Get a clear baseline understanding of how your home lives and breathes

Before you can make informed decisions about going green, you need an objective understanding of how your home really functions. Your GoingGreen Audit will answer the obvious questions—Where are the air leaks? How efficient are your plumbing fixtures? Is your home’s insulation up to recommended standards? But we go even further to answer dozens of more questions you might not even think to ask.

This energy audit will give us a lot of great information…

How thorough is a GoingGreen Audit?

Depending on the size and style of your home, the audit may take anywhere from 2–4 hours. It includes an exterior inspection of things like eaves and attic ventilation, drainage issues, window and door integrity and more. Indoors, our certified inspector uses a portable lab of high-tech equipment to examine physical features of your home, analyze how your home “breathes,” and measure its current efficiency.

How do you get ready for an audit?

It’s not hard at all. First, we’ll look at your energy and water consumption over the past year, easily accomplished by checking your bills or calling your utility companies for a summary. We’ll also start with measurements to calculate the volume of your home. Though it’s not necessary for you to be there when we perform the GoingGreen Audit, we encourage you to tag along. It’s the best way to understand the results, and we’re eager for you to be as informed as possible. Contact us to schedule your GoingGreen Audit now.

What actually happens during the GoingGreen Audit?

Some tests vary depending on the age, size and style of your home. We can also adjust our inspection if you want us to look into specific issues. A typical GoingGreen Audit includes:

Combustion Safety Test: Focused on combustion devices such as your furnace or gas water heater, this electronically measured test checks for backdrafting, carbon monoxide and gas leaks.
Blower Door Test: A powerful door-mounted fan blows outward, creating negative pressure in your home and revealing the sources of air leakage and infiltration. The surprise? In addition to windows, doors, exhaust fans and chimney flues, significant air leakage can occur around recessed light fixtures as well as electrical sockets and switch plates.
Duct System Air Flow Evaluation: Poorly sealed or under-insulated ductwork can lead to serious losses of heated or cooled air. Your GoingGreen Audit includes visual inspection of ducts. Correcting flaws in this system is often one of the most cost-effective ways to improve efficiency.
HVAC Performance, Sizing and Balance: Inspection of your furnace and air conditioner gives us a clear understanding of your present system’s efficiency—essential information to determine if new-generation devices offer enough added efficiency to justify upgrades. This test also determines the useful life of your HVAC system.
Infrared Camera Testing: Infrared imaging identifies hot and cold spots. In addition to providing quantifiable readings on windows and doors, the camera can also spot issues such as under-insulated walls without a need to bore through drywall.
Water Heating System Analysis: The Homes Going Green inspector will evaluate the size and efficiency of your water heater and determine its useful life. We’ll also determine if you could achieve meaningful savings with a more energy-efficient model. In addition, we’ll inspect visible hot water lines to be sure they’re adequately insulated.
Window, Door and Skylight Analysis: In addition to infrared camera readings, we’ll examine windows, doors and skylights including seals, weather stripping and caulk to evaluate their performance and any maintenance issues.
Insulation Analysis: Your GoingGreen Audit includes an infrared evaluation to determine how adequate your home’s insulation is. Where insulation is visible in the attic or basement, we’ll also inspect it visually to determine current and optimal R-Value (the commonly used measure of insulation effectiveness).
Appliance Analysis: We’ll do an inventory of major appliances to estimate the useful life of the existing ones in your home. We’ll also compare them to new ENERGY STAR-rated models to determine what impact replacements could have on your energy costs.
Plumbing Fixture Analysis: Your GoingGreen Audit includes evaluations of primary plumbing fixtures. Toilets made before 1994 use up to 7 gallons per flush vs. the current standard of 1.5 gallons per flush or less. So, replacing older models can result in significantly less water usage and lower costs.

When will I get the results of the GoingGreen Audit?

If you’re at home for the audit, you’ll see some of the topline results for yourself immediately. In about a week, your written GoingGreen Audit summary will be ready and we’ll schedule a return visit to review it in person. At the same time, we’ll deliver a Personal Plan with recommendations and next steps for how Homes Going Green can help you enhance the efficiency, cost-effectiveness and comfort of your home.