What You Should Look For in a DIY Home Energy Audit

It’s hard to save energy that hasn’t been measured. That’s the most basic reason for doing a home energy audit. If you are inclined to save energy for financial or environmental reasons, or both, you will inevitably come to this realization and start looking around for a professional or a program to Do It Yourself. Professional energy auditors offer a wonderful service and will use blower doors and Infrared cameras to help them in unraveling the mysteries of your particular household. But many people are realizing they can do much of it on their own, substituting handy tools and tricks for the expensive route to get roughly the same data. If you choose the DIY energy audit pathway, here are some key areas to make sure are included in the program you choose:

Collect billing history on electrical usage and heating costs: This will give you a critical understanding of where you use energy and where best to save it. It will also be used to compare present usage to future use after changes are made. This is the best way to use data to show how much you save over time.

Define the Building Envelope or ‘Thermal Boundary’ of the home: This is the area that protects your conditioned space from the unconditioned outdoors. There are various ways to do this including a simple visual tour of the home with a sketch pad.

House Pressure test: On a professional audit, they would use ‘Blower Doors’ and ‘Duct Blasters’ to do the pressure test of your home. On a DIY version, you can use the fans in your house and some handy tricks to find the leaks.

Insulation inspection: Your insulation is the first line of defense against the cold AND hot temperatures encroaching on your living space. The priorities should be in the attic first, basement second and main floor walls third. The US Dept. of Energy suggests a minimum of 15″ of insulation in the attic in most regions or an R-factor of 38.

Inspection of heating and cooling appliances: This step is fundamental for safety and for finding the base line efficiencies that you can expect your present appliances to attain. Replacement of older gas and electric furnaces and heaters can be a costly but sometimes necessary step. If you have a furnace that’s not too old, but may be overlooked, a good audit program should give you a set of steps to make that system work at its full efficiency, from cleaning the fans, to checking ducts etcâEUR¦

Window integrity and exposure: Windows can loose a considerable amount of energy in the winter. Yet much of it is through the cracks AROUND the windows that can be easily sealed. If the windows are single pane glass, they can also leak a large amount through the glass itself. If upgrading all your windows isn’t in the cards financially right now, there are steps you can take, like shrink-plastic coverings that can save money on utilities each winter. Audit programs will also give you ideas on minimizing window drafts and helping keep your living spaces more comfortable.

Phantom Loads: Phantom loads are those pesky electronic sucking appliances that use electricity even though you have turned them ‘off’. This is one of the best things you can do on your own with a Kill-a-Watt electricity monitor. You move through each room in the house and check which appliances are costing you money when you’re not even using them. Then you can target which ones to replace or at least put on a power strip to turn them completely off when not in use.

Lighting inspection: Lighting accounts for 11% of the average home energy use. In US households that adds up to an average of 940 kWh/yr. If you are still using incandescent bulbs for most of your lighting needs, It’s time to change. It’s a no-brainer. The old filament technology that incandescent bulbs use wastes about 90% of the electricity by turning it into heat. (You realize this once you touch one that’s been on for a while.) The newer Compact Fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) use 75% less energy, create 75% less heat (cutting home cooling costs) and last ten times longer.

If your DIY energy audit program includes these basic categories, you’re on your way to a comprehensive plan to save energy. Many can be found online as e-books and downloadable programs. They are all a bit different with lesser and greater detail. We rate some of the best on our website. Which ever one you choose, just by taking action in reducing your own energy use, you will help keep your utility costs down to their minimum and help the environment as well.

Thanks for your efforts!