Energy Audits
Energy efficiency improvements can help you save energy and money this heating season. A home energy audit will help you identify potential energy savings that will help you lower your utility bills this winter. You can perform a basic home energy audit yourself using the Home Energy Saver tool below of, if you are interested in a more comprehensive audit, you can contact a local professional by clicking on the Illinois Energy Raters Association link. Either way, finding those energy leaks before the mercury drops will help save you money and help you keep warm this winter!
Home Energy Saver: Do-It-Yourself Audit Tool
An excellent web-based Do-It-Yourself energy audit tool.
The Home Energy Saver is designed to help consumers identify the best ways to save energy in their homes, and find the resources to make the savings happen. The Home Energy Saver was the first Internet-based tool for calculating energy use in residential buildings. The project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as part of the national ENERGY STAR Program for improving energy efficiency in homes, with previous support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program.
The Home Energy Saver quickly computes a home's energy use on-line based on methods developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. By changing one or more features of the modeled home, users can estimate how much energy and money can be saved and how much pollution prevented by implementing energy-efficiency improvements. All end uses (heating, cooling, major appliances, lighting, and miscellaneous uses) are included. A detailed description of underlaying calculation methods and data is provided in a special report.
Certified Energy Raters
Obtain professional help in performing an energy assessment of your home. Find a certified energy rater in your area: