The Energy Department issued a report on Tuesday that stated almost all Americans will pay much more to heat their homes this winter. The report estimates that heating oil will likely jump by 22 percent and natural gas costs about 10 percent between October and March. This comes with little surprise as Americans have been experiencing the highest fuel and energy costs in our history.
One way to take some of the sting out of paying more to heat our homes is to have a professional energy audit. An energy audit is a specific assessment of the areas in the home that can be made more energy efficient. A report is issued by the expert energy inspector detailing each deficient area or component. The report provides information on the most cost effective energy saving upgrades and the amount of time it will take to repay the initial investment through the energy savings realized by implementing each improvement.
A good audit will usually take about 2-3 hours and consist of a visual examination as well as an infrared scan of the home. Many audits are performed with a more traditional tool, the blower door, with or without the addition of the infrared camera.
It is good to understand the limitations of the blower door. This tool has been and is still used as a building air leakage detection and quantification device. During a home energy audit the fan is run until a vacuum of 50 Pa (pascals) is achieved. The amount of air flow is recorded in CFMs (cubic feet per minute). A rate of less than 1500 CFM is considered tight. A rate of above 4000 CFM is considered leaky.
While this information is useful, in order to quantify the tightening of the home a second test must be performed. Most homeowners are not willing to pay for or go to the trouble of a follow up test. The quantification can usually be derived from the homeowners' energy usage after upgrades have been implemented.
The other limiting aspect of the blower door test which has been established through research is that it is somewhat inaccurate. What has been discovered is readings taken for air infiltration related to energy efficiency are generally higher than actual. Not to mention locating all the leaks with this method is extremely difficult and time consuming.
A more accurate and broader ranged device for locating air leakage and other energy deficiencies is the infrared camera. Not only can an infrared camera visually locate areas of air leakage, it can find missing insulation as well as heating and cooling deficiencies during an audit.
Using the camera the auditor can quickly scan the home and locate the deficient areas. He can take infrared pictures of these areas and include them in the report for the homeowners' reference for repair. Another plus in favor of the infrared camera is that the home can be viewed in a natural state. No large vacuum is created in order to locate air leakage. Although the infrared camera can be used along with a blower door to exaggerate and find air leakage.
Some of the benefits of a home energy audit are;
- The home is more comfortable-warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer
- Average energy savings of 25 %
- Increase home value
With winter almost upon us having an energy audit done sooner rather than later means saving money now. Visit our web site to learn more about our energy saving services. Click on the Infrared and Energy Audits page.
James Quarello
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC
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