Have you ever been told it might be a good idea to have a home energy audit done for your living space? This is a professional service offered by the highest quality HVAC pros to determine where your home is losing energy, and subsequently wasting money. During this service, a trained “energy auditor” comes to your home and conducts tests that take many factors into consideration to determine where your home can benefit from Pittsburgh home energy solutions.
“How Do I Know If I Need a Home Energy Audit?”
There are a few signs you can watch out for that indicate your household may benefit from such a service. These include, but aren’t limited to:
- Rooms in your home that feel hotter or colder than the rest.
- Aggravated allergy and asthma symptoms when you’re indoors.
- Utility bills don’t decrease despite energy-saving efforts.
- You or your family members often get sick.
- A short-cycling HVAC system, or an HVAC system that won’t shut off.
- Drafty doors and windows.
“Okay, But Is This Service Really Worth It?”
Yes, there are a number of benefits to having a home energy audit performed, so long as you take the proper steps in repairing the areas of concern found during that home energy audit. These benefits include:
1. Lowered Utility Bills: One of the biggest reasons homeowners decide to invest in a home energy audit is to find out if their house is causing them to waste money on their energy bills. If you’re losing heat during the winter or cooling during the summer, it means that you’re spending more time running your HVAC systems than you should have to. And let’s face it, that’s pretty significant in Pittsburgh! A professional energy audit will show you where you can create better heat and cooling sealing against the outside, and lower the amount of your HVAC system use.
2. Increased Comfort: If conditioned air is leaking from your home, it can make that home pretty miserable during the summer, and especially in the winter! If you suffer from drafty areas in your home, you should have a home energy audit performed to locate areas where sealing up leaks will improve comfort.
3. Better Indoor Air Quality: A home with proper ventilation and a steady supply of fresh air will have better indoor air quality. A home with leaks in its ductwork or other areas of the living space that allow conditioned air out will not have better indoor air quality. In fact, these homes can have worse indoor air quality, since they’ll draw in excessive outside air that contains contaminants such as pollen, dirt, dust mites, and more.
“Why Does All This Matter?”
The U.S. Department of Energy actually recommends that all homes have this energy audit done, and their studies show that homeowners who follow up on the necessary adjustments to improve their energy usage end up saving from 5% to as much as 30% off their annual energy bills! You may also qualify for state, local, or utility incentives to assist you with the energy audit, as not only are you helping with your own energy usage, but you’re helping your environment and community as well.
Call the friendly staff at Boehmer Heating & Cooling for exceptional customer service.