Many homeowners don’t realize that energy efficiency and home comfort issues are lurking right under their noses; and those who do recognize them often feel powerless to do anything about them – “it is what it is”, we've sometimes heard clients say. Most of the issues causing discomfort & waste are silent in nature; while some may be related to the design and/or construction of the home, many others are simply due to “homeowner negligence” – “out of sight” usually means “out of mind” - and unfortunately, these issues don’t necessarily make themselves known until it’s too late, in which case the cost for repairs will usually exceed any proactive investments towards identifying & rectifying the potential problems before they become actual problems. One tool available to all Homeowners in New Jersey is called a Home Energy Audit, which is performed in conjunction with the Home Performance with Energy Star program; one of several energy efficiency programs offered by the New Jersey Clean Energy Program. While the Home Energy Audit cannot possibly identify every cause of every issue leading to discomfort & energy waste, it is an excellent tool for identifying some of the biggest “offenders”, and it can provide you with the knowledge and information you need in order to determine how best to move forward in rectifying those issues.
A “Whole Home” Approach
Princeton Air has been conducting Energy Audits in the Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset counties for almost 7 years – which may not sound like a long time until you consider that when we started there were less than a dozen companies statewide performing them, as compared to the 200+ companies now claiming to offer them. And unlike many of these late-comers who only use the Audit as a way to get their foot in the door, and perform the bare minimum steps required to call it an “Audit”, Princeton Air decided long ago to go in the other direction & include all of those other minor, but important, steps that many companies are skipping through or over; the attention to details is everything, and our Audits are reflective of this commitment. Over the course of approximately three to four hours (depending on the size & “unique architectural characteristics” of the home), we look at how all of the comfort-related components of your home are currently working, or not working, together, and how those interactions are affecting the energy usage & comfort of the occupants. Our Certified Building Analysts take into consideration how your home’s performance affects the health and safety of the occupants, and how these items relate to energy usage and comfort in your home.
We know that the home operates as a complex amalgamation of systems, and if one thing isn't functioning properly, everything else will be affected. It’s this “whole home” approach that ensures nothing gets overlooked when a home energy audit is performed.
Coming Up with a Plan
When you encounter issues with your car, you bring it to a mechanic so that he can help you to come up with the right plan of action. The same goes for home performance. An energy audit in central NJ can more often than not provide us with the information we need to figure out what is going on with your home, for better or for worse, and what can be done and/or needs to be done to address the issues we find.
Once completed, we’re able to use our findings to present you with a “plan of action”: A list of improvement opportunities, prioritized based on our experiences; estimated and/or exact investment ranges for those opportunities, as well as calculating the energy savings potential for the proposed measures to help you determine your “true cost” of implementation; and occasionally some scaled-down options with high-impact results to fit your budget. It’s important to us that we come up with the best prescribed plan for each of our customers, which is why we treat every whole home energy audit as being unique.
Benefits of an Energy Audit
If you’ve never had an Energy Audit conducted on your Central NJ home, the list of benefits you stand to see is quite large, including (but not limited to) the following:
- Improved home comfort
- Lower energy bills
- A healthier, safer environment for you and your family
- Extended life of your home appliances & valuable personal possessions
- More efficient home systems
And we didn’t even mention the (up to) $5,000 in rebates & (up to) $10,000, 0% APR loan available to New Jersey residents who participate in this program! Princeton Air is here to help you determine whether or not you’re getting the most out of your home’s potential performance capabilities, and it all starts with the Energy Audit. Contact us to learn more and schedule an Energy Audit today.
