Save Money With A Home Energy Audit
Having a home energy assessment or energy audit can help you save money on your heating and cooling expenses. This type of audit will help you identify areas within your house that are wasting energy and money. The energy audit will also point out how these problems can be fixed in order to make your house more energy efficient. When hiring a professional energy auditor, they will assess the good and the bad. An audit like this may include a blower door test and the use of an infrared camera. Upon completion, they’ll provide a detailed report.
Steve Ohl, President of R.F. Ohl, was recently quoted in PennsylvaniaHomes.com as saying:
What are the basic steps for a home energy audit and how long does one usually take? There are different levels of energy audits. A basic “walk thru” energy audit will take about a 45 minutes and is really meant to identify the biggest wasters of energy in a home. A “complete” energy audit may take up to 4 hours and you will be issued a detailed report. The “walk thru” energy audit requires no prep time for the home owner. The “complete” energy audit might require the homeowner to spend time prepping the home for the energy auditor, for example, moving items in a basement, attic, or storage room, for the auditor to gain access to take diagnostic readings. Read the complete article at: http://www.pennsylvaniahomes.com/articles/start-saving-money-with-a-home-energy-audit
Some Things You Can Do Yourself…
Of course there are some things that you can do on your own. For example, check the exterior walls of your house for any visible signs of leaks. Check the seal around exterior doors and windows to make sure that there are no gaps allowing cold air to enter the home or hot air to exist.
Also check the electrical outlets on the exterior walls of your home. Check to see if you feel cold air flow coming into your house from the outlet. If so, remove the outlet cover and see if there is a foam insulation cover surrounding the outlet. If there is nothing there, consider buying a foam insulating kit for your exterior outlets. The same bit of advice applies to light switches. Here is a video describing how to check and fix this: