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Make Your Home More Energy Efficient with an ENERGY STAR Audit

ENERGY STAR for Existing Homes

ENERGY STAR is CCI's most comprehensive energy audit service coupling our most highly trained auditors with the most sophisticated diagnostic tools to give you the most thorough evaluation of your home. CCI's auditor inspects your whole house from bottom to top using advanced diagnostic tools such as a blower door, an infrared camera, a carbon monoxide detector, and natural gas leak  detector. After spending several hours assessing your home, your auditor will provide you with comprehensive and objective advice that is relevant to your home, your comfort, your health and your safety.

Whether you're in a 100+ year old home or a brand new home, an ENERGY STAR audit by CCI will help you save energy and money all while improving your comfort, health and safety.

Why Choose CCI?

What sets CCI's audit apart is we're not trying to sell you on a particular home improvement or steer you to a specific HVAC or weatherization contractor. We also include post-weatherization inspection of your home to ensure the completeness, quality and safety of your HVAC or weatherization contractor's work.

ENERGY STAR for Existing Homes Includes:

  • A detailed inspection of your house, from bottom to top (3-5 hours, depending on the size of your home) conducted by one of our most experienced BPI and RESNET certified auditors
  • Analysis of your utility bills from the last year
  • A personalized interview to identify your concerns and understand your energy use patterns
  • A blower door test that detects air leakage from around windows, doors, fireplaces, plumbing and electrical penetrations
  • Combustion safety testing of your heating appliances to detect unsafe levels of carbon monoxide, natural gas leaks and improper venting 
  • Resources for gathering further information and for local weatherization contractors who can be hired to carry out home efficiency work are included.
  • After reviewing assessment notes, the auditor will send you a written home audit report containing comprehensive and objective recommendations, specific to your home, designed to increase your home's comfort, safety, and durability while decreasing your utiltiy bills.  (For a sample report, click here)
  • A free copy of The Homeowner's Handbook to Energy Efficiency, a 179-page guide that helps you set realistic goals for reducing your energy consumption. (A $20 value)
  • Post-weatherization inspection
  • OPTIONAL THERMOGRAPHIC SERVICE:  Temperature permitting, a comprehensive infrared thermographic examination of your home with documentation and photographic backup can be added to your ENERGY STAR audit for a nominal fee. Infrared scans can detect missing or improperly installed insulation in walls and other inaccessible places of your home  

Price: $450 *Higher price for especially large homes and/or homes with multiple heating and cooling systems.

Post-weatherization Inspection

Inspection is included with your ENERGY STAR audit fee as long as your inspection is completed within one year of the audit. Our auditor will retest your combustion appliances to verify safe operation and repeat the blower door test to quantify the effectiveness of air sealing measures.  The post-audit may reveal:
  • Improperly installed heating equipment
  • Health and safety concerns resulting from improperly or inadequately vented combustion appliances
  • Missed weatherization opportunities
In fact, some customers will hold back a small portion of the HVAC or weatherization contractor’s fee pending the results of a satisfactory post-weatherization inspection.

Price:  Included 

Optional Infrared Thermographic Testing

Infrared thermographic testing is one of the most effective ways to confirm locations where your house is losing heat in the winter and gaining heat in the summer. CCI's comprehensive infrared option provides printed infrared images and written explanations that detail the location and problem illustrated. The comprehensive infrared option is an additional level of detail for your audit that clearly shows where weatherization measures are needed.
 
If prepurchased in conjunction with an eSmart3 or Energy Star audit, CCI will include FREE OF CHARGE an infrared inspection of your home during your post-weatherization inspection to reveal wall cavities where insulation insufficiently fills the space or was missed entirely.

Cost: $150 prepaid with an Energy Star audit; $250 if purchased separately

ENERGY STAR Audits for Keystone Help

Keystone Help is a home energy loan program that helps Pennsylvania homeowners who meet the program's eligibility guidelines to obtain a low cost loan for "whole house" improvements using Home Performance with ENERGY STAR. The program requires the services of a certified BPI/RESNET Energy Auditor to assess and predict energy savings for recommended weatherization measures. Learn more at Keystone Help

Cost: $300 prepaid in conjunction with an Energy Star audit

When is an ENERGY STAR for Existing Home Audit the Right Choice?

  • If you’re in or buying an older home, especially one built before 1980. Remember, older homes tend to…
    • Be most costly to heat, cool and maintain due to insufficient or non-existent insulation. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that only 20% of homes built before 1980 are well insulated
    • Have older, less efficient heating and cooling systems.
    • Have heating and gas delivery systems that have fallen into disrepair whose operation can cause serious health and safety concerns
  • If you’ve had a contractor update your home with new heating equipment, wall insulation, attic insulation, or air sealing and are unsure of quality and completeness work of that work, a CCI auditor can put your mind to ease by using an infrared camera, blower door and combustion safety equipment to validate their work. Armed with your detailed report, you can instruct your weatherization contractor to correct problems giving you the peace of mind that the job was done right.

To request information or schedule an appointment, call 412-431-4449 ext. 249 or complete the form on the right.


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Testimonials

"We very much appreciate Jonathan's good work. We have had lots of the recommendations for energy saving implemented already and it seems to have made a big difference. Thank you again to CCI for your help."

Meg Cheever, Shadyside
"Thanks for completing this task (audit and report) so quickly and for all the suggestions and recommendations. We will get to them as quickly as we can. Since we have so many areas where we can improve, I expect it will take some time to do all of them! But once it is done, my guess is that we will not only see some good savings, we will also feel a whole lot better, both summer and winter."

Angie M., Squirrel Hill
"Many thanks. FYI, I've already had the weatherproofing around the windows and doors done, the dryer flue replaced with metal piping, and the third floor air conditioner properly sealed. So you see I'm putting all your good advice into effect."

Caroline Acker, Ph.D., Highland Park
"Garrett, Wow. Rarely do I read a technical report that I actually want to keep reading. That was an excellent, very understandable, succinct, thorough analysis. That was well worth the money and you obviously put a lot of time and energy (and knowledge) into creating that report. I really appreciate the timeliness of you getting it to us. Thank you so much for a job well done."

Mike and Mary Rago, Carnegie