Because neither Kansas nor Missouri has deregulated energy, you don’t have the luxury of shopping around to find the lowest energy rates in your area. As such, you need to do everything you can to make sure your house is as energy efficient as possible. But how do you know if it is or not? Are you really saving money on energy, or are you actually paying more than you should? There’s a very simple way to find out: an energy evaluation.

The federal Energy Star program provides this “yardstick” – a helpful energy evaluation tool that can help you measure your home’s efficiency, as compared to other homes in your area. It takes a bit of preparation, but it’s worth it. Gather together all your energy bills for the past year. Enter in your zip code, the size of your home, how many are living there, how much you pay in energy bills and some other important information, and the yardstick will calculate whether or not you’re paying too much for your energy.

So what happens if you ARE paying too much? Then you need a more in-depth energy evaluation, to figure out why. A professional home energy assessment can help you determine exactly where your home is losing energy and what you can do to fix it. An auditor will perform a series of tests around your house, to check for air leaks, improper insulation, badly sealed ducts and other inefficiencies. They’ll also check your air conditioning system, water heater and other major appliances to see if they’re running efficiently, or if they need maintenance or to be replaced.

A proper energy assessment can alert you to the energy problems in your home, as well as help you fix them, ultimately saving you money. But first you need to start with Energy Star’s energy evaluation yardstick, to find out just how much money and power you could be saving.

For more energy-saving tips and air conditioning advice, please contact us at Overland Park Heating & Cooling, Inc. We provide quality HVAC services to homeowners in the Greater Kansas City area and have done so since 1983.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Overland Park, Kansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

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