Home Energy Audits Make Saving Energy Easy

You know what you’re supposed to do to start saving energy in your home. You need to reduce your energy waste. This is done by taking steps like insulating your attic and sealing your windows to prevent energy from leaking out. However, it’s tough to know which steps are really going to be the most efficient ones for your home. How do you really know if you need more insulation or if it’s time to re-caulk your windows? One great way to make this whole process a lot easier on you is to get a home energy audit.

Home energy audits are inspections of your home that will tell you exactly how your house is losing energy, wasting energy and properly using energy. This isn’t something that is easy to figure out on your own. In fact, professional home audit companies like Dr. Energy Saver may do upwards of 90 tests in your home to figure out exactly how energy is being used. Figuring it out on your own might not be easy but letting someone else do the work is. Getting a home energy audit isn’t a difficult process and it results in giving you the best information about how to use your time and money to make your home as energy-efficient as possible.

What’s involved in getting a home energy audit? On your part, not a whole lot. You hire a professional to come do the audit of your home. You answer some questions about your house and habits. (For example, it’s helpful to know if someone works from home to determine if electricity is lost during the day.) And then you might walk through the inspection while it’s being done so that you get a better understanding of what it’s all about.

Although the inspection process is very easy for you, a good home energy audit will be very thorough and comprehensive. The auditor will do a number of different tests to see how energy is being used in the home. For example, they will use calibrated blower doors to determine how much energy leakage your home has. They will use infrared cameras in a process called thermography to detect missing insulation and areas where the outdoor air is coming into the house. They will do an HVAC inspection, a lighting check and an inspection of your insulation.

At the end of your home audit, you will have a report about how to improve the energy-efficiency of your home. There will be no more guesswork about where to start with making your home more efficient. It will all be clear.

For more information on home energy audits please read the other articles in this series.

Part Two: Using Thermography to Reduce Home Energy Waste

Part Three: Why Home Energy Auditors Use Blower Door Testing

Part Four: Using the PFT Air Infiltration Measurement Technique in a Home Energy Audit