Energy advisory

The bill, the contract, or the project. Pick one.

Energy consultants are asked to look at a tariff, a generation project, or a site that wastes heat. Each is a different engagement. The proposal should say which, the saving or the risk you are there to test, and where an installer or a lawyer takes over.

Bill, contract, or project

A tariff check ends in a recommendation to stay or switch, with the numbers from their invoices. A contract review ends before signature, with the clauses that shift risk onto them. A project review, solar or heat or controls, ends in a go or no-go before they pay an installer. Write which ending this is. A proposal that offers 'energy strategy' will be held responsible for the bill, the contract, and the roof.

Use their last year of invoices or the installer's quote as the source. If they will not share it, say the work cannot start. Energy advice without the paper is a conversation, and it should be priced as a conversation or declined.

Where the installer takes over

You do not install, finance, or certify the equipment unless you truly do, in which case say the license and keep this proposal honest. Most independent advisors should write the handoff: a scope an installer can price, or a note that the quote they have is not worth signing. Your fee is not contingent on the installer they choose, or you have become their salesperson.

Savings are estimates. Label the assumptions: hours of run, the tariff you used, the degradation you ignored. A single bold percentage with no assumptions is the sentence a disappointed client will forward to you in winter.