Everything Green: I got the FREE In-home Energy Audit through RMLD and…

Back some months ago I was driving into Boston and saw the billboard for a free home energy Audit being advertised by MassSave. So I pulled out my phone and gave a call thinking that hey, if it’s free, why not?! I was transferred to RMLD as it turns out since they are the local electric company. We had to put it off for a bit, but today, someone came by and did the audit.

Let me tell you, apart from it being very cool how he used a Thermal Imaging gun, it was super informative and I cannot wait to receive the report in a few weeks. We have a 1950s home, that has been remodeled a few times, that looks to be pretty updated with nice granite, clean sheetrock, etc, but as it turns out, much of the insulation looks to be from 1950. Boooooo…..

Now, I need to wait for the complete report, but 3 things I was told on the fly were pretty shocking:

1. I had made mention that although we have ahighly efficient wood burning fireplace insert, that the bedrooms at the other end of the house, were always cold. We tried a fan, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. The main living area would be 72 degrees or more, but the bedrooms remained at about 60. This is a problem. Especially when you have babies in the house. As it turns out, the garage that is underneath the bedrooms has insulation on the ceiling, but that insulation is completely removed from the surface so there is air in-between and so that insulation is doing ZERO good. Nothing. Nada. Well, that explains the cold bedrooms.

2. Next, it was explained to me that our walls are about 3” thick and we only have about an inch to an inch and a half of insulation within the walls. He suggested using Cellulose insulation as a fix (whatever that is). The walls are about 20-30% efficient currently. We are losing money right through the walls. Not fun.

3. And the next thing was that on the high wall that reaches about 20 feet in our main living area, once he was in the attic, he could see that the insulation on the back side of this wall was about a ½ inch and was put up in the 50s when oil cost MUCH less. Obviously heat rises, so this again, is bad.

As I said, we need to wait for the report to receive the overall picture of what needs to be done and then of course, determine what that will cost, but I can tell you that we can’t not do something about these issues.  We had a mild winter this year, but even then I think we ordered oil twice, and went through a cord and a half of wood. Might as well have been burning cash from the sounds of it!

So call RMLD and see about that audit for yourself! At least you will know where your heat is going and what improvements will need to be made, even if you can’t make them immediately. It will save you money in the long run. And again, it is FREE!