Energy audits test your home to figure out where you could improve its energy efficiency to make your home more comfortable and save money on you utility bills. Anyone who wants to lower his or her utility bills can benefit from an energy audit, especially if they live in a home more than five to 10 years old. To get an idea of how much you could benefit from an energy audit, use our quick and easy online energy audit tool.

An energy audit will treat your home as a connected system and figure out how different improvements can work together to lower your heating and cooling costs in Chicago, for example. Depending on your home, you may need to add insulation and air sealing, which will allow your HVAC system to relax a little during the hottest and coldest months, ultimately saving you money. On the other hand, an audit may find that your insulation is fine, but your appliances are really inefficient and you’d save a lot of money by upgrading to an ENERGY STAR refrigerator or tankless water heater.

Not only will an energy audit identify the areas of your home that are performing poorly, but it will provide you with an idea of which measures will be the most cost effective and have the fastest return on investment through savings on your utilities. Energy auditors in the Chicago area typically charge around $450 for an energy audit, but that cost can usually be recouped in less than a year through the savings it creates on your energy bills.