Every home needs to go through an energy audit as a means of reducing your home’s carbon footprint. Studies show that about 60% of your energy consumption goes to waste because of poor insulation, secondary to the lack of awareness that such a problem exists. So a thorough assessment of your home helps determine where the leakage is coming from, how much energy can be saved and what steps should be taken to improve your home’s energy consumption.

When Is An Energy Audit Needed?

All new homes are required to go through an energy audit. In fact, it is one of requirements to earn a construction permit in some states. For existing homes, an audit will be needed whenever the home owner sees the need. It could be because of high energy bills despite the reduced usage of cooling and heating systems. It would be wise to keep a list of all utility bills so that the energy auditor can establish your history of consumption and use that to know how much energy is saved if the leakage problem is corrected.

Who Can Conduct the Energy Audit?

Representatives from the government, private firms and public utility companies can perform the energy audit on your home. All public utility companies and private firms need to be accredited by either BPI or RESNET before they can conduct the editing. So if you want to get an assessment from these sectors, always ask for proof of certification.

If you don’t know where to begin your search, you can ask for recommendations from the US Department of Energy, local building inspector’s office, and/or your local builders association. You can also try checking the yellow pages to get in touch with energy auditing firms in your area.

What Are The Three Methods Used in Residential Audits?

There are methods commonly employed in residential energy auditing in any home: benchmarking, preliminary and comprehensive. Each of these steps has a specific timeframe spent for completion and the equipments (or lack of equipments) used.

Benchmarking is the process of comparing the energy consumption of your home and put that data against the reference consumption of other similar-sized buildings. Criteria would oftentimes include the comfort requirements and energy demands and so on. The goal of benchmarking is to identify which homes or parts of your home has an energy saving potential.

The next step of the process is called the preliminary energy audit which includes interviews with the occupants to determine their behaviors that affect their energy consumption. The energy auditor would also need to check the history of energy consumption in a home. Otherwise known as the walk-through audit, this step is merely an overview of the entire area that needs to be audited.

And the last step is called the comprehensive audit. This is the most important step in energy auditing because it involves a detailed evaluation of the energy conservation measures. Depending on your auditor, it might include a thorough check up of the insulation system, safety of combustion appliances, and the condition of crawlspaces. The goal of the detailed audit is to educate you on which aspect of the energy conservation efforts need to be reinforced and what additional steps can be done to maximize the energy efficiency of your home.

An energy audit is the most important, yet often disregarded, process that you can take advantage of to save on your energy bills. Ask around for an experienced and licensed energy auditor in your home and start see the difference in your energy consumption soon.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2011 at 5:15 am and is filed under Commercial Energy Audits, Energy Auditor, Home Energy Audit, Save Energy, Tax Credits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.