This advanced feature is under construction. First, you will enter energy bills for the past twelve months as well as brief information about your home or facility (year built, type of heating and cooling systems, approximate floor area, etc.). EnergyCAP will then statistically correlate your energy usage with the matching degree days in each billing period, determine if there is a valid correlation between usage and weather, and create an equation (a mathematical model) that indicates the daily base load (the non-weather portion) and the weather factor (the usage per degree day). This functionality is available today within EnergyCAP software; the estimated completion date for the Web-based tool is October 2006.
Our degree day technique is a simplification that yields acceptable results in most circumstances and only requires monthly utility bills and daily mean temperature data. Any more rigorous and accurate calculation technique is far more expensive and complex.
http://www.energycap.com/weather/
Energy audit your home in the internet.
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If you are looking to satisfy your curiousity with a ballpark audit, this program might be interesting. I guess I don't see the point though, as your bills will already tell you what you are paying. Anyone can look up HDD's for their climate right now but it won't predict the future OR tell you where your house is losing energy with any amount of accuracy. As gas and electric are scheduled (not expected, but scheduled) to increase from now through 2012, I would recommend focusing on legitimate and accountable ways to reduce usage and waste in your specific home. Professional audits can range from 200-600 bucks but if done by a qualified company/individual, can show you ways of reducing your utility bills by up to 60% or beyond instead of just telling you what you already know... you are spending too much. Measuring temperatures will NOT determine usage as they do not incorporate windloads and thus pressure differences or infiltration/exfiltration. Using product R-values (as done by other programs as well), is also highly innaccurate as is does not incorporate loss from poor pressure boundaries.
This is NOT a corner worth cutting. In the time it takes you to enter the approximate data for this or any internet program, you can call and schedule a professional audit and wind up with results that can make a tremendous difference. As a multi-ceritfied auditor/rater and one of the national leaders in this field, I can tell you that this is not a get rich quick scheme and there is little or NO profit in the testing procedures for the certified organizations. Many receive state funds to pick up the lapse and others simply consider it a respectable marketing tool which bares expense. If you wish to make a secured investment difference in your home, then do so with the help of qualified organizations.
This is NOT a corner worth cutting. In the time it takes you to enter the approximate data for this or any internet program, you can call and schedule a professional audit and wind up with results that can make a tremendous difference. As a multi-ceritfied auditor/rater and one of the national leaders in this field, I can tell you that this is not a get rich quick scheme and there is little or NO profit in the testing procedures for the certified organizations. Many receive state funds to pick up the lapse and others simply consider it a respectable marketing tool which bares expense. If you wish to make a secured investment difference in your home, then do so with the help of qualified organizations.