Broken Arrow's climate gives us a wide range of weather to deal with, but with a few simple upgrades, you can make sure your home is ready for whatever comes. A home energy evaluation helps you choose the upgrades that will benefit you most.
Perform a Basic DIY Inspection
Look for leaks — Tiny cracks around doors, windows, plumbing and wiring penetrations, exhaust vents, and other areas waste your heated and cooled air. Test for these by holding a smoke pencil up to potentially leaky areas. If the smoke blows sideways, there's a leak. Caulk and weatherstripping can be used to seal leaks like these.
Inspect your insulation — To block unwanted heat loss and gain, your attic needs at least an R-30 (9-inch) layer of insulation. Adding more to achieve an R-60 layer further improves your home's efficiency.
Check your ducts — Ducts with poorly sealed joints and insufficient insulation drag down your furnace and A/C's efficiency. Sealing the duct joints with mastic and applying duct wrap insulation helps.
Assess your appliances — Appliances more than 10 years old run inefficiently and are at risk for failure. Upgrading to new models will help lower your monthly energy bills.
Consider your lighting — If any of your light fixtures still hold incandescent bulbs, consider upgrading to more efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or LED lamps.
How a Pro Can Help
During a professional home energy evaluation, your technician will use specialized knowledge and equipment to pinpoint energy wasters you wouldn't be able to find by yourself. With blower door equipment, the technician can depressurize your house to spot small yet significant air leaks. Duct blaster equipment allows your technician to test your ducts for leaks, so they can be sealed for maximum efficiency.
To assess the insulation inside your walls and floors, your technician will scan your home with an infrared camera, which shows where your home is losing or gaining heat. If these areas are short on insulation, adding loose-fill insulation is a convenient solution.
To schedule a home energy evaluation, contact us at Air Assurance in the Broken Arrow area.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Dusit/Shutterstock”