Energy Audit Can Make Your House More Efficient

February 21, 2009

McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Cheryl Truman The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
Thomas Lingeman just found out two things about his house:--The unfinished part of his basement is spiffily done: Tightly
insulated, with the proper amount of shiny high-end duct tape doing
the job it was laminated to do.
--The ceiling fan sitting atop his living room vaulted ceiling
isn't doing its job. To move heat down from the upstairs balcony area, it
needs to be set clockwise.
Fan blades should rotate in a counterclockwise motion in the
summer, but it's clockwise in the winter to better distribute warm air. Look
for a direction switch on your fan's base.
Larry Leach and Darrell Schulenburg of Honeywell are performing an
energy audit on Lingeman's South Lexington home, in an upscale
development off Tates Creek Road, where he lives with his wife, Jacquelyn Graves.
Honeywell conducts about 1,000 audits a year.
The two are contractors for Kentucky Utilities. The utility
company offers the home energy audits for $15, which is added to your bill.
Lingeman got a shock on his last Columbia Gas bill. Although the
billing period was slightly longer and temperatures somewhat cooler,
the bill for his forced-air gas system startled the financial planner.
Plus, Lingeman says, "It never seems like it's warm in this
house."
So he had his home audited.
Some homeowners subscribe to the idea of cranking the home
temperature way down -- 10 degrees or more -- while they're at work, then
cranking it back up when they come home at night. A real energy savings, right?
Not so much, Schulenburg says. Consider all the solid surfaces
in your home that get cooled down with the air temperature: Your heating
system has to work extra hard to reheat counters and coffee tables in the
evening. It's better to maintain a constant temperature of 68 in the
daytime and evening, 65 at night. (For summer, a temperature setting of 78
degrees is suggested.)
Schulenburg says a good rule of thumb for energy savings is this:
"Every degree you move a thermostat will have a 2 to 3 percent
impact" on your energy costs.
The auditors ask Lingeman how old the house is, how big, how
much is finished and unfinished, and how many people live in the house.
The audits are part of KU's demand-management program,
spokesman Cliff Feltham says. "We don't want you to spend any more for your energy
than you have to."
The recommendations aren't earth-shaking, but they do ensure that
homeowners pay more attention to how heating and cooling systems
work beyond what most of us know, which is how to flip a thermostat switch.
"There are many little nickel-dime things people can do that they
don't think about," Schulenburg says.
Reach Cheryl Truman at (859) 231-3202 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3202.