When to Hire a Professional
If you're not sure whether you should conduct your
home energy audit by yourself or whether you should hire a contractor, you might want to
look at this video. For example, if your home energy issues are complicated, if you can't crawl into your problem areas or if you want to use advanced technologies to pinpoint your needs, then you should consider a professional home energy audit. On the other hand, if you've got confidence in your abilities and you're ready to tackle it yourself, let's get started!
Locate Your Air Leaks
Depending on the age of your home, you could enjoy home energy
savings of 5% to 30% per year on your overall energy bill by simply reducing the drafts in your home. Check your windows, doors, chimneys, attic hatches and even your electrical outlets. If you'd like to see a demo of how to check for drafts, you can
look at this video. Once you find your problem areas, you can use the products below to create the solutions.
Discover Your Insulation Needs
If you have an older home, chances are that you need more insulation. But finding out how
much more can be difficult, especially in your walls. A
thermal leak detector can find insulation "soft spots" around electrical outlets, recessed lighting and floor molding, but only a professional can give you a complete and expert assessment of your entire home. For best results, ask
a professional for a free inspection and analysis. Find out more at
Insulation Tips.
Inspect Your HVAC System
Heating and cooling your home accounts for approximately
half of the energy you use. So, since you're doing your home energy audit, this would be a perfect time to have
a professional come out, tune up your HVAC system and see if it's still operating at peak efficiency. However, if your unit is over 10 years old, you might consider upgrading to a new
ENERGY STAR® system, which could
save you hundreds of dollars on your annual energy bill. Increase your home energy savings by finding out more about
HVAC Maintenance Tips.
Analyze Your Lighting Design
This is an easy series of do-it-yourself tasks. First, check to see where you can use
daylighting to replace artificial lighting in your home. Second, see where you can switch to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), because they use only
25% to 30% of the energy used by incandescent light bulbs. Third, learn about
lighting design to improve the quality and efficiency of your lighting. And finally, see where you can set up automatic controls to turn off your lights when you're not there. Learn more at the
Upgrade to Energy Saving Lighting project.
Install a Whole House Energy Monitor
Once you've conducted your own home energy audit or had a contractor come in for a professional audit, you'll have the home energy saving ideas you need to start making improvements. But before you do, you should consider installing a
whole house energy monitor. It's a device that can display real-time usage numbers based on a signal it receives from the electricity meter. This is helpful because, as you make each improvement, you can see the difference it makes in kilowatt hours, as well as in dollars and cents.
Find a Professional Energy Auditor
If you decide to hire a professional home energy auditor, we'd be happy to make some suggestions. In fact, the professionals that we recommend are some of the top experts in their field. What's more, when it comes to your energy problems, they have the experience, specialized skills and high-tech tools to give you the most accurate and detailed analysis. Just visit the
BrightenSM Preferred Provider Network to find a company near you.
