What’s the largest single opening in most houses – the garage door. Usually the garage is attached to the house and often has living space above it. This is a very large, mostly unconditioned, space that can directly affect the heating / cooling costs for your home.
The Energy Independence and Security Act was signed into law on 12/19/07. There are a couple of key items in that bill that should benefit all of us. Probably the biggest news item was the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standard being raised. The law sets the new target at 35 miles per gallon for the combined fleet of cars and light trucks by model and it has to be reached by the year 2020. Also included in the bill were provisions to raise the energy efficiency standards for a broad range of lights and appliances. This includes regular light bulbs and fluorescent lamps additionally efficiency standards were set for external power supplies, and the majority of major home appliances.
A somewhat controversial piece was the Renewable Fuel Standard.
One really quick and easy energy saving project is to insulate your water heater tank. After heating and cooling, water heating is typically the largest energy user in the home because hot water is used for so many activities.
If your water heater was built prior to 2004 it can most likely benefit from an insulating blanket. This is a thick fiberglass blanket, secured around the tank by waterproof tape. If you don’t know when your water was built, touch it. A tank that’s warm to the touch needs additional insulation. Be sure to check the owner’s manual for your water heater. Some newer models specifically recommend that you do NOT use a heater blanket. If your manual doesn’t mention blankets (or you’ve lost the manual) and you can feel heat on the outside of the heater it can probably use a blanket.
There is nothing quite like the image of a warm fire burning in the fireplace on a cold winter night. Unfortunately the reality is that while it looks very nice it is not very efficient for providing heat or all that green. Testing conducted by a major laboratory revealed that between 80 percent and 90 percent of the heat produced by wood burned in an open fireplace is lost up the chimney. This means that for every $100 you spend for firewood, you get only $10 to $20 worth of heat. The rest goes up in smoke.
Many people with swimming pools run their pool pumps from six to twelve hours per day or more up to 365 days a year. The pumps consume a fair amount of energy on a continual basis, often they are the second largest energy user in the home (behind air conditioning). There is a better solution though, two-speed pumps. If you cut the speed of the pump in half, it will pump half as much water which means it will have to run twice as long to pump the same total volume - where is the savings in that? Well the fact is that the pump will pump half the
amount of water, but the load on the motor is reduced much faster (by the cube of the speed). So you save a bunch of energy - as an example a single speed motor running for 8 hours per day will consume around 6200 kWh per year while a two speed motor will run for a total of 14 hours per day (to pump the same amount of water) but will only consume around 3400 kWh per year. That’s around a 45% savings!
There are a number of companies that manufacture two speed swimming pool pumps. So go take a look.
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Sealing air leaks can save big money! Air leaks can account for 30 percent or more of a home’s heating and cooling costs. It can also cause moisture problems and allow a host of other undesirable elements (dirt, bugs, noise) into your house. By minimizing the air leaks in your house you can significantly reduce your heating and cooling costs. According to the Federal Government’s Department of Energy (DOE) it usually costs less than $200 to minimize the air leaks in an average house and the majority of the work can be performed by the homeowner. |
Annual Energy Costs for 1300 sq. ft. house
| Infiltration Rate | |||
| Atlanta | High | Low | Savings |
| Heating | $311 | $244 | $67 |
| Cooling | $196 | $178 | $18 |
Well, what can you do about it? Here are some relatively quick and easy steps.
Are you tired of having to dress in a HazMat suit to avoid being overcome with the itches? Dow has introduced a new line of insulation that finally gets rid of the itch factor. It comes in both R-13 and R-19 batt insulation form. It has the same look and the same insulating properties as traditional fiberglass insulation. They have replaced the fiberglass fibers with polyester fibers which are non-irritating. It has no formaldehyde binders, no acrylic binders and no borates, which are found in many other traditional insulation products, SAFETOUCH Fiberglass-Free Insulation is better for your family and for the environment. Despite the lack of borates, the insulation is formulated so that it does not provide a food source for mold.
How many environmentalists does it take to change a light bulb? Just look in the mirror! Swapping out your standard incandescent light bulbs for more energy efficient light bulbs is one of the easiest and quickest things you can change in your home. It can also have a sizeable impact on your overall energy consumption and associated expense. Electric lighting burns up to 25% of the average home energy budget, with the electricity used over the lifetime of a single incandescent bulb costing 5 to 10 times the original purchase price of the bulb itself.
