How much energy is your home using? This is a question all home owners have. The U.S. Department of Energy gives the following information on home energy audits.

A home energy audit helps pinpoint problem areas and suggests effective measures for cutting energy costs. You can do a home audit yourself or have a independent energy auditor do it for you. Some utility companies will conduct energy audits free or a small fee.

Energy Auditing Tips

• Check the insulation levels in your attic, exterior and basement walls, ceilings, floors, and crawl spaces.

• Check for holes or cracks around your walls, ceilings, windows, doors, light and plumbing fixtures, switches and electrical outlets that can leak air into or out of your home.

• Check for open fireplace dampers.

• Make sure your appliances and heating and cooling systems are properly maintained. Check your owner's manuals for the recommended maintenance.

• Study your family's lighting needs and use patterns, paying special attention to high-use areas such as the living room, kitchen and outside lighting. Look for ways to use lighting controls—like occupancy sensors, dimmers or timers—to reduce lighting energy use and replace standard (also called incandescent) light bulbs and fixtures with compact or standard fluorescent lamps.

Formulating Your Plan

After you have identified where your home is losing energy, assign priorities by asking yourself a few important questions:

• How much money do you spend on energy?

• Where are your greatest energy losses?

• How long will it take for an investment in energy efficiency to pay for itself in energy cost savings?

• Do the energy saving measures provide additional benefits that are important to you (for example, increased comfort from installing double-pane, efficient windows)?

• How long do you plan to own your current home?

• Can you do the job yourself or will you need to hire a contractor?

• What is your budget and how much time do you have to spend on maintenance and repair?

For more information and tools for doing an audit visit the U.S. Department of Energy Web site at www.doe.gov . Click on “For Consumer”; “Your Home”; “Your Home’s Energy Use and it will give you information on doing an audit.

Save energy and money by doing an audit this fall.

(This resource was updated September 3, 2006 and appeared in the Lincoln Journal Star Newspaper Sunday edition. For information on reproducing this article or using any photographs or graphics, read the Terms of Use statement)

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