If you’d like to have an idea of what upgrades would be best for your home before contacting an auditor, try out our free online energy audit tool. This tool acts like an energy audit; it takes into account a few easy questions about your home and calculates an estimated three-year savings for you and suggests a few upgrades for your home.

There may not be one single thing you can do that will have as big of an impact as replacing your windows, but there are a lot of things you can do that, together, will likely have a greater impact than replacing your windows and cost less.

Although replacing windows makes a big difference in comfort, the average annual savings is only a few hundred dollars per year on your utility bills. When compared to the cost of replacing windows, it takes a long time to get a return on your investment through this savings. Meanwhile, if you look at measures like adding insulation, air sealing, duct sealing and appliance upgrades (the low-hanging fruit in the energy efficiency world), you’ll find that the time it takes you to save enough money to repay your upgrade costs is much shorter. You should also look into the energy efficiency tax credits and rebates available in your area.

If you’re now wondering how to know which upgrades are right for your home, don’t worry. A professional energy auditor who is trained in building science can use a series of tests to figure out what exactly is going on with your home in terms of efficiency. Energy auditors in the Baltimore area typically charge around $350 for an energy audit, but that cost can easily be recouped in the short term on your utility bills. The average savings over three years for people who upgrade their homes is $2,700.

Updated July 19, 2010