What Cleveland Homeowners Should Know About Energy Audits

Home energy audits are the easiest and most reliable tools to use to cut energy consumption in the home. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that homeowners spend about half of their yearly energy budgets keeping their homes comfortable. An energy audit will identify issues affecting efficiency, including finding where thermal gains and losses occur throughout the structure.

Heat constantly moves toward cooler temperatures, and during an energy audit, you’ll learn where and how to slow thermal transfer and stop air infiltration. Licensed auditors and HVAC contractors use equipment that tests the amount of air leakage inside your home and where the temperatures differ.

What’s Involved in an Energy Audit

The blower door test is the key component of an audit. It involves setting up a large fan that’s placed in an adjustable metal frame in an exterior door frame. Once your home is ready, the auditing team turns on the fan to pull air from your home. A set of gauges on the blower door show how fast the air pressure falls.

Pressure that drops quickly indicates that you have a low rate of air infiltration. If it drops slowly, it shows that air is coming inside through leaks and cracks in your home’s envelope. The auditors will use thermographic devices to pinpoint where the leaks come from by identifying the temperature differences. This step in the process also locates areas in the shell that have inadequate insulation.

When HVAC contractors conduct home energy audits, they’ll also assess the ducts for leakage by pressurizing the ducts. Duct leaks can account for considerable energy losses, especially if the ducts both leak and have no insulation.

Benefits of a Professional Energy Audit

Knowing where to tighten your home’s envelope and add insulation is the primary benefit of an audit. Duct sealing and insulating not only reduces energy consumption, but it also improves indoor air quality. These energy efficiency improvements are cost effective and durable ways to reduce high energy bills.

To learn more about the benefits of home energy audits, contact Stack Heating & Cooling. We’ve proudly provided outstanding HVAC services for greater Cleveland area homeowners since 1976.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Cleveland, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about energy audits and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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