18 Mar

Save Money by Getting a Home Energy Audit for your House

One of the most important ways that you can save money on your home energy bills is to make sure that your home is energy-efficient. Most homes have some air leaks which result in having air conditioning and heating exit the house when they shouldn’t. By patching up these leaks, you’ll be able to save money on your energy bills every single month. Although you can hunt down these leaks yourself, it might be smart to have a professional do it. A home energy audit isn’t terribly expensive and it can provide you with very precise information about what you need to do to improve the energy efficiency of your home.

What is a home energy audit?

A professional home energy auditor is someone who comes in and performs a variety of different tests on your home. The tests are all designed to pinpoint exactly where your home may have leaks or may need more insulation. The auditor will offer advice about the most effective and most cost-efficient methods of making repairs based on the analysis of the home. This process is the home energy audit.

What do you have to do for a home energy audit?

Getting a home energy audit doesn’t require a lot of effort on your part. The toughest part is finding the right person to do your home energy audit. As with anything else, you want to read reviews and get referrals from others who have used this service. Do some comparison shopping. Look for a highly-reviewed auditor who offers comprehensive home energy testing at a low price.

Once you have hired the person to do the work, your part of the job is almost done. You will need to be home when the auditor comes to the house. You will have to answer a questionnaire of basic information about how you use energy in your home. You may want to follow the home energy auditor from room to room so that you can ask questions as he does his job. However, this isn’t necessary.

After the audit is complete, the auditor will go over this information with you. You will learn where leaks are in your home and where more insulation would be helpful in improving the efficiency of your home. You can then make a list of all of the repairs that are needed to optimize the efficiency of the home. At that point, you can start budgeting to make these repairs. Ideally, you will want to use the spring, summer and fall to complete all repairs since the most energy is usually lost during the winter when people use their home heat every day.

What will the home energy auditor do?

Most of the work of this process will be done by your home energy auditor. This person asks a lot of questions. They will then go through the house and perform a range of different tests. Some of the tests that you can expect a home energy auditor to do include:

• Blower door test. This is the most common home energy auditor test. The auditor sets up a large blower door fan in one part of the house (often at the front door). This is turned on and it sucks all of the air out of the home. The auditor then goes from room to room to look for air rushing back into the house. This is the main test done to identify leaks in the home.
• Thermography scan. Special photography can be used to provide your auditor with even more accurate information about the leaks and insulation problems in your home. Infrared photography can be used in both still photography and digital photography to scan the home. The scan searches for heat in the home and identifies spots where heat is being lost. An analysis of the results supplements the information from the blower door test.
• Appliance testing. Another portion of the home energy audit tests your appliance to provide you with exact information about the amount of energy that they waste. This can help you make frugal choices about which appliances should be replaced. It may also remind you to reduce your use of certain appliances.
• Additional testing. Additional tests may be done on lighting and other areas of the home. Most tests are done during the first visit. However, you can also opt to do some long-term tests which will measure how your home’s energy changes depending on the weather and time of day. A professional home energy auditor may offer dozens of tests. You should get rate quotes for different sets of tests to determine what works best with your budget. The goal is, after all, to save money.

DIY Home Energy Audit

It is possible to do a home energy audit on your own without hiring a professional. One option is to use the Home Energy Saver calculator, which is a web-based tool for doing your own home energy audit. Another is to invest in certain gadgets, such as power meters that can tell you how much energy each of your appliances uses. You can even just go around the house and try to detect air leaks on your own. Some of these (where windows need to be caulked for example) are obvious and the repairs can be made immediately. A more accurate method, according to Energy Savers, would be to close up the house, turn off all combustion appliances, turn on all exhaust fans and go room to room doing a check for incoming air. These things will help you make your home more energy efficient. However, in many cases, it is more cost-effective to do a full-home energy audit with the assistance of a professional. This will give you the most accurate information and is typically a one-time expense.

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