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With extremes of weather and inflation hitting your budget — not least the rapidly rising energy costs — you may want to reduce your utility bills. To maximize savings and increase your comfort, an energy audit — a.k.a. a whole-house assessment — and home retrofit may be in order.  

Think of an energy audit as a physical for your home. Are you suffering from any of these common symptoms? 

• One room is always too cold or hot
• Your house quickly gets dusty
• You suffer from frequent sinus or respiratory problems
• Dank smells rise from the basement or crawl space, or smoke from wildfires creeps inside
• In winter, you feel cold drafts
• In summer, your second story feels hotter and more humid than the rest of the house, although your air conditioning runs all the time
• You’ve compared your energy costs with your neighbor’s, and yours are much higher for similar homes

Benefits of an audit

A whole-house assessment recognizes that each of the components or systems in your home — the exterior shell, insulation, heating and cooling systems, ductwork and ventilation — work together, and recommends fixes to optimize efficiency and comfort.  

Most houses have inefficiencies. Correct them and you can cut your energy usage and bills by as much as 25%, according to Home Performance with Energy Star, a national program administered by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  

“If you reduce energy cost, you can increase comfort, and vice versa,” said Jonathan Waterworth, a certified energy auditor in Phoenix, Arizona. He said some of his clients cut their energy use by 30%.  

An energy audit and recommended improvements have other benefits besides saving money, including: 

• You can maximize the life of your current heating-and-cooling system, and when those components ultimately fail, you’ll be ready to replace them with higher-efficiency electric ones, such as a super-efficient heat pump.
• You’ll reduce your carbon footprint. If you’re thinking about going solar, reducing your home’s energy demand first will allow you to install a smaller, less expensive system.
• When you sell your home, proven energy efficiency will appeal to buyers, and they may be willing to pay a premium.

How does an energy audit work?

Energy auditors will visually evaluate your home inside and out. Their diagnostic tools include a blower-door test, which measures the draftiness of your home, and thermal infrared scans to locate drafts and missing insulation.  

They’ll identify problems, prescribe solutions and, after any work is completed, test again to ensure the problems have been solved. 

Your energy auditor should be trained and certified through one of two organizations: The Building Performance Institute sets standards for residential energy auditing and upgrading, and certifies the contractors it has trained and tested.  

Home Performance with Energy Star assists local program sponsors — typically a state energy agency, utility company or nonprofit organization — to train contractors in the whole-house approach.  

Waterworth suggests looking for energy auditors with at least five years of experience. “The more [audits] you do, the more things you can identify and know how to deal with in the most beneficial and cost-effective way,” he said.  

What does an energy audit cost?

An assessment typically costs $200 to $600, depending on the location, age, size and design of your home, and could take several hours, according to homeguide.com. [Ed. Note: Pepco pays $300, so your cost is $100. Dominion Energy offers a rebate after assessment.]

You can offset the cost of a home energy audit up to 30% (a maximum of $150) with the federal home energy audit tax credit. 

Regardless of whether the auditor you hire will perform the assessment alone or do some of the retrofit work as well, they should recommend all the appropriate improvements and prioritize them by cost-effectiveness.  

Waterworth said the most typical issues he encounters are air leakage in the outer shell of the home, air leakage and resistance to airflow in heating and cooling ductwork, negative air pressure in the home that invites outside air (including polluting particulates) to infiltrate, and poorly installed insulation that doesn’t meet its performance rating (R-value). He said his customers’ typical cost to retrofit is $9,000 to $12,000. 

At a starting point for budget-conscious homeowners, some utilities provide free “audits,” but they are typically limited in scope. Or you can try online tools, such as Energy Star’s “Home Energy Yardstick.”  

Rebates and tax credits

With massive funding provided to the states by the Inflation Reduction Act, low-to-moderate-income households can get rebates covering half or even up to 100% of the cost of installing new high-efficiency electric appliances, such as induction cooktops or heat-pump clothes dryers.  

All households, regardless of income, can take a tax credit that will deduct from your tax bill 30% of the cost to install solar panels and battery storage systems, make home improvements to reduce energy leakage (with an annual limit of $1,200), or upgrade HVAC equipment.  

For more information, visit DSIRE, dsireusa.org, “the database of state incentives for renewables and efficiency,” searchable by ZIP code. See homeenergysavings.pepco.com or 1-866-353-5798 to schedule an appointment. In Virginia, visit domsavings.com or call 1-888-366-8280. 

© 2024 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.