A home sustainability assessment can help to identify where you can make the biggest energy and water savings in your home, reduce your impact on the environment and save money.
The assessment will involve an inspection of major energy and water systems, heating and cooling, lighting, refrigeration, cooking and entertainment systems. The assessor will also examine water efficiency (indoors and outdoors). This information is entered into an assessment tool to calculate your environmental impact and provide suggestions for improvement. Your assessor may look at your previous energy bills.
Home assessments usually only take an hour or two depending on how much information you can supply, the size of your property and the number of energy and water systems you have.
Find an assessor
- Research energy and water assessors and search for rebates and assistance for home assessments in your area.
- Check your preferred assessor’s qualifications and experience. Have a look at some of their previous assessment reports and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
- Ask your assessor what sort of things to have ready for the assessment. For example, your energy bills and water usage for the past 12 months as well as any building reports or house plans.
- Check if you are eligible for other rebates and assistance to help you save energy and water at home.
Receive a tailored report
After a home assessment you should receive a tailored report advising the most effective changes for your home. The recommendations may contain a range of practical recommendations such as:
- things you can do to save energy and water without spending any money, like taking shorter showers and switching off unused appliances at the power point
- small and cheap solutions like draught-proofing your home or installing water flow regulators and aerators to your taps or showerheads
- bigger investments like installing insulation, rainwater tanks or a greywater system.
Get started
When you receive your home assessment report:
- act immediately on things you can do without spending money
- consider small and cheap solutions straight away
- plan for bigger investments.
