My local electric company offers its customers a free online home energy audit in order to help them discover great ideas on saving energy. The electric company has been promoting the service very hard on their website and in its monthly mailings. So, I have to admit that I was intrigued by all the hoopla and decided to see how I could potentially save some money on my energy bill. The energy audit report was a free comprehensive, personalized evaluation of my household’s energy usage. The report tried to provide me with a better understanding of how I spend my energy dollars and where money is leaking out of my home.
Over the course of twenty minutes, I answered a multitude of questions about my family’s energy usage, home’s age and materials, details of our home like year built and square footage, our heating and air conditioner personal usage habits, etc. so the company and its computer algorithms could come up with an energy plan for my family.
An energy audit like this provides you with energy-saving tips customized for your home, cash rebate information about upgrades you can make to your home, specific information about your home’s efficiency needs, your energy costs as compared to similar homes in your area, and a breakdown of the household’s electricity usage. The results of your audit can give you the ability to use information to help make important decisions about your family’s energy usage.
Here are a few of the money saving tips that my home audit suggested…
- Tune up your heating and air conditioning system – $50 (potential annual savings)
- Heating duct repair ($200)
- Energy efficient windows ($150)
- Switch to CFL light bulbs ($30)
- Install a programmable thermostat ($80)
Extra bonus – Be sure to check out federal and state tax incentives when you install energy efficient products in your home. You can qualify for hundreds of dollars of rebates on the price of the goods you buy to make your house more green.
Bottom line – The online home audit was free! You can’t beat that. For the one my electric carrier provides its customers, at the very least it will give you a few ideas on money saving tips that you may not normally think about. Maybe there are a few home improvements that you have been putting off or maybe there are a couple that you did not even know were options. That’s the great thing about free online tools like this.
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