Start with a Home Energy Audit: The Road Map to a Healthy House

Now is the best time to invest in a home energy audit.  Over the next few days and weeks we will dive into the many aspects of audits, from taking a close look at the types of audits available to figuring out what kind of audit customer you are and choosing whether to hire an auditor who is also a contractor, or purely an auditor. We've spent a fair bit of time here at Energy Circle exploring what to expect from an audit and how to prepare. Now it's time to examine why you need one, and how you can go about making the most of that experience and the report that emerges from it.

Audits provide you with a road map for improving the quality of your house, from the point of view of energy efficiency and safety.  Our houses are complex, interrelated systems, and yet most of us do work on them in a piece-meal fashion, hiring many different trades each to play a role in creating what looks like a cohesive whole, at least from the outside. But it's the inter-connectedness of largely unseen facets of our house that ultimately determines the quality of our indoor air, the efficiency of our heating and cooling systems, and the structural integrity of the buildings we live in and depend upon.

I recently was reminded of those unseen gaps in the mortar, when I discovered evidence of a significant leak that over time has damaged a wall in my daughter's room. I found the damage by chance, and this dumb luck gives me the option to fix it before winter comes and the leak causes more damage to more walls, and before patching the roof is made nearly impossible by snow and ice. Would an auditor have found the leak?  Without a doubt.  A certified home energy auditor will inspect everything from indoor air quality and movement to moisture, gas and insulation. You will not only learn how to save money on your utility bill, but also how to ensure that your house is safe and healthy for everyone living in it.

This is what sets home energy auditors apart: they view the house as an interrelated system. In this sense, they are as close to a walking, talking owner's manual as many of us will ever get. Perhaps you have grown accustomed to discovering problems when they have become so severe that they can no longer be ignored. In a sense, maybe we all have. But there's an alternative, and it's much much better. Hire an auditor. Find out why an ounce of prevention really is a good deal, and set out on your road to a comfortable, healthy home.