By JEANNE B. PINDER
PELHAM, N.Y. — My house, a 1922 colonial with plaster walls, a gas boiler and 34 windows, looks from the outside like a solid citizen with thrifty ways. But step a little closer and you will find unexplained drafts, a chilly kitchen and winter heating bills that have gone as high as $450 a month. With a household budget so tight it squeaks and the cost of gas expected to climb 40 percent, I decided it was time to bring in an expert.
That expert arrived one morning in mid-October bearing Ghostbusters-style cases and gauges and wearing a T-shirt emblazoned "City Scrap." He introduced himself in a soft Barbadian accent as Henderson Callender, an energy auditor at the Community Environmental Center, a nonprofit group in Queens that makes house calls under a state program, Home Performance With EnergyStar.
The program, begun as a pilot in 2001, now serves the entire state. By October, it had audited nearly 9,000 homes, saving each an average of $600 a year in return for an average of about $8,000 in improvements. Other states and municipalities have similar programs, many listed at energystar.gov under "home energy analysis."
Mr. Callender's tallying of energy leaks and lapses would cost $350, but that would be deductible from the cost of any repairs done by his state-accredited group. We started with a basic rundown of the house, including the cold kitchen and the appliances - all recent models and reasonably energy-efficient, I told him. He nodded, took notes and went to work.
Mr. Callender examined the gas boiler, 15 years old and rather dusty, but not yet wheezing. He pronounced it 78 percent efficient ("22 percent of your heating dollars are going up the chimney"), pretty typical for a boiler that age.
On to the kitchen, which sits over a dirt-floor crawl space. In vain efforts to remedy the cold, I had caulked and weatherstripped windows and a door leading to a patio, insulated the floor, replaced the sweep under the door and added a threshold bolstered by a rolled-up rug. Nothing seemed to work.
Mr. Callender opened a trapdoor to the crawl space and said darkly, "I feel a cool breeze." Somewhere, he suspected, cracks were inviting in cold air.
Upstairs in the kitchen, Mr. Callender asked politely, "Is this house insulated?"
Well, I don't know, I said, mumbling something about Styrofoam under the siding, and maybe a previous owner, and ... umm ... He fixed me with a solid gaze and said: "The first thing - the first thing - is to insulate the walls. It's like putting a blanket around the house."
After pulling out one of his monitors, he discovered that the stove leaked gas whenever it was on. "First time in 10 years of doing this I've seen that happen," he said, edging away. I made plans for a new stove - and a new gas and carbon monoxide detector.
On the second floor, Mr. Callender used his palm to check the temperature of a plaster wall. "Feel how cool that is?" he asked, adding that the presence of plaster often means that a house is so old that it has no insulation.
Imagine my relief when he discovered signs of insulation in the attic.
Back downstairs, he did a blower door test: He hauled out an adjustable metal frame with a vinyl covering and a circular opening, set the frame into an open doorway, inserted a powerful fan in the opening and proceeded to suck air from the house. A gauge reported a number meaning "not very airtight": further evidence that insulation was absent.
As Mr. Callender prepared to leave, he gave it to me straight. Along with insulating the walls and ceilings of first-floor rooms that jut out, he recommended insulating the pipes that carry water to and from the boiler and cleaning the boiler. He would also have foam sprayed into the cracks in the crawl space, and its earth floor covered with plastic to keep out cold and moisture. Replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs would help, he added; written report to follow.
Later I spoke to Peter R. Smith, president of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which runs the EnergySmart program. (Those interested in participating can go to getenergysmart.org, click on the blue logo that says "Home Performance With Energy Star" and then "Locate a B.P.I.-certified home performance contractor near you.")
Contractors must be certified to take part, he stressed, and audits are done "from a whole-house perspective," measuring not only energy efficiency but also comfort (how cold can you stand it?), affordability (how much can you pay for heat?) and health (are there gas or carbon monoxide leaks?).
In addition to the rebate of the audit cost, if the auditor then makes the improvements, the program offers a cash incentive of 10 percent of the costs (up to $3,000) if the homeowner pays out of pocket. Low-interest loans are available, along with grants of up to $5,000 for households whose incomes fall below 80 percent of the state median.
As for me, I plan to have the Community Environmental Center (cecenter.org) clean the boiler (about $100), seal the cracks ($750) and possibly insulate some of the first-floor ceilings ($699). With the $350 rebate, the 10 percent incentive (about $150), and the hope of savings of maybe $400 this winter, that seems the way to go. I'll insulate the pipes myself and switch to compact fluorescents.
What I won't do right away is sink $11,900 into 34 new windows. And I'm on the fence about insulating all the walls: Mr. Callender said that if I do the first floor now (about $2,300), and the rest in 2006 (about $2,200), it will help a great deal. And if I wait until after Jan. 1, I can apply for a new federal energy tax credit of $500.
Meanwhile I know more about my house and am even feeling virtuous about my energy-related expenditures. With my soon-to-be-warmer kitchen - and a new stove - I'll spend more time with my children baking cookies this winter, and let the winds whistle outside instead of indoors.
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