A home energy audit is a diagnostic assessment of how your home uses and loses energy. An auditor walks the home, performs testing like a blower door test and thermal imaging scan, and identifies where heat is escaping, where air is leaking, and what’s driving high energy bills or comfort problems.

Common signs include high heating or cooling bills, rooms that are difficult to heat, drafts near windows or doors, ice dams forming on the roof, musty odors, or visible moisture in the basement or crawl space. If your home was built before 1980, there’s a good chance it would benefit from an audit even without obvious problems.

Costs vary depending on the size of the home and the scope of testing. We offer a free one-hour consultation as a starting point – at no cost, we can walk your home, talk through what you’re experiencing, and explain your options. A diagnostic energy audit with blower door testing and thermal imaging is a free service based on pre-qualification of Interest.

Efficiency Maine offers rebates on insulation and air sealing work completed after an energy audit – not on the audit itself. However, completing an audit is typically the required first step to qualify for rebates on home performance upgrades. Evergreen handles the rebate application process for our customers.

A full diagnostic audit with blower door testing and thermal imaging typically takes two to four hours, depending on the size of the home. Our free consultation is one hour. We cover timing expectations when you schedule.

The free consultation is a visual walk-through of your home – no equipment, no testing. We look at visible problem areas, talk through what you’re experiencing, and explain what a full audit would involve. A full energy audit includes diagnostic testing: a blower door test to measure air leakage and thermal imaging to see heat loss and cold spots inside the building assembly.

After the audit, you receive a clear report with findings and prioritized recommendations. If you decide to move forward with upgrades, Evergreen can complete the work – insulation, air sealing, basement moisture control, and more. We retest after the work is finished to confirm performance and submit the Efficiency Maine rebate application on your behalf.

Often yes. Ice dams are almost always caused by heat escaping through the attic – usually a combination of air leakage and inadequate insulation. Thermal imaging during the audit can locate exactly where the heat is getting through, and we’ll recommend the right insulation or air sealing work to address it.

Thermal imaging can reveal moisture inside wall and ceiling assemblies, and a blower door test can help identify areas where humid air may be entering the building envelope. If we find signs of moisture or mold, we’ll discuss those findings and what to do about them. Evergreen also offers mold solutions and basement waterproofing for homes where moisture is the primary issue.

Evergreen Home Performance serves Southern and Coastal Maine from two offices – Portland and Rockland. We cover most of the coast and interior from York County to Knox County, typically within about 45 minutes of each office. Call 207-594-2244 or send us a message to confirm we serve your area.

Yes. Our Portland office serves Greater Portland, the Lakes Region, and communities south along the coast. Our Rockland office covers the midcoast from Brunswick through Ellsworth. If you’re not sure whether we reach you, give us a call.

A blower door test uses a calibrated fan mounted in an exterior door frame to depressurize your home. By measuring how quickly air moves through the fan to maintain a pressure difference, we can calculate exactly how leaky your home is. It’s the most accurate diagnostic tool for measuring air infiltration, and it drives the recommendations for air sealing work.

Thermal imaging uses an infrared camera to detect temperature differences across walls, ceilings, and floors. Those differences reveal where insulation is missing, where cold air is infiltrating, and where heat is escaping. It makes invisible energy loss visible – which is especially useful in older Maine homes where insulation coverage is uneven.

Most homeowners only need one comprehensive audit. The findings give you a baseline for the home and a prioritized list of improvements. After major upgrade work, we retest to confirm performance – but you typically don’t need to start over with a new audit unless something significant changes in the home.