Here is how to read a home energy audit report without a specialist standing next to you: start with the blower door number, because it tells you how leaky the house is as a whole. Then read the priority list, which ranks fixes by impact, not by which trade wrote them. Everything else, the room-by-room notes, the infrared photos, the equipment ages, is supporting detail that explains why the priority list is ordered the way it is. Air sealing findings almost always come before insulation findings, and insulation almost always comes before equipment replacement.
What Is Actually Inside the Report
A professional home energy audit report from a certified auditor usually has four parts. The first is a summary page with the blower door result and an overall efficiency score. The second is a room-by-room or system-by-system findings section, often illustrated with photos from a thermographic (infrared) camera showing cold spots at the rim joist, attic hatch, or window frames. The third is a combustion safety and carbon monoxide test result for any gas or oil appliance in the house. The fourth is a prioritized list of recommended improvements, sometimes with a rough cost and savings range attached.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a professional energy audit involves a room-by-room examination of the home along with a review of past utility bills, and the efficiency upgrades identified typically save 5 to 30 percent on a monthly energy bill (energy.gov, read 2026-09-18). That range is wide because it depends on how leaky and underinsulated the house was to start with, not on any single upgrade.
Start With the Blower Door Number
The blower door test is the backbone of most reports. A technician mounts a calibrated fan and frame into an exterior doorway, depressurizes the house, and measures how much air the shell leaks at a set pressure difference. The result is usually reported as ACH50 (air changes per hour at 50 pascals) or CFM50 (cubic feet per minute at 50 pascals). ENERGY STAR's Home Performance Assessment describes this test as the way an auditor establishes the home's overall airtightness before recommending any air sealing or insulation work (energystar.gov, read 2026-09-18).
A single blower door number does not tell you where the leaks are, only how much total leakage exists. The report should pair that number with a leak-location list. If the report gives you a number with no locations attached, ask the auditor for the room-by-room notes before you plan any work.
The Insulation Findings: Where the Heat Is Actually Leaving
Insulation findings are usually listed as gaps against a target R-value for your climate zone, often citing the IECC as the baseline. Code adoption varies by state and county, so treat the IECC reference as a benchmark, not a legal requirement, and confirm current adoption with your local building department before assuming a number applies to your address.
Common findings in this section include an undersized or missing rim joist band, a knee wall with no air barrier behind the insulation, and a garage ceiling under a bedroom with gaps around plumbing and wiring penetrations. If your report flags a cold rim joist, the fix usually involves rigid foam or closed-cell spray foam against the band joist itself; our guide to insulating a rim joist walks through the two approaches a homeowner can do by hand. A knee wall flagged as a hot-in-summer, cold-in-winter space usually needs an air barrier before more insulation, which is the order our knee wall insulation guide covers.
Air Leakage Locations and Why the Order Matters
The leak-location list is where most reports earn their fee. Expect entries for the attic hatch, recessed lights, plumbing and wiring penetrations, the rim joist, and any dropped soffit over cabinets. A crawl space with an open vent and exposed dirt floor is a frequent entry too, and the report should say whether it recommends sealing and encapsulating that space or keeping it vented, since the two approaches use different materials and different moisture assumptions; see crawl space insulation: vented vs encapsulated for how that decision gets made.
Read the leak list in the order the report gives it, not the order that looks easiest. A small gap at a can light in a bathroom ceiling can move more air than a large gap in a garage wall, because stack effect pulls air upward through the highest leaks in the house first. Once the top leaks are sealed, a caulk, backer rod, or foam gap gets matched to its width; our guide to matching sealant to gap size explains which material fits which opening.
The Combustion Safety and Carbon Monoxide Test
Before any other recommendation in the report, check that a combustion safety test was actually run if the house has a gas or oil furnace, water heater, or fireplace. A blower door test depressurizes the house, and that same depressurization can pull combustion gases backward through a flue instead of letting them vent outside, a condition called backdrafting. A qualified auditor tests for this with a combustion analyzer and a carbon monoxide meter, and the report should state a pass or fail result for each appliance, not just a general comment.
If the report does not mention a combustion safety test and your home has any gas or oil appliance, ask the auditor why one was not performed before signing off on the rest of the findings. A working carbon monoxide detector on every level of the home is a baseline safety step regardless of what the report says, and it does not replace the appliance-specific test a trained auditor runs.
Reading the Cost and Savings Estimates
Cost and savings figures in an audit report are estimates built from the home's specific test data, local climate, and your utility rates, not a guarantee. Treat any number in the report as a range tied to those inputs, and be skeptical of a report that gives a single hard dollar figure with no assumptions listed behind it. A credible report shows its work: the square footage, the current R-values, the blower door result, and the utility rate used to calculate the estimate.
We will not restate a specific dollar-savings figure here beyond the DOE range already cited above, because a number that is not tied to your home's own test data is not useful to you. If your report includes a payback period, check whether it accounts for financing costs, rebates, or just the raw project cost against the estimated annual savings.
Turning Findings Into a Work Order
Once you have read the summary, the blower door number, and the priority list, convert the findings into a sequence rather than a shopping list. Air sealing findings come first, because sealing after insulating traps moisture and voids some of the insulation's performance. Attic and rim joist air sealing usually leads the list, followed by insulation upgrades in the areas the report flagged as under target, followed by any equipment or duct work the report separated out. A basement wall flagged for heat loss, for example, is typically an insulation-stage item rather than an air-sealing item; our guide to insulating basement walls with rigid foam covers the moisture considerations that go with that stage.
Keep the report itself as your reference document through the whole project. Photos from the thermographic scan are useful for confirming a fix worked, since a follow-up scan or a second blower door test after the work is the only way to verify the leak is actually closed, not just theoretically addressed.
When a Finding Needs a Licensed Trade
Some findings in the report describe work that goes beyond what a homeowner should do without a license: anything involving the gas supply line to an appliance, structural changes to roof framing, and refrigerant work on an HVAC system. If the report flags a furnace, water heater, or any gas appliance for repair or replacement, that scope goes to a licensed HVAC technician or gas fitter, not a DIY fix. This article describes what the report means, not who to hire for the work; choosing a specific contractor is a decision only you can make, based on your own vetting, your local licensing requirements, and quotes you gather yourself.
FAQ
What is a good blower door result on an energy audit report?
There is no single "good" number that applies to every home, because the target depends on your home's size, age, and climate zone. Compare your result to the auditor's stated baseline for a home like yours, and ask what the number would need to be to meet current code for new construction in your area, which the auditor can tell you even if your home is not held to that code.
Do I need to fix everything on the priority list at once?
No. The list is ordered by impact and sequence, not by urgency in every case. Air sealing items are usually the lowest-cost, highest-return step and make sense to do first regardless of budget; insulation and equipment items can be phased in over subsequent years.
Why does my report separate air sealing from insulation?
Because sealing the air leaks first prevents moist indoor air from being pushed into wall or attic cavities, where it can condense against new insulation. Insulating a leaky cavity without sealing it first can trap that moisture and reduce the insulation's real-world performance.
Can I read the report without the auditor walking me through it?
You can, but a good auditor should walk through the summary and the priority list with you regardless. If technical terms like ACH50 or R-value are not defined anywhere in the document, ask for a version that defines them, or ask the auditor directly before you act on the findings.
Does the report tell me which contractor to use?
No, and it should not. A report from an independent auditor describes findings and options; it is not an endorsement of any specific contractor or brand of material. Selecting who does the work is a separate decision that stays with you.