Webquest : Performing an Energy Audit for a Residential Structure

1. Webquest:Performing an Energy Audit for a Residential Structure Saranac Lake High School Technology and engineering education Mr. Sorgule

2. introduction • A home energy assessment, also known as a home energy audit, is the first step to assess how much energy your home consumes and to evaluate what measures you can take to make your home more energy efficient. An assessment will show you problems that may, when corrected, save you significant amounts of money over time. • During the assessment, you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy. Energy assessments also determine the efficiency of your home's heating and cooling systems. An assessment may also show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity. You can perform a simple energy assessment yourself, or have a professional energy auditor carry out a more thorough assessment. • The task is to compile a Home Energy Audit Checklist which a person could use to conduct a home energy audit on their own

3. Task • You will use the internet as your primary source of information • All found results will be compiled into a Microsoft excel spreadsheet • Compile a checklist of 20 things to look for when conducting an energy audit of a residential building • Underneath the checklist item provide a brief description of what it is you are looking for and why • Next to both items provide a rating scale of the item being looked at (1-5, 5 being the best) • Include a space for making comments • At the bottom of the spreadsheet include a blank for totaling up the energy audit score (_______/ 100)

4. Process • Compile a checklist of 20 things to look for when conducting an energy audit of a residential building (include a link to the source of information) • Underneath the checklist item provide a brief description of what it is you are looking for and why • Next to both items provide a rating scale of the item being looked at (1-5, 5 being the best) • Include a space for making comments • At the bottom of the spreadsheet include a blank for totaling up the energy audit score (_______/ 100) • Compile into a Microsoft excel spreadsheet

5. Examples and help • Search engines such as google, dogpile, and yahoo work on key phrases. • Start with searching for home energy audits, then narrow your search by looking just at kitchen energy audit for specific information. • Example website • This example website has a small checklist, yours will be formatted differently but the information will be similar.

6. Resources • Google.com • Dogpile.com • Yahoo.com • http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_audits -Good Primer • http://hes.lbl.gov/consumer/ -Interesting points

7. Evaluation 100 TotalPoints Quality of Information 30 Points Excel Spreadsheet 30 Points Degree of Expertise 40 Points • Pictures or Diagrams • Complete Information • Clearly Explained • Layout • Appearance • Ease of use • Simplicity of information • Ability to answer questions • General Know-how of the • procedures on the checklist

8. Conclusion • Now that you have successfully researched and organized a checklist for home energy audits your skills for detecting potential cost savings at home will be that much greater. • Don’t let this be the end of your research into saving energy. To further your knowledge of energy saving use the checklist you’ve created at your own home and report the findings. Not only will you be putting your energy theories to practice, you may end up lowering your home operating cost to boot!

9. Teachers • This project is intended for a high school level technology and engineering education class. To prepare students for this webquest, first go over rating a website for credibility, triangulation of websites, search engines, and basics of Microsoft excel. • This project should take 4-5 class periods of 38 minutes. • A follow up project could be changing the checklists to focus on commercial buildings and performing an energy audit on the local high school building.