A home energy audit is key to understanding the efficiency of your home. Terry Ettinger has more.

The key to efficiently cooling and heating your home can be explained in three words: Home energy audit.

“We get monthly utility bills, but we have a hard time connecting that to what our energy use was, so a home energy audit is a chance to have someone come in and take a look at your home and really put a mileage per gallon sticker on it,” said Paul Crovella, sustainable constructions management specialist, SUNY ESF.

Crovella explained that a certified professional, like this auditor from Comfort Windows, should perform the home energy audit.

“They’re going to do an inventory including what type of insulation levels are in your walls and ceilings. They’re going to take a look at your windows and understand how energy inefficient those are,” Crovella said.

The blower door allows us to create a pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the home. So, essentially, it’s as though you are creating a 20 mile per hour wind on the outside of your home and you can go around the building and you can find locations where leakage is occurring.

The auditor will also use an infrared camera to detect air leaks in walls and windows. Then the data is put into the authorized software for analysis and most often it shows that you need your basement sealed and better insulation in your attic.

“The software will actually rank it for you and it will show you that doing this has a payback of six months, doing this has a payback of a year and a half, doing
this has a payback of four and a half years. With each of those paybacks, there will be a cost associated so you can put it into economic terms so you can understand what it’s going to mean,” Crovella said.