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Energy Auditing Tips |
You can easily conduct a home energy
audit yourself. With a simple but diligent walk-through, you can
spot many problems in any type of house. When auditing your home,
keep a checklist of areas you have inspected and problems you found.
This list will help you prioritize your energy efficiency upgrades.
Locating Air Leaks
First, make a list of obvious air
leaks (drafts). The potential energy savings from reducing drafts in
a home may range from 5 to 30% per year, and the home is generally
much more comfortable afterward. Check for indoor air leaks, such as
gaps along the baseboard or edge of the flooring and at junctures of
the walls and ceiling. Check to see if air can flow through these
places:
Also look for gaps around pipes and
wires, electrical outlets, foundation seals, and mail slots. Check
to see if the caulking and weather stripping are applied properly,
leaving no gaps or cracks, and are in good condition.
Inspect windows and doors for air
leaks. See if you can rattle them, since movement means possible air
leaks. If you can see daylight around a door or window frame, then
the door or window leaks. You can usually seal these leaks by
caulking or weather stripping them. Check the storm windows to see
if they fit and are not broken. You may also wish to consider
replacing your old windows and doors with newer,
high-performance ones. If new factory-made doors or windows are too
costly, you can install low-cost plastic sheets over the windows.
If you are having difficulty locating
leaks, you may want to conduct a basic building pressurization test:
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First, close all exterior doors,
windows, and fireplace flues.
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Turn off all combustion appliances
such as gas burning furnaces and water heaters.
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Then turn on all exhaust fans
(generally located in the kitchen and bathrooms) or use a large
window fan to suck the air out of the rooms.
This test increases infiltration
through cracks and leaks, making them easier to detect. You can use
incense sticks or your damp hand to locate these leaks. If you use
incense sticks, moving air will cause the smoke to waver, and if you
use your damp hand, any drafts will feel cool to your hand.
On the outside of your house, inspect
all areas where two different building materials meet, including:
You should plug and
caulk holes or penetrations for faucets, pipes, electric
outlets, and wiring. Look for cracks and holes in the mortar,
foundation, and siding, and
seal them with the appropriate material. Check the exterior
caulking around doors and windows, and see whether exterior storm
doors and primary doors seal tightly.
When sealing any home, you must always
be aware of the danger of indoor air pollution and combustion
appliance "backdrafts." Backdrafting is when the various combustion
appliances and exhaust fans in the home compete for air. An exhaust
fan may pull the combustion gases back into the living space. This
can obviously create a very dangerous and unhealthy situation in the
home.
In homes where a fuel is burned (i.e.,
natural gas, fuel oil, propane, or wood) for heating, be certain the
appliance has an adequate air supply. Generally, one square inch of
vent opening is required for each 1,000 Btu of appliance input heat.
When in doubt, contact your local utility company, energy
professional, or
ventilation contractor.
 Insulation
Heat loss through the ceiling and
walls in your home could be very large if the
insulation levels are less than the recommended minimum. When
your house was built, the builder likely installed the amount of
insulation recommended at that time. Given today's energy prices
(and future prices that will probably be higher), the of insulation
level might be inadequate, especially if you have an older home.
If the attic hatch is located above a
conditioned space, check to see if it is at least as heavily
insulated as the attic, is weather stripped, and closes tightly. In
the attic, determine whether openings for items such as pipes,
ductwork, and chimneys are sealed. Seal any gaps with an expanding
foam caulk or some other permanent sealant.
While you are inspecting the attic,
check to see if there is a
vapor barrier under the attic insulation. The vapor barrier
might be tarpaper, Kraft paper attached to
fiberglass batts, or a plastic sheet. If there does not appear
to be a vapor barrier, you might consider painting the interior
ceilings with vapor barrier paint. This reduces the amount of water
vapor that can pass through the ceiling. Large amounts of moisture
can reduce the effectiveness of insulation and promote structural
damage.
Make sure that the attic vents are not
blocked by insulation. You also should seal any electrical boxes in
the ceiling with flexible caulk (from the living room side or attic
side) and cover the entire attic floor with at least the current
recommended amount of insulation.
Checking a wall's insulation level is
more difficult. Select an exterior wall and turn off the circuit
breaker or unscrew the fuse for any outlets in the wall. Be sure to
test the outlets to make certain that they are not "hot." Check the
outlet by plugging in a functioning lamp or portable radio. Once you
are sure your outlets are not getting any electricity, remove the
cover plate from one of the outlets and gently probe into the wall
with a thin, long stick or screwdriver. If you encounter a slight
resistance, you have some insulation there. You could also make a
small hole in a closet, behind a couch, or in some other unobtrusive
place to see what, if anything, the wall cavity is filled with.
Ideally, the wall cavity should be totally filled with some form of
insulation material. Unfortunately, this method cannot tell you if
the entire wall is insulated, or if the insulation has settled. Only
a
thermographic inspection can do this.
If your basement is unheated,
determine whether there is insulation under the living area
flooring. In most areas of the country, an
R-value of 25 is the recommended minimum level of insulation.
The insulation at the top of the foundation wall and first floor
perimeter should have an R-value of 19 or greater. If the basement
is heated, the foundation walls should be insulated to at least
R-19. Your water heater, hot water pipes, and furnace ducts should
all be insulated. For more information, see our
insulation section.
Heating/Cooling Equipment
Inspect
heating and cooling equipment annually, or as recommended by the
manufacturer. If you have a forced-air furnace, check your filters
and replace them as needed. Generally, you should change them about
once every month or two, especially during periods of high usage.
Have a professional check and clean your equipment once a year.
If the unit is more than 15 years old,
you should consider
replacing your system with one of the newer, energy-efficient
units. A new unit would greatly reduce your energy consumption,
especially if the existing equipment is in poor condition. Check
your ductwork for dirt streaks, especially near seams. These
indicate air leaks, and they should be sealed with a duct mastic.
Insulate any
ducts or pipes that travel through unheated spaces. An
insulation R-Value of 6 is the recommended minimum.
 Lighting
Energy for
lighting accounts for about 10% of your electric bill. Examine
the wattage size of the light bulbs in your house. You may have
100-watt (or larger) bulbs where 60 or 75 watts would do. You should
also consider
compact fluorescent lamps for areas where lights are on for
hours at a time. Your electric utility may offer rebates or other
incentives for purchasing
energy-efficient lamps. If you replaced only 10, 75 watt bulbs, with
compact fluorescents of 15- watts, you will save 600 watt hours
every hour they are on. That's like eliminating one 600-watt bulb
for an hour. In eight hours that's 4,800 watt hours. In a week of
8hr/day use, it's 33,600 watt hrs...and so on. This is a small
change that will yield large results. These bulbs can be bought
today for $2 each, and going down. And they can be bought to
simulate natural sunlight, or even incandescent light quality . For
a higher price, there are even 3-way strength bulbs. They can be
used indoors, and most can be used in those all-night outdoor
lamps. My mantle has two lamps, each with a 5-watt compact
fluorescent, and they are plenty for that "light-on" mood to watch
TV. My back porch has a lamp with a 15-watt. It is on a
light-sensitive timer, and has worked fine in temperatures between
-8 degrees F and 95 degrees F. The bulb has lasted for 4 years now.
Compact fluorescent bulbs can last up to 10 times longer than an
incandescent.
Learn More
Evaluation Tools
Financing & Incentives
Reading List
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Krigger, J.; Dorsi, C. (2004).
Residential Energy: Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing
Buildings. Helena, MT: Saturn Resource Management
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