Typical Audit Process

What to Expect From a Full Energy Audit

Once your AEA auditing team has arrived (usually a team of two professionals), we encourage you to join them, especially during the blower door/thermography steps, so you can see (and feel) the infiltration and ask any questions. You do not need to accompany them along the entire site inspection, but please be available to answer any questions about your property and be willing to point out any concerns.

Some PRE-Audit suggestions:

Accessibility: Make sure that all areas of the home are accessible, especially attics and crawl spaces.
Housekeeping: Auditors see hundreds of homes a year and if there is anything you may not want seen or found, please ensure it is not near any supply/return vents or attic accesses.

A typical Home Energy Audit is comprised of several parts.

1. Your AEA auditor will first conduct a visual inspection, which entails inspecting the physical condition of the house inside and out, for both safety concerns and any obvious "energy dawgs". In older homes in particular, evidence of infiltration or moisture build up can be obvious upon visual inspection.

2. Next AEA will take pictures of all four sides of the exterior of your house for use in referencing windows, doors, walls, and "conditioned" versus "non-conditioned: space in your report. Your AEA auditor will measure all the windows and doors and take notes of any shading from trees or other buildings. The pictures will eventually have window and door size, type, and location clouts in your customized report.

3. Your AEA auditor will then measure the perimeter and height of your "conditioned space" for our engineers to accurately calculate your conditioned volume. Computer drawings will be created to calculate and illustrate both your "conditioned space" floor plan and cut-away drawings of your exterior walls from the roof to the foundation.

4. Next comes the insulation check, which will reveal weaknesses in the insulation barrier in key locations and, in some cases, the lack of insulation. If inside-outside temperature differential is high enough, your AEA auditor will use infrared thermal imaging to determine insulation weaknesses in your thermal barrier and locate leaks in your air barrier. Your AEA auditor will need attic access for ceiling insulation inspection and may have to remove light switch covers or outlet covers to see behind drywall to measure wall insulation levels. Insulation in kneewalls and around recessed lighting fixtures may garner particular attention, as they tend to be trouble spots.

5. Using the blower door, your AEA auditor will conduct an air leakage test to determine how well you house resists air infiltration. This is a central element of the audit likely to result in some quick DIY caulking assignments, or possibly as some large air sealing projects, all with a remarkably high ROI. If ducting is outside of the conditioned space, a "duct blaster" test will be conducted to measure the duct leakage rates.

6. Your AEA auditor's concern is not just limited to reducing energy waste. Healthy houses have appropriate ventilation. The auditor will test ventilation systems to ensure that they conform to safety standards.

7. All AEA raters are certified in combustion component evaluation, so all visible gas lines, gas stoves, and gas powered water heaters will be examined to insure that there are no leaks. The auditor will evaluate if your central heating system needs cleaning or a tuneup in order to perform efficiently.

8. Expect any suspect appliances, including old driers or refrigerators to be tested by electric meters. There are times when one terrifically inefficient appliance throws an entire house's energy use out of whack.

9. The initial diagnostics in-home part is complete. Your certified field professional will then forward your home's details and testing results to the AEA engineering staff. Within a few working days, our engineering staff will use AEA software to calculate your component energy loads and costs, before and after your potential improvements. This information will also include specific details of the before and after energy loads of your heating equipment, cooling equipment, water heater, appliances, and lighting.

10. The AEA engineering staff then forwards your recommendations and load calculations to our reporting department to create your customized report. In addition to load summaries your report will include a detailed list of potential improvements and detailed green house gas reductions. All improvements will include detailed "contractor bid packet instructions" to east the process of finding and getting bids from professionals for work that you cannot handle. Most of the time, video and pictures will be attached to electronic contractor bid packets to clarify the work that needs to be completed, thus saving the contractors time and money and getting you better rates.

11. All of these reports, recommendations, and contractor bid packet instuctions will be loaded into an online file that you can access via the internet and a password (we provide paper copies for any clients without internet access). We will send you the link and password to your personal AEA file, and you can share it with your potential contractors or download and send out bid requests as you please.

12. For Level III Home Energy Audits (HERS Ratings), once the improvements are made we will return to retest your home and verify the energy improvement measures have been correctly completed. You will then get an Energy Star Label to attach to your electrical panel and your house will be nationally listed aas an Energy Star Home. You will get a HERS certificate for proof that you have increased the value of your home by reducing the operating costs, which can come in very handy if and when you ever decide to sell.

"Be Green...Keep Green!"