The Basics of Energy Audits
Energy Audits can consist of many things -- and at many levels -- depending on the depth of the audit. A basic audit can consist of an auditor simply walking through the home and inspecting for some basic areas that could potentially be robbing you of energy.
We’ve learned a lot in the last decade about building new structures to new levels of efficiency. However, windows have not kept up to the level that many other building materials have when it comes to thermal resistance (aka R Factor). Most available windows on the market today are coming in with a U-Factor of around .3. So, we know that we can convert U-Factor to R Factor easily (done so here).
What really matters is that most windows on the market equate to around an R-3 in insulating value. Why is this important? Because the 2012 IECC Energy Code is requiring in Zone 4 that walls must have an R-20 or R-13+5 to meet code. So in this R-20 wall we are going to cut a big hole into this wall and install a window that is only going to perform to an R-3 level. Makes a lot of sense doesn’t it?
