When you want to learn precisely how to lower your energy bills, have a professional energy evaluation performed. Professional energy auditors and HVAC professionals can pinpoint where your home has weaknesses in the insulation and air leaks. Professional auditors usually use two tools to identify the problems, which include a blower door test and a thermographic scan.
The blower door is positioned in an exterior door frame and has a large fan inside. The fan exhausts the air from your home, reducing the internal pressure, and air rushes back in to fill the vacuum. The technician may use a smoke pencil or 
thermographic scan to spot where the leaks are. He also will use a thermographic camera inside your home to gauge the temperature of surfaces inside and outside. Warmer or colder readings indicate air leaks or a lack of insulation, depending on the season you have the professional energy evaluation performed.
Thermographic cameras do not take photos as we know them. Instead, their images display the color ranges of temperatures. Cold temperatures show up as cool colors such as blue and green, while warm temperatures show as yellow, orange and red. Once you’re armed with the images, you’ll know precisely where to add insulation or seal leaks.
Although the auditors conduct the test themselves, it helps if you prepare ahead of time by moving the furniture away from the walls and taking down draperies. By doing so, you’ll be able to see if you have air coming in through electric outlets or switches and around the window frames. The thermographic scan of your ceilings will indicate where insulation is weak inside your attic, most often around the edges of your attic.
Fixing air leaks can be fairly easy using exterior caulk for small leaks or expanding foam for gaps around pipes, cables or wires entering your home. Weatherstripping can be used to seal doors and parts of windows. The U.S. Department of Energy recommends 16 inches of insulation in the attic. Batt or blown-in insulation is easy to add, but if you don’t want to do the job yourself, contractors can help you.
If you’d like more information about a professional energy evaluation, contact Hansberger Refrigeration and Electric Company. We’ve provided quality HVAC services in the Yuma area since 1952.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about professional energy evaluations and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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