Congratulations on your new home. Whether you had it custom built or purchased your first
home, you’re excited to make it your own. There are plenty of things you’ve done prior to your purchase or build to make sure your home is safe. You probably have a checklist of things you want to get done from covering outlets to protect children to purchasing new curtains. But if saving money is important to you, an energy audit should be on that list!
What is an Energy Audit?
Multiple types of energy audits exist. The Energy Star website offers a tool, called the Yardstick, that lets you compare your energy bills with similar homes to determine the efficiency of your new home. This is a perfect do-it-yourself option.
A home inspection company in Louisville, KY can perform an energy audit assessment that involves checking for inefficient areas in your home. For example, a blower door checks for air leakage around doors, which can lead to poor air conditioning and heating. A similar blower detects leaks in your ventilation system, which may cause your HVAC to work harder than a system that is properly sealed. Professional auditors may use infrared cameras and other tools to locate areas where your home is leaking money as well as air.
Do Brand New Homes Really Need an Energy Audit?
Even though you may have purchased a brand new home, you can still benefit from assessing the energy efficiency of that new home. An energy audit can determine if your new home was built to stand up against the environment and location your home was built in. The results will also tell you if your home was built to follow the Energy Star guidelines.
Just because your home was recently built doesn’t mean it is perfectly efficient.
An energy audit will take the surprise out of heating costs and wasted energy. Energy assessment points out the weaknesses in your home’s design or device usage. You can then take the steps to remedy the problem to prevent your utility bills from skyrocketing. Sealing your ducts and doors are common ways to fix the leaks that your brand-new home may have.
Energy audits provide unexpected benefits, too. You may be able to keep your home warmer in winter and cooler in summer, but you might also locate leaks through which dust and dirt are entering your home. You don’t want to have to clean your brand-new home every day or let dust ruin your home or possessions, and closing up those leaks may help your air conditioning system operate more efficiently, too.
Another benefit of buying a new home is it may come with energy star rated appliances! Although this is helpful since you don’t have to purchase new appliances, you want to make sure the appliances are working efficiently. HomeMD offers a RecallChek program that tests the efficiency of the energy star appliances that came with the home. You can rest assured that your new appliances are working correctly and there aren’t any recalls on them.
