Audit

Why you should hire an Energy Audit for Your Rental Properties

An energy audit is essential for every type of house, whether it’s a rental property or your main residential property. It offers several benefits, but most importantly, it helps you attract and impress tenants willing to pay your asked price.

Read further to learn why an energy audit is important for any rental property.

What is Energy Audit?

An energy audit can help you determine how energy efficient your property is. Typically, a professional auditor, like an expert electrician, will perform this task. They evaluate all the property’s components and appliances to help you understand how you can make your property more energy-efficient. You might have to replace your bulbs with energy-efficient ones, upgrade your appliances, or get new window shades.

Why do You Need to Hire Energy Audit for Your Rental Property?

An energy audit can save your money and, more importantly, help you play your part in reducing environmental problems. Here are some reasons that you need to hire an energy audit.

Point Out Common Problems

Your hired energy auditor can detect problems in your appliances, devices, and other energy-consuming accessories. Though your appliances and devices may seem like they’re working fine, they might be energy drainers. The experts will suggest necessary improvements such as installing a solar energy system, changing showerheads, or purchasing energy-efficient appliances.

Improves Energy Efficiency

It can help boost your property’s energy efficiency. Energy audits can help you identify areas in need of improvement. For example, your electrician can help you identify air leaks from gaps in the flooring, walls, and ceilings. An experienced and skilled expert will look for heat loss to find the reason for poor insulation. If your HVAC system isn’t heating or cooling your home as well as it should, they can navigate the reason behind it.

Saves Money

Once your energy consumption drops, you ultimately save more money. A carefully done energy audit can cut down 30% of your property’s yearly energy consumption. If you’re living in a big house, you can end up saving thousands of dollars every year.

Attracts Several Tenants

If you ever plan to rent your house, an energy audit can help make the process less daunting. When you rent out an energy-efficient property, more potential tenants will reach out to you. This boosts your chance of renting out your property at a higher value in less time.

Hire an energy audit today

Are you ready to improve your home by reducing the energy consumption of appliances, devices, and other electronic accessories? If yes, contact Cape Cod Energy Solutions to get help from experts in the field. We perform seamless energy audits and offer you approachable suggestions to upgrade and improve your house in Cape Cod.

What Is the Difference Between a Home and a General Energy Audit?

Home maintenance is undoubtedly a daunting job, especially for new homeowners. It takes a million processes to ensure the smooth run of the home, and an energy audit is one way to know more about the entirety of your home. However, hundreds of families have no idea what an energy audit is.

What is an energy audit?

An energy audit is an inspection analysis of a home’s energy flow—it includes processes that help limit energy consumption without causing harm. Performing an energy audit can range in various ways; hence, it is divided into home energy audits and general energy audits.

These two audit forms entail different processes, and the results can be similar. For homeowners unsure about the types of energy audits, this blog post will extensively provide knowledge about them.

What is a home energy audit?

A home energy audit is an audit analysis performed by an efficiency expert. Most home energy audits do not require equipment to perform these diagnostic and entail processes like checking the sustainability of envelope structure like doors and windows, inspecting the HVAC units, the features it possesses, and how long it has been in use.

Also, it includes checking the lighting and electricity-based appliances, inspecting the source of the homeowner’s complaints, and tackling water issues. In addition, utility bills are checked, and every energy-intensive expenditure is analyzed. In general, a home energy audit takes 60 to 120 minutes to complete and can be done by the homeowners without needing an expert.

What is a general energy audit?

A general energy audit or standard and detailed energy audit is a more intensive form of energy auditing, including diagnostic testing with equipment. It entails more information on the building’s energy consumption, and a certain number of tests are performed to determine the total energy consumption of the building.

Experts are trained to execute tests like intensive insulation checks to determine how effective the insulating materials are, HVAC tests to know the possible leakages, and air leaks.

Benefits of an energy audit in the home

1. Energy auditing helps save money

According to energy star, homeowners and industries can drastically reduce their energy consumption if they adhere to efficient technologies and advice that can only be received during energy auditing. Energy auditing helps families and companies cut out their excesses, allowing them to save more.

2. Identify problems in the home

For homeowners who repeatedly battle with home problems ranging from pipe leakages and insulating problems, an energy audit will help tackle them efficiently. An expert auditor will use high-tech equipment to detect the anomaly and proffer a solution to them immediately.

Do You Need an Energy Audit?

If you need an energy audit in your home, why not seek the services of Cape Cod Energy Solutions, a professional efficiency organization with years of experience performing home and general energy audits.

Our team consists of trained professionals with years of experience that has continually helped families and business owners like you audit their building’s energy. We possess high-tech auditing equipment like blower doors, infrared cameras, and surface thermometers to help investigate and detect air and pipe leaks and insulation levels in your home.

Understanding Whole House Approach/Systems

The whole-house systems/approach considers the entire house an energy system with parts that perform specific tasks that help the whole system function properly. If one part is lacking in performance, the system’s efficiency will become diminished. For example, your HVAC system will not perform optimally if the ductwork system leaks or the attic insulation is inadequate. The whole–house approach acknowledges the interaction between the different components to achieve energy efficiency and recognizes that a fault in one or more can throw the system off balance. Lower energy cost and comfort are two things that the whole-house system approach can help you achieve.

Importance of Whole-house Systems

A focus on energy efficiency and its actual practice can help you to save money on energy costs and in the process, save natural resources. The fewer kilowatt-hours of electricity you use, the less nonrenewable resources, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, are used. This way, you play an indirect role in the broader sustainability, energy efficiency, and green causes while enjoying quality service with fewer energy emissions and inputs. According to a study using current technologies, greenhouse gas emissions linked to home energy use can be cut by 70%.

Where to Start With Whole-house Systems/Approach

With energy efficiency in mind, start by looking at the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, the most critical mechanical component and uses the most energy in a home. Some important steps to take include:

Air Sealing: The last thing you want is a drafty house that leaks warm and cool air. That’s energy being wasted that causes your furnace and air conditioning units to work hard to replace the lost energy. Air sealing helps to create an energy-efficient home. This can be achieved by sealing cracks and gaps around doors, windows, plumbing, electrical, and venting, essentially controlling air exchange and ventilation.

Ductwork Maintenance: A loss in energy efficiency in your home could also be due to leaky ductwork that has the potential to dump conditioned air in unwanted places, such as the attic. In other words, your hot or cool air is escaping outdoors, and the opposite gets back in through the air gaps to replace what’s lost. This also amounts to added stress on your HVAC unit. Check your ductwork system for gaps, secure ducts with mechanical fasteners, seal gaps with a mastic sealant, and, insulate ducts to prevent energy losses.

Insulate: Boost your home’s efficiency by insulating. Focus on your attic first, where the roof temperatures can jump to more than 140°F. The goal should be an attic insulation level of R-30 or above in the southeast. Wall and floor insulation isn’t usually a top priority unless the home has elevated wood floors and crawlspaces that could let in a draft. Insulation enhances the resistance to temperature transfers between indoor and outdoor areas, so don’t neglect insulating where necessary.

Seal Windows: Improve your windows’ efficiency by using caulking and weather-stripping air sealing. Shading is also helpful and can be achieved by adding exterior shading to block solar radiation from getting into your house, like strategically placed trees, awnings, solar screens, or tinted window film. Interior shading could also have an impact with the use of blinds or drapes to stop heat gain by keeping solar radiation at bay. Consider window replacement if windows are old and opt for Low-E double pane windows.

Regular HVAC Maintenance

Regular HVAC maintenance is necessary for your home to remain at optimal energy efficiency. When it comes to the health of your HVAC system, you must frequently replace air filters, clean condenser coils, condensate lines, and straighten coil fins. You should have your HVAC system’s yearly maintenance check performed by a qualified HVAC technician, who would perform commissioning, check refrigerant levels and airflow, test for a refrigerant leak, and test the electrical controls. Upgrade to a newer, higher SEER system if your current HVAC system is old.

Energy-Efficient Lighting and Appliances

High-efficiency lighting and appliances that are properly maintained yearly are energy savers and can help make your home more energy-efficient. In a whole-house system, lighting and appliances may not be the biggest energy saver because of their size, but they overall contribute to whole-house energy savings.

Cape Cod Energy Solutions can be your trusted guide if you have a question regarding whole-house systems/approaches and energy efficiency. Our skilled and knowledgeable staff can provide expert help in home comfort. Contact Cape Cod Energy Solutions today to learn how we can help.

Unrealistic Energy Savings Estimates

Energy audits frequently give property owners unrealistic expectations regarding potential energy savings. While it’s important to get an idea of how much energy you could save by making certain changes, overestimating the savings is harmful. If you’re expecting to save X amount of dollars for making the recommended energy savings but only end up saving a quarter of that estimate, were the changes really worth it? Energy audits should only be done using reputable sources for energy-saving calculations.

Incorrect Installation Cost Estimates

During an energy audit, you should receive a cost estimate for the installation of the recommended energy-saving changes. An incorrect installation estimate will make it impossible to budget for your upcoming energy-saving projects properly. The best way to ensure you’re getting a correct installation cost estimate is to get an energy audit performed by someone with years of industry experience. The more experienced, the easier it is to estimate what a specific project will cost since the energy auditor can use previous similar projects as a reference point.

Poor Explanations

A good energy audit will have each aspect of the inspection clearly broken down with a detailed description of energy usage and ways you could save, if applicable. An energy audit lacking detailed descriptions will be more confusing than helpful. Anything in the building that’s using energy should be included in the final audit descriptions.

Missed Energy Savings

By far the most common energy audit mistake is missed energy savings. An energy audit needs to be a comprehensive compilation of all potential areas of energy savings. This ranges from HVAC updates to lighting updates and so much more! When you have a complete list of the potential ways you could save, you can accurately decide where to invest your money. An energy audit that’s missing an area of potential savings is asking you to make a budgetary decision without all the necessary information.

If you’re in need of a reputable and experienced company for an energy audit on your property, contact Cape Cod Energy Solutions today! Our team has been educated on the common mistakes made during energy audits, combined with years of hands-on training, so you can rest easy knowing none of these mistakes will occur during your energy audit.