We pay our hard earned money for the energy we use in our daily lives.  So by saving energy, we will save money.  We all know that buying and using energy efficient cars and appliances, walking whenever possible, and turning off lights and appliances when not in use will save energy and save us money.  Another way to save energy and money is not letting energy (money) escape into or out of your home after you have paid for it. One of the best ways to make sure you use energy in the best, and most energy/money saving possible way is to do an energy audit on your home.

I have often recommended The Professional Home Energy Audit Guide by David Anderson and The Home Weatherization Inspection Checklist by David Nelmes, for Do it Yourself energy saving audits.

What I just found, as I was running through my own audits (which I do on a regular basis), is that these two work quite well together, complementing each other to help you find the best path to saving energy, and saving money.  Simply, David Nelmes book helps you monitor where insulation will help you save energy and save money, and David Andersen’s book helps you find out how you, and your home, use energy – and then effective ways to cut back on energy use to save.

Both of these programs include information sheets that you fill out so you have a complete picture of energy use… and energy loss… in your home (this is important as you will save the most energy and money only when you base your energy saving plans on the realities of YOUR HOME and YOUR LIFE).

Nelmes fact sheets are printed ones that you can reproduce as needed.  Andersen’s are computer spreadsheet files.  What I have started doing is taking Andersen’s spreadsheet files and ADDING information from Nelmes’ sheets to form a totally complete picture, from the walls and windows in, of each room in the house.  From that, I can prioritize my energy and money saving “fixes” by which ones can save me the most money while costing the least.  For instance, I already have replaced about 80% of the bulbs in my house, inside and out, with energy saving CFL (compact fluorescent) bulbs.  I’ve been switching these over for years, so I can’t really point directly to savings on my electric bill – I can estimate, however, that I am saving about $50 US each year.  It didn’t cost me that much for all the CFL bulbs that I have bought, so I am way ahead on those.  Also, when we had to replace our 18 year old hot water heater, I already had an energy saving model in mind, so it was a quick choice – not too many cold showers.

The point of all that is that as I do my energy audits now, not only do I see places that I can make changes to save energy and money, but I also see where things I have been doing for quite a few years have been saving me energy and money all along.  Nice positive reinforcement for the actions I have taken in the past.

So if you are planning to do your own Home Energy Audits, by all means use both The Professional Home Energy Audit Guide by David Anderson and The Home Weatherization Inspection Checklist by David Nelmes.  You will be glad you did!