CSI Your Home: Introduction to Energy Auditing (CSI - Conserve, Save, Invest)

Americans often view energy efficiency as a political or ideological issue which only has passing relevance to their personal lives. CSI Your Home offers an alternative view: that consumption of energy is determined by lifestyles and habits.

The authors encourage young readers to examine the unintentional crimes which they and their families commit in their homes. In the process of solving these crimes, they will make an immediate difference in energy output - and contribute to their family budgets.

CSI Your Home guides readers through a series of exercises to help them reduce energy consumption, cut down on water waste, recycle garbage and use more efficient transportation. Structured as a non-technical energy audit, this 95-page volume presents engaging, fun projects for science classrooms or youth organizations. CSI Your Home is written and illustrated in accessible language, keeping high school students, families with limited budgets, and English Language Learners in clear focus. Readers are shown how to write case studies, form Energy Action Teams, make presentations to elected officials and form (or join) energy-aware consumer networks.

CSI Your Home was written by teachers, and edited by scientists and a commercial energy auditor. The primary authors are a father-daughter team of educators, Amy Rude and John Rude.

Amy teaches English at City High School, an innovative charter school in Tucson, Arizona.

John is an administrator at East Los Angeles College, with decades of experience teaching English and technical writing.

Dr. Armando Rivera-Figueroa, a chemistry professor, was trained at University of California-Irvine and directs science and technology research projects in Los Angeles.

Professor John Grimmer, instructor of geology and earth science, wrote the Environmental Education curriculum for the Los Angeles Community College District.

Terrence Redd owns and operates Energy Services and Technologies, Inc., a California firm that has performed thousands of audits for low and middle income home-owners.