Introduction
Benefits
Equipment & Services
Hiring Contractors
Self-Audit Checklist

1. Introduction

There are a few ways you can go about evaluating if your home is wasting energy. It is possible to identify potential problems yourself. For starters, look in your attic. If the attic is not well insulated, that is the first improvement you should make. Think of your attic as the "hat" on your house. If you don't wear a hat on a cold winter day, it lets body heat escape quickly. The same is true for your home. Our insulation section describes appropriate levels for the Colorado climate.

You can determine sources of air leaks as well. On a windy day, light an incense stick and put it next to closed windows and doors, baseboards and even electrical outlets. The smoke from the incense stick will move if there is air infiltration from the outdoors. Conduct a visual inspection of your existing heating and cooling equipment, windows and doors to see if they are old and in need of maintenance or replacement. Our heating and windows sections provide further explanations. Finally, look at your energy bills. Are you using more or less energy as compared to a year ago? Some utilities offer an online bill analysis, so check your utility's website.

Conducting a home energy analysis is the best way to understand how your home works as an energy system. With the proper diagnostic equipment and expertise, you will receive a custom roadmap to reduce monthly energy bills and comfort problems. There are several professionals that conduct this assessment, including auditors, raters and home performance contractors. There are tools used to determine air leakage and flow, and to evaluate insulation levels, windows, heating and cooling systems, and appliances. An energy analysis professional will ask you about home comfort problems and some provide independent quality assurance for work done by contractors.

2. Benefits

Energy Savings
A well-designed game plan will maximize your return on investment for efficiency improvements. A professional analysis will detail the most cost-effective improvements and the predicted energy savings. More often than not, doing a combination of  improvements will produce the best energy savings. Actual savings vary for each home, but it’s reasonable to achieve a 30-50% reduction in energy bills for leaky homes with old heating and cooling systems. As energy costs rise, this return on investment increases.

Comfortable Living
If your vision of energy conservation includes using candles instead of lights, and turning the thermostat down so the heat never kicks on, think again. A good energy analyst helps you take a whole-house approach to efficiency to solve home comfort problems while saving you money every month. With the proper upgrades, you will experience even temperatures throughout the home, eliminating cold/drafty rooms or the need to crank up the thermostat to keep warm.

Safety & Indoor Air Quality
Thinking about your home as an energy system is important for keeping your family safe and healthy. High efficiency heating equipment, for example, is closed combustion and eliminates the potential for carbon monoxide poisoning. An energy analyst can review potential safety issues in your home and suggest the appropriate corrective measures.

Indoor air quality can be up to five times worse than outdoor air. Making sure air flow is properly controlled and your home has adequate ventilation can improve indoor air quality significantly.

Increased Home Value
A study by The Appraisal Journal found that the selling price of homes increased by $20.73 for every $1 decrease in energy bills. If your energy bills average $1,500/yr. and you saved $400/yr., your home value would increase by $8,300.

Conservation
Energy efficiency is the quickest, cleanest and cheapest way to extend our energy supplies. Neither the coal nor the natural gas we depend on for heat and electricity is renewable. Today’s higher cost for natural gas is a reflection of increasing demand and dwindling reserves.

3. Equipment & Services.
Energy analysts use a variety of tools to diagnose your home.

• Blower doors quantify the air leakage of the home and help the analyst pinpoint where the leaks are.
• A duct blaster determines the tightness of duct work.
• Flow hoods measure air flow from supply and return air registers.
• Air pressure gauges identify imbalances in air pressure throughout a home that can pose a safety risk or cause comfort problems.
• Measure air flow at the furnace’s air handler.
• Building simulation software simulates energy performance under typical weather conditions and estimates bill savings from various efficiency improvements.

4. Hiring Contractors.
Download our energy analyst comparison form (Acrobat reader .pdf format). Find an energy analyst from our list of contractors.

Questions to ask
There are three different services available: a home energy audit, home energy rating or home performance evaluation. An energy rating is a thorough assessment that includes a detailed report and prioritized list of improvements and their estimated energy savings. An audit provides a lower-cost service that also delivers a prioritized list of upgrades. Both raters and auditors can provide independent quality assurance of work done by contractors. Home performance evaluations are performed by contractors that provide a one-stop service for getting work performed.

Certifications
Energy raters should be accredited by RESNET.

Home Performance with ENERGY STAR is a certificate program that trains qualified contractors on whole-house energy improvements efficiency and requires quality assurance inspections. Visit the Colorado program's website.

References, licensing, insurance
It is always important to speak with previous customers, check with the Better Business Bureau and ask for verification of the necessary licensing and insurance requirements. Download a home improvement hiring checklist from the Federal Trade Commission.

5. Self-Audit Checklist

There are several things you can do today and plan for during 2006. Click here to download the Self-Audit Checklist, adapted from the Home Energy Checklist for Action from our education partner, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (Adobe reader .pdf format).

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