Questar - Energy Audit - Thermwise

After having more insulation installed in my attic (earlier blog), I decided to look into getting an Energy Audit done on my house by Questar. I'm glad I did. I kind of assumed that because my house was built in 2002, we were okay. After the auditor left, I was really impressed by the amount of things we could do to improve our home.

Below are some of the less expensive things we can do:

1- Fill in the cracks/holes in our furnace. If the fan or furnace is running you can feel air coming out of the seams or holes in the furnace, plug them with caulking or tape (stuff you can get from your local hardware store).

2 - Check the seals around your doors. If you can feel a breeze or see any light - you need to fix that.

3 - He showed us some pliable/bendable plug and light switch covers. These are actually designed to be added between the wall and the actual cover to provide insulation. He said they were inexpensive and could be picked up at most hardware stores.

He covered quite a bit and looked in our attic to view the insulation, checked our unfinished basement and gave some suggestions for that as well. He also went around and checked the shower heads and bathroom sinks to make sure they were slow flow. Before he left he gave us with some information on rebates, websites and where our own personal energy usage was. He also talked about appliances that use less energy and the rebates associated with those items.

Even though my house was built in 2002, there are definately some things I can do now to reduce the cost of my heating and cooling bill. I can't wait to get started. The best part of this audit was that he left us with some insulation for our pipes coming in and out of the water heater and he also left us a blanket for the water heater (he even gave us some directions on how to install it correctly). The items he left with us were free!

It cost $25 to have him come out (this will show up on my Questar bill), but if we do the recommendations he suggested, the $25 gets reimbursed. If you'd like to schedule an energy audit you can visit Thermwise or call 800-695-7375. The website will also give you more information in what is included in an energy audit. My appointment was scheduled for 2 hours.

In my opinion - every penny counts!

I just had the coolest thing done to my house

I'm all about saving money. In this economy every penny counts! My neighbor referred us to a company that comes out and installs insulation in your attic for FREE. Okay - so it's not totally free, but free to me.

Questar and Rocky Mountain Power are offering rebates when you take measures to better insulate your home and help save money.

So here's how it worked. We got referred, the company contacted us and asked a few questions and then they made an appointment to come and install the additional insulation (blow it in). All this happened in less than a week.

Here are the qualifications to get the rebates.

1 - Your house has to be built before 2008.

2 - You need to have central air (if you don't and have a swamp cooler instead, you will only qualify for 1 of the 2 rebates. The company I went through would only charge you $.15 sq/ft to insulate- which is quite a discount).

3 - The current attic insulation you have needs to be an R18 or less. (The company I went through will walk you through how to know what you have).

The insulation company had me sign a few forms stating that we owed them NOTHING and that when the rebates come we just turn them over to them. So essentially we pay nothing to have our attic insulated and they wait to get paid from the rebates. The company we went through even filled out the paperwork to submit to Questar and Rocky Mountain Power to iniatiate the rebate process. The rebates will be mailed to us in about 8-10 weeks and we just forward them on.

If you ask me - that's a sweet deal! I actually met with Jeremy the company owner and he was so thorough and nice. He walked me through exactly what they did, how much insulation they put up in my attic, they cleaned up any and all mess and it only took them about an hour an a half. Best of all it was quiet. I could hardly hear them doing the installation in my vaulted ceiling.

I was also told that it should save me about 20% on my heating bill and 15% on my cooling bill. I can't beat that. If you'd like a referral to this honest and clean insulation company I would be happy to give you that information. You can call me at 801-589-3946 or email me at callmestacy@yahoo.com. FREE is FREE and now my bill will be less. I'm a happy person today.

You can learn more about these rebates through Thermwise. They offer a variety of discounts and rebates.