Most people don’t think of it, but it’s really a good idea to keep an eye on your home insulation. If you find that it is damaged or it is simply not doing its job, you may have to replace it.

This can be very expensive; however, as long as you have faulty insulation, you are wasting money on heating and cooling you home. Here’s what to look for when you check your insulation:

An empty spot is called a void. You will usually find these near light fixtures after electrical work has been done. The workers will usually push the insulation out of the way. You can fix this easily by putting in more insulation or filling it in with a spray-in foam insulation.

Check your basement ceiling. If it’s not insulated, you can lose a lot of heating and cooling into your basement. It’s pretty easy to insulate your basement ceiling, and there are lots of companies that can do it for you if you don’t feel up to doing it yourself.

Your attic is another area that can waste a lot of energy if you don’t insulate it. Again, you might want to do it yourself, since it is pretty simple, or you could hire a company to do it for you.

When you are checking your attic, be sure to check the ventilation system. If the ventilation system is clogged up, your attic will retain a lot of heat in the summertime, and that will heat up your house.

Be sure to keep these vents clean so your attic can air. If you don’t have any vents, look into installing them. Whether you do it yourself or hire a company to do it for you, your basement and attic can be insulated with roll insulation or with spray powdered insulation. If you decide to do it yourself, be sure to wear a safety mask to keep particles out of your lungs.

Be sure to check all your hot water pipes. There are many affordable ways to insulate your hot water pipes. One of the easiest and best ways is to get a length of foam cylinder. They usually come in four-foot lengths. Just cut it to the length you need and split it down the side. Then you can just fit it over the pipe and secure it in place with duct tape.

You can also insulate your hot water pipes with fiberglass insulation tape, but this is kind of tedious because you have to unroll it all the way down the length of the pipe. If the pipe is under your house or in a tight spot, this can be really hard.

Check your walls! If you have already checked your basement and your attic and found that the insulation isn’t good, it’s a pretty good bet you have the same stuff in your walls. Sometimes the best thing to do is to have new siding put on the outside of your house.

Of course, you can also do this yourself if you are handy. Siding is a good choice because it insulates nicely, looks really good, and increases your property value.

Be sure your windows are energy efficient. A single pane window will not insulate your home. If you can change out your old windows and replace them with new, double-paned windows, it will really make a difference.

However, if you can’t afford that, you can use good, heavy insulating curtains inside your home to help seal out the heat and cold. You will be surprised how effective this is and how affordable.

If you can’t afford to add insulating curtains to your whole house all at once, this is a project you can easily do room by room. Start with areas where people spend the most time, such as the family room and living room, and then move on to bedrooms, dens, and so on. Of course, you could also use this plan to change out your windows one-by-one.

For heating and air-conditioning equipment, as well as ventilation equipment, be sure you always have clean filters installed. This will cut down on your heating and cooling costs since all of this type of equipment must work harder to pull air through a dirty filter.

Even though filters can be a little pricey, it will pay off in heating and cooling costs to keep clean filters in all your equipment. Washable filters should be cleaned weekly. Filters that can only be replaced should be replaced monthly.

In my last blog post, I wrote about the benefits of doing a home energy audit before investing large amount of money on a home solar power system. I wrote about 2 ways of getting the energy audit done, either by hiring a professional home energy auditor or doing the auditing yourself.

If you were to get the service of a professional auditor, where do you find them?

One way to find them is to call your local power company and ask them if they provide home power auditing service. Most probably they will do the auditing for you for a small fee.

Another way of performing the energy audit is via a mail-in type. In this approach, you basically have to prepare all the information needed to complete the analysis. Personally, I think this is a silly approach because by the time you’ve finished compiling all the data, you’ve pretty much done the energy audit yourself.

If you’ve hired a professional power auditor, most probably he will impress you with cool stuff and gadgets. One of their standard tools is an infrared device used to measure the temperature of your interior surfaces and also to pinpoint any air leakages.

One area that you must get him to inspect is the furnace because large amount of energy are used on this area. Any improvement done here will reduce your monthly electricity consumption quite substantially.

The fact is, the biggest energy inefficiency in your house can easily be detected. Most houses have very obvious areas where energy is being wasted. For example, there may be a big gaping hole where air is escaping through the attic or a heater which is more than 20 years old.

So, is it worth hiring a professional energy auditor for your home? Well, if you have a big home and you don’t wish to survey every inch of your house, by all means, pay someone else to do it.

If you have an average size house and you have the time to survey your house and look into every corner closely, you might as well do the auditing yourself. In actual fact, the process is not that difficult.

DIY Home Energy Audit Guide

Do you need help to do your own home energy audit? If you do, check out the Easy-Energy-Audits guide.

The manual will show you step by step how to do perform your own residential power audit in a couple of hours. For more information, click on the link below.

==> Click here to visit DIY home energy audit guide now!

Some people may find the subject of economics very boring. I know I do because I remember sleeping through economic classes at school. Studying all the charts and graphs did not interest me at all.

If I am so turned off by the subject of economics, why am I writing an article about it right now?

Well, back then, the subject of economics didn’t concern me because it does not affect me. However, today’s article is on the topic of energy economics at home, which has a direct affect on my pocket.

If you are planning to build a home solar power system to supplement your energy usage, you know you have to set aside quite a large sum of money. Wouldn’t it make sense to get the best Return On Investment (ROI) for your money?

That’s what I thought and the studies of economics became very interesting.

Getting The Best Out Of Your Money

When you are making investment in both time and money planning and building a home solar energy system, you should be focused and deliberate in order to ensure a good payback.

Unfortunately, many home owners do not have a good grasp on the specific of how and where energy is being consumed in their homes. Before you start buying solar components, it is best to deduce how much you are paying for electricity at home.

As the saying goes, “The devil is in the details.” Do you know where you are spending the most on electricity? Is it the air-conditioning unit, heater or refrigerator?

If you were to study your heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HAVC) system, you may discover certain areas which you are wasting money.

The biggest issue with HVAC is your home insulation. If your house is not properly insulated or if there are air leaks, your air-conditioning unit will kick into action to achieve your desired temperature setting. Due to air leaks, the system has to work harder to compensate hence costing you more money.

If you were to install a home solar power system without first studying the energy economics of your home, most of the power generated by the sun will go to waste.

Performing Home Energy Audits

So, here’s the conclusion of this article. Always perform a complete energy audit of your home before you start buying the solar parts and components.

There are 2 ways you can do this. You can either engage the service of a professional home energy auditor which will cost you a couple of hundred dollars or do the auditing yourself.

By doing your own DIY energy audit, you will locate where are your largest energy wasters. There is a step by step guide which will show you how to perform your own home energy audit. It only takes 1 hour using common tools found around your house and it will give you a better result than using a professional auditor. Click on the link below to check out the DIY home energy audit guide.

==> Click here to visit DIY home energy audit guide now!