, thermostat configuration, and installer choices—matter more than most people are told.
At HEO Hub, Sofia turns technical concepts into step-by-step decisions: what questions to ask, what numbers to look for, and what trade-offs are acceptable. She also tracks how codes, incentives, and manufacturer changes affect recommendations over time.
Sofia’s favorite guides are the ones that reduce anxiety. If a reader can walk away knowing exactly what to ask for in a bid—and what a red flag looks like—she considers it a win.
When she’s not writing, Sofia is out trail running, experimenting with a new recipe, or babysitting her friends’ thermostats by explaining (again) that “Auto” isn’t magic if the system is misconfigured.