Electrical Contractors Help Lower Home Utility Bills Through Energy Audits From National Electrical Contractors Association

(HIT) - Electrical contractors are increasingly partnering to help homeowners improve their homes’ energy efficiency and lower their utility bills through comprehensive energy audits.  As the first step toward diagnosing energy efficiency problems and tailoring solutions, comprehensive energy audits can identify and correct some of a home’s most critical energy issues. Electrical contractors’ unique expertise includes activities that utility representatives and home performance contractors may overlook, such as checking wiring and electrical service panels to determine if they are overloaded and determining load peaks and valleys.
“Electrical contractors’ particular qualifications, skills and training contribute to an effective whole-house energy audit that can help homeowners increase their homes’ energy efficiency and lower their utility bills,” said John Maisel, publisher of Electrical Contractor magazine at www.ecmag.com, published by the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), Bethesda, Md.

                           
                         
                           
                         
                           








                             Courtesy of the National Electrical Contractors Association                           
                         
                           
                         
Often misrepresented by a survey, a comprehensive home energy audit is the inspection or evaluation of an existing home to determine how energy is being consumed and lost, which systems are operating efficiently and what improvements can be made to protect and enhance long-term occupancy and lower utility costs.

                        

                      According to a recent Electrical Contractor article, today’s whole-house approach to energy audits aims to increase comfort and safety along with lowering utility costs. The most comprehensive assessments use sophisticated modeling software to produce a home energy rating score (HERS Index). The greatest residential electrical load is space cooling (16.5 percent) followed by lighting (15.4 percent) and computers and electronics (10.9 percent).
Elements of the latest comprehensive energy audits include energy use (electrical energy  use, natural gas consumption, electricity motors, voltages, solar energy systems and utility bills/rates); appliances and air conditioning (thermostats  and controls, insulation, caulking and weather stripping and solar heat through glass); appliances (water heaters, swimming pools and well pumps); home entertainment and electronics (protecting consumer electronics) water conservation (kitchens, bathrooms and outdoor conservation tips); heat transfer, air flow and moisture movement and house systems interaction; pressure diagnostics including a blower door test and/or a duct blaster test to measure indoor pressure for identifying locations and severity of air leaks and  critical life-safety combustion safety testing  to determine if exhaust from combustion appliances (furnaces, gas stoves, boilers, water heaters) is re-entering a home due to negative pressure differences.

                        

                            Published by the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), Bethesda, Md., Electrical Contractor magazine delivers 85,000+ electrical contractors and more than 65,900 electrical contracting locations, more than any other industry publication. Telephone: (301) 657-3110.  Web site: www.ecmag.com.

Courtesy: Home Improvement News and Information Center