Don’t fall for the sales pitch.

Hi all,

I keep seeing posts from people suffering with hot homes and high electric bills. Some of it is heartbreaking. And some of the advice is … forget about it.

This will be blunt, but here goes: Don’t fall for the sales pitch. Get a home energy audit first.

(Is this a sales pitch, given that I’m a home energy auditor? Guilty as charged. But after 16 years in the business, I know it’s the right move.)

Properly done, an energy audit figures out what’s wrong with your home from a comfort & efficiency standpoint and can help you avoid spending money on crap that doesn’t work – or that might have worked on a friend’s west-facing two-story Santa Fe-style house, but might not on your north-facing ranch with long roof overhangs.

Properly done, an energy audit will give you a plan of action that is tailored to your house and your circumstances – full house vs. empty nest; five dogs & three cats vs. no pets; those who need a 68-degree house vs. those who are fine at 82.

Is your master bedroom hot? If yes, then why? Is it because there’s a single-pane, unshaded west-facing window? Is it because you close the door at night and don’t have a return or jumper duct in the bedroom? Is it because the supply duct feeding the room is undersized, or crushed, or disconnected, or at the end of a multi-branch run? How can you know? (What do you suppose the window salesman will tell you at the end of the month with a looming quota?)

Is your HVAC system too small? Too large? Has it been upsized by an ambitious salesperson who didn’t even know your ducts would need to be redesigned to handle the extra tonnage?

Do you have a dusty house? Is it because of your four huskies? Or do you have an air handler sitting on a platform return that’s been pulling attic air for 40 years? Or is it because the teenagers never open their doors?

Is your bill high because your A/C has issues? Or is it because you’re on a demand rate plan & don’t fully understand how it works? Or do you have an electric water heater with an underground hot-water pipe with a slow leak, making your 4.5kWh water heater – which uses as much power as a 4-ton air-conditioner – run more than it should? Or has the “off” tab fallen off your 1.8 kWh single-speed pool pump, and it’s been running constantly for a year?

How could you possibly know? You get an energy audit, that’s how. It’s the critical first step. Everything else is just guessing.