Get a Home Energy Audit

Hiring a professional: If you know there is a lot to do, or if you prefer precise measurements, it's best to hire a professional auditor. For example, if you have an older home, it probably isn't as energy efficient as modern homes, and a professional can give you the best advice about how to begin to upgrade it. Also, if it often snows where you live, you might want to consider a professional, since even the smallest energy leaks can mean a lot when you want to keep your house warm.

Doing it yourself: If you know your house is relatively energy efficient already, or if you just tend to be handy around the house, it's probably easiest to check everything out yourself. You'll save the money and have the convenience of doing it anytime you like, even in your pajamas!

Does your attic have proper insulation? Once you find the access door or stairwell to your attic, use a ruler to measure the depth of the insulation. If your insulation is 8" thick or less, consider adding more. You can either hire a professional or install some insulation yourself, which involves renting a blowing machine. Also, check below the insulation to see if there is a vapor barrier, which may be made up of many materials such as heavy paper, metal, or plastic. Look around for ducts in the attic. If there are, make sure that these are well-insulated and that any insulation on them is not wearing out. On your way out of the attic, make sure that the attic access door itself has an insulation cover and closes tightly.

Is your floor properly insulated? Look at what percent of the floor is covered by rugs, carpet, and other padding. If there isn't any insulation under the floors, you have a heated basement or crawl space. If you have a basement, make sure the foundation walls have insulation to keep the basement warm. If you have rim joists (wood on the corners between the ceiling and the walls of the basement), insulate these. If you have a crawl space, measure the floor for at least 6" of insulation. On your way out, make sure that the crawl space access door is insulated itself.

Check your air conditioner or furnace filters. If they are dirty, they may be using a lot more energy than necessary to push the same amount of air through the system. If they are disposable, replace them. If they are permanent, you can just clean them. Make sure your air registers (vents on the floor from which your heating or air conditioning system blows air) don't have any furniture or curtains blocking them.

Do you know whether your ducts move through unconditioned spaces? If so, they may be wasting energy trying to maintain the proper temperature air. For these situations, you can purchase duct insulation at a hardware store. Also, check the duct for leaks and cracks. If the duct loses air, it can become significantly less efficient, since it takes even more energy to push the same amount of air all the way through the system.

Check to see that your doors are sealed. If you can see light coming in the edges of the door even when it is closed, install weather stripping to seal it. Especially check the seal on the bottom of the door, or the threshold, which can be replaced. Apply caulk to plug the leak. If you have a very inefficient door, like hollow wood doors, a professional can replace it with a very efficient door, like foam filled steel doors.

Check to see that your windows are sealed. If they are loose, install weather stripping. Replace any cracked or missing window panes. Caulk up any cracks between the windows and the walls. If you want to replace your windows with something more energy-efficient, the best are double pane, argon gas filled windows.

To find every last leak, you can conduct a basic building pressurization test. Close all doors, windows, fireplaces, and wood stoves that may let air in from outside. Open all inside doors to let the air from every room flow freely. Turn off all combustion appliances (gas furnaces, gas-powered water heaters). Next, turn on all the exhaust fans over your stove and in your bathrooms to suck out all the air. Walk around your house either with lit incense sticks (and watch to see when the smoke wavers) or with a damp hand (and feel the coolness of a draft). Especially check for air leaks around electrical outlets, foundation seals, mail slots, switch plates, window frames, baseboards, weather stripping around doors, fireplace dampers, attic hatches, and mounted air conditioners. Plug, caulk, and seal any holes and cracks you find.

Check your water heater's temperature. Turn down the temperature of the thermostat to about 120° F. Check to see if there is adequate insulation around the water heater. You can install a water heater insulation jacket and 6 feet of water pipe insulation. If your water heater is very old, consider getting it replaced with a high efficiency energy star unit or solar water heater.

Check your heating and cooling equipment. If the system is over 15 years old, you may want to replace it with an energy-efficient energy star unit. You can also install a programmable thermostat which will automatically set the temperatures at certain times to save energy.

Consider upgrading all the other energy-hungry large appliances. Does your dishwasher have an energy saving feature? Are your refrigerator, washer, and dryer the energy star models? Check the refrigerator or freezer for broken or misaligned gaskets (refrigerator door seal) and replace them.