What does it mean to deliver energy audits?

An energy audit assesses the energy efficiency of a building or facility. The goal is to identify where energy is being wasted and give recommendations for energy-efficient technologies and practices that can reduce energy consumption and costs.

A community group can recruit trained energy auditors to deliver energy audits. The auditors will conduct energy assessments, collect data on energy usage, analyse the data, and prepare a report with recommendations for energy-efficient technologies and practices. Audits can target residential, commercial, industrial and public buildings.

With increasing availability of streamlined auditing software tools, energy audits of residential buildings can also be delivered by trained volunteers, although they may not be able to give such targeted advice.

There are numerous community groups in Australia that help their communities become more energy efficient issues and support the implementation of energy-efficient technologies and practices.

Benefits of delivering energy audits

By providing energy audits, households and businesses can receive (generally independent) advice that they can trust to guide their investment priorities. This is a great way to help those in your community save energy, reduce costs and significantly decrease the local carbon footprint.

The process of delivering energy audits can also help to build local relationships, as it creates opportunities for doorstep conversations. This can be particularly important for elderly residents who may have substantial social networks, and can have flow on effects for expanding participation in other community energy group activities.

In Victoria, Home Energy Scorecard assessments are now partly subsidised by Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates (VEECs), which will reduce the upfront cost and help to overcome the barrier to uptake of audits.

Some challenges of delivering energy audits

A full audit, such as a Home Residential Scorecard, typically costs a few hundred dollars (pre-subsidy). There is then no guarantee it will lead upgrades. This creates a hesitancy for site owners or those wishing to facilitate local uptake (like a community group or local government) to fund the process. Some local governments assist by paying for the audit process, as this in turn facilitate household investment in the upgrades.

Streamlined approaches to self-nominating major opportunities such as hot water systems, insulation, shading, or solar PV offer an alternative to eliminate auditing time and/or cost, and improve scalability of the model. Other software tools (see guides and resources) facilitate self-auditing. Both approaches require residents to know what energy systems or building features are installed on their premises, which may often not be the case.

If the resident is not covering the cost of the energy audit and grant funding is not available, recovery of the audit cost may need to be through a levy on implemented upgrades. Careful consideration of how to maintain independence in this circumstance is required, to avoid the group being seen to be pushing a particular technology or commercial provider. Deploying volunteers for auditing is possible to eliminate audit costs, albeit difficult to apply at scale.

When is delivering energy audits a good choice?

Delivering energy audits may be a good partnership opportunity with local government, where subsidies are offered, or when the local community has energy auditing skills already.

Community groups, given their strong local relationships, have the potential to be a trusted independent intermediary between site owners and local suppliers, to drive increased awareness and uptake in participation.

Related information in MyTown Energy

Arrange Bulk Buys for Solar or Hot Water

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Install Basic Energy Efficient Products

Sell Basic Energy Efficient Appliances

Facilitate Quotes from Trusted Suppliers

Other resources

Home Energy Scorecard - Website for Australia's residential energy efficiency rating programme, including guidance on how it works, finding an assessor, or becoming an assessor.

Ecologic - Free app to do a basic home energy audit