What Is a Home Efficiency Audit, And Why Should You Care?

A Florida home energy & efficiency audit is the first step in making your home more efficient. An audit can help you assess how much energy your home uses and helps to identify the most effective improvements to increase your home’s energy efficiency. We measure how well the windows, doors, the attic insulation, HVAC system and ventilation are working together.

Some of the primary equipment employed for an energy audit of your home include an infrared camera to detect heat gain/loss in the home’s shell and a blower door test to pinpoint air leaks which affect moisture and heat gain/loss issues. In addition, a home energy audit with TIES360 involves even more to ensure your home is operating at its peak performance, so let’s discuss it further:

TIES360 Home Energy Audit

Before getting started on improving your home energy and comfort system, our experienced and certified technicians will show you how to get the most out of your investment. Our home energy audits offer a whole-house approach. How?

First, TIES360 techs will perform diagnostic testing on your home and provide you with recommendations to improve your home’s efficiency including:

Improving Heating and Cooling Systems – Heating and cooling can account for nearly half of the energy used in your home. By improving the efficiency of your ac unit, your system will function to its capabilities and can yield annual energy bill savings of 10% to 30%!

Sealing Air Leaks and Adding Insulation – In a typical home, as much as 25% of a homeowner’s heating and cooling dollars escape through unseen cracks and gaps. Air sealing is an important measure used to reduce energy loss. Using our Aeroseal System, we will be able to seal your air ducts and fill in the gaps often left during insulations. In addition, we’ll be able to pinpoint and repair areas between ceilings and wall joints to keep your energy and clean air from escaping.

How Does An Energy & Efficiency Audit Work?

A TIES360 technician will come to your home to perform the assessment. The assessment will involve three phases, and last about 2½ hours.

First, we always start with an interview with you, the homeowner. We want to find out what symptoms you’ve noticed, and if you’ve taken any actions to correct those symptoms. We then evaluate your Florida Power and Light bills. The information gathered during this step will provide important clues to areas that need the most improvement.

sarasota home efficiency

During the second phase of the home energy audit, we will assess your home as a “total system” and complete a thorough inspection of all living spaces, plus the attic, windows & doors, and crawl spaces. The technician will perform a number of tests and inform you of the current conditions in your home, including the following:

  • Health and Safety (carbon monoxide levels and moisture problems)
  • Home Equipment Inspection
  • Air Leakage Evaluation
  • Air Flow Diagnosis
  • Electric Air Flow Capture Hood Test
  • Blower Door Tests
  • Insulation Levels Inspection
  • Domestic hot-water system efficiency
  • Heating system efficiency

During the audit, we use an infrared camera to identify air leakage and deficient insulation, a blower door test to measure the rate of air infiltration in the home, and our trusted Aeroseal system test to determine whether your ducts are well-sealed, among other tools.

Cooling system/central air conditioning efficiency 

During the final phase, the TIES360 technician will use the results of the assessment to develop a scope of work for any proposed improvements, including a cost and energy savings estimate.

Our approach to conducting home energy audits is to take a comprehensive, whole-house assessment of the home, which distinguishes our “whole-house energy audit” from the “clipboard audits” offered by many utilities, box stores, and companies that offer a discounted audit as a means to sell products or services.

Our whole-house energy audit looks at the building envelope (which includes all the components that make up your home’s outer shell, including windows, doors, insulation levels, and the level of air leakage in between building materials); all combustion equipment including washer/dryers, furnaces and water heaters; and the movement of air within the home to ensure that the air you and your family are breathing is fresh, healthy and safe.

Once implemented, the suggestions from your energy audit will show you significant savings by improving your home’s efficiency and air quality.

A thorough Florida home energy audit can measure the extent of leaks in the building as a whole. To find out if your Florida home is a good candidate for an energy audit call us at (941) 960-7588.

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