Home Energy Audit Experience
Earlier this year I took advantage of National Grid's offer of a free home energy audit. What a worthwhile decision!!
I called the number on my NG monthly bill, actually connecting me with RISE Engineering, a company contracted by NG to conduct the energy audits. A representative came to my house and spent 30-40 minutes surveying my 2,000 sq ft town house condominium. (RISE has separate units for auditing houses and condos.) He left a report that included options. In addition of a free audit to be scheduled later, I could purchase lighting fixtures and insulation at half price, with the other half being paid by NG.
During the subsequent audit they replaced all incandescent lights with CFLs, and a couple of old wall sconces with the new ones I’d purchased. They also replaced all faucet heads with low flow ones. They carefully measured my furnace exhaust to make sure fumes were properly vented. A crew installed foam insulation in the attic, where necessary to fill gaps. They carefully cut rigid foam insulation to fit the cover of the pull-down attic stairs and a trap door to the crawl space.
It was fascinating to watch the two separate crews tighten up my home. While I did order a couple of the options, all this was free. Actually all of us NG customers have already paid for this service, through a small “renewable energy” charge on our monthly NG bills. Based on my electrical energy use, it amounted to around $0.32. Multiply this small amount by the number of NG customers every month and the kitty adds up to millions. You and your neighbors have already paid for this energy audit so take advantage of it. I’m glad I did.