Energy audit recommendations reduce utility bills

City Utilities of Springfield and the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation are teaming up to help customers reduce their utility bills.

They offer a Home Sense Energy Audit, which takes about three-hours and "takes a really extensive look at how your house is using energy or losing energy," said Cara Shaefer, energy management specialist at CU.

The audit is available to anybody in the 10-county region served by OACAC, according to Todd Steinmann, OACAC weatherization director. The cost of the program is $200, but City Utilities of Springfield customers receive the audit for $100 the utility company pays the other half of the fee. CU customers can opt to spread the cost over four billing cycles.

The audit is performed by OACAC technicians specially trained by the Department of Natural Resources. Inspection equipment is provided by the DNR.

Shaefer said the audit includes a blower door test a procedure in which the house is closed and a special fan is placed in the door to pressurize the house. Inspectors then use instruments to detect areas that cause the home to lose energy.

Auditors also check for air leakage in ducts and check for insulation in floors, ceilings and walls. Wall insulation is inspected by drilling a small hole in the wall and using a scope, according to Julie Conway, public information coordinator at OACAC.

The energy audit sometimes reveals sources of energy loss that aren't widely recognized, Shaefer said. Recessed lighting is one example. Until recently, insulation could not be placed over recessed lighting in the attic because it wasn't insulation-contact rated.

The Home Sense Energy Audit also includes "installation of an insulation blanket on your water heater; a kitchen faucet aerator; a high-efficiency showerhead; (and) a high-efficiency compact fluorescent bulb," according to CU literature.

About a week after the audit, the customer receives a specialized report with audit findings and suggestions on how the home can be made more energy efficient.

Making the recommended changes can save customers between $50 and $150 per year in energy costs, Shaefer said.

Steinmann said OACAC performs only about 30 audits per year for CU customers. Shaefer said just more than 200 of CU's 83,000 residential customers have participated in the program since its start in 1995.

"There was an increase of requests during the 2000-2001 winter, when we experienced the high natural gas costs and record cold temperatures," Shaefer reported. "Natural gas costs are predicted to be higher this year than last, but it is still unknown if they will reach the $1.10 per therm level as in 2000-2001."

Shaefer said CU sponsors the program in part because of customer requests to make such a service available.

But she also added, "It's important to us that our customers use as much (energy) as they want, but to use it efficiently, so we don't have to keep going out and building new pipelines to bring in more natural gas or building new generation stations." Those ventures cost the company and ultimately the customers more money.

Steinmann said use of the equipment and the time spent by the technicians cost OACAC around $100.

Since OACAC is nonprofit, proceeds from the audits help make the service available to low-income households. Steinmann said this is one way the organization has worked to compensate for cuts in federal funding over the last several years.

The Home Sense Energy Audit is not available to commercial customers, but Shaefer said CU does respond to requests by businesses to evaluate their energy efficiency. Shaefer and/or a CU technician will visit the commercial site and make recommendations free of charge, but the audit does not include the diagnostic testing performed by OACAC.