Energy Audits

AppleBlossom Energy will provide a complimentary Energy Audit for your home or building in order to evaluate how best to improve both your energy and financial conservation.

During the assessment, we evaluate air loss at windows, plumbing pipes, bypasses (places or little cracks where warm or cold air escapes) or any place where energy could be lost. This will determine which areas need shoring up or new insulation solutions.

Leakage in an air distribution system can cause up to 50% of the climate-controlled air to escape prior to reaching your living space. This type of leakage also pulls in mold spores, moisture and dusty air from crawl spaces and attics.

Our skilled technicians will also measure the efficiency and performance of your major appliances, including furnaces, lighting and more.

Based on the audit results, AppleBlossom's highly trained staff will design a solution to meet your needs and budget in order to conserve energy usage and reduce energy spending. We can also help you obtain an ENERGY STAR® label for your home or business.

ENERGY STAR®-certified homes receive a rate discount from power companies and traditionally provide additional value during resale.

With certified Energy Raters on staff, AppleBlossom Energy is uniquely qualified to walk a homeowner or builder through the ENERGY STAR® certification process.

Three Types of Energy Audits

1.  Basic Walkthrough

2.  Diagnostics

3.  Comprehensive (using software and calculations)

What is an Energy Audit?

A home energy audit is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient.

An audit will show you problems that may, when corrected, save you significant amounts of money over time. During the audit, you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy.

Audits also determine the efficiency of your home's heating and cooling systems. An audit may also show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity. You can perform a simple energy audit yourself, or have a professional energy auditor carry out a more thorough audit.
A professional auditor uses a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of a structure.

Thorough audits often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.

Professional Home Energy Audits

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.
Many professional energy audits will include a blower door test. Most will also include a thermographic scan. There's also another type of test—the PFT air infiltration measurement technique—but it is rarely offered.

Preparing for an Energy Audit

Before the energy auditor visits your house, make a list of any existing problems such as condensation and uncomfortable or drafty rooms. Have copies or a summary of the home's yearly energy bills (your utility can get these for you).

Auditors use this information to establish what to look for during the audit. The auditor first examines the outside of the home to determine the size of the house and its features (i.e., wall area, number and size of windows). The auditor then will analyze the residents' behavior:

• Is anyone home during working hours?
• What is the average thermostat setting for summer and winter?
• How many people live here?
• Is every room in use?

Your answers may help uncover some simple ways to reduce your household's energy consumption.

Walk through your home with the auditors as they work, and ask questions. They may use equipment to detect sources of energy loss, such as blower doors, infrared cameras, furnace efficiency meters, and surface thermometers.

Blower Door Tests

Professional energy auditors use blower door tests to help determine a home's air tightness.

These are some reasons for establishing the proper building tightness:

• Reducing energy consumption due to air leakage
• Avoiding moisture condensation problems
• Avoiding uncomfortable drafts caused by cold air leaking in from the outdoors
• Making sure that the home's air quality is not too contaminated by indoor air pollution.

How They Work

A blower door is a powerful fan that mounts into the frame of an exterior door. The fan pulls air out of the house, lowering the air pressure inside. The higher outside air pressure then flows in through all unsealed cracks and openings. The auditors may use a smoke pencil to detect air leaks. These tests determine the air infiltration rate of a building.
Blower doors consist of a frame and flexible panel that fit in a doorway, a variable-speed fan, a pressure gauge to measure the pressure differences inside and outside the home, and an airflow manometer and hoses for measuring airflow.
There are two types of blower doors: calibrated and uncalibrated. It is important that auditors use a calibrated door. This type of blower door has several gauges that measure the amount of air pulled out of the house by the fan. Uncalibrated blower doors can only locate leaks in homes. They provide no method for determining the overall tightness of a building. The calibrated blower door's data allow the auditor to quantify the amount of air leakage and the effectiveness of any air-sealing job.

Preparing for a Blower Door Test

Take the following steps to prepare your home for a blower door test:

• Close windows and open interior doors
• Turn down the thermostats on heaters and water heaters
• Cover ashes in wood stoves and fireplaces with damp newspapers
• Shut fireplace dampers, fireplace doors, and wood stove air intakes.