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Rappahannock homeowners can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on next winter's heating bills by using a new computerized home energy analysis, a Virginia Tech physicist says.
By filling out a four-page questionnaire, a homeowner can receive a free computer printout which tells how much it will cost to weatherproof various parts of the house and how much money each weatherproofing operation will save in a year.
“Some people could save thousands of dollars over a few years by spending a few hundred,” says Samuel P. Bowen, an associate professor of physics at Tech and assistant director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research.
If enough people follow the computer’s recommendations, annual savings across the state could amount to millions of dollars, he said.
Brown said he and computer programmer Janet Faith developed the home energy analysis because, “We want to give people a tool to deal with energy problems by themselves.”
This is how it works:
The homeowner picks up a questionnaire from Rap Owings, Rappahannock's Virginia Tech extensions agent or requests one from the State Office of Emergency and Energy Services in Richmond (phone toll free 1-800-552-3831).
The form includes simple but detailed questions about the type of house, its condition, type of heating, location, and room. A set of instructions accompanies the form, but Bowen said Owings and Home Demonstration Agent Nancy Secrist will help people who have trouble filling it out.
Homeowners mail the questionnaire in a postagepaid envelop to Virginia Tech, where the information is fed into a computer. They receive the home energy analysis in a two-page S computer printout.
The printout includes an estimate of annual heating cost with no improvements to the house.
The estimate is based on current prices for fuel and electricity and on average temperatures for each region of the state. Bowen believes estimates for standard types of houses are at least 85 per cent accurate. The printout estimates the amount of energy lost through specific parts of the house, such as walls, floors, ceilings, windows and doors. Heat loss in the various
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