BY SCOTT GATES

Coffee cups in hand, the three people sit at the kitchen table reviewing columns of numbers, checking papers, looking over the clipboard that Jim Bennett brought in. Bennett points to one particular column on the clipboard.

“If you look right here at 2009, you’ll see your electricity use went up,” he notes. “That’s because last winter was 25 percent colder than the others here …”

Bennett, an energy management technician with Fredericksburg, Virginia-based Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, provides expert advice through a service offered to members by the vast majority of electric co-ops across Colorado and the nation: energy audits. His goal today, like that of energy auditors at Colorado electric co-ops, is to take a close look at a residence and the energy use habits of its occupants, then find ways to reduce monthly electric bills and improve home comfort.

“If you track kilowatt-hour use, it tells the story,” he explains. “If you keep kWhs down, you keep dollars and cents down.”

The main trick to lowering winter electric use involves keeping drafts out and warm air in. The process, called weatherization — sealing drafty windows and doors and adding insulation where it’s needed — gets houses in top form to withstand the elements. What’s more, it can save home owners hundreds of dollars a year in energy costs.

On average, weatherization reduces heating bills by 32 percent and overall energy bills by about $350 per year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The upfront investment in energy efficient upgrades can vary, although an energy advisor like Bennett can ensure money gets spent wisely.

Energy advisors, also called energy auditors, are professionals trained to find specific inefficiencies in a home or business. Working through a checklist of tests, they can determine what upgrades would offer the most bang for the buck in each particular case.

“All homes are unique,” Bennett relates. “It’s just a matter of evaluation. I’ll talk to a member — find out what they do, how they use energy, and narrow things down from there.”

Recognizing the money-saving value in energy audits, electric cooperatives are longtime champions of the process. A strong majority of electric co-ops nationwide, 77 percent, offer residential energy audits to their consumers. A full 92 percent sponsor energy efficiency education programs, according to the Cooperative Research Network, the research arm of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

“Within two to four hours, an energy auditor can go through a home and work up a full list of recommended energy efficiency upgrades,” Brian Sloboda, CRN senior advisor, points out. “With an arsenal of tools at their disposal to find even the slightest draft, energy auditors are well worth the expense. Typically, audits cost about $300, or, in some cases, they are free to co-op members.”

A standard energy auditor’s tool kit includes a variety of equipment to determine the energy efficiency of a structure. Thorough audits often use blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in a building, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect drafts and missing insulation.

Infrared cameras can be used both inside and out to spot a range of inefficiencies, including air leaks, insulation effectiveness and even abnormally hot electrical or mechanical components.

“Infrared scanning is often used with a blower door running, which helps exaggerate leaking air,” Sloboda says. “The air leaks appear as black streaks in the infrared camera’s viewfinder — easier to spot than wisps of smoke from a candle.”

An auditor will also pay close attention to how lighting is used, the age and number of appliances and any other details that may be adjusted to improve a home’s energy efficiency.

Although most electric co-ops provide energy audits or access to an energy advisor of some kind, some home owners may not be able to afford the more expensive improvements recommended. Identifying that a home needs extra insulation or new windows is one thing, but actually paying for and installing these upgrades involves some financial commitment on the part of the home owner.

For this reason, the U.S. Department of Energy established its Weatherization Assistance Program in 1976. The program helps low-income families increase energy efficiency in their homes — thereby saving bundles in monthly energy bills — by providing both an energy audit and funds to make the upgrades.

The Weatherization Assistance Program has provided services to more than 6.2 million families over the last three decades, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. With a boost from the federal stimulus package, that number keeps steadily increasing.

Households with incomes at or below 200 percent of the national poverty level are eligible for the program. For a family of four, that’s an income limit of $44,100. The stimulus bill allows for an average of $6,500 to be spent on each home. Program participants receive professional energy consultation; workers then arrive to insulate walls and roofs, seal air leaks and install more efficient heating and cooling systems.

The program covers all those who are under the set income limit, whether they own or rent and live in a single-family home, multi-family housing complex or a mobile home. Those wishing to participate should contact their country department of social services or visit www.cdhs. state.co.us/leap. “It’s important that we do this right, and invest the money in the smartest way possible,” Steve Chu, Secretary of Energy, stresses.

Energy auditors like Bennett agree: Whether it’s a new house or old, large or small, there are always inefficiencies to be found.

“You’re most likely to find the problems and the inefficiencies in the tightest, nasty parts of the attic and crawl space —the spots where most home owners just don’t know to look,” Bennett says. “We’ll get in there. If there’s a problem, we’ll find it.”

Scott Gates writes on consumer and cooperative affairs for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the Arlington, Virginia-based service arm of the nation’s 900-plus consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives.