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Home Energy Audit
You can perform a simple energy audit
yourself, or have a professional energy auditor perform a more thorough audit.
Do-It-Yourself Audits
A home energy audit is the first step to
assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can
take to make your home more energy efficient. An audit will show you problems that
may, when corrected, save you significant amounts of money over time. During the
audit, you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy. Audits also determine
the efficiency of your home's heating and cooling systems. An audit may also show
you ways to conserve hot water and electricity.
You can easily conduct a home energy audit
yourself. With a simple but diligent walk-through, you can spot many problems in
any type of house. When auditing your home, keep a checklist of areas you have inspected
and problems you found. This site will help you prioritize your energy efficiency
upgrades.
To learn more go to Energysavers.gov.
Also feel free to visit the following tools
which walk you through a web-based scenario;
Hes.Lbl.Gov/
and
Ase.Org/content/article/detail/971.
For those “Do-it-yourself”
project lovers, ENERGY STAR®, major home improvement stores, self-help books and
also quite a few TV programs provide extensive information about
home improvement projects to enhance energy efficiency, lower utility bills, and
increase comfort.
Professional Audits
A professional auditor uses a variety of techniques and
equipment to determine the energy efficiency of a structure. Thorough audits often
use equipment such as
blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and
infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration
and missing insulation.
For more information about home energy audits, including free tools and calculators,
visit EnergySavers.Gov
or Natresnet.Org.
Hire a Professional Home Energy Auditor
If you are interested in getting specific
recommendations for improving the efficiency of your home,
consider contacting a professional Home Energy Auditor.
A professional auditor can use a variety of techniques and
equipment to determine the energy efficiency of your home.
Thorough audits often use equipment such as blower doors, which
measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared
cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and
missing insulation.
Before contracting with an energy auditing company, you should take the following steps:
- Get several references, and contact them all. Ask if they were satisfied with the work.
- Call the Better Business Bureau and ask about any complaints against the company.
- Make sure the energy auditor uses a calibrated
blower door.
- Make sure they do
thermographic inspections or contract another company to conduct one.
Your first step should be to contact your utility to
see if they offer free or discounted energy audits to their customers. If not, you can hire a home energy
professional, such as a certified Home Energy Rater, to evaluate your home's energy efficiency.
The basics are insulating and sealing your home, assessing your heating and
cooling systems, heating the water, assessing your windows, appliances and lighting.
These are the large pieces that you must first tackle in your plan to make a difference
in how your home performs with regard to energy use.
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