Compared to your northern Utah neighbors, do your power bills seem unusually high? A home energy audit, or residential energy assessment, can help you pinpoint the reason ? and if you address the problem spots in your house, you can cut your energy costs.
With winter weather on its way, now?s the perfect time for a home energy audit. Here?s a look at how it works.
DIY Home Energy Audits
You can do a baseline audit yourself, using the online guide from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) or the Home Energy Saver, developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. And if you want to know how the efficiency of your Utah home compares to others of similar size and age, you can get an answer with the Energy Star Home Energy Yardstick.
As helpful as these tools are, neither will enable you to find many opportunities to eliminate your high power bills. The key advantage of conducting a DIY assessment is to determine whether you are likely to benefit from a professional energy audit.
Professional Home Energy Audits
To discover exactly where your home is losing energy and what you can do to address the problems, you need a professional assessment conducted by a certified auditor.
A professional energy audit includes a thorough investigation of your windows, vents, insulation, HVAC system and other key areas of wasted household power. And with some companies ? including the team at GreenHome Specialties ? you can get this service at no cost.
However, for the biggest energy savings, you can upgrade to a room-by-room assessment. A more in-depth professional audit comes with a fee, but that counts toward any efficiency upgrades the company completes. And, you may even qualify for rebates, tax credits or other incentives, to further bring down the cost of any home improvements you make.
Potential Savings of Efficiency Upgrades
According to the DOE, you can slash your annual power bills by up to 30 percent if you complete the necessary efficiency upgrades to your home. Many Utah homeowners see hundreds of dollars in savings, recouping their investment in home improvement projects pay off in almost no time at all.
How much can you save? That depends upon where your home is losing energy. But, the DOE shares the potential savings of with certain upgrades:
- Seal air leaks, and you can save 10 to 20 percent on your annual power bills
- Add weatherstripping to double-hung windows, and you can save 5 to 10 percent on your annual power bills
- Install a smart thermostat, and you can save 15 percent or more on your annual power bills
- Replace five frequently-used light fixtures with Energy Star-approved models, and you can save 9 percent on your annual power bills
And those are just a few of the ways you may be able to cut your energy costs. If you?re ready to maximize your savings and you live in northern Utah, turn to GreenHome Specialties.
For more information on our professional home energy audit services, or to see how we can help with your high power bills, contact our Provo or Layton, Utah, office today.
