Energy Audit: Part One

Our new house is large. And in the past few weeks, it has been very cold. To save money on energy bills and improve our comfort, I called in the experts for an energy audit. Andy and Manuel from Village West came out to our house to do a blower door test to find air leaks and thermal imaging to determine exactly where the cold air was coming in.

The blower door creates a negative pressure in the house. It sucks all the air out the front, so it's easy to run your hand along doors, windows, light fixtures, vents and electrical outlets to determine where the air is coming in. And as we in the Midwest know, outside air coming IN to your home in the winter is a bad thing.

All in all, the air sealing quality is what they'd expected. Not too bad, but it could be better.

And unlike I thought, the massive windows in the family room weren't the problems. Things like electrical outlets and canned lighting fixtures were letting in a tremendous amount of cold air.

Barley took a liking to Manuel.