Retrofitting my 1978 ranch house took 11 tries before the energy audit made sense

I wanted to cut my heating bill in Connecticut, so I started with weatherstripping and attic insulation. Then windows, then a smart thermostat. After 11 separate projects over 2 winters, my bill dropped maybe 12 percent. Then I paid $450 for a full energy audit with a blower door test, and the guy found my biggest leak was the rim joist in the basement, which I never even thought about. Two cans of spray foam and a tube of caulk fixed it in an afternoon. Has anyone else done a ton of small projects first and then realized the audit should have come before all of it? What did your audit flag that you missed completely?

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josephf101d ago

...and honestly that reminds me of something I read a while back about how most houses leak more air through the basement rim joist than all the windows combined. I never woulda guessed that either, but it makes sense now cause all that heat rises and the cold air just creeps in along the sill plate. I did the same thing you did, replaced two old windows and added outlet gaskets before I finally paid for the blower door test, and turns out my biggest issue was the attic hatch not sealing up right. Took me like twenty minutes with some foam tape and now my upstairs doesn't feel like a wind tunnel in January...