Whether you’re trying to lower your energy bills, phase out fossil fuels and cut your home’s carbon emissions, improve your home’s indoor air quality, or make your home more comfortable year-round, it’s important to know your home is as efficient as it can be. Before you take the leap and replace a major system like your HVAC, it can be incredibly helpful to have the full picture of your home’s energy use, comfort, and safety.
A home energy audit, or audit, can act like a roadmap to increasing your home’s efficiency, showing you exactly what needs upgrading and what only needs to be sealed or repaired. It can help you determine how much energy your home uses, where your home is inefficient, and which problem areas and fixes you should prioritize to save energy and improve the comfort of your home. It also results in holistic recommendations that are specific to your home, and take your home’s entire ecosystem into account.
What happens during a home energy audit?
During a home energy audit, the technician will walk through your entire home, including your crawl space, basement and attic, and gather details about how your entire home works. Your feedback, including how you use your home and what issues you’ve noticed, is an important part of the audit.
They’ll examine your systems, from your HVAC system to your water heater, appliances, windows, and even your lighting. They’ll also check that you have enough insulation in your walls, attic and floors, and that your ducts are properly sealed. Some audits include a blower door test, which requires using a special fan to depressurize your home and then using an infrared camera to look for leaks. Other potential diagnostics include infrared imaging, combustion safety tests, and indoor air quality tests.
How much does a home energy audit cost?
The cost varies depending on who you work with and how detailed an audit you decide to get, but the common range is $150 – $500. The IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) offers a tax credit on home energy audits—30% of the cost, up to $150. As an example, GreenSavers, a home energy consultant that operates in Portland and Bend, offers less detailed consults for $150 and more detailed audits (which include a blower door test and other diagnostics) for $400. In both cases, llow you to apply the cost of the audit towards subsequent work you do with them to implement audit recommendations.
Can I get away without a home energy audit?
While you can certainly hire an HVAC company to size and install a heat pump in your home without a home energy audit, you’d be missing out on two major benefits: First, your heat pump will work better and use less energy in a more efficient home, resulting in lower energy bills. Second, when you treat your entire home as a set of interlocking systems and pair energy efficiency upgrades with the installation of a heat pump, you can potentially install a smaller heat pump and save money. You’ll also enjoy greater comfort and resilience during extreme weather if you make your home more efficient.
Joslyn Esser, whose home is certified through ElectrifyPDX, shares this cautionary tale: “We were so excited to electrify our new home in 2021 that we got one contractor in to give us a proposal for a heat pump. After it was installed, we knew right away it wasn’t the right system for our home—it wasn’t sized correctly, and our house wasn’t ventilated properly. They weren’t willing to fix the issue, so we regrouped and had two other companies do detailed energy audits and give us proposals. We hired one to replace our heat pump with one that was correctly sized, add attic insulation, and install the proper ventilation needed for our tight, insulated home. We wish we’d started with the home energy audit in the first place!”
You can find a few reputable companies that provide home energy audits on our Find a Contractor list