A home energy audit is the first step that every homeowner needs to take in his or her quest to create a more energy efficient home. A homeowner can opt to conduct the energy audit as a DIY project or he/she can opt to have the audit done by a professional. There are several advantages to selecting to have a professional do it but I’ll cover what you will need to do it yourself first. But remember, an energy audit, no matter whether you do it yourself or have it done by a professional, it’s just the first step in making your home more energy efficient. You must use your findings or implement the recommendations of the professional energy auditor to make your home more energy efficient.
As a DIY project, you can use the Home Energy Star Calculator to get an estimate of how energy efficient your home is. You will understand why this will only give you a close approximation of how energy efficient you home is when I explain how a professional audit is conducted. In order to use the Home Energy Star Calculator you will need to follow these steps:
- Calculate the total area of all the rooms inside your home that are heated and enter that figure into the calculator where it asks for conditioned floor area.
- You need to enter your zip code because the findings of the calculator are based on the climactic conditions of your geographic area.
- You will need to enter the total number of people living in your home because people generate heat.
- You will need to know in what decade your home was built and select that decade from the drop-down box on the calculator.
- You will need to select what energy sources besides electricity is used to heat your home.
- You will need your utility bills for the past twelve months and select whether to enter those figures as a monthly or yearly amount.
The Home Energy Star Yardstick Calculator is self-explanatory and user friendly so give it a whirl. The audit that you have just completed tells you how energy efficient your home is, so why is it better to have the audit done by a professional? The professional has the specialized test equipment and the expertise to tell you exactly where you are wasting energy and to tell you what you need to do to make your home more energy efficient.
To begin with, most public utility companies offer their customers a professional energy audit free of charge, all they have to do is call them and request it. The major advantage of taking advantage of this service is that the auditor will conduct a thermo graphic study of your home and pin point exactly how and where you are wasting energy. If your utility company doesn’t offer this free service, you can hire a professional auditor to conduct such a survey for around $200 and most utility companies will offer to pick up part of that bill.
Are you losing energy through the walls, ceilings, and floors of your home because of insufficient insulation? A thermo graphic study will detect and pin point where that is happening. Are you losing heat through leaking and/or improperly insulated ductwork? The thermo graphic study will detect and pin point where that is happening. Wherever heat is being lost, the study will pin point and the auditor will leave you with a detailed list of ways to remedy those problems.
To do it yourself or hire a professional, the choice is yours. Personally I recommend doing a DIY audit to determine whether or not you need to have a professional audit done and the hire the professional to get the thermo graphic print out and his recommendations based on his professional training and years of experience. Once you know what needs to be done to make your home more energy efficient you can start to complete those projects as DIY projects, saving yourself a ton of money on heating your home this winter and in cooling your home in the long, hot summer months ahead.
