What Is It and How Does It Work?

The Do-It-Yourself Home Energy Assessment

If you are doing a preliminary home energy assessment on your own, there are a few key things you should look for. There are some causes of inefficiency that you will be able to assess and even fix on your own, such as finding a leak around the edge of a window frame that you repair by applying caulk to the frame. Some problems will be more difficult to assess and require professional installation, such as figuring out whether your wall insulation meets current standards or has settled – and re-insulating your walls.

Why Should I Consider It?

A home Energy Audit is a very useful tool in determining where your money will be best spent in making your house more energy-efficient. By seeking advice, consultation and investigation by a qualified professional, you will be getting the best available data regarding all of the energy-consuming components of your home. Then, you can make a more informed decision regarding your next steps in reducing energy consumption in your home and lowering your energy bills.

What Are the Options?

One of the first thing to do is to identify any obvious air leaks. If you have been living in your home for a while, you may already have an idea where these are. If there are rooms in your home that feel cooler or more drafty than others, you may be able to identify a leaky window or gap along the baseboard. In general, anywhere there is an opening cut in a wall or ceiling (electrical outlets, windows, attic hatches, for example) or at any joint between two surfaces (where walls meet floors, for example) is an infiltration risk. These are also the first places to look for leaks that can be easily repaired with weatherstripping or caulk. Also check your building’s exterior caulking, especially at windows and eaves.

There are a few steps you can take to identify where your home has adequate and properly installed insulation. The older your house, the bigger the chances that your home is poorly insulated – or maybe even not insulated at all. One easy step is to check the insulation in your attic. There should be insulation on the floor of the attic, the attic hatch should be weather stripped and backed with insulation, and any openings into the ceiling below should be filled with caulk or expanding foam. Your attic should have vents in the eaves around the perimeter of the house to prevent moisture build-up. Check these vents to make sure they are not blocked by insulation. While it may be relatively easy to check the visible insulation in your attic, you will have some difficulty in checking the insulation in your walls without a Thermographic Inspection. You can get a rough idea of what type of insulation you have by cutting a small hole in the wall in a hidden location, such as a closet. This will not tell you whether the entire wall is insulated, whether the insulation has settled, or whether the insulation has become damp and ineffective in some locations.

As part of a DIY home energy assessment – and part of general practice – you can check your HVAC system's filters and have equipment professional inspected regularly for proper refrigerant levels and air flow.

Inspect your light bulbs for excessive wattage and consider replacing inefficient incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights.

What Are the Potential Benefits?

A home Energy Audit is an important step in determining what you can do to save money on your energy bills. There are many ways to make your home more energy-efficient, but without an inspection of where your home is inefficient, you won't have a good idea of the best steps to take. If you already have efficient windows, but your walls lack adequate insulation, it won't save you money in the long term to replace your windows; adding insulation will. Without an Energy Audit, you may just be guessing about what the best energy-efficiency measures to take could be.

What Else Should I Know?

ENERGY STAR also has a good tool for evaluating how energy-efficient your home is, the ENERGY STAR Home Energy Yardstick.

Where Can I Get More Information?

U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy Weatherization Assistance Program
ENERGY STAR Partner Locator