If you’ve given any thought to making your home more energy-efficient, you may have found yourself overwhelmed by the options. There are a lot of ways to save energy dollars, but every home is different, and the last thing you want is to make a major investment only to find out later that your home was wasting more energy elsewhere.

An energy evaluation – sometimes referred to as a home energy audit – is an effective way to determine where exactly your home is losing energy and money, and how you can fix the problem. The average American home spends up to $2,000 annually in energy bills, and an energy evaluation can go a long way toward helping you contain or even trim that figure.

When a professional technician carries out a home energy evaluation, expect him or her to do a room-by-room review of your your home uses energy. These are a few of the tests and procedures a technician will use to assess your home:

  • Blower door test –  In a blower door test, a technician uses a doorway seal and a fan to measure the air exchange rate in your home and detect leaks. With normal openings in your home closed up, this test will reveal places where air flows through anyway.
  • Thermographic scan – An infrared camera is used to visibly inspect the surface temperature of various areas throughout your home, providing valuable information on where energy is being wasted.
  • Furnace and ductwork inspection – The technician will check the fuel efficiency of your furnace and inspect your air ducts for leaks. Heating and cooling is the number-one energy cost in most homes, and this step can potentially uncover major savings potential.
  • Insulation check – If your home isn’t sufficiently insulated, a home energy evaluation will let you know. Having enough insulation helps to keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer, allowing you to use your HVAC less.

To learn more about the benefits of an energy evaluation, contact Comfort Systems. We’ve been serving Wichita and the surrounding areas since 1996.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wichita, Kansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about energy evaluations and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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