NY Energy Auditors provides energy auditing services throughout the Capital District of New York and surrounding regions. We offer expertise, personal service and thoroughness that only thirty years of experience, training, and credentialing can provide. Our professionals are fully trained and certified in energy auditing, home inspections, asbestos and mold detection, radon testing, and air and water quality testing.

We use an array of equipment – blower door unit, thermal/infrared imaging camera, electronic meters for gas leak detection, carbon monoxide monitoring, moisture detection and measurement, temperature readings, and smoke puffers for air leak detection. Our understanding of your house as an interactive system, used in conjunction with this equipment, gives you a very accurate picture of energy loss and potential savings opportunities.

We provide audits and consultations about the energy efficiency of your home. We are not in your home to sell products such as windows, heating systems, or insulation. Our goals are saving you money, improving the comfort of your home, and mitigating any health or safety issues that might be caused by energy inefficiencies. While we do offer retrofit services, you are always free to take our recommendations to other contractors for estimates and installation services.

Our energy audit will help you to:

Our comprehensive energy audit and report will cover:

Our recommendations will be prioritized so that you know what modifications to your house will save you the most in energy costs and will give you the greatest return on your investment.

Air Sealing

Air-sealing your house is the single most effective means of improving energy efficiency. Air moves into (infiltration) and out of (exfiltration) a house due to wind and stack effect. Wind blows toward one side and across the top of the house pushing air in through cracks, crevices, and holes. As it moves to the far side and passes over the top of the house, wind pulls air from inside to outside by suction. Inside the house air is constantly moving due to stack effect. This is air movement due to differences in temperature. As warm air rises it is replaced by cooler air which is drawn in from the outside.

Air leakage occurs wherever there is an unsealed crack or penetration through the building envelope. It travels through open/unfilled wall and floor cavities, and through inter-level floor and ceiling penetrations used for plumbing, electrical wires, and heat ducts.

Current building techniques use house-wraps, caulk, and spray foams to seal the cracks and crevices and to close penetrations of the envelope and between levels. These reduce the amount of air leakage, but still cannot control it completely.

In older homes air-sealing isn’t always so easy. The homeowner can do a great deal him/herself using caulk and expanding foam wherever there are visible cracks, gaps, and holes at the exterior walls and at ceilings and floors. Dense-pack blown cellulose insulation and spray foam insulation are also commonly used to air-seal larger areas and those that are more difficult to reach. These techniques are usually best done by professional insulation installers.

Insulation

Heat moves by convection, conduction, and/or radiation. It will always move from a warm area to a cooler area. The purpose of insulation is to control this movement so that heat stays where it is intended. A good insulating material will stop or retard the movement of heat.

Convection is the movement of heat on air currents. Insulation must completely fill the cavity where it is placed making convection impossible. Conduction is the movement of heat through a material. Insulation must not be able to conduct heat or must conduct it very slowly. Radiation is the movement of heat from one object to another through space. Insulation should not be of a material that absorbs heat that is radiated toward it and it should fill a cavity completely so that heat does not radiate from one side to the other (i.e., from wallboard to exterior sheathing).

Common insulation materials include fiberglass (batts or loose-fill), cellulose fiber (loose-fill or dense-pack), and foam (spray or rigid-board). Each has their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Fiberglass is good at preventing heat loss through conduction and radiation, but it is very poor at preventing heat loss through convection or if there is any air movement inside the cavity due to wind-washing. In a good fiberglass batt installation, the cavity will be air-sealed and the batt will be in complete contact with all sides of the cavity. If used as loose-fill, the “blanket” must be of sufficient depth and any drafts must be prevented and/or diverted away from the fill. When installed properly, fiberglass has an effective R-value of R-3.2 per inch. It is inexpensive and easy to install.

Loose-fill cellulose has the same strengths and weaknesses as fiberglass. This is typically the method used on attic floors. When installed properly the effective R-value is R-3.7 per inch. Dense-pack cellulose provides an added advantage. This is a method typically used when there is an enclosed cavity. It effectively air-seals the cavity when installed correctly. If it is installed too loosely, it will settle leaving voids where convective heat loss can occur. The effective R-value of dense-pack cellulose is R-3.2 per inch.

Spray foam and rigid foam boards have R-values up to R-6.5 per inch, depending on the type. They are very effective at preventing heat loss through convection, conduction and radiation. They also have the added advantage of air-sealing the cavity or area where they are applied. The down-side of spray foam is that it is expensive and requires specialized equipment to install. Rigid-board foam is easier to handle, but it must be sealed between the boards in order to be effective.

The type of insulation to be used will depend on the area of the house and the ease of access to the area. We will recommend a variety of products that will be the least invasive to install and most appropriate for remediation of the problem. There are some areas in existing houses where it will not be cost-effective to insulate.

Moisture/Humidity Level

Moisture in any building has the potential to damage structural components and cause health issues. Mold and rot are the two most obvious results of moisture. Moisture can enter a home in three forms; bulk water (seepage, leaks or spills), diffusion (movement through some material, i.e., dirt basement floors, cement block or foundation walls), vapor (evaporation, humidity, steam, respiration). Moisture is carried by air movement in the form of water vapor throughout the house. Therefore, controlling both the source and movement of moisture is important in order to prevent potential health issues and structural damage.

Moisture always moves from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. Stopping bulk moisture is the best method of controlling it and will depend on the source. Proper drainage at the exterior of the house will stop most of it. The spread of moisture through diffusion can be controlled using moisture diffuser barriers. Plastic sheeting and the kraft paper backing on fiberglass batts are examples of moisture diffuser barriers. The spread of moisture in the form of water vapor can be controlled using good air-sealing techniques along with properly installed insulation. Air-sealing and insulation prevent the water vapor from moving from areas of warm air with high humidity to cooler areas where the vapor will condense on surfaces such as attic ceilings and roof trusses. Bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans and well maintained dryer vents also move water vapor out of the house where it is no longer a problem. These devices must be working and vented properly in order to be effective.

Combustion Appliance Safety

Combustion appliances such as gas furnaces, hot water heaters, gas fireplaces, clothes dryers, etc. are checked to see that the combustion gases draft properly and that there is no spillage/back-drafting of gases into living spaces. Combustion byproducts such as carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and water vapor are health and safety concerns and indicate problems with the efficiency of the appliance’s operation. Annual maintenance and cleaning are highly recommended for furnaces, along with monthly filter changes on forced hot air systems. Maintain the dryer vent with an annual cleaning to prevent lint accumulation which can cause exhaust gas spillage, fire hazards and less efficient clothes drying.

Carbon monoxide is never good to have in a house. A drafty house will ventilate these gases out more quickly than a house that has been air-sealed making combustion safety testing even more important. These appliances should be tested before and after air-sealing.

Unvented gas appliances such as kerosene space heaters or fireplaces are a health and safety concern. They produce carbon monoxide that is dumped into rooms being used by the occupants of the home. It is strongly advised that these appliances not be used. Gas stoves should have an exhaust fan that is vented to the outside and it should be running whenever the stove or oven is on.

Heating and AC Distribution Systems

The condition and quality of the installation of the heating and AC distribution system(s) (i.e., supply and return ducts) has a large impact on the heating or cooling ability of the unit. Efficiency losses as high as 40% can be attributable to the condition and location of the ducts. In many homes the ducts have not been sealed at the seams resulting in air leakage out of the ducts before it reaches its destination. Also, ducts that run through unconditioned spaces such as unheated garages or attics often have not been insulated causing loss of heating or cooling capacity in spaces where it is needed.

Ventilation

All homes have unintentional ventilation that naturally occurs through air leaks in the building envelope. Some of this is unavoidable, but large amounts of air infiltration and exfiltration are a major cause of energy inefficiencies and consequent discomfort. The goal of making your home more efficient requires a tighter envelope (See Air Sealing). At the same time, it is important that there be adequate ventilation at the right time and in the right locations in order to maintain building health, and safety for the occupants.

It seems contradictory to say that the goal is to make the house more air tight and then to recommend that we add ventilation. However, as the home becomes more airtight through air-sealing, the possibility of trapping combustion gases, water vapor, and environmental pollutants increases. With intentional and controlled ventilation these are exhausted out of the house. Ventilation also insures that adequate air comes in. If incoming air is filtered many pollutants can be eliminated from the interior resulting in better air-quality for the occupants.

Intentional ventilation comes in three forms; exhaust only, incoming only, or balanced – exhaust and incoming. Bathroom fans are examples of exhaust only ventilation. These should be controlled by a timer that is set to run periodically throughout the day. At a minimum, the fan should be controlled by a timer switch that is set to run for at least ˝ hour after the occupants have left the room. Incoming-only ventilation allows the air to be filtered of outside pollutants, but it will also bring in moisture and cold air, and will do little to exhaust indoor pollutants. The ideal ventilation is a balanced system. Air is exchanged at a constant rate. Incoming air can be filtered. If the unit is a heat o energy recovery unit, heat can be extracted from the exhaust air and transferred to incoming air to preheat it.

Windows & Doors

Windows and doors lose energy efficiency in several of different ways. The first and most likely is through air leakage. A door or window itself does not leak air. However, if the unit was not installed properly air leakage will occur through the opening that was provided for it in the wall. A typical construction technique is to cut a hole that is two inches larger than the unit. Insulation may or may not be used to fill the resulting gap. In many homes, fiberglass is stuffed into the gap, but compressed fiberglass essentially provides no insulating value at all and has no ability to stop air leakage. A more effective technique is to fill the gap with foam insulation which both insulates and stops air leakage.

The second issue is the emmissivity of the glass. This is the ability of the glass to reflect radiant heat (E-value) in or out of the building through the glass. The higher the E-value of a window, the better its emmissivity. In the North we want the glass to hold heat or reflect it back into the building, therefore, the E-coating should be on the near side of the glass.

Another issue is the thermal resistance (R-value) of the materials used for window or door construction. Glass has little or no thermal resistance. Argon gas between the panes of double or triple pane windows adds some minor R-value. The R-value of window frames depends on the materials used. Doors have thermal resistance equivalent to the resistance provided at the thinnest part which may be a panel or a glass insert.

The last point of failure of windows and doors is around the sashes and at the seals around the glass panes. If the sashes are not tight against the framing, the window will leak. This can often be fixed with weather-stripping. Seals around glass can fail allowing air to leak in around the glass. Caulking, reglazing, or replacement can help in this type of failure.

Appliances

Older appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, hot water heaters can use significantly more energy than newer, EnergyStar rated appliances. There are financial incentives given to replace them and the operating costs will give an added savings benefit.

Lighting & Electrical

Compact florescent light bulbs (CLFs) use approximately 75% less electricity than incandescent light bulbs. LED light bulbs use 85% less electricity than incandescent light bulbs. CFLs and LEDs come is sizes that will fit most fixtures. They also come in styles that disguise or hide the tell-tale spiral of a CFL. Other ways to reduce electricity consumption include using power bars that can be shut off when the devices plugged into them are not being used. Unplug phone and other types of chargers when the device is fully charged. Turn off computers and printers at the end of the day. Run dishwashers and do laundry over night when rates are lower.