Energy Audit Checklist
A complete energy audit includes:
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Building Load Calculation – The Air Conditioning Contractors Association’s Manual “J” is used to determine you home’s precise heating load.
The following factors are used to determine your homes unique heating load:
- Volume
- Building Materials
- Duct Leakage
- Number and Placement of Windows
- Number of occupants
- Insulation levels
- Architecture Type
- Environmental Factors
- Total Air Infiltration
- Local weather patterns
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Blower Door Testing – A blower door is utilized to determine the tightness of your home and is used to find air leaks
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Combustion Appliance Zone Safety Testing – A sophisticated instrumentation is utilized to determine if combustion appliances such as your water heater or furnace is ventilated properly and has the proper amount of make-up air for proper combustion.
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Duct Blasting – The duct blaster is utilized to determine the amount of air leakage occurring within your duct system. Unfortunately, most duct systems are not sealed or insulated properly.
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Combustible Gas Detection and Analysis – A combustion gas analyzer is used to determine whether or not your gas furnace is firing properly. A gas leak detector is utilized to locate any propane or natural gas leaks
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Physical Inspection – A physical inspection of your property is performed to identify potential energy saving improvements.
- Energy Bill Analysis
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Home Energy Analysis – All of the information gathered from the various reports are utilized to produce an informative report that provides you with a comprehensive energy improvement plan. The Energy Analysis Report includes what-if scenarios and Savings to Investment ratios for each proposed energy improvement. This gives you the power to determine most cost effective improvements for your budget.
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Re-testing – After energy saving improvements are implemented, we perform the Blower Door, The Duct Blaster and The CAZ test again to prove our results
The house as a system
A typical home has many opportunities for improvement.
Blower Door Testing
A blower door is used to find leaks in your homes envelope.
Poorly insulated coffer vault
Poorly Insulated vaulted ceiling.
Uninsulated Foundation
Notice the heat escaping through the foundation.
Sagging Fiberglass Batts
This is a IR image of a stud cavity insulated with fiberglass batts. Notice how the insulation is sagging or installed improperly.
Sill Plate Infiltration
Image of infiltration through sill plate
Rebates and Tax Credits
A fundamental change has happened in our country as a result of our dire economic consequences. Energy and Conservation organizations are now fully funded thanks to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The result is that it now makes economic sense to choose the Energy Efficient option when you are replacing Appliances and Heating and Cooling systems. It used to be that the “Green” alternatives where only considered by eccentrics. Now we can all participate and not have to suffer from labels like, “Tree Hugger” or conversely, “Baby Seal Killer”, for not choosing the “Green” alternative. A good example is CFL’s or Compact Fluorescent lighting. The bulbs used to be so expensive it did not make economic sense to use them unless you where a committed environmentalist. Now the bulbs are an inexpensive, long lasting alternative to energy hogging incandescent lighting. A 13 watt CFL will emit as much light as a 60 watt incandescent and will last 7 times longer and burn for 10,000 hours. This equates to 470 kw of energy savings. The bottom line is that you save $35.74, that is a 71% cost savings, why not?
One might argue that the only way that purchasing the Energy Star alternative is economically feasible is because it is subsidized by the Government. My take is that we must start somewhere. If we all start making better decisions, the costs associated with the “Green” alternative will come down and the Government will not have to intervene. Just like the CFL.
Here is list of Tax Credits and Rebates available to residents in Missouri and locally ere in Kansas City.
Missouri Department of Natural Resources. 1000.00 State tax credit for improvements recommended by BPI or Resnet certified auditors.
http://www.dnr.mo.gov/energy/residential/homeenergyaudits.htm
http://www.dsireusa.org/
Kansas City Power and Light. $600 Rebate for improvements made by Certified BPI Auditor.
Energy Star Home Performance -> http://www.kcpl.com/residential/homeperf.html
KCP&L Printable Rebate Form -> http://www.kcpl.com/Brochures/hpwes.pdf
Eric Linberg is a certified Energy Star Building Performance Auditor and NATE Certified HVAC technician. He can be reached at 816-812-8229
