Prepare For Your Energy Audit

In order for us to provide you with the most accurate analysis and smooth BPI Certified energy audit while onsite, we need to request some initial information from you about your home, and share how the audit will go so there are no surprises.

Please read through the quick list below and contact us with any questions before we arrive.

Four pictures of infrared cameras and blower door test equipment used during our energy audits

How to prepare for a successful energy audit

Let’s Get Ready For An Awesome Energy Audit!

Please go through the following list to prepare your home and submit some initial information before we arrive.

1. Submit Your Energy Bills

To most accurately model your home’s yearly energy usage, we would love to see the last 12 months of both your electricity (kWh) and gas usage (Therms) separately. This allows us to calculate your baseline usage for both energy sources, see if there is any abnormal energy waste, energy spikes, and more.

To submit your energy usage, please login to your utility account (Xcel Energy Login Link) and submit the individual energy data on our Energy Usage Form Here.

It’s important that we break out electricity and gas, and will be great information to have for not only an energy audit, but for future upgrades with air sealing, potential insulation, heat pump water heaters and HVAC system replacements, and more.

2. Tell Us About Your Home

In the same form above and just below the energy use table, feel free to add any trouble spots or known home performance issues you may want us to look into while we’re there. The more specific the better! Here’s the form link again.

3. No Fires 24 Hours Prior To The Audit Please

We will be performing a blower door test, which depressurizes the house (sucks air out of it) at a high velocity. This can upset your fireplace and bring ash into your home! To avoid this, please do not make any fires or burn anything in the home for a day or two before our visit.

a successful Energy Audit visit

4. Please Read Through Our Pre-Audit Checklist and Submit the Requested Information

Please read through the rest of these preparations for our visit to ensure the audit goes smoothly:

  • Attic – Remove clothing, boxes, furniture, and other obstructions to allow us to get into the attic. This is so that we can check air leaks, insulation levels, potential moisture or leakage, and other issues.
  • Crawlspaces and Basements – similar to the attic, we need to have access and clear visuals into the crawlspace and basement areas for the same reasons.
  • Room Access – Just a heads up that we will be entering every room of the house in order to be the most accurate onsite.
  • Mechanical Room Access – To test for health, safety, proper airflow, and more, we’ll need access to the mechanical room where your water heater and/or your HVAC system is. Please remove any hazards and provide clear access to these systems.
  • Close All Windows and Doors – In order to accurately measure home air leakage with our blower door test, we will need all windows and doors closed and locked. We ask you to lock them because sometimes they can be forced open during the blower test due to the air pressure.

5. Plan For Some Noise and Change In Temperature

In order for us to conduct proper testing, we’ll need to use and will be using many pieces of specialized equipment. We’ll also need to be turning on and off nearly all appliances, fans, and systems in your home for testing. This includes bathroom exhaust fans, your water heater, your HVAC/air conditioning/heating system, kitchen exhaust vents, and more.

It may get noisy and little uncomfortable for a few hours, given that we are using the blower door to depressurize (suck out out of) your home for 10-15 minutes. The temperature swings and return to normal temperatures will take longer during the more extreme months (very hot or very cold days), but fear not, this is only temporary. The blower door tester can also be a bit noisy, but this test should run for more than 10-15 minutes in most cases.

We just want to let you know of how your normal flow (no pun intended) might be affected a bit during the audit. We appreciate you allowing us to conduct the testing according to BPI Certification standards, and also any requirements needed by local or utility authorities so that you can maximize rebates as well.

6. Contact Us With Any Questions or Concerns

Do you have any questions or concerns before our visit? Please use our Contact Us or call us at 303.525.4328 and we’ll address any you have!

We’re excited to help you with our energy audit. You’re now on your way to home comfort, lower energy bills, and starting your journey to total home electrification, a new heat pump, moving away from burning fossil fuels, a netzero home, and a number of other benefits of going green!

7. Have Your Xcel Account Number Ready

Xcel Energy requires us to fill out a couple of forms for their own records during our audit. Please have your Xcel account number handy so that we can fill the forms out quickly onsite.

8. Get Ready For Your Audit Report!

There is a lot of data, pictures, and information we collect while onsite. We then do some calculations and modeling of your home afterward in order to build the full, multi-page report. This will take us a few days to do. We’ll email the report when finished!