House Inspectors Help Make Your Home Energy Efficient
The relatively small fee you pay house inspectors to find how you can make your homes energy efficient will be returned to you many times over in terms of monthly savings on your utility bills.
There are at least three things that house inspectors will accomplish during energy efficiency inspection: home inspection, analysis and recommendation.
First, house inspectors will inspect the house and check if there are energy efficiency strategies installed and if the design of the house incorporated energy efficiency techniques. They will check the energy efficiency ratings of all appliances. They will also look at ways by which the house can save some more energy for the occupants.
Next, home inspectors analyze the data gathered through the use of a customized energy efficiency and home inspection software. This specialized software will help them come up with ways by which the occupants can reduce their energy bills.
After the analysis has been done, house inspectors will explain the condition of the house in terms of its energy efficiency performance and then enumerate ways by which energy efficiency can be attained or improved.
House inspectors will also explain energy products that will cost homeowners initially but will save them energy in the long run.
Home inspectors can also provide the total energy efficiency rating of the house. Many older homes would get a score of between 50 and 70 while newer homes would get at least 80. Homes rated 86 or higher are considered Energy Star rated homes.
Since residential energy efficiency got into most people’s consciousness only in recent years, sellers of new homes would oftentimes market their units as energy efficient homes even if the homes have low energy efficiency ratings. Sellers would oftentimes focus their marketing talk on the installation of energy efficient appliances.
Among the systems of the home that house inspectors would check is the heating system. Heating cost is one of the major contributors to the total house energy costs. The heating system could have been oversized, increasing heating cost by as much as 30 percent. Sealing air leaks, replacing old windows with energy-efficient windows and increasing insulation can reduce heating requirement.
House inspectors can do energy efficiency inspection as a separate inspection. To save on inspection costs, home buyers or homeowners can request house inspectors to incorporate energy efficiency inspection with the regular home inspection.
