Energy Audits Shine a Light on Wasted Power
By Mark Friedman - 

Zachary Johnson of Lonoke County couldn't believe his eyes when he saw his electric bill in February 2008. It was $391. Three months earlier, it had been $108.

Johnson thought the meter reader had made a mistake and called his electric company, First Electric Cooperative of Jacksonville. But the bill wasn't an error. First Electric offered to do an energy audit to determine what was causing the high bills. What they found in the 2,400 square-foot home, which was less than a year old, shocked him.

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"They came up with a list of things that were wrong," Johnson said.

He's not alone in having a home that wastes energy.

"A large percentage of the homes in Arkansas have what I consider to be serious energy problems," said Doug Rye, a licensed architect and radio host of "Home Remedies." "As utility prices continue to increase, it becomes a larger portion of a family's budget."

The solution, in many cases, is an energy audit. Making the changes suggested by an auditor can save homeowners anywhere from 10 percent to 75 percent on energy bills, Rye said.

"That's the cash reason," said Leslie McDowell, the communications director of CMC Energy Services of Bethesda, Maryland, which created an audit and software that home inspectors across the country use. "But [making the energy improvements] also helps the environment at the same time."

The Audit
Electric cooperatives in Arkansas will do free energy audits for their customers. Homeowners who aren't part of a cooperative can contact their utility company for a referral.

Look for an auditor who has been trained to conduct energy audits, which cost between $200 and $500 and can be completed in a few hours. "We kind of know immediately if it's fairly good, average or really bad," Rye said.

The auditor will sift through the home from the basement to the ceiling, said Rob Landis, a customer support agent for CMC's Energy Tune Up program. The windows and the walls will be inspected for spots where air might sneak in. Some auditors use infrared cameras to spot gaps in insulation or tiny cracks in the walls.

A blower door test is also popular and involves removing the air from the house to determine where the air is coming from. But Landis isn't a fan of the tests because they're only 50 percent accurate, he said. "It creates a false environment all through the house," he said. "It's an extra tool and there's a lot of ‘wow' factor with it. But it's not a necessary thing to have." After the home inspection, the auditor reports what needs to be done and how much the re-pairs will cost.

Biggest Problems
Especially in older homes, the ductwork is usually the main offender of wasted energy, Rye said.

"I often say [in] one out of three houses in Arkansas, the ductwork is disconnected in at least one location," he said. "So many of them are disconnected, but if they aren't disconnected, they have so much leakage in which it's the same thing as being disconnected."

In the sweltering Arkansas summers, homeowners with poor ductwork end up pumping cold air into the attic and not cooling the house. But plugging the leaks or reconnecting the ductwork is an easy fix, Rye said.

Additional problem areas in the average home include leaks around windows, gaps around doors and poor insulation in the walls, floors and ceilings, said CMC's McDowell. Between 25 percent and 40 percent of a home's energy can be lost in these areas.

To defend the home against air flow, the homeowner can caulk the leaks or add insulation, Rye said. "Often [it's a] solution that doesn't cost much but takes a lot of elbow grease," he said.

Other energy violators include aged, major appliances. If a refrigerator, furnace or air conditioning system is more than 10 years old, replacing them with a new one can increase efficiency by 50 percent, McDowell said. "So it's a big thing when you add all these measures up," she said.

After making the fixes, not only does a homeowner slash the monthly energy bill, but the house also becomes more comfortable to live in, Rye said. "You don't get these cold rooms, [and] you don't get these hot rooms," Rye said.

Instead of wasting money on utility bills because the home isn't energy efficient, homeowners should spend the money to fix the energy problems, Rye said. "You're going to pay for it anyway [in the form of higher energy bills], so why not do it?"

After the Audit
Johnson said after his audit, he went to work on the list First Electric had given him. He spent $50 to add insulation to his walls that didn't have any and were cold to the touch. He also added a programmable thermostat to keep the heating and air conditioning off while he's away.

Since making the inexpensive changes, Johnson's electric bill has dropped from $170 in December 2007 to $129 in December 2008. That's without replacing the ductwork, which will cost $9,000. "As time goes by, I should see more savings, hopefully," Johnson said.