If you are interested in making energy efficiency improvements to your home, an energy audit is a wise first step in understanding your home's energy savings potential. Energy auditors are trained to understand your home as a whole system and can give you the most appropriate and cost-effective recommendations for home-energy improvements. More specifically, an auditor's report can inform you on how long various improvements will take to pay off in terms of utility bill savings.

Sarasota County is currently offering up to $3,000 in rebates for home energy retrofits through their Get Energy Smart Retrofit program. For some energy improvement measures, such as adding insulation or ENERGY STAR windows, an energy audit is required. Homeowners can receive a rebate of $750 for this audit if they complete one other rebate eligible measure recommended by the energy audit.

You can use this free online energy audit tool to see what a home energy audit might find in your home.