Monday, March 03, 2008

After meeting so many people at the Home & Garden show this last weekend and hearing them all telling me about there utility bills being $500 to $1,200 dollars and wanting to know what they can do to make there home more energy efficient. I told them sometimes replacing old, leaky windows with new, energy efficient windows may help, but you need to take a step back and see how your home is really performing before you spend any money on windows, insulation, roofing, etc. My advise to all of you is have Mike Holcomb from the Home Inspector General come test your homes. Mike can perform a “energy audit” to find out how well your home is performing. If your home has leaks, where are they? As part of Mikes energy audits he performs thermal imaging where he takes a picture of your home to see where the heat is leaking in vivid color. Mike can also preform a blower door test where a 15-20 mile per hour wind is simulated in your home to see where air (and heat) is leaking from. Without knowing how your home performs, you could be throwing your money out the window. I recently read a energy audit report Mike did on one of my remodel clients project and I was amazed at how detailed his report was. I believe Energy Audits are worth it and would recommend you get one done before you start any remodeling project.

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