I wish I'd started caring about efficiency much earlier, I could've saved a lot of money over time. After reading about others having a home energy audit several times, I finally decided to quit being a cheapskate and have one done.
I didn't do too bad, but I do have a couple of areas that need attention. The worst is leaky HVAC ducts, about 7.7% of my conditioned air is lost in the attic.
Attached below is our score. A real part of the reason I did this was to prove to myself before having a new HVAC unit installed that it would be correctly sized. If I never heard, "Well, the rule of thumb says" then I could quit saying, "I don't have a rule of thumb house!" We'll be downsizing from a 3 ton unit to a 2 ton unit. Swapping 12 SEER AC for 19 SEER and being out of the 77% gas heat and into 10 HSPF electric heat, but I don't understand this number.
I was told that if I used this particular unit {I'd given him the PN's from Maytag so he could look this and a 16 SEER unit up}, my HERS score would drop to 13, where if I replaced the unit with the 16 SEER model, my score would only drop to 15. We ordered the 19 SEER unit yesterday.
I also have a page from the report that gives the house energy efficiency score, but I can't put my hands on a copy to post. It said 100 is the baseline for a typical house built to minimum code {in 2006, I think}, the average house in this country is ~ 130, to be Energy Star rated a house would need to be no more than 70, and my house scored 79. I think repairing duct leaks and the new HVAC would drop that number a noticeable amount.
He also made a comment to me that the scores are based on typical usage patterns with 1 person in the house per bedroom, plus 1 more, so 4 people in our 3 BR house. Then he said he recognized that my wife and I are not typical. Sometimes it's nice to not be normal.
Don't know what I did wrong posting the label. I wanted it to just show up, not a link.