Home Energy Audit in Towson, MD — Diagnose Drafts & Unlock BGE Rebates
Why This Homeowner Called
The homeowner had two complaints that had been going on for years. First, a BGE bill that had climbed to $800 — hard to justify for a house this size. Second, the second floor was noticeably colder than the first floor, no matter how high the thermostat was set.
Both problems turned out to have the same root cause.
What the Audit Found
The audit started with a blower door test. We depressurize the house to a standard pressure and measure how much air is flowing through every unintentional gap, crack, and opening in the building envelope. This home tested at 3,432 CFM50 — a meaningful number that tells us the house is losing a significant amount of conditioned air.
But the blower door number is just the starting point. The real value is in what the pressure diagnostics and infrared camera reveal once the house is under pressure.
An Attic That Was Working Against the House
The attic had approximately four inches of loose blown insulation — already well below the R-49 Maryland Energy Code recommends for attics. But the condition made it worse. The insulation had settled, shifted, and degraded over sixty years to the point where it was providing minimal thermal resistance.
What made this attic especially problematic wasn’t just the insulation — it was what was in the attic.
The second floor of this home is served by a heat pump located in the attic. That means the equipment responsible for heating the upstairs was sitting in an unconditioned space exposed to whatever temperature the attic reached — well below freezing on cold nights, well above 100°F in summer. Any heat the system generated was partially lost before it ever reached the living space.
It also explained the cold second floor. Heat pumps rely on electric resistance backup heat (sometimes called auxiliary or emergency heat) to supplement heating capacity in very cold weather. On this home, the backup heat wasn’t functioning — meaning on the coldest nights, when the heat pump alone couldn’t keep up, there was nothing to compensate. The second floor got cold and stayed cold.
Missing Insulation Only Visible With an Infrared Camera
During the blower door test, we ran an infrared camera through the attic and found something that wouldn’t have been visible any other way: a 20-square-foot section where insulation was completely absent. This section of missing insulation was underneath boarding and was surrounded by insulation.
This is why a visual inspection alone isn’t enough. A contractor who walks into an attic and eyeballs the insulation would have missed this entirely.
The Attic Floor Wasn't Sealed
Beyond the insulation, the attic floor had no air sealing. Gaps around electrical penetrations, plumbing chases, and framing connections were allowing conditioned air from the living space to flow directly into the attic. Insulation slows heat transfer — but it doesn’t stop air movement. Without sealing those bypasses first, adding more insulation on top would have been only a partial fix.
Rim Joist — Unsealed and Uninsulated
In the basement, the rim joist — the band of framing that sits on top of the foundation wall and supports the first floor — had never been insulated or air sealed. On a house this age, that’s common. It was original construction, and in 1964 nobody was thinking about rim joist performance. Today it’s one of the most cost-effective places to add insulation because the area is accessible, the improvement is durable, and the thermal impact is immediate.
Windows
The windows were original single-pane with storm windows added at some point — a period-appropriate upgrade that was the best available solution at the time. They were leaky and well past their service life. We noted them in the report, but given the cost of full window replacement on a house this size, we focused the recommendations on improvements with a faster return. Addressing the attic and rim joist first was the right financial decision for this homeowner.
What We Recommended
The solution for this home wasn’t to add more insulation to the attic floor. With an HVAC system living in the attic, the better approach was to convert the attic to conditioned space by insulating and air sealing the roofline and gable walls. This brings the entire attic — equipment included — inside the thermal envelope of the house. The heat pump is no longer fighting against a frozen attic. Ductwork losses drop. The system runs more efficiently and the backup heat issue becomes far less critical.
Specific scope:
- Roofline: Open-cell spray foam to R-38
- Gable walls: Open-cell spray foam to R-21
- Rim joist: Open-cell spray foam to R-21
Open-cell foam was the right choice here for two reasons: it provides both insulation and air sealing in a single application, and its flexibility makes it well-suited for older framing that has shifted and settled over sixty years.
Projected Outcome
Based on the audit data and BGE’s modeling, this scope of work is projected to save the homeowner $838 per year in energy costs — essentially eliminating one full month’s BGE bill annually. That improvement compounds every year going forward.
The work also qualifies for BGE’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR rebate program, which can significantly offset the project cost. Because Leonard Home Performance is a BGE-approved contractor, we handle the rebate paperwork directly — the homeowner doesn’t have to navigate that process on their own.
Does Your Towson Home Have the Same Issues?
This home isn’t unusual for Towson. The neighborhoods around Ruxton, Lutherville, and the older parts of Towson proper are filled with Colonial Revivals, center-hall Colonials, and split-levels built between 1955 and 1975. These homes share common characteristics:
- Original attic insulation that has never been replaced or upgraded
- Attic floors with no air sealing — gaps that have been open for decades
- Rim joists that were never insulated
- HVAC systems that have been upgraded over the years but are working harder than they need to
- Single-pane windows, often with storms added later
If your BGE bills are higher than you’d expect, one part of your house is harder to heat or cool than another, or you’ve been told you need a bigger HVAC system — an energy audit is almost always the right first step before spending money on anything else.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our energy audit is $100, which is partially offset by BGE for eligible customers. The audit includes a full blower door test, infrared camera inspection, combustion safety testing, and a written report with prioritized recommendations and projected savings figures for each measure.
Most audits in a home this size take two to three hours. We test the whole house — not just the attic — and walk you through the findings before we leave.
Yes and no. We assess your HVAC equipment as part of the audit and note issues like the non-functioning backup heat we found in this home. But our recommendations focus on the building envelope first — insulation, air sealing, rim joist — because fixing those issues often reduces the load on your HVAC system enough that replacement becomes less urgent or unnecessary.
BGE’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program offers rebates for insulation, air sealing, and related improvements when the work is completed by an approved contractor. As a BGE-approved contractor, we handle the paperwork and the rebate is applied directly to your project cost. See our BGE & PEPCO rebates page for more detail on how the program works.
Not always. Whether to insulate the attic floor or the roofline depends on whether you have HVAC equipment or ductwork in the attic. If the attic is truly empty — no equipment, no ducts — insulating the floor is often simpler and less expensive. If there’s equipment up there, encapsulating the roofline is usually the better long-term investment. The audit tells you which approach makes sense for your specific situation.
We serve all of Towson and the surrounding areas including Ruxton, Lutherville, Timonium, Cockeysville, and throughout Baltimore County. Our office is located in Towson at 745 Weatherbee Rd.
Schedule Your Towson Energy Audit
If you own a home in Towson built before 1980, there’s a high probability it has the same combination of issues we found here — and a high probability that fixing them will pay for itself within a few years through lower BGE bills.
The audit is $100. The findings are specific to your home. The recommendations come with projected savings figures so you know exactly what you’re deciding before you spend anything.