People will give you energy saving advice every time you turn around — seal air leaks, replace your windows, adjust your thermostat — but the best way to determine how you can save the most energy is with a professional energy audit.
Every Metro-East home is unique, and no quick solution will work for everyone. A professional evaluation will tell you just where your home lacks efficiency and how you can improve it. Here we’re going to talk about two of the most powerful tests you can have done during a professional energy audit.
Thermal imaging scan
If you could get a thermal picture of your home in cool weather — its various interior rooms, as well as the outer shell — you could see where heat energy is escaping. The windows would probably look pretty warm. The attic might also look warm, along with anywhere insulation isn’t efficient enough. That’s exactly what a thermal imaging scan can do.
The weather conditions determine what areas of your house will best benefit from a thermal scan. Interior scans are often more helpful, especially if conditions are windy outside.
Blower door test
A blower door test during a professional energy audit can measure how much air is leaking out of your home. The energy auditor fits an adjustable blower door, with a big fan installed in it, into one of the main door frames of your house.
- When the fan is turned on, it behaves like a vacuum, sucking the air out of the house.
- This results in lower indoor pressure, which causes outdoor air to be sucked in through air leaks.
- Energy auditors can isolate air leaks and identify them.
- Using a calibration tool, your energy auditor can measure how much air is being drawn out of the house, and the rate at which it’s exiting.
It would be a shame to spend money on upgrading to high-efficiency windows if what you really needed was more insulation. Getting a professional energy audit can help you determine which home improvements can enhance efficiency the most. Contact Ernst Heating & Coolingto learn more about energy audits. We’ll be happy to help you save energy and money in your Metro-East home.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Hamel, Illinois and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about professional energy audits and other HVAC topics, visit our blog.Â
Image courtesy of Shutterstock