Trusted Home Energy Audit for San Antonio Homeowners
A home energy audit in San Antonio typically costs between $200 and $500 for a full diagnostic assessment, and it pinpoints exactly where your home is leaking air and wasting electricity. Most audits take two to three hours, and the findings usually save homeowners 15% to 25% on annual utility bills once recommended fixes are made. Walt’s Insulation has performed energy audits across Bexar County since 2000, and we’re the home performance contractor that shows up on time, walks you through the findings in plain English, and lets you decide what to fix first. Call (866) 751-4428 any time. A live person answers, day or night.
What Our Home Energy Audit Service Includes
We don’t hand you a clipboard and a carbon-copy report. Our San Antonio energy audits use real diagnostic equipment and trained eyes to find the problems most homeowners can’t see. Here’s what we check and measure.
Blower Door Test
A blower door test measures how much air leaks through your home’s shell. We mount a calibrated fan in an exterior door frame, depressurize the house, and record the airflow needed to hold that pressure. The number tells us the exact square footage of holes in your building envelope, which is the single most useful metric in every San Antonio energy audit we perform. Most homes we test have the equivalent of a window left wide open year round. The fix usually costs less than a season of overcooling an attic.
Thermal Imaging Inspection
We use an infrared camera to map surface temperatures across your ceilings, walls, floors, and duct runs. The camera shows us exactly where insulation is missing, compressed, or wet, and where air is moving through cavities it shouldn’t be. Thermal imaging catches problems that a blower door alone cannot, like a voided cavity in a bay that got missed during original construction or a disconnected duct buried under blown-in insulation. We walk the house with you during the scan so you can see the hot spots on the screen in real time, not in a PDF you’ll never open.
Insulation Inspection
This is where two decades of attic work pays off. We check your attic insulation type, depth, and coverage against what San Antonio’s climate actually requires. The Department of Energy places Bexar County in climate zone 2A, which calls for R-38 to R-60 in attics. Most homes built before 2010 in neighborhoods like Alamo Heights, Stone Oak, and Helotes settle for R-19 or less. We also look for compressed batts, wind-washed areas near soffit vents, rodent damage, and moisture staining that signals a ventilation or roof leak. The inspection tells you whether you need to add insulation, replace it, or leave it alone.
Duct Leakage Test
If your ducts run through a hot attic, and most San Antonio ducts do, leaks are costing you real money. We pressure-test the duct system to measure how much conditioned air escapes before it ever reaches a register. The typical San Antonio home loses 20% to 30% of its air through duct leaks, gaps at boots, and poorly sealed plenums. A duct leakage test isolates that waste so you can decide if sealing or replacing is worth it. In older homes around Terrell Hills and Jefferson, we regularly find duct systems leaking enough air to pay for themselves in under three years after sealing.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
Brands We Service for Home Energy Audit
Walt’s Insulation works with insulation from CertainTeed and Icynene more than any other brands in the San Antonio area. We’ve inspected and retrofitted hundreds of homes insulated with CertainTeed fiberglass batts and blown-in products, and we know their R-value performance in our humid, hot climate better than most. When we find CertainTeed insulation that was installed wrong or settled over time, we can tell you exactly what it will take to bring it back to spec.
We also install and audit homes with Icynene open-cell and closed-cell spray foam. Open-cell Icynene is common in San Antonio attics, and we know what proper installation looks like down to the adhesion, thickness, and off-gassing timeline. Demilec and GreenFiber are also products we work with regularly, and the same expertise applies. Whether your home has any of these brands or you have no idea what’s up there, we’ll identify it, test it, and tell you honestly what’s worth fixing.
Signs You Need Home Energy Audit Right Now
- Your summer electric bill tops $300, and your home never feels truly cool. San Antonio summers punish an under-insulated house. If your AC runs from noon to midnight in July and the thermostat still climbs past 78, you’re paying to cool the attic, not the living room. An audit shows exactly where the money is going.
- Some rooms are 5 to 10 degrees hotter or colder than the rest of the house. That temperature spread is almost always a duct problem or a dead spot in the insulation. You can add window units and fans for years, but the fix is in the building shell, and a thermal scan will locate it in half a morning.
- You can feel air moving around windows, outlets, or baseboards. Air you can feel is air you paid to condition. That draft means the pressure boundary of your home has gaps big enough that a blower door test will light up like a scoreboard. Sealing those gaps is often the cheapest energy improvement in the whole audit.
- Your attic smells musty, or you’ve seen signs of mice or rats. Rodent damage compromises insulation and creates entry points for hot, humid air. The droppings, shredded batts, and trampled areas you see during a quick look are only part of it. An insulation inspection shows how much of the material needs removal and replacement to restore performance.
- Your HVAC system is less than 10 years old, but the house still feels off. This one frustrates homeowners the most. A newer AC unit on a leaky house is like a strong heart in a weak body. The equipment is fine. The envelope is the problem, and a duct leakage test plus a blower door will prove it with numbers.
Our Home Energy Audit Process - Step by Step
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We start with a walkthrough and a conversation. You tell us what’s bothering you: the hot bedroom, the high bill, the drafty hallway. We walk the entire house inside and out, look at the attic access, the HVAC equipment, the ducts we can see, and note anything obvious before we set up equipment. This takes about 20 minutes and tells us where to focus the testing.
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We set up the blower door and run the depressurization test. The fan goes in an exterior door, the house gets pulled to a standard pressure of 50 pascals, and we measure airflow in cubic feet per minute. That number, divided by your home’s conditioned floor area, gives us the air changes per hour at 50 pascals. A good number for a San Antonio home is under 5 ACH50. A leaky one runs 10 or higher.
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We walk the house with the infrared camera and a smoke pencil. While the house is depressurized, outside air is being pulled through every gap. That’s when the thermal camera shows the temperature patterns and the smoke pencil shows air movement at outlets, can lights, baseboards, and attic hatches. We note every finding with photos so you can see it later.
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We test the ducts and check the attic insulation. The duct leakage test measures how many cubic feet per minute your duct system loses to the attic or crawl space. At the same time, we’re in the attic checking insulation depth, coverage, venting, and any sign of moisture or pests. If the crawl space needs a look, we check the vapor barrier and floor insulation too.
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We deliver the report and talk through the numbers in person. Before we pack up, we sit down with you and go over what we found. You get the report, but more importantly, you get a ranked list: this leaks, that needs insulation, here’s what it costs to fix, here’s what it saves. No pressure, no push. You decide what happens next. Call (866) 751-4428 to schedule one for your San Antonio home.
How Much Does Home Energy Audit Cost in San Antonio?
What affects the price: the home’s size, the age of the house, attic accessibility, and whether you have a crawl space or slab foundation. Homes with multiple HVAC systems or zoned ductwork take longer to test. We don’t mark up for brand names, and we don’t charge a trip fee inside our county. The free second opinion applies here too. If another contractor gave you a written estimate, bring it. We’ll review it with you at no cost. Call (866) 751-4428 for an exact quote. Estimates are free.
Home Energy Audit Near San Antonio - Our Service Area
Walt’s Insulation handles home energy audits across Bexar County and into the surrounding communities. We’re in San Antonio, Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills, Stone Oak, Helotes, Converse, Schertz, Universal City, and Boerne throughout the week. Most audits get scheduled within two or three business days, and same-day slots open up regularly. If you’re outside Bexar County, call and ask. We also serve the Houston area, including Home Energy Audit in Houston, Home Energy Audit in Spring, and Home Energy Audit in The Woodlands.
Serving San Antonio, TX - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Antonio area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
Frequently Asked Questions - Home Energy Audit in San Antonio
What is a home energy audit?
A home energy audit is a diagnostic assessment that measures exactly where your home loses energy, through air leaks, underperforming insulation, and leaky ductwork. We use a blower door, an infrared camera, and duct pressure testing to give you specific numbers, not vague recommendations. The result is a prioritized list of fixes with real costs and real savings attached.
How long does a home energy audit take?
A full audit on a typical San Antonio home takes two to three hours from the first walkthrough to the final report review. Larger homes, homes with crawl spaces, or homes with multiple AC systems can take up to four hours. We stay until you understand every finding, and we don’t watch the clock.
How much does a home energy audit cost in San Antonio?
Most San Antonio audits cost between $200 and $500, depending on the size of your home and how many tests you need. A blower door test alone runs $150 to $250. A full diagnostic with thermal imaging and duct testing is typically $350 to $500. Call (866) 751-4428 for a free estimate on your specific home.
Do you service homes with Icynene spray foam insulation?
Yes. We audit and work on homes with Icynene open-cell and closed-cell spray foam regularly, alongside CertainTeed, Demilec, and GreenFiber products. If your home has spray foam that was installed incorrectly or has settled, our thermal imaging can verify the condition and we can tell you what repair or replacement looks like.
Can you do an emergency energy audit?
If you have a sudden problem: a wet spot on the ceiling, a pest infestation in the attic, or a failed insulation job from another contractor, we can often get a technician to your home the same day. Call (866) 751-4428. A live person answers 24/7, and we’ll tell you straight if we can be there today or tomorrow morning.
Is your home energy audit work guaranteed?
Every audit and every fix we make is covered by our Done Right Promise. If something isn’t done right, we make it right. No runaround, no fine print. We’ve been doing this in San Antonio since 2000, and we stand behind the numbers we give you and the work we do after the audit.
How should I prepare my home for an energy audit?
You don’t need to do much. Close all windows and exterior doors before we arrive, turn off any combustion appliances if it’s safe to do so, and make sure we can access the attic hatch, the water heater, and the HVAC equipment. If you have pets, keep them in a room where the blower door won’t be set up. We handle the rest.
Schedule Your Home Energy Audit Service in San Antonio Today
If your energy bills have been climbing and you’re tired of guessing why, let’s find out for real. Call Walt’s Insulation at (866) 751-4428 and schedule your home energy audit in San Antonio. A live person answers, 24/7, not a voicemail. Your estimate is free, and you’ll get straight answers about where your home is losing energy and what it takes to fix it.
Written by Walt Brenner, Owner at Walt’s Insulation, serving San Antonio since 2000.