Check out our other posts to learn more about how solar power can benefit you and your household. 1) Assess Your Current Energy Use. Checking the insulation in your walls is a bit trickier, but if you’ve got an infrared thermometer handy, it’s fairly easy. That power is consumed by power supplies (the black cubes — sometimes called “vampires” — converting AC into DC), the circuits and sensors needed to receive a remote signal, soft keypads, and displays including miscellaneous LED status lights. The current recommended amount of insulation for homes in your area, and 2. Call during office hours:9:00 AM - 5:00 PM PST. Here’s the fastest way to do those things: If your calculated R-value is lower than the recommended level, you’re probably losing energy. Any equipment powered by water, air, gas, electricity or steam (a group of power sources often referred to as WAGES), should be the core focus of an energy audit. Be sure to inspect your home for potential insulation gaps and poor sealing. Even so, many plants do not have the capacity to conduct an effective energy audit. If the only meter in the facility is the one measuring the main utility feed, then it will be impossible to determine which machines or processes are contributing the most to your utility bill. Feb 26th, 2014. If it says NFRC on it, you’re in business. Ventilation is important, especially in homes that use a combustible heating source like oil or natural gas. Professional home energy assessors use specialized equipment and infrared cameras to analyze your home’s energy use, but you can still perform some energy auditing steps without a ton of equipment. Heating and air conditioning is the largest energy consumer in the United States, accounting for around 48% of the average home’s energy use.1 Water heating takes up an additional 18% of a household’s energy.2. Below, we address why an energy audit is so useful, and we offer a do-it-yourself energy audit checklist to help you start saving money immediately.
By first understanding how your business or home uses energy. Whether your plant is processing food or chemicals, wastewater or steel, the process used to audit your energy usage and find ways to use or waste less of it is much the same. Justifying that kind of investment, however, requires an analysis of the predictability of rates going forward. There’s no better way to start the audit process than by walking the floor and identifying where and how the facility is using energy. Jump over to our full article on this topic for more info. Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory Home Energy Saver, The best window air conditioners on the market for 2020, These are the best cheap air conditioner deals for October 2020, The best sci-fi movies on Netflix right now, These are the best cheap humidifier deals for October 2020, Call of Duty: Warzone season 6 release date, subway system, and multiplayer maps. Your email address will not be published. All rights reserved. If you don’t have incense handy, you can also use a damp hand to locate leaks — any drafts will feel cool to your skin. No matter the savings potential at your facility, an energy audit is the first step toward achieving your energy-efficiency goals. Double-pane windows trap heat much more effectively than those of the single-pane variety. Download the entire playbook here. It will also help you to prioritise your opportunities, and where necessary, secure the support and funding you need to make them happen. Most importantly, make sure this plan focuses on the processes used to create the products that contribute the most to the company’s productivity and profitability. You can reduce your electricity bill substantially by improving your home’s heating and cooling efficiency. An energy audit is an assessment of your home that takes a look at current energy consumption and then identifies energy efficiency measures that you can conduct to make your home more efficient. Glass is a horrible insulator, and if your house has a lot of windows, you could be losing a substantial amount of heat. There are also more significant capital investments that can be made depending on conditions at your facility. • Use programmable thermostats to match temperatures within the plant to operating requirements. Fill out the below and a representative from a top solar company will call you to help you get a custom solar quote for your home. Ratings generally fall between 0.15 and 1.20. Solar panels can also reduce monthly energy costs by quite a bit. The resulting number is the recommended U-Factor rating for your area. An energy audit can identify the areas of energy waste in your home so you can make repairs and upgrades as needed. During a professional energy audit, an energy auditor analyzes your energy bills, completes visual, health and safety inspections, and may use special equipment -- such as a blower door and an infrared camera-- to detect sources of energy loss. Different industries use different types of energy more than others. However, even newer homes are sometimes constructed with outdated building techniques. The chemical and refining industries, on the other hand, make greater use of compressed air and steam. To pinpoint these vampires and stop them from sucking money out of your wallet, take closer look at these areas of your home: Take stock of what you’ve got plugged in and how often you use each device. To check and make sure your home’s insulation is up to snuff, you need to figure out two things: 1. • Take advantage of the software controlling motors to regulate equipment startup times and prevent unscheduled starts. If there’s no free option available, a DIY home energy audit is an excellent way to reduce home energy use and achieve a lower monthly energy bill. Submit the form, and write down your results (or just snap a picture of them with your smartphone). Many older homes pose hazards to your health, and it’s not always obvious when there’s danger. Is the plant subjected to extreme seasonal temperature fluctuations between summer and winter? Also consider the energy-efficiency value to be found in straightforward upgrades of existing equipment.
Drafts are one of the biggest causes of wasted energy in your home, and getting rid of them can save you anywhere from 5 to 30 percent of your annual energy costs, so it makes sense to tackle them first. Determining which of the WAGES energy types are used most in your facility is important for prioritizing corrective actions.
In order to make sense of those numbers and tell if they’re adequate for your area, you need to know the recommended U-Factor rating for your area. A home energy audit is the perfect time to consider your usage habits and identify potential sources of electricity waste in appliances, lighting, and other items. Check each of these common areas for heat loss and energy waste during your energy audit: General electricity waste is a major contributor to residential energy inefficiency. Calculate your home’s R-value with the formula provided in the following table. Given today’s energy prices (and future prices that will probably be higher), the level of insulation might be inadequate, especially if you have an older home.”. How energy-efficient are the lighting fixtures? If you’re checking your insulation, wear a ventilator and all proper safety equipment to avoid exposure to fiberglass or asbestos. Follow these steps, and you’ll know exactly what’s draining your wallet. Standby power use is also caused by circuits that continue to be energized even when the device is “off.”. Light an incense stick and pass it around the edges of common leak sites (electrical outlets, switch plates, door/window frames, attic hatches, vents, and pretty much anywhere else where two different materials meet). And again, be sure that any electrical sockets are fully disconnected and tested before using them as access points to check insulation. A professional energy assessment can offer an even more comprehensive look at your home’s energy usage.
We’ve put together this checklist to help you conduct a straightforward energy audit of your home or business. How much insulation you currently have. Most older plants are poorly metered. Be aware that unlike other energy audit training programs this one is very easy to understand and learn. Shows how to conduct effective energy audits that lead to actionable audit reports; Includes more than 25 guideline forms plus access to the forms in spreadsheet format for easy customization; Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits, Second Edition Available in print or digital format. The sticker should look something like the one to the right. Take a stroll through your house and look for window stickers.
The information gathered from these sub-meters can then be used to justify capital expenditures and enable you to develop a longer-term plan based on where the best savings are for the least amount of investment. If you can find a window with a sticker on it, take a closer look. It should also define a program of preventive maintenance to maintain energy-efficient production processes and allow you to continue to innovate in the future. Make sure your furnace is adequately ventilated—there should be about one square inch of ventilation per 1,000 Btu of appliance input heat.4. How to Size a Solar PV System for Your Home, The 10 Best Colleges and Universities for Studying Renewable Energy, The Best Solar-Powered Camping Gear for Your Next Summer Adventure.