Home Energy Audits: Save Money Save Energy
We are happy that we were audited….energy audited, that is!
Since purchasing our forty-plus year old home twelve years ago, we have made many typical improvements – new kitchen, bathrooms, etc. It wasn’t until my employer, Mitchell Construction Group, started offering energy audits that we questioned how well our home performed from an energy perspective. The notion that by improving the performance of our home we could improve our comfort, save money and help the environment was too attractive to pass up.
Last fall, we had a home energy audit performed. We really didn’t know what to expect and have to admit, we were surprised by how little we knew about our home. On the plus side, we learned a lot within short period of time including how easy it would be to get on the path to improved efficiency and cost savings – yeah!
While two technicians performed the energy audit – blower door test, duct tightness test, infrared thermal defect test, carbon monoxide tests, etc. another professional explained to us the process of the audit and what to expect. We did a walkthrough of the home identifying several inefficiencies – air leakage, water temperature, light bulbs, water flow – from which, with minor modifications, we could reap immediate cost and comfort benefits.
At the conclusion of the audit, we received a detailed report of prioritized recommendations based on costs and potential savings. We decided to go ahead with the immediate improvements which were performed before the technicians left. As for the rest of the recommendations, some we implemented – the most major of which was having insulation blown into the attic and areas in the basement.
We have now lived with these efficiency improvements for a year and our only regret is that we didn’t make the changes sooner. In the winter, for the first time, the heat felt evenly dispersed throughout the whole house and were able to knock the temperature down a few degrees without feeling a difference. Likewise, in the summer, the rooms upstairs felt equally cool to the ones on the first floor at a higher temperature. Other improvements were barely noticeable – like a lower water temperature, faucet aerators, a switch to fluorescent bulbs – yet helped reduce our utility bills.
All the things we were told would come true by improving the efficiency of our home did – the comfort level increased while our energy consumption, thus costs, decreased. Most of all, we feel good that we made these improvements for our family and the environment in which we live.
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It hadn’t occurred to us either! For example, in the winter, our heat was escaping from the second floor through recessed lighting to the attic, and out of the attic through gaps. In the summer, our a/c unit in the attic spent much energy trying to cool the air being sent to the floors below.
With proper insulation, we are now done heating and cooling our attic and the great outdoors and are looking forward to continuous seasonal comfort and savings!
This is really interesting it hadn’t occured to us that the lack of efficiency was contributing to the way that different areas of the house maintained their heat or coolness.
Thanks for taking the time to write this up.