What to Expect With an Energy Evaluation

Monday, February 23rd, 2015 

It is the perfect time of the year to get an energy evaluation completed – especially if your home has issues with uncomfortable rooms, drafts, cold floors, or high energy bills. We can get to the bottom of these common problems, and then offer remedies to make your home more comfortable. Homeowners show lots of interest in these evaluations, but are often unsure of what an energy audit by Dr. Energy Saver includes. There are several key steps included in every energy evaluation, all providing key information on how the home is performing, or in many cases, underperforming.

Step 1

The first step of the evaluation process is a thorough walk-through of the home. Our Energy Management Consultants will go on a tour of your home with you, paying special attention to areas of discomfort or concern. We utilize a smoke pencil to demonstrate how air is currently flowing through the home under normal conditions. This includes not only the attic and basement, but also the living areas.

Step 2

The next step of the evaluation is a blower door test. This setup is a large fan that is placed in an exterior doorway, which depressurizes the house, allowing the consultant to further see and discover problem areas. The consultant will again walk through the home once again with a smoke pencil, focusing on any problem areas you have communicated to them, while also searching for other problem areas that are more difficult to pinpoint under normal conditions. A blower door is also a diagnostic tool used to calculate how leaky a house is based on predetermined factors. This information is crucial in determining the suggested remedies moving forward.

The Third and Final Step

The third step is often done in conjunction with the blower door. An infrared camera is used to further study how the home is functioning. It is extremely sensitive to temperature differences and is used to diagnose hot and cold spots within the home. These differences are invisible to the naked eye, but when the camera is used, they are impossible to miss. Using the camera with the blower door makes problems within the home all the more apparent to both the consultant and the homeowner. After all the testing is completed, the consultant can take the findings and create a remedy plan.