Warning: I thought home energy audits were a waste of money

For years I figured I knew where my house leaked heat, so paying $300 for a pro to tell me seemed dumb. I finally got one done in Portland last fall because of a state rebate. The guy used a thermal camera and found major drafts around my foundation I never would have spotted. He gave me a list of fixes, starting with sealing those gaps, and my heating bill dropped by about 15% this winter. That's real money saved and less gas burned. Has anyone else had an audit point out a problem you totally missed?

3 comments

3 Comments

milam4818d ago

Read a blog post about someone finding a huge leak in their attic insulation after an audit. Makes you wonder what else we're all just... not seeing.

murphy.aaron17d ago

Our old house had that exact thing, milam48. I rented a thermal camera from the library for a weekend and found a cold spot the size of a dinner plate behind a bookcase. Stuff you just live with, right?

wood.eric17d agoTop Commenter

Renting a thermal camera is a smart move, murphy.aaron. Those cold spots are often just missing insulation, not a leak. A dinner plate sized gap behind furniture is super common, it's where the batt got compressed during install. You can usually fix it by pulling the insulation back into place.