There's far more involved with an energy audit than walking around your home looking for ancient incandescent bulbs or appliances without the Energy Star logo. While addressing these long-hanging energy concerns is always critical, an audit is a much more exhaustive investigation. As a result, you can expect your inspector to arrive with an arsenal of sophisticated, high-tech tools to handle this job.
Keep reading to learn about how these tools can pinpoint problem areas in your home so you can take simple, cost-effective steps to bring down your utility bills while improving interior comfort.
1. Infrared Cameras
The visible light you can see is only one small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. All objects also emit infrared light, with colder objects emitting lower-frequency light and warmer objects emitting higher-frequency light. An infrared (IR) camera can pick up these light emissions, allowing inspectors to quickly and accurately compare the heat signatures of different parts of your home.
Infrared cameras are almost like cheat codes for energy audits. Although the images they produce still require interpretation, they can show where your home may be losing heat. For example, infrared cameras can reveal drafts traveling through interior walls or heat loss occurring where insulation may have pulled away from adjacent studs.
2. Combustion Analyzer Kits
Combustion analyzer kits are crucial when working in any home with gas appliances. These devices look like fancy multimeters, and they can measure many vital aspects of combustion in your appliances. Auditors will use an analyzer to check your furnace and confirm that it's operating within specifications and isn't producing excess harmful gases.
Combustion analysis is critical when auditing any home with a gas-powered heating system. Inefficiencies in the furnace can have an outsized impact on overall energy usage, limiting the gains you can achieve by improving insulation or taking other steps around the house. As a result, most auditors will want to confirm that your heating system is running as efficiently as possible.
3. Blower Doors
If you've ever seen an auditor install a large plastic door on the front of a house, then you've seen a blower door. These devices seal your front door and use a built-in fan to create either a positive or negative pressure environment. Once in place, the auditor can then move through your house to look for areas where air may be leaking through poorly insulated windows, doors, or other gaps.
While a blower door won't necessarily reveal everything and you still need a skilled auditor to inspect your home thoroughly, these tools are vital to finding substantial holes in your home's envelope. When combined with the other devices in their arsenal, a blower door can allow an auditor to help you find all those pesky air leaks that are driving up your utility bills.
Reach out to a professional who provides home energy audits to learn more.
