Left in the Cold

Was I wrong to assume this would be easy? Probably. Online resources for saving energy in the home have become increasingly abundant. I should be able to find a user-friendly DIY energy audit in a snap, I thought. The process of walking around with a clipboard and checking off the boxes where air is leaking in or appliances look too old would be perhaps time consuming, but fairly straightforward. And the audit would simply confirm what I already know—the front door leaks air like a sieve and the dishwasher is a total waterhog, but I can pat myself on the back for keeping appliances unplugged and deciding to install shiny new energy-efficient windows last summer.

Through my initial naive inquiries, I discovered that energy auditing is no longer a novel, grassrootsy fringe concept. It has not only become a widely-accepted money-saving process (which you can begin to do yourself with free government resources like the DOE site Dominica and Liz used), but also developed into a burgeoning industry linked to the bigger beast of the home improvement market. My explorations seemed to reveal that the world of energy auditing (whether DIY or through paid consultants) speaks mostly to single-family home owners; people who live in multifamily buildings (whether owners or renters) are left in the cold. (Buh-dum-ching!)

I attempted to dive right in and begin filling out the complex energy usage calculator at Home Energy Saver. Within the first page, I ran into several snags. There was no way to indicate that my hot water comes from a central boiler and not an individual water heater. I couldn’t tell the calculator that although my building has two floors, I occupy only the second floor. I entered the direction that my home faces, but there was no option to account for shared walls. When I searched the site to see if they had specific tools for condo and apartment dwellers, I got zippo (unless you count this 1994 article suggesting that the occupants of multifamily buildings—mainly minorities and the urban poor—have fallen short of the American dream of owning a single-family home).

Other sites gave the same results: the “Home Energy Checkup” from the Alliance to Save Energy includes a section on “limitations,” which states that the tool is designed for single-family homes. A video featuring Ecobeco, an energy consulting firm based in the DC area, showed the process being conducted on a single-family home. An internet search of the terms “energy audit multifamily” retrieved only 9,490 items while a search of “energy audit diy” brought back 34,600. The terms “energy audit” alone had a whopping 2.6 million results.

Home energy audits are an important gadget in the sustainability toolbox, but the industry’s current focus leaves out many people who want to make their living spaces more energy efficient. Most city dwellers don’t have control over all four walls, so what are urban ecological citizens to do? Individuals can get the ball rolling (to varying degrees for renters and owners), but community action is more important. Residents will have to get collective buy-in from neighbors in order to convince property managers and condo associations to act. Citizens can press local governments to pass ordinances like the one in Austin, Texas that requires multifamily properties to conduct energy audits. Although the process may be easier for single-family home owners, there may be added benefits for condo and apartment dwellers—an increased sense of community and co-ownership of the places they share.