When deciding what areas of your home energy efficiency you might want to improve upon (air sealing, insulation, heating/cooling systems, window upgrades, etc), it’s helpful to think of it like household debt. When assessing which debts to payoff first, the conventional wisdom is to tackle those with highest interest rates first. We’ll use an example of Henry and Maria’s household debt, which I’ve put in prioritized payoff order to maximize interest savings:
- Henry: $4k of credit card debt at 17.99% interest
- Maria: $12k car loan at 7% interest
- Maria: $8k of student loan debt at 6% interest
- Henry: $40k of student loan debt at 5% interest
- Joint: $142k mortgage balance at 4% interest
This is similar to energy efficiency in that there are certain things that might be small fixes that have a huge impact, like Henry’s $4k credit card debt, that you’ll want to fix first.
A hole in your house that might be allowing huge drafts of outside air would be one of these. Replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs might be your next priority. Old windows that still work pretty well might be a far lesser priority, as with the joint mortgage balance. The cost vs benefit of replacing windows is harder to calculate, but usually less impactful, compared to a hole in the house. This is, of course, unless one of your windows is stuck open and cannot be closed, in which case the two are the same!
Source: Wikipedia
How You Should Apply This Methodology
So how is one to tackle such an issue? I’m going to start in our house by checking out an infrared camera from the library. These things usually cost about $200 or more, but I can rent them for free at my public library. Amazing what these places offer…
I plan to go all over the house: basement, attics, exterior, interior, etc., and document all the areas where there is a big temperature discrepancy in order to determine where I should start my air sealing/insulation efforts. I can postulate all I want about what is the biggest energy leak in the house. Poor insulation, bad caulking around doors/windows, areas where cables pass into the house? Best to let the data speak for itself on what my highest energy efficiency interest rate is. I will do an update once I tackle the assessment to let you know how it went!
Pingback: How To Easily Do Your Own Home Energy Audit - MyUnfocusedBlog