Go ahead–dive into an energy assessment!
So what exactly is this assessment? Sometimes they’re called home performance audit s, which doesn’t really make them sound fun. Or perhaps you’re worried that making all the energy upgrades may be too costly and not in this year’s budget?
Well rest assured no one, especially your home performance contractor, wants to scare you off. An energy assessment is a great tool to help you identify areas of improvements for your home and most importantly help you prioritize the energy saving improvements in a logical and systematic fashion.
An energy assessment is a series of diagnostic tests for your home–just think of it as scheduling a house call from the doctor. After gathering more than 100 points of data, your home performance contractor is going to identity what improvements will give you the biggest bang for your buck. If you live in an older home this list might be extensive, but you can move at your own pace and budget when deciding to make these improvements.
In fact, some of the suggested improvements might be projects you can do on your own at a very low cost.
After your assessment, you will know where your home sits compared to the new energy standards and high performing homes. While the contractor is at your house, don’t hesitate to ask as many questions as you need to help you better understand both the assessment process.
After the home performance assessment you can expect to receive a report and corresponding bid for any of the suggested improvements. This bid will outline the cost of those improvements as well as any utility rebates and tax credits you can expect back. In some cases the utility rebates may cover anywhere from 10 – 20% of the cost of the upgrades. Not all homes and every proposed upgrade will be eligible for a rebate. It is also important to remember that rebates can change during the course of a year.
The biggest goal of an energy assessment, is just to understand how your home is using and losing energy. Moving forward, this allows you to make educated decisions about home improvements so that you can make the best decisions for your family’s health and comfort.
You can learn about more advantages of getting an assessment here.
Ready to dive in? Sign up for an assessment today!