Energy test guide · verified October 12, 2026
Bill analysis: start with the energy you already paid for
Your utility bills are a record of how your home actually uses energy, month by month. They’re what savings predictions should be checked against, and Green Button lets customers of participating utilities download that history in a standard format.
What happened to the Home Energy Yardstick
ENERGY STAR’s Home Energy Yardstick appears to be retired. Its former address now sends an HTTP 302 redirect to ENERGY STAR’s general “Energy Savings at Home” page, which doesn’t mention the Yardstick. We found no official retirement notice.
Sources: Former Yardstick address ↗, ENERGY STAR, energy savings at home ↗ · verified October 12, 2026
Get your data with Green Button
Green Button is an industry-led effort launched in January 2012, based on NAESB’s Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) standard. DOE’s page still cites early commitments from more than 50 utilities covering over 60 million homes and businesses, and the Green Button Alliance offers certification testing for Green Button platforms.
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Look for Green Button in your utility account
“Download My Data” gives you a file of your usage in a standard format. “Connect My Data” lets you authorize automatic transfer to a third party, with your opt-in consent.
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Get a full year
A full year of bills, for electricity and any gas, oil or propane, covers every season the house goes through.
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Share it with your auditor
Ask that savings estimates be calibrated to it; BPI-2400 is BPI’s standard for doing that.
Sources: DOE Green Button (updated May 14, 2026) ↗, Green Button Alliance ↗, BPI standards ↗ · verified October 12, 2026
What to look for
- How usage rises and falls with the seasons, against the months when you barely heat or cool.
- Big jumps from one year to the next with no change in how you live in the house.
- Whether any savings estimate you’re given was calibrated to these bills.
No official source publishes a price for a bill analysis, so we don’t quote one. The Home Energy Planner and rebates and programs pages pick up from here.
Source: BPI standards ↗ · verified October 12, 2026
If the bills look high
- Book an assessment with a blower door test and an infrared scan to find where the energy goes.
- Replacing heating or cooling? Ask for a Manual J load calculation first.
Common questions
Is ENERGY STAR’s Home Energy Yardstick still available?
It appears to be gone. Its former address now redirects to ENERGY STAR’s general “Energy Savings at Home” page, which doesn’t mention the Yardstick. We found no official retirement notice.
Sources: ENERGY STAR ↗, ENERGY STAR ↗ · verified October 12, 2026
What is Green Button?
An industry-led effort, launched in January 2012, that lets utility customers download their own usage data in a standard format (“Download My Data”) or authorize automatic transfer to third parties with opt-in consent (“Connect My Data”). It’s based on NAESB’s Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) standard.
Source: DOE ↗ · verified October 12, 2026
How can I tell whether a savings estimate is realistic?
Ask whether it was calibrated to your actual bills. BPI-2400-S-2015 v.2 is BPI’s standard for calibrating savings predictions to past bills.
Source: BPI ↗ · verified October 12, 2026
Can I still claim the federal tax credit for an energy audit?
Probably not for a 2026 audit. The IRS page says the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (30% of qualified costs, up to $150 for a home energy audit of your main home) is allowed for qualifying property placed in service on or after January 1, 2023 and before December 31, 2025. That 2026 audits don’t qualify is our reading; the IRS page doesn’t address them directly.
Source: IRS ↗ · verified October 12, 2026
Sources
Every source below was opened and checked on October 12, 2026. A date in a source’s name is the “last updated” date shown on that page.
- ENERGY STAR: former Home Energy Yardstick URL (now redirects to /saveathome) ↗
- ENERGY STAR: Energy Savings at Home ↗
- DOE: Green Button ↗
- Green Button Alliance ↗
- BPI: Standards (ANSI/BPI-1100-T-2023, ANSI/BPI-1200-S-2017, BPI-2400) ↗
- IRS: Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (reviewed Apr 28, 2026) ↗
Bills higher than they should be?
Tell us your ZIP code and a rough idea of your monthly bills. A person reads every message and replies with certified auditors and utility programs that serve your area.