Getting a good read on home’s efficiency
An energy audit can find ways to curb unnecessary operating costs
With the rising costs of running our homes, it’s only sensible that most homeowners want to find a way to curb their hydro spending. It’s one thing to resolve to hang-dry our clothes instead of using the dryer and keep lights on timers, but what about other energy sources our homes require to stay comfortable? Heating, cooling, storing and producing hot water, and keeping our food fresh all require a lot of constant energy that you can’t easily reduce simply by flipping a switch.
So how do you identify the trouble spots in your home that are sucking more power than they should? Enter the home energy audit.
WHAT IS AN ENERGY AUDIT?
It assesses how much energy your home consumes and helps you find solutions to make your home more efficient. It goes a long way to showing you specific trouble spots in your home that are energy sinks — which, if corrected, can lead to some monthly savings.
For example, in an older home that uses low-efficiency units (such as your furnace), making those upgrades could see monthly cost savings of up to 30 per cent.
What I love about the energy audit is that it takes the guesswork away. You can have the most efficient furnace on the market, but if your home is without sufficient insulation, you’ll still be spending more than necessary each month to heat your home. The audit gives you a map to making your home efficient.
HOW THE PROS DO IT
While you can do a bit of sleuthing on your own for air leaks (such as by finding drafts around doors and windows), I really do recommend hiring a professional to do a full assessment of your home. Depending on the size of your home, it will likely cost you along the lines of $300-$500, but they’ll be able to paint a much bigger picture of your home’s efficiency (or lack of it).
A professional can ask to you to provide about a year’s worth of utility bills to see what your typical consumption is and ask you questions about the way your home operates. That could include the following: Are people home during the day? Where do you set your thermostat? How often do you perform chores like laundry?
To determine the air-tightness of the building, many pros will utilize the door-blower test. This is a large fan that mounts to your exterior doorway, and when it operates, it pulls air outside, lowering the air pressure inside the home. The outside air, which is at a higher pressure than air inside, will start to flow in through any unsealed openings. Afterward, your auditor will be able to walk through the home with you and show you where the air is coming in and where you need to seal. In some cases, you’ll be able to handle the sealing yourself, simply by adding new caulking and weatherstripping around doors and windows.
Combined with the blower test, your auditor should also be making use of thermographic imaging technology. This is technology that measures surface temperatures using infrared cameras that will show heat variations. It can help detect such things as insufficient insulation behind the walls or evidence of a leak.
When used in partnership with a blower test, it provides more accuracy to the thermal imaging, and air leaks will show up much more prominently on the camera. You’ll really be able to pinpoint your weak points. This is where you’ll find out if your air leakage problem is more than a simple caulking issue — if so, it may be time to find a few careful spots to open your walls and add more insulation.
Once your assessment is complete, your auditor will provide you with a checklist of projects to complete that will help your home perform more efficiently. The list could include items like replacing your windows, adding new insulation or replacing some appliances. This list will give you a set of goals to work toward to make your home more efficient.
You don’t necessarily have to take on the full burden yourself. Research rebates in your area to see what’s available to you as a homeowner. You never know what kind of programs you may qualify for.