Photo by Flickr user Ryan McFarland.
After reading our handy Energy Star appliances guide, did you find yourself concerned about the overall energy efficiency of your home? In a matter of hours, you can conduct your own home energy audit. Though it will not be as thorough as an energy audit by experienced professionals, it can give you a general idea of the problem areas that are easier to address.
Having an energy efficient home has multiple benefits. You could see savings of anywhere from 5% to 30% on future home energy bills. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from your home will make a smaller impact on the environment. Also, you will be increasing your comfort and promoting better indoor air quality, creating a healthier home for yourself and those you love.
Keep a checklist
The first step is to make an energy audit checklist or use a free printable checklist from an online source. They may be sorted by the area of your home you are inspecting, by the timetable in which checks and repairs should be done, or any number of other ways. This helps you keep track of what areas you have finished and what needs to be fixed.
Locate and fix air leaks
Check for indoor or outdoor air leaks in a variety of areas. Once you’ve discovered the problem areas, seal the air leaks with caulk, weatherstripping, or any other appropriate material.
You should also make sure that any appliance that burns a fuel has an adequate air supply for ventilation. This will help prevent indoor air pollution.
Photo by Flickr user Ryan McFarland.
Check insulation
The purpose of insulation is to keep heat in during the winter and out during the summer. It’s especially important in terms of energy efficiency to determine if your insulation is sufficient. If you’re living in an older house, the level of insulation might be inadequate by today’s standards.
While you are investigating your insulation, you can also look for potential moisture problem areas. The right level of moisture control should keep water outside from entering and properly vent naturally occurring moisture inside.
- Attic: Make sure to use the appropriate sealant when filling gaps around pipes, ductwork, or chimneys. The sealant you use around your chimney needs to be non-combustible. While there, note whether there is adequate moisture control. Check your crawl space or attic ventilation. Also check for a vapor barrier; this reduces the amount of moisture that can pass through the ceiling, which maintains the effectiveness of insulation and prevents structural damage.
- Walls: Safely check if the wall cavity is filled with some form of insulation material. This can be done a couple of different ways. You could make a small hole in an unseen place – inside a closet or behind a couch, for example. Or you could check by removing an outlet cover plate to access the insulation. Before doing so, turn off the circuit breaker or make sure the outlet is not receiving any electricity.
- Kitchen and bathroom: Make sure the exhaust ventilation in these two rooms is sufficient for better moisture control.
- Basement: Your water heater, hot water pipes, and furnace ducts should all be properly insulated.
Inspect your HVAC system
You should check your heating and cooling equipment annually. Replace the filters as needed; typically, this means every month or two, especially during periods of high usage.
Check the ductwork for dirt streaks, which indicate air leaks, and seal it if necessary. Insulate any ducts or pipes that travel through unheated spaces.
If your existing unit is ten years old or more, or if it is in poor condition, you should consider replacing the system with a newer energy-efficient model.
Photo by Flickr user Derek Key.
Analyze your lighting
There are several ways you can have more energy efficient lighting. First, see where you can use natural daylight to replace artificial lighting.
Next, examine the light bulbs in your home and replace any inefficient ones with a more efficient choice. Some examples are energy-saving incandescent light bulbs, CFL bulbs, or LED lighting. Make better, more informed choices by purchasing based on lumens, not watts. (Lumens measure how much visible light is emitted by a source, while watts measure the amount of energy used.)
Finally, moderate your lighting usage. Remember to turn off the lights when you leave a room. If this is something that often slips your mind, you could see if automatic controls can be set up to turn off your lights when you’re not there
Estimate energy use of appliances and electronics
Consider strategies for reducing the energy use of your household appliances or electronics. These could include unplugging an item when it is not in use, changing the settings to make it use less power, or using the item less often.
If these tactics are not enough, you could purchase a new, more efficient product. Energy Star certified appliances are guaranteed to be a highly energy efficient choice.
Consider investing in energy monitors
If you want an alternative that is easier than surveying your house on foot, you could buy single device or whole house energy monitors.
Whole house monitors can display your levels of circuit usage, alert you when you’ve left lights or appliances on, warn you when specific circuits are overloaded, diagnose potential problems, offer savings recommendations, and much more.
Further Resources
- The Energy Star website provides a free Home Energy Yardstick test. Enter your information to see your personal Yardstick score.
- The Department of Energy website has an extensive article about DIY home energy audits.
- The City of Seattle’s Green Home guides include this helpful PDF which features a printable checklist, valuable information, and relevant links to external websites.
- TXU Energy offers helpful videos, links to energy-efficient products such as sealants, and much more through this webpage.