6 Reasons to use an Independent Energy Audit Company for Your New Home

Why should anyone use an independent energy audit company to assess the design, materials and systems in their home?  Don’t  the Heat/AC suppliers do that anyway?

Well, Yes and no.  Every HVAC contractor runs energy loads on a home for the equipment they sell.  They rely on software that is supplied by the equipment manufacturers.  They are not trained in alternative material assessments or in comprehensive energy audits.  As a result they get a “canned” design that may be over powered and under perform.

Here are the main reasons to go with an independent audit:

1. The audit company specializes in whole-house envelope analysis.  This means they carefully consider:

• materials used in wall construction and insulation
• attic insulation materials and techniques,
• window performance
• number of openings in the walls
• orientation of the house to the sun
• shade trees
• roof material
• Options on heating/cooling systems, both powered and passive.

2. Since the company doesn’t represent specific manufacturers products, you get an assessment that is based solely on your plans and design.  There are no financial influences on which type or brand of system they may recommend.
3. They can perform comparative analysis of different construction materials and techniques and give you the performance differences for each so you can make informed choices in home equipment and design.
4. Many companies stand behind their construction recommendations with guarantees of heating/cooling performance.  If the home doesn’t perform as engineered, they will cover the cost difference and more importantly, will evaluate the house, find the deficiency and make recommendations on how to bring the house into design specification performance.
5. Because of the efficiency of the designs, they generally come up with a smaller equipment package because they also have input on the envelope of the home.  Equipment costs for a typical HVAC company are higher than with an independent audit.  The cost of the audit is more than compensated by the equipment savings.
6. You get a better performing home over the lifetime of the systems, thereby costing less not only to purchase the equipment, but much less to operate year after year.

There are many very good HVAC companies around.  Personal experience has shown that many don’t account for any alternative technologies that may be used in a home.  These include things like insulated concrete forms (ICF), structural insulated panels (SIPs), the thermal mass of a log home.  The list can go on.  What they generally do is design to a 2x4 batted home.  Even foamed walls and ceilings, while more common today, are still a challenge for many.

Ultimately, you will have an HVAC company install your system.  What you want to make sure of is that it is properly sized and matched to the types of technology that you choose to put in your house.  And that is what an energy audit company will do for you.

If you are thinking about building a home anywhere in Texas and you need a place to start to gather information on technologies, designs, materials, preferred builders, alternative energy, "Green building", or just home building in general without all the sales hype, then go to www.preferredbuilders.org/home. This is a free information service. Whether you're building now or in the future, Your new home starts here! Copyright 2008 M. G. Michaud & Associates, All Rights Reserved