Schedule a Home Energy Audit to See How You Can Save
The investment you make in a home energy audit is likely to pay you back many times over in lower cooling and heating bills. A home energy audit assesses the overall efficiency of your home and identifies the weaknesses associated with air leakage and inadequate insulation.
What’s Involved
The first step in a home energy audit involves inspecting each area of your home, looking for obvious issues associated with inefficient appliances. The inspection focuses on your cooling and heating system, since it uses more energy than any other home appliance. The licensed energy auditor then measures the amount of air infiltration with a blower door test. The auditing team starts the blower door test by placing a large fan in an exterior door frame, then turning it on and watching how fast the air pressure indoors falls.
If your home is fairly tight, the pressure falls quickly, since the fan inside the blower door won’t be able to pull outdoor inside to compensate for the outgoing air. When pressure falls slowly, it means that air is being pulled in through the leaks, typically found around windows, exterior door frames, the foundation and the attic. They pinpoint the air losses and inadequate insulation with thermographic devices. When an HVAC contractor conducts an energy audit, the team also checks the ductwork for leakage and inadequate insulation, making the audit even more productive, since thermal and air leaks in ducts can increase energy costs significantly.
How Audits Help
Energy audits are accurate and the fastest way to identify in-home problems that raise energy bills. Sealing leaks and improving insulation generally require minimal investments and provide durable solutions to solve excessive energy use in your home without sacrificing comfort.
At Sobieski Services, our goal is to help homeowners in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland learn more about energy and home comfort issues – especially HVAC and plumbing issues – so that they can save money and live healthier, more comfortable homes.
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