Is your home as energy efficient as it could be, or do you feel that there are areas in your home where your resources are being wasted?
Is your home as energy efficient as it could be, or do you feel that there are areas in your home where your resources are being wasted? Excessive moisture and rooms that you feel are particularly drafty are areas where energy is being wasted. Having your home assessed with a home energy audit will help you identify those areas and provide solutions to any energy leakage problems that your home is currently experiencing.
Common Issues
Your home energy audit will reveal some common issues that you may be dealing with. The audit will reveal how much total air leakage your home is allowing, usually through doors and windows. Some main culprits include ducts in areas that aren’t insulated, like your attic or unfinished basement. Other common home energy issues include moisture, crawlspaces, and even range hoods.
Types of Audits
Energy audits come in various forms, beginning with visual inspections. Visual inspections are especially useful for spaces with exposed or unfinished areas, including basements, crawlspaces, and attics. Next, a professional auditor would use scanning devices to further analyze the energy efficiency of your home.
- A device that measures gas leaks will help determine the air quality of your home while a duct blaster measure air pressure and flow to determine if there are any leaks in your ducts.
- Thermal scanning, as the name suggests, measure temperatures along walls to detect any variations that may expose air leaks.
- Finally, two different types of blowers help measure draft levels (a blower door test), and the direction in which a draft is blowing (smoke puffer test).
Pro vs. Do It Yourself
For handy homeowners that want to conduct their own home energy audits, there are some techniques that can be used to assess your home’s energy efficiency. An example of a DIY energy audit technique is to place a candle near your windows and door frames to see if any airflow actually blows the flame. When doing this type of inspection yourself, be careful that, after your assessment, to take the necessary measures to address the problem you’ve identified without over-correcting the issue or choosing a solution that doesn’t actually address the problem sufficiently. Professional services have the tools and technology to assess your concerns and suggest the proper solutions based on more exact techniques and training.
Contact Blair Construction
For a beautiful new roof or new bathroom flooring planned and installed by professionals you can trust, contact Blair Construction. We have been serving our valued Maryland customers for almost thirty years and look forward to giving your roof the care it needs for years to come. Contact us online or give us a call at (410) 729-0777 to get a free in-home estimate. To see examples of our work and get updates on what we are up to, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Houzz.