by: Rick Chapo

Conducting a home energy audit is a smart way to cut your utility bills. Many people forget, however, to look at fireplaces, attics and other less obvious spots.

Home Energy Audit – Fireplaces, Attics and More

The purpose of a home energy audit is to make your home more energy efficient. An energy efficient home is going to result in reduced utility bills now and for years to come. Depending on the size of your utility bill, auditing your home can save you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars over the years. While windows and doors are obvious energy waste locations, there are less obvious areas where you can lose a lot of heat.

Attics in a home are a great place to store you junk…err, valuable stuff. That attic, however, can be costing you big bucks. While most attics have insulation, they also have open-air vents to maintain circulation. Failing to circulate air in the attic can destroy roofing and the things in the attic.

Fortunately, the ceiling of your home has insulation to keep energy from escaping up through it into the attic. Still, most people defeat this insulation by failing to take a look at the entrance to the attic. If you have the proverbial "hole in the ceiling" entrance to the attic, how much heat or air conditioning is escaping through the gaps surrounding it into the attic and out the attic vents? Placing temporary seals around the edges of the entrance can immediately cut your heating or cooling costs by 25 percent.

Fireplaces offer a whole host of problems when it comes to regulating the temperature in a home. By definition, a fireplace is designed to move smoke out of a home by using the rising heat as a means of propulsion. The problem, of course, is when you aren't using the fireplace, it still conducts the hot air out of your home.

The first step in dealing with a fireplace is to make sure the flue is closed when not being used. If you leave it open, you might as well turn off the heat in your home because the heat is going to come out of your vents, cross the room and blow up and out of the fireplace. Obviously, that is a utility bill nightmare.

Energy audits are a must if you hope to fight off rising energy costs. Fortunately, common sense steps can save you a ton of money.