With homeowners becoming more concerned with both living sustainably and rising energy bills, more and more people are trying to make their homes more energy efficient. A good place to start is carrying out an energy audit of your home. An energy audit can help you identify areas in need of improvement which subsequently lowers your bills and saves you money in the long run.
This article will help you to carry out a home audit, focusing on areas of your home that are often considered the least energy efficient.
Drafts
You’ll also want to check your home for drafts. Many homeowners are living with drafts without even realizing, but this is a quick fix in most cases.
Drafts can be found in many different areas of your home. The most common places where drafts are found include external doors, windows, chimneys and lofts. Drafts are a common source of heat loss whilst also making your home uncomfortable.
Living with a draft can cause your bills to skyrocket. If you aren’t aware of an unwanted draft in your home, it’s likely that you’re turning your heat on far more than you need to be.
Identify drafts by doing a full inspection of your home. Start with the areas mentioned above where drafts are most commonly found. Other areas that may be responsible for letting in the cold air from outside include around skirting boards and even through your letterbox.
When it comes to draft solutions, it depends on which area you are trying to eliminate a draft from. Caulk is a common solution for fixing drafts around windows and doors while draft snakes or stoppers can be placed underneath internal doors.
Heating/Cooling Devices
You’ll want to make a note of any heating or cooling devices that you use in your home as these will contribute considerably towards your energy usage. Keeping your home at the correct temperature has a range of benefits, from comfort to water damage restoration, but it doesn’t have to come at the expense of energy and money.
To ensure our home is at the perfect temperature all year round, it’s common to turn to heating and cooling devices. When it comes to heating spaces, portable heaters, radiators and electric fires are all used. Air conditioning units and fans are common additions to our homes to cool rooms down.
While these devices play an important role in regulating the temperature of our homes, it’s important to assess the efficiency of these devices. Older devices may achieve the same end result but will do so in a far less efficient way than newer alternatives.
There are devices that are far more environmentally friendly, such as heat pumps that take heat from the ground or the air before using it to heat spaces. You could also consider using solar panels to power these devices.
Home Appliances and Electricity Use
Next, you’ll want to check your home appliances. A large amount of the energy we use in our homes comes from home appliances. But many of these appliances are necessities; we can’t live without ovens, fridges and washing machines. However, a great way to reduce electricity bills is to consider which home appliances we can live without.
For example, a dishwasher is useful but is an item that we would be able to live without as we would be able to wash dishes by hand. Other luxuries such as coffee machines and blenders could also be removed to reduce energy consumption.
For essential appliances, check the energy ratings of appliances. Energy ratings come in letters A to G, with A representing the most efficient items and G representing the least efficient appliances.
Other ways to reduce the energy usage of home appliances include unplugging devices when not in use, not leaving devices on standby, and using lower temperatures for washing and cooking.
Lights
Another key area to audit is your lighting. Lights are a necessary part of our homes but they are also one of the biggest contributors to our energy consumption levels.
Fortunately, there are ways to make lighting more energy efficient. Firstly, consider ways in which you can bring through the natural light from outdoors to reduce the need for lighting. Strategically placed windows and reflective surfaces should help emphasize light from outdoors.
For lights in your home and garden, check whether you’re using LED bulbs as these are the most energy-efficient bulbs on the market. Lights that use motion sensors are another great option as they eliminate the possibility of you forgetting to turn the lights off!
Insulation Levels
Checking your home is properly insulated is a key part of your home audit. Many homeowners may not even realize that their home’s insulation levels need to be improved.
The insulation levels of your home play an important role in maintaining the correct temperature of your home. While it’s important to insulate every area of your home, some areas are harder to insulate than others.
For example, unused lofts and old conservatories generally see poor levels of insulation. This is why spaces like conservatories are often too warm to use in summer and too cold during winter. As a result, they require large amounts of energy and money to be spent on devices to regulate the temperature.
Fortunately, there are solutions to poor insulation levels. However, these range from quick, short-term fixes to more expensive renovations that will add value to your home while also improving efficiency. For instance, tiled roof conservatories are becoming increasingly common as they look stylish but also do a better job of insulating your home.
Final Thoughts
Auditing your home is an important first step in reducing costs while also making your home more environmentally friendly. There are plenty of home audit checklists online that you can use to ensure you don’t miss any areas for improvement.
It’s also important to think of the long-term benefits when carrying out energy improvements. As a homeowner, it can be very easy to focus on the upfront costs without picturing the long-term savings that you will achieve by lowering monthly bills.