Hobbies And Interests
Assemble Your Paperwork
Go to the file drawer and take out the last few months̵7; worth of utility bills. Be sure to assemble the bills for any energy source your household uses, including electricity, natural gas or propane. This will give you an idea of what you spend on utilities. You may want to go through a year's worth of bills to get a monthly average.
Do an Inventory
Inventory all of the things that use energy in your home and how old or, conversely, new and energy-efficient they are. For example, in the kitchen, you might check on what type of refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, microwave and toaster you own. Work your way around the house, being sure to include the water heater, furnace, air conditioning unit and the types of lights that you use.
Home Inspection
Do some detective work in your home. Look for air leaks around windows, doors, chimneys, outlets and any other places where there is a break in the wall. Check the amount and type of insulation in your ceiling and your walls, as well as around duct work, hot water pipes and crawl spaces. Check the windows to see if they are single-pane, double-pane or have energy-efficient features such as being argon filled or having low-e coating. Look for energy vampires such as plugged-in and unused appliances. Finally, check outside to see how much shade your house gets and whether it is exposed to direct winds.
Professional Tools
There are parts of a home energy audit that anyone can do, but professionals have a few special tools. A blower door blows air into or out of the building and measures the pressure difference between the two spaces to test how airtight the house is. The amount of energy it takes to pressurize the house is a measure of the air leaking out. A thermographic imager is used on the outside of the house to look for areas where heating or cooling energy is escaping. These cooler or warmer areas are often where insulation is missing or patchy.
Analysis: Putting It All Together
Once you have collected all of the data on your house, you will need to analyze it to determine the best home improvements for your house. It is a cost-benefit analysis wherein you look at how your home is wasting energy, what it would cost to make it more efficient and what the projected energy savings would be. You can do this piece by piece, or you can use an online home audit calculator such as Home Energy Yardstick (Energy Star), Home Energy Saver (U.S. Department of Energy) or one offered by your local utility company. A professional auditor would also run an analysis and apprise you of the results.