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Home Ductwork, Lighting and Appliances Audit

Any energy audit will take into account the home's insulation or its air leaks, but also the efficiency of the heating and cooling equipment and appliances as fridges or stoves. Older appliances are very inefficient in terms of energy, and replacing them with new ones will greatly reduce the energy consumption.

Auditors recommend a regular inspection (annual or with the periodicity indicated by the manufacturer) of furnaces, boilers and other heating and cooling equipment, as well as the regular replacement (every month or two) of filters in equipment as furnaces. That's crucial in terms of energy savings.

See, for more information related with this issue:
High rated air conditioning
Boilers basics
Furnaces basics
Heaters basics
Kitchen basics
New Fireplaces
Gas Stoves

Auditing Heating Ductwork and Pipes

If ductwork and pipes travel through unheated spaces, checking them is a mandatory part of any energy audit. Dirt streaks around the ductwork (especially near seams) are very common, and a source of significant energy losses. Installing duct mastic is easy and can avoid important energy losses.

Duct leaks

Since duct leakage is responsible for huge heating and cooling losses, performing a duct blaster – a test rather analogous to the blower door test, applied to ductwork - is often a good complement to blower door tests.

A duct blaster uses a small fan interconnected with a pressure gauge (as in the blower door) in order to pressurize the home’s duct system and measure the ductwork’s air leakage.

This test is also very similar to plumbing system pressure tests.

For more information on insulation of ducts and pipes and their R-values, see: Ductwork insulation. See also: Pipes Insulation.

Auditing the lighting system

Lighting accounts for about 10% of the average home’s electric bills. So, auditing the type of lamps and their alternatives, and the wattage size of the light bulbs – wattage oversize is common – may prove to be an excellent option. Replacing conventional incandescent lights by energy efficient lamps (namely compact fluorescent lamps) in rooms where lights are on for long periods are highly recommendable.

See, on these issues: Lighting basics