Home Inspector Fairmont MN | Inspector– 507-721-3145
What happens during a home energy audit?
An energy audit is an assessment of your home that takes a look at current energy consumption and then identifies energy efficiency measures that you can conduct to make your home more efficient. An energy auditor can assess where your home is losing the most energy, and then proposes improvements to make to help save energy – and reduce your utility bills.
Professional energy audits can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours to complete, depending on the size of your home. These professional auditors use a variety of tools to establish problem areas within your property, and come up with a list of suggested measures and actions that you can take in order to make your home more efficient.
Here’s what a typical energy audit might look like in your home:
- An energy auditor will take a look at your building from the outside. They’ll examine a variety of components, including windows, walls, and eaves, to see if they can spot any major issues causing leaks into or out of your home.
- The auditor will check out the attic (if you have one) to take a look at a few things. Most importantly, they will inspect your insulation to make sure it’s correctly installed and applied evenly between your walls. They’ll also evaluate the holes where electrical lines run to see if they’re properly sealed, or could be a source of leakage.
- The auditor will examine your furnace and water heater. If either is on the older end, it is likely a candidate for an upgrade. They’ll also likely take a look at the filter in the furnace to ensure that it doesn’t require replacement. They’ll also check connections in the ducts in your basement to try and locate any possible leaks where you may be losing heat and energy.
While replacing appliances, furnaces, and water heaters cost significant money upfront, making the upgrade typically results in savings over the lifetime of the equipment. In many cases, upgrades will result in net savings in just a few years. Many utilities and local governments offer low-cost energy efficiency financing to make it easier to make the investment in energy efficient appliances.
- Most professional audits will include a blower door test. This is a device that allows them to locate air leaks in the home. During a blower door test, all the windows and doors are closed, and they’ll use a blower door machine to depressurize the home. At that point, the auditor uses an infrared camera to see where cold air may be leaking into your home.
- Finally, audits usually include an inspection of the lighting in your home. If you’re using standard incandescent light bulbs, you can easily reduce your electricity costs by switching over to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).
These are some of the more common steps taken in an energy audit. However, depending on the scope and the tools in your energy auditor’s arsenal, there may be some additional steps taken (such as thermographic inspections).
The recommendations that your energy auditor makes for your home depends on the scope of the audit. Some lightweight suggestions may be switching to more efficient lighting, sealing air leaks from doors or adding weather stripping. Some larger suggestions might include more insulation, or replacing windows that are causing drafts in your home.
Prime Inspections – 507-721-3145