Home Energy Quick Audit Checklist

Score your home's energy readiness in 60 seconds. Check what's already true in your home and get personalized next steps.

What this checklist does

Most people who want to lower their energy bill don't know where to start. There are dozens of possible changes, and the "best" one depends on your home, your budget, and what you've already done. This 60-second checklist narrows it down.

You check off what's already true for your home — LED bulbs, sealed drafts, thermostat schedule, and so on. The score tells you how far along you are, and the checklist links take you to the specific guide for each item you haven't done. No account, no email, no data stored.

How the score works

The 10 items are not equally valuable. LED bulbs and thermostat schedules tend to save the most for the effort. Draft sealing pays back fastest in winter. Smart power strips are the easiest to install. But all 10 are worth doing eventually, so we weight them equally for simplicity.

What your score means

• 80–100%: You're already a home-energy pro. Focus on maintenance (cleaning coils, checking seals seasonally) and small refinements.
• 50–79%: Solid foundation. Pick the unchecked items with the highest impact — usually thermostat and drafts first.
• Below 50%: Lots of easy wins available. Start with LED bulbs and a programmable thermostat; they pay back fastest.

Suggested order of operations

If you're starting from a low score, don't try to do everything at once. Here's the order we recommend, based on cost per dollar saved:

1. LED bulbs — $30–$60 upfront, saves $120–$200/year, payback under 6 months.
2. Thermostat schedule — free (or $40 for a programmable thermostat), saves $100–$150/year.
3. Draft sealing — $40–$80, saves $80–$250/year.
4. Water heater to 120°F — free, saves $40–$80/year.
5. Smart power strips — $30–$50 each, saves $75–$150/year.
6. Cold-water washing and air-drying — free, saves $50–$120/year.
7. Fridge coils and seals — $0–$40, saves $50–$100/year.
8. Ceiling fans — already installed in most homes, saves $50–$100/year.
9. Meter reading — free, but the point isn't savings, it's tracking the others.
10. Phantom-load elimination — often overlaps with #5, but worth doing separately if you have lots of small devices.

Sources and methodology

The estimated savings ranges come from U.S. Department of Energy (Energy.gov) program data, the EPA's Energy Star program, and independent studies cited in our individual how-to articles. The order-of-operations ranking is based on cost-per-dollar-saved, calculated from typical U.S. prices and average usage. We update this checklist when new data becomes available.

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Frequently Asked Questions