It was a beautiful May afternoon when Tom Ochsner from Thermal Vision Home Energy Audits and Gary Steps from Butterfly Energy Works arrived at our home for a much anticipated Home Energy Analysis. Captain Gary came holding only a clipboard which functioned much like the helm of the Starship Enterprise. Tom came with a myriad of equipment including a blower door fan device which was connected via cables to a laptop computer that ran Tectite ® software – an automated testing program. Parameters are entered such as building size, weather conditions, inside and outside temperature and the regional climate data. All the windows and doors are shut tight and the exhaust fans are turned off. The blower door fan is turned on and the powerful motor draws air from all the cracks and spaces in the home. When Tom turned on the fan there was air moving up our basement stairwell and the first floor stairs – lots of air coming from all those nooks and crannies. With this information the software calculates heating and air conditioning costs lost annually due to the home’s air leakage. To help you visualize the amount of open space your home has to the outside elements it is given to you in square inches. This enables you to visualize this space as an open window based on the square inches – less is more. Because heating and air conditioning costs so much, a bigger number here means money flying out the window.

We spent a good deal of time in the basement starting with the check for gas leaks and the Combustion Appliance Zone (CAZ) testing. To make a short story out of a long but interesting process, the exhaust fans in the home are turned on and the hot water tank and furnace are tested for proper drafting making sure the home has no back drafting of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The general health of the furnace was checked, the filters and the color of the flame. Gary and Tom worked their magic for four hours and in the end there were some surprises. Don’t miss my August article about the results of the tests where I will divulge the good, the bad and the ugly of my home energy analysis.