Free vs Paid Energy Audit in Louisiana: What You Actually Get for Your Money

Two very different services share the name “energy audit” in Louisiana. One is a walkthrough offered through a utility programme. The other is a diagnostic assessment using calibrated instruments, carried out to a published national standard.

Both are legitimate. They answer different questions, and choosing the wrong one wastes either your money or your time. Here is what separates them.

The free version: a utility programme walkthrough

Utility efficiency programmes commonly offer a no cost assessment as the front door to their rebates. The visit is typically a visual survey with some direct install of low cost items, and its purpose is to identify which programme measures your home qualifies for.

In New Orleans, that programme is Energy Smart, created by the New Orleans City Council and administered by Entergy New Orleans. Programme offerings, measure lists and income qualified options change from one programme year to the next, so ask Energy Smart directly what the current year includes before you book. The programme line is 504-229-6868. That is the programme’s number, not ours.

Outside Entergy New Orleans territory, the picture is different. The statewide Entergy Solutions programme wound down in late 2025 and had no announced restart date as of March 2026, so homeowners in the rest of Louisiana should confirm current status with their own utility rather than assume a programme exists.

What a free assessment is good for:

• Finding out which rebates you qualify for.
• Getting low cost direct install items handled at no charge.
• A first look at obvious problems.

What it usually is not:

• An instrumented measurement of your house.
• A prioritised improvement plan with costs attached.
• Independent of the programme’s own measure list.

The paid version: a diagnostic audit to a national standard

A paid audit is a building science assessment. The reference standard is ANSI/BPI-1100, the Home Energy Auditing Standard, which defines the minimum criteria for a building science based whole building assessment covering energy use plus aspects of durability, comfort, health and safety.

The standard’s defining output is a comprehensive list of prioritised recommendations with a cost benefit analysis. That is the difference you are paying for. You are buying a decision, not an inspection.

The Department of Energy describes the same process. An assessor analyses your energy bills, completes visual, health and safety inspections, and uses equipment such as a blower door and an infrared camera to detect sources of energy loss, working room by room through the house.

One thing to be clear about: the standard defines what the assessment has to cover and what the report has to deliver. It does not turn every individual test into a universal requirement for every job, and audit scopes genuinely differ between providers. Treat the list below as what a thorough audit uses, and as the checklist to run through when you are comparing quotes.

The instruments a thorough audit uses:

• Blower door. A calibrated fan is sealed into a doorway and depressurises the house, which reveals how leaky the envelope is overall and lets the auditor locate individual leaks while the fan runs.
• Duct blaster. Measures how much conditioned air the duct system is losing, which in a house with ducts in a hot attic is often the largest single loss.
• Infrared camera. Shows temperature differences across surfaces, which pinpoints missing insulation and leak paths a blower door alone cannot locate.
• Combustion safety testing. Checks that gas appliances are venting properly, which matters more after air sealing, not less.

Side by side

Which one do you need?

Start with the free assessment if your main goal is to capture rebates, your house is reasonably new, and you do not have a specific comfort complaint you are chasing.

Pay for the diagnostic audit if any of these are true:

• You have a comfort problem you cannot explain, such as one room that never cools or a house that feels damp at the right temperature.
• You are about to spend a significant sum on insulation and want it aimed rather than guessed.
• Your ducts run through an unconditioned attic and you have never had them tested.
• You are buying a house and want to know what you are inheriting.
• You want documentation of the house before and after work.

The two are not mutually exclusive. Taking the free assessment for the rebate paperwork and commissioning a paid audit for the plan is a perfectly sensible sequence.

What a paid audit costs

We are not going to quote a flat figure, because the honest answer is that it depends on the house. The scope drives the price: square footage, how many storeys, whether there is a crawl space, how many HVAC systems and duct runs need testing, and whether you want infrared imaging and combustion safety testing included.

Two things worth knowing about the money:

Ask what the fee includes before booking. Specifically: is a blower door test included, is duct leakage measured, do you receive a written report, and does the report rank recommendations by return.

The federal tax credit no longer applies. The 25C federal energy efficient home improvement credit, which previously offset part of the cost of a home energy audit and of insulation work, is terminated for property placed in service after 31 December 2025. Any page still promising 30 percent back on an audit or on insulation is out of date. Do not budget around it.

For what a full assessment covers on our side, see our energy audits service page, and blower door testing if you want the measurement on its own.

How to prepare for either visit

The Department of Energy’s advice is practical and applies to both types. Before the assessor arrives, make a list of existing problems such as condensation and drafty or uncomfortable rooms, and have copies or a summary of the home’s yearly energy bills ready.

Add two local items to that list: note which rooms are worst in August rather than in January, since cooling season is the real test here, and note anything you already know about the attic and the crawl space.

Red flags when hiring

• No blower door on the truck for a job sold as a full diagnostic audit.
• A report that lists recommendations without any ranking or cost context.
• A quote for the fix arriving before any measurement has been taken.
• Pressure to sign for work at the end of the assessment visit.
• Refusal to explain which standard the assessment follows.

An auditor who also sells insulation is not automatically a conflict, and plenty of good work is done that way. The test is whether they will show you the measurements behind the recommendation. If you want to understand what you should be asking a contractor generally, our post on why you should hire an insulation contractor covers the ground.

Frequently asked questions

Ask what an audit would cover on your house

Star Spray Foam works on homes across New Orleans. If you want to know what a diagnostic audit would include for your property before you commit, get in touch.

Star Spray Foam
5826 Louis XIV St, New Orleans, LA 70124
504-229-6500

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