This is one of the expenses we occurred this past year that was well worth it.  It cost us $35 and we had a representative of the energy company come to our house to find ways we may be losing money and energy.  We also got additional information on what we can do to prevent energy loss.  It has been a while, but I will go through what they found in our house and ways we can save money.

First and the most biggest, our auditor found out that our house doesn’t have any insulation.  Our house was built in the late 1920′s so there are alot of little things wrong with it anyways; we just didn’t want to come across something this big.  In addition, now that the weather has been in the double digit negatives we can feel this lack of insulation all too well.  Our way of trying to fix this problem was to contact local contractor to come and fill our walls from the outside; blow it in from a hose.  Unfortunately, our walls were built using slats and filled the inside with plaster.  Other option would be to wrap with insulation and re-side around.  We decided to not go this route at the time being, but we will re-visit this task next year.

We were also advised to clean out our air conditioner coils. By cleaning these you can make your air conditioner run more efficiently.  This also works with the Refridgerator also.  These two things can save you alot of money by just doing a little yearly maintenance.

New windows was on our radar in 2009.  We got a really good deal on some Double Hung windows from Lowe’s and even got them installed in time to get a tax credit for 2010.  We may be considering some new windows on our main floor this year.  We do shrink wrap our windows over the coldest months to keep in as much heat as we can.

We were also told that our heating pipework was inefficient.  He showed me how to adjust the dampers on the ductwork to direct air flow differently.  We also had some ductwork that was coming off another room which may prevent even heat in our house.  I understand how to go about fixing this but would need a professional to do it for me.  We also need to seal some of the corners of our heater that is letting heat escape.

Lastly, and the most inefficient part of our house is our basement.  This will never be a livable basement unless we totally redo all of the walls and floors which is beyond our spending allowance.  We can however fill any cracks or holes with a spray foam, which is toxic, hence not very green.  During the winter we close the door to our basement and just don’t use it until it warms up, besides for laundry.

Well there you have it!  Our ungreen house that we need to bring into the 21st century.  We have been remodeling several different rooms since we moved in almost 5 years ago.  Now we will need to change our focus into making it more efficient; maybe by new appliances and spending the money on insulating.  Ben and I argue whether it’s worth it; whether the savings will overcome the costs eventually and quickly.  I feel it will, and it’s always worth it to make a house energy efficient even if we don’t get all of the up-front costs back.  If you have any other stories about your energy audits, please leave them in the comment section below.