How Much Energy is Escaping through Your Attic or Fireplace?

When assessing their energy use, many people forget to consider the energy that escapes through the fireplace, attic, and other less obvious places. That's why a home energy audit is a smart way to examine your entire home's energy use - including the places you can't see.

Through the use of specialized equipment such as infrared cameras, home energy auditors can measure how much insulation you have - or don't have - in your walls. A "blower door" is used to determine how much air is escaping through cracks and holes in the building envelope.

While many people consider the attic to be nothing more than a storage area for unwanted items, they don't realize that their attic could be a huge source of energy loss that's costing them big bucks.

Do you know if your attic has proper insulation? Do you have vents in the attic which maintain air circulation? Failing to circulate air in the attic can destroy roofing and the precious items you keep in the attic. A home energy auditor is able to assess the amount and quality of insulation in your attic, the effectiveness of the ventilation, and how much energy is being wasted due to inefficient insulation and ventilation.

Your home should have insulation in the ceiling to prevent your heated or cooled air from escaping through the ceiling and into the attic, where it will simply be exhausted out of the house. But what about the entrance to the attic? If the entrance to your attic is the "hole in the ceiling" type, is the cover insulated? Is it tightly sealed, or are the edges letting heated or air conditioned air escape? Do you know how much energy - and money - you're wasting through this type of inefficiency? Insulating the entrance to your attic and sealing the edges around it can reduce your heating or cooling costs by up to 25 percent.

Fireplaces are a common culprit for a home's energy loss, and pose particular challenges for regulating the temperature in the home. The chimney is designed to move smoke out of a home by using the rising heat as a means of propulsion. The problem arises when you aren't using the fireplace, and hot air rises up though the chimney and out of the house.

The first step to preventing heat loss through the chimney is to ensure that the flue is closed when the fireplace is not in use. An open flue will suck the hot air straight from your vents and up the chimney, and you're left paying the bill to heat your entire neighborhood. Similarly, a flue that doesn't provide a tight seal will allow hot air from your home to leak through to the outside.

A home energy audit will uncover the areas of your home that are wasting energy and costing you money unnecessarily. These include some of the more obvious causes, such as windows and doors, as well as the not-so-obvious culprits like the fireplace, attic and air ducts.

With a home energy audit, you'll discover ways to start saving money on your energy bills immediately, which often offset the cost of the audit in as a little a few months. And you'll continue to save money on your energy bills each month. Over the course of a year, and over several years, those savings can really add up!

Schedule a home energy audit with a certified auditor today!