About Home Energy Audits
Owning a home and maintaining it’s value can be overwhelming. We quantitatively analyze your existing home through a series of diagnostic tests to help you compare your home to current energy efficiency standards, then provide you with a full systematic work scope of improvements and repairs for your home.
Key Elements Of A Home Energy Audit
Exterior / Attic
Full evaluation of the exterior envelope including the roof, chimneys, gutters and penetrations.
In the attic we evaluate the air sealing and insulation levels as well as passive and active ventilation of the roof assembly.
Thermal Boundary
During our short time in your home we will complete a full 3D rendering of your home where we can define your thermal boundary (essentially what “inside” and “outside” of your home).
This will help you the homeowner, and the work scope crew, easily identify the areas that need attention for repair with a visual drawing identifying the gaps in your thermal boundary.
Room Pressure Diagnostics
Twice during your Energy Audit we will systematically measure all static pressures in each room of the house; during combustion safety testing and during blower door testing. These pressure readings help indicate imbalances in the ducting system and the air flow through the house.
Combustion SafetyTesting
As homes get tighter combustion safety becomes a larger safety issue. We test all gas combustion appliances, assessing for proper draft pressure and available make up., recommending upgrades and repairs as needed
Blower Door Testing
A large Fan and a canvas are set up in place of your front door to depressurize the home and measure the air leakage of the building. This set up gives us an ACH50, a number by which we can determine how leaky your home is compared to new energy efficient homes.
Thermal Imaging
Using an Infrared camera during the blower door test allows us to see visually where air is leaking between or behind the walls. This helps us isolate the major areas in need of repair for the insulation crew to focus on without taking intrusive measures like opening up drywall.
Properties we often audit
- Historic Properties over 100 years old
- Homes built before 2006 ICC code for air leakage
- Midcentury Properties
- Townhomes
- Condos
- Split-level Properties
- Multi-unit Buildings
- Brick Constructed Buildings
a professional Home Energy Audit is just a call away
What to Expect
Home Energy Audits generally take about 3-4 hours, as there are a lot of aspects of a home to inspect and thoroughness is our top priority. Our clients, generally the home owner, are often experiencing issues with home comfort, indoor air quality, humidity/moisture, and energy efficiency. You do not have to be present during the whole audit, however having someone knowledgable about your property and its history at the beginning of the audit is helpful so we can ask any question, and gather information to better assess your home. After 7-10 days, a full report will be sent to you with a corresponding work scope of improvements needed for the home. Our audits also come with a retest included in the price, where during or after the improvements are made we will return to repeat the test completed today and measure how much the building has improved.