Today, we had a contractor come by to discuss getting a home energy audit. There are different types of home energy audits, and this one is going to be a doozy.
You can get usually get a free home energy audit from your local power company. They will send someone over to evaluate common issues with energy efficiency, such as drafty windows, doors with gaps, etc. Most of these items you can catch yourself with a careful eye.
Then then there is the really serious home energy audit, which costs around $500. State of the art equipment is used to evaluate the air flow in your home. This provides detailed information on hidden leaks in your walls. For example, when your plumbing was put in to your house, it is likely that a large hole was cut in order to fit the pipe. The hole was never insulated and in a source of heat leakage.
Our contractor told us how heat travels through the walls. He said that you can even see track marks in wall insulation where the warm air travels up the wall and escapes.
As part of the home energy audit, the auditors will suck air out of our home and measure the pressure. They will also make use of scanning equipment that can detect differences in temperature. The contractor assures us that watching our house on the scanner will be pretty cool.
While this professional home energy audit might seem like overkill, it really is the first step in making sure that your home is as sealed as is feasible for your situation. If you are planning on taking out an energy efficiency home loan, most programs will require that you have a professional home energy audit done. This will satisfy the program that you will be able to make sufficient improvement to your home.
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