Energy Investment: Tune up your House

An Energy Audit on your home is like visiting your mechanic when your car may be performing inefficiently. There are many reasons that your house may not be performing efficiently just like there may be many options with your car. There is low hanging fruit in both scenarios. Your Car: Low tire pressure= lowered fuel mileage... Solutions Keep tires properly inflated. Your Home: Lights are always on and are incandescent= wasted energy and higher cost of ownership....solution turn off the switch and replace those old bulbs with CFL Bulbs.
Maybe that is a bad example but there is low hanging fruit everywhere. Many times in your home there are many things that can be very cost effective in helping you to reduce your homes energy consumption, increase the comfort level and reduce your monthly expenses. This is where a Home Energy Audit with a Blower Door and Duct Blaster performance test can help. Identifying a leaky weatherstrip on a door is one thing but locating those hard to find air leaks and duct leaks is an entirely more confusing matter.
In addition to measuring the air leakage and duct leakage a good energy audit should analyze, insulation, windows, appliances, plug loads, moisture, ventilation, lighting, and of course mechanical systems. All of these things can be addressed by a trained professional. Please look up your local HERS Raters and BPI affiliated auditors when your are looking to tune up your home.

Why is this important?
As we move through home ownership and life in general we want to make good economic decisions. This is not to say that people don't want to have some toys and frivolous items as well. I would like to emphasize that an investment in energy efficiency is one that will never diminish. As energy costs increase and stock values decrease it becomes all more obvious that an investment in energy efficiency will be the most stable possible. You may not see returns like a hot stock portfolio but you are also guaranteed a positive return on most energy investments. As energy costs increase your investment becomes more proffitable to you. This may even free up a little extra cash that could be applied to that new car or those ever increasing health insurance premiums. So think of energy improvements as a long term investment with dividends that you can enjoy on your next montth's utility bill.