Challengicious Monday: Get a Home Energy Audit

Mondays are challengicious at The Conscious Shopper. Here's your next energy-related challenge:

Get a Home Energy Audit

To complete this challenge, you can...

BABY STEPS

• Do an online energy audit. Free online energy audits are offered by many power companies. They ask for information about your home and combine it with your energy usage history to create an energy profile with suggestions for improvements. The downside is that without a home visit and walk-through, an online audit can only provide limited information and generic suggestions.

JOGGING STRIDE

• Conduct a DIY audit. Walk-through your home looking for air leaks and places that are improperly sealed or insulated. Add caulking, weather-stripping, and insulation. Replace high-watt bulbs with lower watt bulbs or compact fluorescent lightbulbs, a poorly performing heating and cooling system with a more efficient one, and old appliances with Energy Star rated appliances. Find a detailed list of suggestions at the U.S. Department of Energy site.

MARATHON RUNNER

• Get a professional home energy audit. Having someone else perform your audit for you may be the easiest route, but because it's the most expensive (and we're conscious shoppers), it's also the most difficult. But if you can afford a professional audit, the savings you'll get from improving your home should offset the cost of the audit.

Last year when we were living in our apartment, I tried the online audit from my power company. It was pretty generic so I'll probably just skip it this time and try the DIY route. Because we're still renters, there are limited improvements we can make, and I don't want to invest the money in a professional audit. If you're a homeowner and not too DIY inclined, I definitely recommend that route.

For more information, check out Energy Efficiency: Renewable Energy's Less Cool Cousin.

Will you take the challenge?

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You have hereby been challenged to go green in a year without going broke! Check out the last challenge, or view the whole list of Challengicious Mondays. Sign up for my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, and join my "Go Green without Going Broke" group on Facebook!

• image by kivanc nis