One of the highlights during the energy audit is walking around and scanning your home with an infrared thermal imaging camera. The infrared camera detects the differences in temperature and the screen is like x-ray vision for behind your walls. The results are often illuminating. We can determine the level of insulation behind your walls, or if you have insulation at all which many older homes lack.
Before we scan your home, we run the blower door, a tool that depressurizes your home and measures the air leakage. While the blower door is running, we walk around with the infrared camera. Not only can we measure the air leakage with the blower door, but we can see the air leakage with the infrared camera. It comes across the walls like streaks of light from windows, wall penetrations, lighting, top plates, ceiling fans, etc. A couple times we were able to detect bathroom leaks from the second floor when we were on the first floor looking up at the ceiling and before the water penetrated through the sheetrock.
Recently we did an energy audit on a home that was being constructed. The home owner works in the city and the home is being built in Short Hills, NJ. He wanted to make sure the contractors were insulating properly so before the home was finished, he hired us to check to see if they missed any spots. It turns out, that the contractors happened to be doing a great job and we were able to reassure the homeowner that he was getting an energy efficient home.
A while ago we performed an energy audit on a home where the home owner in Westfield, NJ was a “DIY – Do It Yourself” type. She rented a cellulose rig from Home Depot to dense pack her attic ceiling. Little did she know, when we scanned her attic from the second floor she had missed half her ceiling. There are some areas where DIY is great. I would recommend to leave dense packing cellulose to the professionals.
To schedule an energy audit and see your home scanned by an infrared thermal imaging camera, please call Residential Energy Improvements at 201-530-5933 or visit www.GreenEnergy-NJ.com and fill out the contact us page.