Home Energy Assessment Toolkit (HEAT)

Determine how energy is used in your home

The Home Energy Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) supplies residents of the City of St. Albert with tools, tips and strategies to determine how energy is used in the home. It’s a Do-It-Yourself home energy audit!

Why Would I Want to Use It?

The total home energy use in a typical Alberta home looks like this:

Pie chart showing - home heating - 63%; home cooling - 2%; water heating - 19%; fridge and freezers - 7%; other appliances and stand-by energy - 5%; lighting - 4%

With the HEAT toolkit, you can find out how efficiently you use energy in each of these key areas. An energy-efficient home will reduce your carbon footprint and save you money in the short and long term.

What Does the Toolkit Contain?

HEAT comes in a carrying case that includes the following:

Photo of the inside of a heat toolboxFront cover of the HEAT Home energy assessment toolkit instruction manual

  1. Digital Timer
    A timer is required for several tools such as the Drip Gauge, Hot Water Temperature Strip Card, and Flow Meter Bag.
  2. Drip Gauge
    The drip gauge will help you calculate how much water can be wasted in a year from leaky faucets.
  3. Hot Water Temperature Strip Card
    Detects the temperature of the water flowing from your taps to ensure that the amount of energy used to heat your water isn’t hotter than it needs to be.
  4. Refrigerator/Freezer Thermometer
    Checks if your fridge and/or freezer are running at optimal temperature. The colder the interior temperature of these appliances, the more energy is being used.
  5. SD Card
    Optional device for the IR Thermometer - if you’d like to save your heat maps, you can save them to the SD card so they can be transferred onto a computer or other device.
  6. USB Charger
    Used to charge the IR Thermometer if needed.
  7. Flow Meter Bag
    In tandem with the Digital Timer (1), this bag is used to measure the flow rate from a water fixture in litres per minute.
  8. Infrared (IR) Thermometer
    Locate heat-loss trouble areas, even in hard-to-reach places.
  9. Kill-A-Watt Meter
    Measures the amount of electricity used by your appliances and electronics when they are operating fully, on standby, or using an alternate setting, such as an eco-setting.
  10. HEAT Manual
    The manual inside each kit uses simple, step-by-step instructions for each tool, “HEAT High Five” tips for reducing energy consumption, as well as links to useful resources to give you everything you need to reduce heating and water usage-related costs in your home.

How Do I Get It?

Three toolkits are now available to borrow from the St. Albert Public Library - one more to be added soon!

To sign out a toolkit, visit the St. Albert Public Library and place one on hold. Once you sign out a kit to examine energy use in your apartment, condo, or house of any size, you have two weeks to have fun with it!

Who Can Answer My Questions?

If you have any questions or comments as you work through HEAT, please let us know. We are happy to help.

Last edited: June 30, 2022