Finding a Rater

Start with your utility company, which may offer free or discounted energy audits and even arrange a contractor for you. If your utility can’t help and other incentive programs aren’t available, you can hire a certified home energy rater. Residential Energy Services Network ( natresnet.org) develops the accreditation standards for raters and can provide local listings. You may also find contractors participating in Energy Star’s Home Performance program (search for “home performance” at energystar.gov).

For a list of financial incentives provided by utilities, the federal government or local and state agencies, visit dsireusa.org.

HEAT

To improve household heating, energy raters will check the efficiency of both your furnace and water heater, looking at insulation and the condition of filters, among other things. But they also use infrared cameras to locate insulation problems and hidden air movements inside your walls. These chilly walls and leaky windows can drain radiant warmth from your body even while the ambient air temperature remains constant. It’s like walking down the freezer aisle of a store, says Bruce Torrey, a certified home energy rater in Massachusetts. The air temperature is the same as in the rest of the store, but your body loses heat to the cold glass of the freezer doors. In your home, a normally comfortable 69 degrees F on the thermostat can leave you shivering on a winter night because the surface areas of your windows, walls and ceilings suck up your body heat.

Unfortunately for the do-it-yourselfer, caulking a few cracks isn’t enough. “It’s good to attack the usual suspects—the areas around the windows and space under the door—but it’s amazing the hidden problems that are so much bigger than that,” says Torrey. (For instructions on how to weatherize a window, see p. 40.) Raters turn to infrared cameras to see cold air in wall cavities and trace it back to attics and other spaces with openings to the outside. Once the gap is found, often in far-removed spaces, it simply needs to be sealed and insulated.