Home Energy Audit in Bethlehem, PA – All you need to know
A Home Energy Audit is the critical first step towards optimizing energy efficiency in your home in Bethlehem, PA. It enables homeowners to acquire the knowledge for strategic home improvements, avoiding future problems, and significantly elevating comfort.
To understand the energy behavior of your home, start with an examination of the building envelope and ductwork, vital for those determined to decrease their energy footprint. Since HVAC systems contribute to around 40% of household energy demand, they are often the first point of attention, especially in older homes where increasing efficiency can be exceptionally beneficial.
When it’s time to get a home energy audit in Bethlehem, PA
If you’ve observed your energy bills increasing or continually rising, it could be a sign that you need a home energy audit. Undertaking a home energy audit in Bethlehem, PA ensures a comprehensive check-up of your home’s energy efficiency, with a focus on insulation, the HVAC system, and a variety of other important elements.
What are the benefits of conducting a home energy audit?
A home energy audit can also make your home a lot more comfortable. Enhancing your home’s comfort involves optimizing your heating and cooling systems’ functionality and securing the right level of insulation for your home. This eradicates the problem of cold and hot spots or the uncontrollable drafts that are inevitable in older homes with outdated equipment.
You can also find problems early before they become more expensive and damaging to your home. Leaks within duct systems can lead to excessive moisture accumulation and water damage. The dire aspect is that without a preventive inspection, you could unknowingly let minor issues evolve into big problems.
You can find duct leakages that are notorious for spreading toxic mold and other allergens throughout your home. The time and cost spent on an energy audit should be seen as a significant investment that protects your home’s value and the people living in it.
A home energy auditor will give you the full picture behind your home’s energy efficiencies. The key to a comprehensive home assessment lies in the hands of trained professionals utilizing a range of advanced technological tools. Without the necessary training and access to expensive auditing tools, identifying energy inefficiencies in your home is virtually impossible.
Exploring the Unknown: What’s Behind Your Walls?
A usual component of an energy audit is thermal imaging, which examines your walls for hotspots that could reveal air leakages and opportunities to save energy. These examinations play a crucial role in assessing your home’s insulation. Cold spots can indicate the existence of cracks, through which cold air leaks in, making your HVAC system run excessively. In Bethlehem, PA, your home energy auditor will include a physical assessment as part of the audit, inspecting the seals around windows, doors, and other key areas of your home for tightness.
What is a blower door and duct leakage test?
A blower door test can tell you everything you need to know about air exchanges in your home. By creating a negative pressure of 50 pascals within your home, it draws air through leaks, enabling the precise measurement of untreated air volume.
A duct leakage test checks your ductwork, instead of your building envelope. By attaching a duct blaster to either an HVAC unit or a primary return and sealing the remaining system, an enclosed setting is formed, enabling accurate detection of ductwork leakages.
Conducting a home energy audit for an older home
If you have an older home in Bethlehem, PA, there’s a high chance there are energy inefficiencies like gaps in your insulation and broken seals. A conventional home energy audit involves checking the insulation in your attic and identifying if there are more efficient alternatives to help you save on energy expenses.
WPinpointing where energy is being lost in an older home can present significant challenges. Through a home energy audit in Bethlehem, PA, you can discover and tackle these issues, focusing your energy-saving efforts on the most impactful areas. This represents another aspect of how an energy audit of your home can save you money.
What do you do after your home energy audit?
Once your home energy audit in Bethlehem, PA is finished, you’ll come away with knowledge on three fronts: how energy efficient your home is, which parts need work, and the best strategies for fixing these problems. When enhancing your home, you’ll find this information invaluable for making informed decisions, achieving the best results with professional guidance.
Your auditor will shed light on possible repairs and enhancements for your home, clearly outlining the associated costs for each choice. You might also access benefits and incentives for enhancing your home’s energy efficiency, thereby making the economic aspects of these improvements much more bearable.
The process of a home energy audit?
The diagnostic tools we use for a home energy audit are a blower door test and a thermal imager. Leaky areas are usually tough to identify, but a blower door test, by depressurizing your home, makes the entry of outside air more forceful and noticeable. You will directly experience the draft from leaky windows and doors. A thermal imaging inspection follows, allowing us to pinpoint temperature differences inside your home. Utilizing this method, we can quickly identify issues within the home and suggest ways to address them. A home energy audit, taking merely two hours to complete, can yield benefits for the homeowner that last indefinitely.
How much does a home energy audit cost?
The service, priced at $390, entails using a blower door for home depressurization, conducting thermal imaging to find issues, and providing recommendations for improvement.
For an extra $250, you can request a duct leakage test to be part of your audit.
Get your home energy audit now
If you need a home energy audit, your search is over! Local Energy Audits is a veteran-owned business that takes pride in offering customers quality care and full-service home energy inspections. Call us during our regular business hours or contact us online to schedule your appointment. We’d be delighted to enlighten you about the potential benefits of a home energy audit and the process it involves for your home.
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