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Why Every Home Should Have An Energy Audit

  

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Chances are you have noticed areas within your home that are a bit drafty in the winter or don't stay as warm as they should. Maybe you have had occasional moisture on the inside of your windows. Or perhaps you are just tired of paying so much for your energy usage.

A Home Energy Audit is the one way to determine where your home is using, losing and wasting energy. A professional audit gives you access to high-tech tools that pinpoint the exact location of duct leaks, gas leaks and which direction drafts are blowing. Draft direction can alert an auditor that your attic is greedily sucking up your warm air, for instance. The information an energy audit reveals can help you make targeted repairs that will lower energy bills 5%-30% annually.

Some symptoms of energy inefficiency:

•  Drafty windows

•  Hard to regulate the temperature in the house

•  Occasional musty, mildew or mold odor

•  Floors in some rooms are cold

•  Indoor air is too dry in the winter

•  The attic/crawl space is too hot in summer

•  Occasional moisture on the inside of windows or walls 

•  Ice dams on the roof in winter

A professional home energy audit will typically take 3-4 hours.

A couple of the tools used to test a house are:

• Blower Door: Used to depressurize the house, see airflow patterns and determine where there are leaks that need to be fixed.

• Infrared Camera: Used to spot problem areas behind walls, ceilings and floors. These infrared pictures give an accurate view of hot spots, missing insulation, electrical issues, etc.

A Home Energy Audit can identify changes that can be made fairly inexpensively but will have a substantial impact on the comfort of your home and your energy costs. It may also indicate projects of a larger scale that can be planned for. Once you have a 'snapshot' of your home's energy usage footprint, you can plan accordingly and decide what you might want to change and what you can live with. It is good for your family, good for the environment and good for your wallet.