BATH

Rachel Polton and Charlotte MacMillan were having a hard time reading the tape measure, because the boys on the other end of the tool were behaving like, well, 12-yearold “tools.”

“Will you stop moving it!” Polton hollered.

To the boys’ credit, they did, and MacMillan read the metric: 273.5 inches — which, of course, translates to 22 feet, 8 inches.

Then the group wandered around the corner of 32 Corliss St. to measure the rear of the house, one-third of the way toward figuring out its overall volume.

“You have to know how much air a house holds before you can figure out how much it loses,” Kevin Casey told the group.

Casey is an auditor for Upright Frameworks in Portland and Wilton. He and Brunswick auditor DeWitt Kimball, who operates Complete Home Evaluations, shepherded 24 Brunswick Junior High School seventhgraders around the houselot Thursday morning, showing them what to look for, how to quantify it, and how it could be fixed.

First they measured the furnace’s burner efficiency. After calculating the house’s volume, they convened by a doorway where the storm door had been replaced by a “blower door” — a fabric rectangle that fits in the doorway and has a fan motor in the lower third — so that they could measure the rate of air recirculation and heat loss through uninsulated weak spots.

First the house was pressurized using the fan, then Kimball pointed an infrared camera toward corners, walls and windows to detect patterns of heat loss.

The kids weren’t the only ones who will benefit from the education. The property is one of 16 in Durham, Topsham, Brunswick and Bath owned by the Independence Association, which helps learning disabled people live and work for themselves.

Three people reside at 32 Corliss St., and the house will be warmer, safer and more comfortable when the project is finished, said Independence Association’s Lori Chase.

A similar project was done at one of the Brunswick residences in April, and the organization expects a dramatic reduction in energy expenses there during the coming winter.

“It’s great to see the school kids getting involved in the project,” Chase said.

But the lesson doesn’t end with the audit.

In December, many of the same students will spend one day learning how to use caulking, spray foam and weatherstripping and then next returning to 32 Corliss St. to apply their new skills.