An Energy Audit Should Precede Home Improvements
May 12, 2015
A home energy audit is the first item you should include on your home improvements checklist this year. The insights and data from an energy audit will help you make informed decisions about the renovation projects you want to start so that you can trim your family's energy use at the same time you are sprucing up your home's appearance or adding new living space to it.
You can perform a basic home energy audit yourself, but the minimal cost of a complete professional assessment can pay for itself many times over if you use the data to implement energy efficiency upgrades that result in a reduction in the size of the equipment you need for heating and cooling and a reduction in your monthly utility bills.
A professional home energy audit may include some or all of the following items:
- Current energy use assessment: Your auditor will look over your recent energy bills to compare your energy use with that of similar homes in your area. He or she will ask you questions about your family's routines surrounding thermostat settings and use of lighting, electronics and other appliances.
- Visual inspection: Your inspector will look for obvious sources of energy losses around your home, such as drafty doors and windows, damaged or inadequate insulation and disconnected or leaky ductwork.
- Blower door test: Your inspector may use a blower door to create pressure changes inside your house that will make it easy find air leaks around doors and windows and other less obvious openings in your home's exterior shell, such as holes where pipes enter the building and gaps between walls, floors and ceilings.
- Thermographic imaging: Your inspector may use an infrared camera to identify places where heat is escaping from your house. Thermographic imaging can find air leaks as well as gaps and thin spots in insulation.
Call us at
Lozier Heating & Cooling to schedule your home energy audit. With your report in hand, you can plan your home improvements to include energy upgrades that will pay back your investment in the audit and make your home more comfortable.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the greater Des Moines, Iowa area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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