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In their Consumer’s Guide to Energy Efficiency, the U.S. Department of Energy describes the components of a professional energy audit. |
Most of the South Dakota Energy Smart partners, which are the state’s energy providers, offer various energy audit tools, ranging from do-it-yourself check lists to online energy calculators to blower door tests. Check your provider’s Web site or contact them for information. |
If you want more guidance in analyzing the energy efficiency of your home, farm or business, you may want to consider having a professional energy audit done. Trained technicians use a variety of tools and methods to check your building envelope, heating and cooling systems and other components that contribute to the comfort and efficiency of your building.
Professional energy audits generally go into great detail. The energy auditor should do a room-by-room examination of the residence, as well as a thorough examination of past utility bills.
Thermography detects defects
Focusing on farm energy use
Assistance available
South Dakota energy auditors
Web site links found throughout this article are intended to be helpful resources. Services listed in this article are not all-inclusive of those available in South Dakota. Inclusion of a Web link or mention of a business or agency on this site is not necessarily an endorsement of an organization, product or service.
Locate Leaks With a Blower Door Test
WAYS TO FIX AIR LEAKS
- Add caulk and weather stripping around windows and doors
- Insert foam insulators behind outlet and switch plate covers
- Replace old windows and storm doors with high-efficiency models. Look for the ENERGY STAR label, indicating the product has met strict energy-saving standards
A blower door test, performed by a trained technician, measures the amount of air leakage in a building. It identifies areas where air is escaping. That's air you are paying to be warm or cool. Problems often show up around windows, doors, recessed lights and kitchen ceiling areas.
To conduct the test, a blower door device is attached to an outside door of your home. A fan on the door pulls air from the house. The technician measures the differences in pressure and calculates the leakage rate. The technician points out problem areas and tells you how what repairs are needed.
Blower Door Test Operators
A number of agencies and companies throughout South Dakota will perform residential blower door tests. Depending upon your income, some agencies can conduct tests for free or a modest fee; other companies may charge a service fee. Having a blower door test ? and following through with the recommended improvements ? is an Energy Smart move.
Be Energy Smart With A Home Energy Audit
Home Energy Audit Checklist
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Locate air leaks |
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Check insulation |
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Inspect HVAC |
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Examine lighting |
When auditing your home, keep a checklist of areas you have inspected and problems you found. This list will help you prioritize your energy efficiency upgrades.
A Tale of Two Bulbs
Regular incandescent bulbs create a lot of heat. Only about 5 percent of the energy to power an incandescent bulb is converted to light – the rest is released as heat. That means in the summer you need to operate your home’s air conditioning even more to combat the heat incandescent bulbs generate. Talk about energy
inefficiency!
Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), by comparison, use at least two-thirds less energy, last up to 10 times longer and are cool to the touch. Though the purchase price of a CFL is more than an incandescent bulb, the long-term savings are impressive. The equation is simple: less energy used means lower utility bills.
Some information for this feature was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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