To save on electricity, start with a home energy audit

By Doreen Hemlock South Florida Sun-Sentinel April 16, 2010

With summer heat coming, now is a good time to consider ways to cut your electric bill, and one place to start is a home energy audit that details where you might save money.

Traci Miller swears by the results she obtained from a professional audit of her Oakland Park home that found leaks in air-conditioning ducts, a lack of insulation in walls and other problems that she arranged to have fixed.

The bottom line: Her electric bills fell from about $220 a month last fall to roughly $100 a month today.

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“There are no longer parts of the house that are very hot and other parts cold. I’m more comfortable,” Miller said gladly. “And the repairs will pay for themselves in about a year.”

An energy audit looks at how much electricity residents use and how efficiently they use it: their bills, their appliances, their habits and how energy flows throughout their home.

Some people conduct audits on their own. Others call utilities for free inspections: Florida Power & Light offers audits as part of a plan to avoid building costly new power plants. And some people pay for professional audits that usually involve more detailed analysis with more sophisticated equipment, such as a blower door to better identify air leaks and infra-red scanners to measure heat in walls.

Architect Chris Block conducts professional audits through his franchise of ProEnergy Consultants.

On a recent weekday morning, Block snugly fit a blower door – a fan 22 inches in diameter, surrounded by red nylon – into the doorway of a Pembroke Pines home and turned the blower on. The calibrated fan lowered the air pressure inside to exaggerate air leaks from doors, windows, ducts or other openings.

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Block and partner Buck Reilly then tested air flows with a hand-held device that emits non-toxic smoke. At a back door, where weather stripping was worn, the smoke quickly escaped outside. It also leaked into the attic around the recessed lights in the kitchen, indicating a need for better caulking or sealants there.

The auditors also checked heat levels on walls with their hand-held infrared scanner. They found a wall facing the garage much hotter than walls inside the house, suggesting a need for insulation there to reduce heat now pouring into a son’s bedroom. The son often runs two fans to try to cool his room.

“You might be able to cut small holes in that wall and fill it with insulation, so it won’t be so hot in that room,” Block told the homeowner, who was impressed how quickly the scanner identified the problem.

Professional energy audits can run as high as $600, but generally cost about $350 for an average-size house, Block said. ProEnergy identifies problems and possible fixes, but does not perform repairs.

Block recommends residents invest first in repairs that will give them the biggest return, such as sealing holes in ducts or around windows. He suggests they wait on costly fixes with smaller returns, such as buying new energy-efficient appliances if new air-conditioners, washers or dryers are not yet needed.

One guide for repairs: the energy-efficiency pyramid developed by Minnesota Power.

Like the food pyramid that lists the healthiest foods at its wide base, the energy triangle is read from the bottom up. Actions at the base are most cost-effective to save energy, starting with an audit. Next comes turning off appliances when not in use and then, replacing incandescent bulbs with efficient ones. The final top step is least cost-effective: switching to renewable energy such as solar or wind power.

A federal tax credit on solar energy systems or wind turbines may cut the cost of some improvements by up to 30 percent. A tax credit also may apply to new windows, insulation, air conditioning units, and other qualified energy-saving improvements, although that 30 percent credit is capped at $1,500.

Many South Floridians say they’ve obtained good, cost-effective advice from free FP&L audits that helped them save on electricity. One popular suggestion: A digital thermostat for the air-conditioning unit. It can be programmed to raise temperatures during daytime hours weekdays when family members are out at work or school, but reduce temperatures during daytime on weekends when residents are in.

But Scott Saslovsky of Coconut Creek said he was miffed when an dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5009.

“It helps not only reduce your electric bill but helps reduce your carbon footprint,” the 58-year-old said, referring to the air emissions that contribute to global warming. “You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Doreen Hemlock can be reached at

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