Our energy audit ...

[ironmaiden]

We have natural gas. The gas company will do a free audit.

Some of the points that they made...

OUTLET PLUGS
- foam inserts for the outlet plugs on outer walls
- foam inserts for the light switches on outer walls
These are very cheap and can be found at any hardware store. You screw off the plastic outlet cover, put in the foam insert, screw the plastic outlet cover back on.

PIPES
- use expandable foam around pipes that go through the basement ceiling. There a pipe that goes from the basement all the way through the house - this is a conduit for cold basement air to flow through the house.

CRACKS
He suggested that we use clear acrylic sealant on the cracks that are between are wood floor and the baseboard - even on the interior walls. This is because air is getting from the basement to the house. If the cracks are 1/4 inch or more, use an expandable foam sealant. My husband took off the baseboards and will be making new ones. There is a 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch crack along the walls. They said to foam seal them then put the new baseboard on.

We have steam radiators. He suggested putting tin ceiling tiles behind the radiators to reflect the heat out. Why tin ceiling tiles - they are pretty, thus we are more likely to do it.

We have a wooden cover over some of the steam radiators - they have metal in the back - to reflect the heat out, tin fronts, wood sides and wood vents on the top. He told us to stop using them to put stuff on as we were blocking the vents.

[ironmaiden]

I forgot to mention that they calculate how long it will take for an "investment" to pay off. They told us that replacing our 20 year old furnace would take13 years for the furnace to pay for itself - for the cost of it to equal how long it would take us to save that much money in gas. His official computer program said that it would cost us $3500 to replace the furnace, we'd save $266 a year.

That was also his comment about our leaky windows. That they are very expensive to replace. So they calculated we'd save $202 the first year, spend $4450 and it would take 22 years to break even on 16 windows.

They also gave us a list of in order of spending the least what do we get the most bang for the buck. The order was fireplace damper vents shut, install an electronic ignition on the furnace instead of having a gas pilot running all the time, insulate our walls, caulk doors and windows, insulate attic spaces that aren't insulated (a couple of crawl spaces), replace furnace, replace windows.

So if you are wondering what you should spend money on to get the most savings for the least amount of money, it's insulation, furnace, then windows.

[SHOPGIRL]

Thanks for the information. I'm going to write down some of these ideas and make sure I buy the foam at my local hardware store.

[jlxian]

I've been stuffing those cracks between the baseboard and the floor with foam weatherstripping. Unfortunately the stuff I used has stickum on it so it is collecting all the dustbunnies that scoot along the baseboards. Still, I'm sure it is a good thing to plug that hole!

Probably it would be even better to do as your auditor suggested and take off the baseboard altogether and fill the gap/hole that is behind it.

Thanks for the info on your energy audit. I've been idly thinking of having one done on our house.