Plus, patented software from EcoFactor

A doctor can tell if you’re sick by taking your temperature.

EcoFactor is concocting software that can do the same for your house.

The startup — which has invented a home energy management system that gets sold through utilities and communications carriers — has obtained a patent for calculating the thermal mass of a building. Software derived from the patent crunches historical weather data, data on how much you use your heater and air conditioner, and other factors to diagnose your home and pinpoint any problems.

In a test case in Fort Worth, Texas, for instance, a consumer had purchased an ultra-high efficiency air conditioning system but was still experiencing extraordinarily high bills. The software helped find the problem: crushed ducts and a dryer duct that was venting into the home’s air handler.

“He was losing money every time he turned on the air conditioner,” said co-founder and senior vice president of products Scott Hublou.

In another house, the software detected a clogged furnace filter that boosted HVAC consumption by 8 percent to 9 percent.

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The company will use the technology to optimize its own services. In a nutshell, EcoFactor links its software-as-a-service to your thermostat and then dynamically adjusts the temperature all day, within comfort parameters set by the homeowner, to save energy. Oncor is currently reselling the service to its customer base in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. EcoFactor claims the system can curb energy consumption by 25 percent to 30 percent; it is particularly effective in muggy areas like the Southeast where air conditioning is a way of life.

But the patent could also conceivably be used to analyze small commercial buildings. Another idea: using the software as a prelude to a full-blown energy audit and retrofit.

“You could quantify the actual savings,” said John Steinberg, CEO and the other co-founder. “It is less labor-intensive than an audit.”

EcoFactor has an number of other patent applications winding their way through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, so expect to see more of these. Disclosure: although many reporters and analysts disdain patents and whine that patents, particularly software patents, stifle innovation, I believe intellectual property remains the bedrock of Silicon Valley.

Patents are “something that we think have absolutely helped us on the funding side,” said Steinberg. “I don’t think there is any question that it is helpful to have a deep and wide patent portfolio.”

DIY Home Energy Audits

Auditing a home’s energy use while going solar can be a smart move – it can give a homeowner a picture of his house’s energy consumption and help him see where solar power will contribute to energy savings.

Combining a solar installation with an energy audit is nothing new. SolarCity – one of the nation’s largest solar leasing companies – bought an energy-audit software company, Building Solutions, in May. The purchase lets SolarCity provide energy-auditing services at the same time it installs solar arrays for residential customers.

Energy audits and solar projects are naturally interlinked: Both lead to energy savings, and both can save homeowners money. It’s the cost savings that make a home energy audit a good investment, whether the audit is performed before or after a homeowner installs a solar array.

Even the White House may benefit from an energy audit. The Obama administration announced recently that it would install solar panels on the building – and a green-education company called CleanEdison offered to audit its energy use at no charge.

Average homeowners should expect to pay for their home energy audits, but the cost isn’t substantial – usually $400 to $500.

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Just released from GreenEcoClub the DIY Easy-Energy-Audits. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do energy audit on your home like the pros. Easy-Energy-audits

Finding a professional energy auditor can be a good idea: Professionals have equipment that can help them perform a comprehensive audit, like giant fans that blow air through a home so that pinhole leaks can be detected. They also use infrared cameras to find sources of heat loss.

Homeowners can undertake some simple energy-auditing measures themselves, too. To find air leaks on a shoestring, a person can simply light a candle and draw it slowly around window and door frames. If the flame flickers, there’s air entering the home – so the leaky spot should be sealed up with felt strips or plugged with a commercial-grade leak-filling product like Great Stuff.

There are also products that help people see how much energy their appliances are using. Any comprehensive home energy audit should include an examination of appliance energy consumption – and devices like the Kill-a-Watt can make the process easy. The Kill-a-Watt, which has a small display, simply plugs into the wall. After appliances or electronics are plugged in, the display registers how much energy is being consumed.

Going cutting-edge on energy efficiency means cutting some serious checks, Milton case shows

By Johanna Seltz
Globe Correspondent
October 10, 2010

MILTON — Andrew Koh is learning that going extremely green — his house renovation project is designed to cut home energy costs in half — can cost a lot of green.

Take the new water heater he’s installing as part of the “deep energy retrofit’’ of 225 Gun Hill St., the 30-year-old Garrison-style home he and his wife, Tracy, bought last year.

“It’s the prettiest water heater I’ve ever seen,’’ Koh said.

And it’s 96 percent efficient, compared with the 80 percent efficient water heater he had not so long ago in their old condominium in South Boston. That translates to using nearly a fifth less energy, he said.

But the old heater cost about $500 and the new super-efficient one sells for “well north of $2,000,’’ Koh said.

“The biggest moral of this story, for us, is that going green will cost you more than conventional,’’ he said. “And as you go further and further to the extreme, things get exponentially more expensive.’’

He’ll save money, of course, in reduced utility costs.

But unlike other families who take a more conservative approach to going green — and get an immediate payback — Koh figures it could take many years before the savings catch up with the eco-investment at his house. Luckily it’s not all his own money on the line.

“Obviously, we wouldn’t do all of this if there weren’t some funding dollars behind it,’’ he said.

The biggest financial support comes from National Grid, which is sponsoring the project as part of the utility’s “Deep Energy Retrofit Pilot Program.’’ Manufacturers and retailers also have donated or deeply discounted such things as solar panels, foam insulation, and appliances.

But the fact that the true cost of the project is beyond most homeowners’ budgets doesn’t lessen the worth of the exercise, Koh said. His house, he said, is a laboratory of sorts — an experiment in the best ways to make an old house energy-efficient.

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“The deep energy retrofitters are the warriors,’’ said Caitriona Cooke of the Conservation Services Group, a Westborough-based company that advises on energy efficiency. “They’re setting an example and leading the way, showing what’s possible.’’

“The ultimate goal is the trickle-down effect,’’ Koh said. “Not everybody will go to the extremes we have, but there are a lot of practical lessons to be learned from what we are doing.’’

They’re lessons likely to be heeded in Milton, he said. The town recently adopted the new Stretch Energy Code mandating energy efficiency, so it can apply to be named a green community by the state. The designation would make Milton eligible for state grants for energy-efficient projects.

Energy efficiency wasn’t high on their priority list when Koh, who runs a software security company, and his wife, a physical therapist and personal trainer, started looking for a new home. The green they sought was a yard where their two young sons could play.

By Herb Weisbaum

An energy-efficient home is not only good for the environment. It’s also good for your wallet, because it saves you money in energy bills.

Patti Southard, with King County’s Green Tools Program, says there are all sorts of small remodeling projects you can do for under $1,000 that will cut your energy use.

“If you’re not going to be replacing your hot water tank, you can buy wraps that will help make that more energy efficient. You could beef up the insulation in your roof. And you can typically do that for under $1,000. You can use rigid foam board to do that. There’s a lot of eco-friendly batting material now so that you’re not dealing with fiberglass anymore. So you can get a recycled cotton bat, you can get a recycled wool bat and again the rigid foam board will all help beef up the insulation in your roof. And that’s another really good place to start.”

King County has just launched a new website called Eco-Cool Remodel Tool that will show you a lot of things you can do in your house and in your yard, one space at a time.

“It’s an interactive tool and you just click on a room and there’s tips,” says Southard. “So if you don’t want to spend a lot of time on that page you can just look at the tips for each room, such as kitchen, bath and bedroom. If you want more information you click “more information” and it gives you a comprehensive list of things that you can do to improve each room in your house and at the bottom of each page there is a set of resources where you can buy materials, find your tax incentives and look at what kind of rebates are available.”

Patti Southard says you can also use the Eco-Cool Remodel Tool site to e-mail her your conservation questions – and she promises to answer them.

You might want to get a home energy audit, so you can identify the simple things you can do to cut your homes energy use.

Most utilities in the area offer this service at a discount price. You can get one done for around $95 when the normal price is about $250.

If you’re heading to the home show, there’s a great place you can learn about all this – head to the Built Green booth. You can talk to experts who know all about energy-efficient remodeling and how to find a good contractor in the area.

Yet Few Believe Their Homes Are Very Energy Efficient

OCEANSIDE, Calif., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Home energy efficiency is valued by the vast majority of American homeowners, with 89 percent of national survey respondents indicating that making their home more energy efficient is important to them personally.

Key findings from the September 2010 national survey include:

• Less than one in three homeowners believe their homes are “very” energy efficient
• While the majority reported knowing “a lot” about how to make their homes energy efficient, they mistakenly identified  ”older windows” as the top energy-loss culprit
• 90% said it is important to have a professional energy auditor who is “certified by an independent national organization”

“These findings are a call to action to the industry to help consumers tap into the true value of an independent energy audit,” said Steve Baden, executive director, RESNET. “While the benefits of window replacement are obvious, it is often a less visible and less expensive repair – for example, sealing cracks around air conditioning and heating ducts – that can significantly improve a home’s energy efficiency and cut homeowners’ utility bills.”

(continued below)

Internal Sponsorship:
Just released from GreenEcoClub the DIY Easy-Energy-Audits. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do energy audit on your home like the pros. Easy-Energy-audits

D.C.-based Clarus Research Group, a Qorvis company, conducted a market survey of 800 U.S. homeowners(1) on behalf of RESNET, an industry leader in the energy efficiency marketplace. The sample was defined as adults over 21 years of age who currently own a home or plan to purchase one within the next year. The survey was conducted by Ron Faucheux, Ph.D., president of Clarus and a nationally recognized research and polling expert.

Key among other survey findings:

• 86% of homeowners would trust an energy audit performed by someone who was “certified by an independent national organization” over someone who was not
• 80% of those surveyed said that if they were in the market to buy a home, an energy audit conducted by an “unbiased professional” would be important to them

About RESNET

RESNET is a national nonprofit organization that sets the standards for the inspection and testing of the energy performance of homes. RESNET saw 119,000 homes rated last year, and has had over 1,000,000 rated since its inception. RESNET is recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Energy Star Homes, the U.S. Department of Energy for the National Builder’s Challenge, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the federal tax credit for builders building energy-efficient homes. For more information, please visit www.resnet.us

(1) Poll conducted Sept. 1–4, 2010 via live telephone interviewing of a nationwide, scientifically-selected random sample. Margin of error: +/-3.46%.

SOURCE RESNET

September 13, 2010 by Anja Atkinson

Staying warm, cooking food, bathing, and driving to work are essential functions in our daily lives. Remove for a moment the stove, the hot water, the heated cozy home and your car and we see the vital, integral thread of energy in our daily lives. Electricity has been invisibly supplied in the background for decades, taken for granted perhaps. Yet energy convenience has been provided at a cost to our human health and the well-being of our natural environments.

Transitioning our homes from reliance on environmentally damaging energy systems that burn oil and coal for example, to sustainable energy, begins with a fundamental understanding and appreciation for home energy management. Time, personal effort and money will be wasted if home energy efficiency is not given adequate attention prior to doing any renewable energy home retrofit.

To begin we can measure energy used at home with the help of a few simple tools and some basic math. The information you collect will help you understand and map how you use energy on a daily basis, and give you a clear picture of how much energy you use on a monthly and annual basis. This is invaluable information you will use when evaluating what a solar system can supply to your home in terms of meeting your energy needs, and how much that system will cost to install. We like to remind our readers that solar installations can begin with a modest system that meets some of your energy needs. In North America, we are conditioned to the idea of bigger and faster, but most of us still live on a budget and approaching a new solar installation that’s smaller to start out with suits many of us. Residential solar systems can be expanded very easily as your budget allows.
What you will be recording for this home project is how many watts of energy you use at home, to then calculate your kilowatt hour use (kWh), and the associated cost of operating each appliance.One kWh is 1000 watts and is the universal standard used in electronics. When it’s time to calculate your solar system requirements to see what system costs are and what system energy capabilities are you’ll be prepared with a close estimate of kWh’s you use at home. For this project you will need some paper, a pencil, a clipboard and a calculator. Later you can throw this information into a spreadsheet if you like.

1. Go through your home, room by room, and make a list of all your appliances, fridge, stove, lights, vacuum, clocks, computer etc., leaving room on the page to record corresponding power use and cost information. Consult the labelling on your appliances which should tell you how many watts are used per hour and record this on your list. Power measurements of some appliances may be displayed as amps, volts or ohms. Use this Watts Conversion Calculator if you need to translate amps, volts or ohms into watts, which then can be calculated into kWhs.
2. Home energy management ultimately brings us closer to lowering our energy consumption, which is cost effective time well spent. With your list in hand, we can now gain further insight on what you spend each month on power by using either or both of these free tools, Energy Cost Calculator and Home Electricity Audit Form. This will show you how much it costs to run each appliance in your home based on the cost of energy your currently pay for. Record the results on your list.
3. Any appliances you can’t evaluate with the free online tools just mentioned, can be measured with a reasonably priced power monitor.  It will provide you with the most accurate measurements of energy used by appliances and identify problems. We recommend the P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt electricity usage monitor, which connects directly between an appliance and a power outlet. It not only measures power used by an appliance in kWhs, but also measures voltage and potential issues with outlets, line frequency, and will identify appliances that are guzzling the juice and costing you more than needed. This can lead you to explore upgrading to energy smart appliances, which has long term value in reducing energy costs and improving home energy management.  Find Energy Star products here.
4. After appliances you need to determine energy consumed for heating requirements in the winter and cooling needs in the summer. Base your cooling needs on estimated usage in a 24 hr period, to determine how many kWhs you use at home per month when running an air conditioner and/or fans. Climate plays a huge factor in energy cost so estimate your usage on climate in your area and required cooling needs. Professional help is useful to determine heating energy demands because many factors, like insulation, weatherstripping, types of windows and even what you home is built from factor into both heating & heating loss, and home cooling energy demands. Home energy assessments are being offered for free in many areas so check out what’s available where you live. If you don’t want to get an assessment done, you can still get an estimate with the help of this Heating Load Calculator. We looked around for a good calculator and feel this one is clear and easy to use. Heating is measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units) and this information should be readable on your furnace.  Record your results as well as heating and cooling costs based on what you pay your provider.  Add your totals.

You now have a list of how much energy each appliance in your home uses, what it costs, including your heating and cooling numbers and your total overall home energy use. This serves as a home energy map which you can use to then reduce energy consumption by replacing old appliances, removing redundant ones, or by making improvements to home insulation and weather stripping for example. Consider small things like power saving devices and power smart lighting you can use around your home. The best results of this project is simply your own awareness of how you use energy and thereby how you can save energy.  It shows you also what you have control over through good home energy management. In planning a residential solar installation you will now really appreciate the energy a solar system can create for your home, having clear insight of your home energy needs.

In light of the recent stint of above-90 degree days, discussing home winterization seems downright painful. Or at the very least, preemptive. But to draw from Aesop’s fable of the industrious ant and the lazy grasshopper — there is no time like the present to get started, before the first dusting of snow calls to reality the impending winter.

Logan Brown, a home performance manager at Efficiency Vermont said basic home maintenance is often overlooked. “What we really want homeowners to know is homes are just like any other complex system that we maintain in our lives. Like a car or like our bodies — you’ve got to put effort into maintaining the system. No one questions oil changes or tire rotations — it’s just common sense — and a house is an even more complex system that we frequently neglect.”

Brown gave a few suggestions for homeowners, as well as renters, ways to get started on winterization, and maintaining those important systems that keep heat and hot water chugging all winter long:

Get a home energy audit: Brown said Efficiency Vermont always recommends a professional home energy audit. Even if you plan on making the improvements yourself, the audit sets a path, giving you a prioritized list. “It will let you know, if you have limited time and budget, what are the things you should tackle first,” Brown said. A professional energy audit is also important from a safety standpoint, by identifying any concerns over changing the structure’s envelope, or the way air moves. It is possible that minor home improvements could compromise a heating system, or trap moisture. Professional audits run $250 to $500, depending on the size and complexity of the home.

Filling in the cracks: Brown said tightening up a home’s holes, by identifying where warm air is escaping, and where cold air is entering often has the most impact on a home’s efficiency. Brown said caulking and some insulating can be done by homeowners; more difficult to reach places or complicated installments may require the help of a professional.

Attack the attic: “The first place I would look is in the attic,” Brown said. Leaky, creaky Vermont attics are often uninsulated and not air-sealed, resulting in warm air flowing out of the house. He recommends identifying any large openings from lower, heated areas, such as the attic hatch, pull-down stairs and gaps around chimneys. “Those are things you are going to want to air seal first,” said Brown. Afterward, small holes can be fixed with caulking, spray foam and rigid foam, which can all be purchased at local hardware and home improvement stores. Non-combustible material should be used around the chimney.

Blast the basement: If warm air escapes from the attic, the basement is where cool air enters. Brown said doors to the outside, broken old windows and other openings are often neglected. Doors to the outside can be insulted, rotten windows can be boarded over with rigid foam, sealed into place with caulk and spray foam.

Keep in tune: Brown recommends regular tune-ups on home heating systems and chimneys to keep them running as efficiently and safely as possible.

Ax the AC: “We like to see people remove window AC units instead of having them left in place and covered,” Brown said. The units are not designed with the colder months in mind and are not airtight.

Pro plastic: Brown said if homeowners or renters don’t have the resources for window repair, covering them with plastic is an appropriate alternative as well as an affordable option for very leaky frames. Kits are available at most home improvement and hardware stores.

Wait on the windows: Brown said he recommends homeowners wait on investing in new windows. “It’s just what we’ve found, year after year, is that most windows can be repaired or improved. Investing in windows, buying them new, there is a lot of marketing, a lot of promise. ‘Buy and save!’ The best return on investment we’ve seen is air sealing and insulation in the attic, basement and walls.”

Trust in your system: Brown recommends avoiding electric heating options like space heaters, and instead focusing on a good central heating system, tuned up and ready for the winter. Space heaters are good to take the chill off an infrequently used room, he said, but they aren’t designed to carry the heating load for a whole house. He said he’s seen “miracle super heaters” advertised, that purport to “heat for pennies a day.” But Brown said this is rarely the case. “Anything that sounds too good to be true as far as heating is concerned is likely going to be a disappointment for the consumer.” If a space heater is needed, opt for the inexpensive models at a local hardware store, he said.

Contact Hannah Crowley at 651-4835 or hcrowley@burlingtonfreepress.com

It’s been the hottest summer on record, from New York to Tokyo. Russia is scorched earth. This year’s global temperatures may surpass those of 1998: If so, that would mean the two hottest years on record have been in the last 13.

The National Academy of Sciences recently published a survey of nearly 1,400 climate researchers worldwide. About 97% believe that we are causing global warming. (Meanwhile, the deniers cling to their peculiar upside-down logic: “You can’t prove for certain that my house is going to catch fire, so fire codes are a total waste of time, and there is no point buying an extinguisher.”)

European Pressphoto Agency
Russians cool off in a fountain in St. Petersburg last month as temperatures there reached 93 degrees.

If you’re worried about the environment, here are 10 “green” moves you can make that also have a payback—they’ll help the earth and your wallet.

1. Stop the energy leaks from your home. Just over a fifth of U.S. energy consumption happens at people’s homes, says the Department of Energy. That costs the average homeowner $2,400 a year. Half of that goes to heating and cooling, much of which is pure waste. Insulate ceilings and walls. Seal cracks and gaps. “Often people have so many small leaks around the home that it’s the equivalent of having a three-foot by three-foot window wide open,” says Kateri Callahan, president of the Washington-based nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy.

2. Change your light bulbs. The typical household has 46, says the Department of Energy. But only five of them are energy-efficient compact fluorescents. These can cut light bills by 75%. Don’t like CFs? Matt Patsky, veteran green investor and the CEO of Trillium Asset Management, says new LEDs are much better still. They cut energy use by 95% and emit a much softer light. They’re more expensive, but prices are coming down pretty quickly.

3. Stop heating an empty house. Or a house when everyone is asleep. Get programmable thermostats. They can cost as little as $50. “They typically pay for themselves in three months,” says ASE’s Ms. Callahan. They can cut your heating and cooling bills by 10%, she says, without any effect on your comfort at all. Turning down the thermostat in winter (and up in summer) a little helps too: Experts say each degree can trim 2%-3% from your heating bill.

4. Rethink your appliances. Replace any old ones with new, energy-efficient models. The older your current fridge or washing machine, the faster the payback. The more efficient models today have an EnergyStar seal from the Department of Energy. They typically use about 30% less power than a model without the seal, experts say (more details at wwww.energystar.gov). As for your TV: The bigger the screen, the more power it’s using. How big do you need? Do you really want to see, say, a life-size Snooki when you’re watching “Jersey Shore”?

5. Stop leaving your computers and home entertainment systems on standby overnight. The screen’s black but they’re still sucking power, needlessly. Power strips make it easier to switch everything off at once, and new smart strips make it easier, for example, to power down the TV while leaving the TiVo connected.

6. Make the most of your green taxpayer incentives. For example, Uncle Sam is offering to pay up to $1,500 of your costs on things like insulation or better-insulated windows, although the program expires at the end of this year. Your state government may provide additional incentives. The best overall guide to these deals is available at DSIRE, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency.

7. Tackle your hot water heater. It’s one of your biggest energy users. Put insulation around the heater and the pipes. And dial down the thermostat. They are often set at 140 degrees. That’s way too high: The Energy Department suggests turning it down to 115 to 120 degrees instead.

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8. Drive a more-efficient car. How wasteful are we on the roads? I once watched a young woman drive through the cobbled streets of Boston’s historic North End in a monstrous, gas-guzzling Hummer. She looked sillier than Michael Dukakis in that tank. What are we thinking? Super-efficient hybrids can be pricey, but Jessica Caldwell, director of pricing and analysis at car experts Edmunds, says there are a lot of deals around at the moment that can bring the price down. And you don’t have to go hybrid: Ms. Caldwell notes the small Nissan Versa gets 29 miles to the gallon and only costs $16,000.

9. Get a home energy audit. The price of these has come down. For a few hundred dollars, experts using high-tech gadgetry, infrared scanners and computer models will analyze your home, work out in detail all the ways it’s wasting energy and tell you what you can do to stop it. As the average home uses about $2,400 worth of energy per year, the payback is often impressive. Matt Golden, chief executive of San Francisco-based specialists Recurve, says he often finds he can cut bills by 20% to 40% just by eliminating waste. An audit can also help you rethink your heating and water systems, and identify possible sources of renewable energy, from solar paneling to a geothermal heat pump, that can help the environment and may save you money over time. Check for firms accredited by the trade body, the Building Performance Institute.
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Internal Sponsorship:
Just released from GreenEcoClub the DIY Easy-Energy-Audits. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do energy audit on your home like the pros. Easy-Energy-audits

10. Buy an e-book reader. If you read a lot, they are very green. Traditional books, newspapers and magazines aren’t: They do a lot of environmental damage, from cutting down trees to manufacturing and distribution. Emma Ritch, senior research analyst at the CleanTech Group, an environmental consulting firm, has done the numbers. Bottom line: A device like the Kindle has about the same impact on the environment as 23 books, or 280 newspapers, or 177 magazines, or some mixture thereof. So if you’re going to use it to read more than that, you’re helping the environment. By my reckoning, someone who buys a newspaper a day, a magazine a week and three books a month will break even by the fifth month.

Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

By Mark Cannella

Mark Cannella, owner of Pro Energy Consultants, a home energy audit business (www.proenergyconsultants.com).

Mark Cannella checks a home for air leaks, which can occur in openings such as the fireplace, vents and windows. – Photo provided by Mark Cannella

My background is in heating and air conditioning. When I was in that industry earlier in my career, I noticed people were purchasing high-efficiency units, hoping they would help with comfort issues — cooling the second floor in the summer, heating the ground floor in winter.

But they weren’t really solving the problems, because they hadn’t really identified the cause of poor air quality and circulation.

An energy audit can be done any time of year, but people usually start looking at energy usage in the summer and fall — when it’s extremely hot or very cool. They want comfort. An energy audit isn’t just about energy — it’s about building durability, controlling humidity and stopping water and ice damage.

Depending on the size of your home, the cost of an average energy audit starts at around $350 and takes about two hours. The process is interactive and educational. We use specialized equipment to identify air leaking in and out of the home. Then we use an infrared camera to sort of X-ray the home to make sure it is properly insulated. We also test the heating and cooling ductwork to make sure it is properly delivering air.

The percentage of savings is difficult to quantify because you can’t control the weather, thermostat setting and energy costs. Every home varies, but when a home is properly sealed, it can save about 30 percent on energy bills.

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Internal Sponsorship:
Just released from GreenEcoClub the DIY Easy-Energy-Audits. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do energy audit on your home like the pros. Easy-Energy-audits

An energy audit of my own home identified some needed  improvements. I sealed the gaps in my house that were letting in unwanted air, resealed the ductwork, added insulation, put a light-colored roof on my home and replaced old windows that weren’t closing properly. There are other ways to practice energy efficiency. I also installed compact fluorescent light bulbs, solar lighting, low-flow showerheads and a programmable thermostat. Our family also turns off lights and computer monitors, as well as unplugs cell phone chargers when not in use.

As told to Star reporter T.J. Banes at (317) 444-6815.