Rau Environmental Services LLC

Why would you want an energy audit?

The US Department of Energy estimates that 20-50% of the average home? energy bills are taken up by heating and cooling expenses. And then 15-80% of those heating and cooling expenses are wasted due to improperly sealed and insulated homes, inefficient ductwork and inefficient heating/cooling units. So using those percentages, how much could you save by improving your heating/cooling efficiency? Well, if you?e paying $200 a month for electric/gas/oil bills up to $100 of it is used for heating and cooling, and up to $80 of that is wasted. An energy audit utilizing modern technology including a blower door and infrared camera can locate your most wasteful places in the house and recommend ways to solve those problems.

Do you need to replace your old windows and doors? Possibly not! Though windows can be leaky, in most homes the cost can be prohibitively expensive. Windows can cost $500 or more (per window) to replace, meaning that a house like mine, with 15 windows would cost $7500 to upgrade (ouch!) More than likely, replacing caulk, installing storm windows or installing interior window insulation will accomplish significant energy savings for a lot less. (Full disclosure, we thought that our windows were awful until Jed performed a blower door test and revealed that the main drafty window culprit was lack of caulk around our windows, not the windows themselves! What a pleasant surprise! Could your house be hiding similar inexpensive energy savings?)