Benefits of Home Energy Inspections

No home can be 100 percent energy efficient, but most homes have some room for improvement — and an improvement in your home’s energy efficiency also means an improvement in your home comfort, and a reduction in your energy bills. With many available avenues to improving your home’s efficiency, a home energy inspection can help you pinpoint the most effective places to spend your energy dollars.

With a little bit of research, you can conduct an energy inspection yourself. Online calculators can help you compare your energy bills to other houses of similar square footage in your climate, and a lit candle or smoke stick can help you find air leaks and drafts around your home. This can give you some idea of whether or not your home needs improvement. but for a really detailed, specific set of recommendations, a professional energy audit can’t be beat.

An HVAC expert can help you examine your energy bills, and look for trends of increasing cost. They can also perform more sophisticated tests on your home, such as thermal scanning to find weak spots in your insulation, and a blower door test to find air leaks that let in outside air or carry away conditioned air. The contractor may also inspect your HVAC appliances, such as your furnace, air conditioner, or water heater, to determine whether or not they’re working at full efficiency. Finally, they may take a look at the airflow through your ducts, to find leaks or clogs.

Once you have an overview of how your home is performing, the HVAC specialist can help guide you toward the most effective energy upgrades. Do you need insulated windows, or would caulking and weatherstripping them be effective? Would you save money from upgrading to a high-efficiency air conditioner, or would an energy recovery ventilator serve you better?

At Sobieski Services, Inc., our goal is to help our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey learn more about energy and home comfort issues — especially HVAC and plumbing issues — so that they can save money and live in healthier, more comfortable homes.

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