Superior Home Living
ENERGY TIPS FOR ALLAROUND THE HOUSE
NO-COST WAYS
TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY
Save money by reducing energy bills!
Turn off everything not in use: lights, TVs, computers, etc.
• Check the furnace or air conditioner (AC) filter each month, and clean or replace it as needed. Dirty filters block air flow through your heating and cooling systems, increasing your energy bill and shortening the equipment’s life.
• During hot months, keep window coverings closed on the south, east, and west windows. In winter, let the sun in.
• Glass fireplace doors help stop heat from being lost up the chimney. Also, close the fireplace damper when not in use.
• Activate "sleep" features on computers and office equipment that power down when not in use for a while. Turn off equipment during longer periods of non-use to cut energy costs and improve longevity.
• When cooking, keep the lids on pots. Better yet, use a microwave oven instead.
• Dress appropriately for the weather, and set your thermostat to the lowest possible comfortable setting. On winter nights, put an extra blanket on the bed and turn down your thermostat more.
• In summer, use fans whenever possible instead of AC, and ventilate at night this way when practical. Using fans to supplement AC allows you to raise the thermostat temperature, using less energy. Fans cost less to use than AC.
• About 15 percent of an average home energy bill goes to heating water. To save hot water, take five-minute showers instead of baths. Do only full loads when using the clothes washer or dishwasher. Use cold water for laundry and save up to $63 a year—detergents formulated for cold water get clothes just as clean.
• Lower the temperature on your water heater. It should be set at “warm,” so that a thermometer held under running water reads no more than 120 degrees.
• Only heat or cool the rooms you need—close vents and doors of unused rooms. LOW-COST WAYS TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY
• Install low-flow showerheads and sink aerators to reduce hot water use.
• Seal and weatherstrip your windows and doors to ensure that you're not wasting energy on heat or air conditioning that escapes through leaks to the outdoors.
• A water tank insulation wrap costs about $20 and helps hold the heat inside. Add pre-cut pipe insulation to exposed pipes going into your water heater—it is cheap and easy to install. If you’re starting with an uninsulated tank, the energy savings should pay for the improvements in just a few months.
• Duct tape works well on lots of things, but it often fails when used on ductwork! Use mastic (a gooey substance applied with a paintbrush) to seal all exposed ductwork joints in areas such as the attic, crawlspace, or basement. Insulate ducts to improve your heating system’s efficiency and your own comfort.
• Storm windows can reduce heat lost by single-paned windows by 25–50 percent during the winter. As an alternative, you can improve your windows temporarily with plastic sheeting installed on the inside.
• When buying new products, look for the ENERGY STAR® label, found on more than 40 different products such as TVs, furnaces, cell phones, refrigerators, air conditioners and more.
• Incandescent light bulbs are outdated; 95 percent of the energy used goes to heating the bulb, adding unwanted heat to your home in the summer. Replace your five most used light bulbs with ENERGY STAR compact fluorescent bulbs to save $60 each year in energy costs. These light bulbs use two-thirds less energy and last up to 10 times longer. Use dimmers, timers, and motion detectors on indoor and outdoor lighting.
• Consider safer, more efficient ENERGY STAR torchiere lamps rather than halogen torchieres, which can cause fires. Halogen bulbs are expensive to use. For more information and ways to save, visit: www.powerisinyourhands.org www.ase.org/consumers
THE ULTIMATE CHECKLIST
Save money by reducing energy bills WEATHERIZE & INSULATE save up to 20 percent of your heating and cooling costs
• Warm air leaking into your home during the summer and out of your home during the winter wastes money. A handy homeowner can seal up holes to the outside by weatherstripping doors and sealing windows and other gaps along the home’s foundation. A combination of air sealing and adding insulation to attics, basements, and crawlspaces provides tremendous energy savings and increased comfort.
• The easiest and most cost-effective way to insulate your home is to add insulation in the attic. If you have less than 6 or 7 inches, you can probably benefit by adding more. Most U.S. homes should have between R-38 and R-49 attic insulation. In order to achieve this, many homeowners should add between R-19 to R-30 insulation (about 6 to 10 inches). • Other effective places to add insulation include unfinished basement walls and crawlspaces. Insulating walls can be more complex, but it can be worthwhile to do if you have little or no insulation now. Check with a contractor for advice.
• Consider the ENERGY STAR® Home Sealing Program—the government’s information for sealing your home: www.energystar.gov/homesealing IMPROVE YOUR APPLIANCES & ELECTRONICS appliances account for about 20 percent of household energy use
• Appliances and electronics really add up on your energy bill. When it is time to replace, remember these items have two price tags: purchase price and lifetime energy cost. When shopping for new appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, etc.) and electronics (TV, computer, etc.), demand the ENERGY STAR label. ENERGY STAR is the government’s rating program that shows you which items are more efficient than typical models. ENERGY STAR items will save you money over the product’s useful life. IMPROVE YOUR WINDOWS efficient windows can lower your heating and cooling bills up to 30 percent
• If your home has only single pane windows, consider replacing them with low-e coated or ENERGY STAR windows. Alternatively, storm windows can reduce your winter heat loss by 25–50 percent. IMPROVE YOUR MECHANICAL SYSTEMS up to half of your energy bill goes just for heating and cooling
• Turn your heating or cooling down every night and whenever you leave home. Better yet—install an ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat and save about $100 each year; it adjusts the temperature automatically for you.
• When it’s time to replace your hot water tank, buy the most efficient one possible. Consider a tankless, on-demand system (these won’t work for everyone, so talk to your installer).
• An ENERGY STAR qualified furnace, when properly sized and installed, along with sealed ducts and a programmable thermostat, can save up to 20 percent on heating bills.
• When buying a new AC unit, look for a SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating) of 13 or higher on central systems and the ENERGY STAR label on room units. In arid climates, evaporative coolers are much more efficient (and less costly) than AC. They also add needed moisture to the air, while AC units further dry the air.
• Adding area heaters to warm just the occupied rooms in your home will enable you to keep the rest of your home at cooler, more economical temperatures.
LANDSCAPE
Save $100-$250 each year
• Trees that lose their leaves in the fall give protection from the summer sun and permit winter sunlight to reach and warm your home. Plant trees on the south, east, and/or west sides of your home. Be sure to shade the AC unit. Create a windbreak with evergreen trees and shrubs to stop chilling winds.
TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY
Save money by reducing energy bills!
Turn off everything not in use: lights, TVs, computers, etc.
• Check the furnace or air conditioner (AC) filter each month, and clean or replace it as needed. Dirty filters block air flow through your heating and cooling systems, increasing your energy bill and shortening the equipment’s life.
• During hot months, keep window coverings closed on the south, east, and west windows. In winter, let the sun in.
• Glass fireplace doors help stop heat from being lost up the chimney. Also, close the fireplace damper when not in use.
• Activate "sleep" features on computers and office equipment that power down when not in use for a while. Turn off equipment during longer periods of non-use to cut energy costs and improve longevity.
• When cooking, keep the lids on pots. Better yet, use a microwave oven instead.
• Dress appropriately for the weather, and set your thermostat to the lowest possible comfortable setting. On winter nights, put an extra blanket on the bed and turn down your thermostat more.
• In summer, use fans whenever possible instead of AC, and ventilate at night this way when practical. Using fans to supplement AC allows you to raise the thermostat temperature, using less energy. Fans cost less to use than AC.
• About 15 percent of an average home energy bill goes to heating water. To save hot water, take five-minute showers instead of baths. Do only full loads when using the clothes washer or dishwasher. Use cold water for laundry and save up to $63 a year—detergents formulated for cold water get clothes just as clean.
• Lower the temperature on your water heater. It should be set at “warm,” so that a thermometer held under running water reads no more than 120 degrees.
• Only heat or cool the rooms you need—close vents and doors of unused rooms. LOW-COST WAYS TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY
• Install low-flow showerheads and sink aerators to reduce hot water use.
• Seal and weatherstrip your windows and doors to ensure that you're not wasting energy on heat or air conditioning that escapes through leaks to the outdoors.
• A water tank insulation wrap costs about $20 and helps hold the heat inside. Add pre-cut pipe insulation to exposed pipes going into your water heater—it is cheap and easy to install. If you’re starting with an uninsulated tank, the energy savings should pay for the improvements in just a few months.
• Duct tape works well on lots of things, but it often fails when used on ductwork! Use mastic (a gooey substance applied with a paintbrush) to seal all exposed ductwork joints in areas such as the attic, crawlspace, or basement. Insulate ducts to improve your heating system’s efficiency and your own comfort.
• Storm windows can reduce heat lost by single-paned windows by 25–50 percent during the winter. As an alternative, you can improve your windows temporarily with plastic sheeting installed on the inside.
• When buying new products, look for the ENERGY STAR® label, found on more than 40 different products such as TVs, furnaces, cell phones, refrigerators, air conditioners and more.
• Incandescent light bulbs are outdated; 95 percent of the energy used goes to heating the bulb, adding unwanted heat to your home in the summer. Replace your five most used light bulbs with ENERGY STAR compact fluorescent bulbs to save $60 each year in energy costs. These light bulbs use two-thirds less energy and last up to 10 times longer. Use dimmers, timers, and motion detectors on indoor and outdoor lighting.
• Consider safer, more efficient ENERGY STAR torchiere lamps rather than halogen torchieres, which can cause fires. Halogen bulbs are expensive to use. For more information and ways to save, visit: www.powerisinyourhands.org www.ase.org/consumers
THE ULTIMATE CHECKLIST
Save money by reducing energy bills WEATHERIZE & INSULATE save up to 20 percent of your heating and cooling costs
• Warm air leaking into your home during the summer and out of your home during the winter wastes money. A handy homeowner can seal up holes to the outside by weatherstripping doors and sealing windows and other gaps along the home’s foundation. A combination of air sealing and adding insulation to attics, basements, and crawlspaces provides tremendous energy savings and increased comfort.
• The easiest and most cost-effective way to insulate your home is to add insulation in the attic. If you have less than 6 or 7 inches, you can probably benefit by adding more. Most U.S. homes should have between R-38 and R-49 attic insulation. In order to achieve this, many homeowners should add between R-19 to R-30 insulation (about 6 to 10 inches). • Other effective places to add insulation include unfinished basement walls and crawlspaces. Insulating walls can be more complex, but it can be worthwhile to do if you have little or no insulation now. Check with a contractor for advice.
• Consider the ENERGY STAR® Home Sealing Program—the government’s information for sealing your home: www.energystar.gov/homesealing IMPROVE YOUR APPLIANCES & ELECTRONICS appliances account for about 20 percent of household energy use
• Appliances and electronics really add up on your energy bill. When it is time to replace, remember these items have two price tags: purchase price and lifetime energy cost. When shopping for new appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, etc.) and electronics (TV, computer, etc.), demand the ENERGY STAR label. ENERGY STAR is the government’s rating program that shows you which items are more efficient than typical models. ENERGY STAR items will save you money over the product’s useful life. IMPROVE YOUR WINDOWS efficient windows can lower your heating and cooling bills up to 30 percent
• If your home has only single pane windows, consider replacing them with low-e coated or ENERGY STAR windows. Alternatively, storm windows can reduce your winter heat loss by 25–50 percent. IMPROVE YOUR MECHANICAL SYSTEMS up to half of your energy bill goes just for heating and cooling
• Turn your heating or cooling down every night and whenever you leave home. Better yet—install an ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat and save about $100 each year; it adjusts the temperature automatically for you.
• When it’s time to replace your hot water tank, buy the most efficient one possible. Consider a tankless, on-demand system (these won’t work for everyone, so talk to your installer).
• An ENERGY STAR qualified furnace, when properly sized and installed, along with sealed ducts and a programmable thermostat, can save up to 20 percent on heating bills.
• When buying a new AC unit, look for a SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating) of 13 or higher on central systems and the ENERGY STAR label on room units. In arid climates, evaporative coolers are much more efficient (and less costly) than AC. They also add needed moisture to the air, while AC units further dry the air.
• Adding area heaters to warm just the occupied rooms in your home will enable you to keep the rest of your home at cooler, more economical temperatures.
LANDSCAPE
Save $100-$250 each year
• Trees that lose their leaves in the fall give protection from the summer sun and permit winter sunlight to reach and warm your home. Plant trees on the south, east, and/or west sides of your home. Be sure to shade the AC unit. Create a windbreak with evergreen trees and shrubs to stop chilling winds.
ENERGY FACT SHEET
The average household will spend roughly $4300 on all energy costs in 2005 (includes home energy bills and gasoline), about $600 more than it paid in 2004—and 2006 is projected to be even more costly.
• The average household will spend almost $1900 on home energy costs in 2005.
• Heating and cooling costs account for one-half or more of a typical home’s total energy bill.
• The average household will spend about $2400 on gasoline in 2005.
• According to the Department of Energy, modest increases in energy efficiency, including insulation, would eliminate the need for 600 new power plants.
• With gas heating costs expected to rise by roughly $300 per household, and heating oil costs projected to increase by around one-fifth this winter, simple things such as sealing, weather stripping, proper insulation, and programmable thermostats stand to have a dramatic effect on consumer energy costs.
• A programmable thermostat could save up to $100 per year on utility bills.
• An ENERGY STAR® qualified furnace, when properly sized and installed, along with sealed ducts and a programmable thermostat, can save up to 20 percent on heating bills.
• For each degree you lower your thermostat in winter, you can save up to 5 percent on the heating portion of your energy bill, depending on the climate where you live.
• An ENERGY STAR qualified furnace will use about 15 percent less energy than a standard model.
• If just 10 percent of U.S. households replaced their old heating and cooling equipment with an ENERGY STAR qualified model, and ensured that it was sized and installed properly, it would prevent the equivalent emissions of more than 17 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.
• The average home produces twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as the average car. New homes with the ENERGY STAR label are certified to use at least 30 percent less energy than required by the national model energy code and 15 percent less energy than the state energy code.
• If every U.S. household replaced just one incandescent bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified fluorescent bulb, it would save enough energy to light 7 million homes and save $600 million in utility bills.
• The average home has 2 televisions, a VCR, a DVD player and 3 telephones. If these items were replaced with ENERGY STAR qualified models, it would save more than 25 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road for a year.
• Households that replace existing equipment with ENERGY STAR qualified products can cut annual energy bills by 30 percent, or more than $500 per year.
• When you make energy efficiency part of your everyday activities, you are reducing energy demand. Reducing demand means that less natural gas, coal and other resources are needed to produce energy. This means less greenhouse gas emissions and cleaner air for all of us—and cost savings for you.
• Businesses across the U.S. are doing their part to improve their energy efficiency. Many are working with the EPA’s ENEGY STAR program to ensure that their buildings use 40 percent less energy than the average building. They are educating their employees about the value of saving energy at home and at work.
• Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, consumers and businesses can receive tax incentives for specific energy-efficiency upgrades to homes and commercial buildings, such as upgrades to home insulation and windows and commercial building lighting improvements. In addition, the law includes tax credits for energy- saving technologies such as hybrid vehicles, appliances, heating and cooling systems, solar energy systems, and high-efficiency new home and commercial building construction.
For more information and ways to save,
visit:http://www.powerisinyourhands.org/
The average household will spend roughly $4300 on all energy costs in 2005 (includes home energy bills and gasoline), about $600 more than it paid in 2004—and 2006 is projected to be even more costly.
• The average household will spend almost $1900 on home energy costs in 2005.
• Heating and cooling costs account for one-half or more of a typical home’s total energy bill.
• The average household will spend about $2400 on gasoline in 2005.
• According to the Department of Energy, modest increases in energy efficiency, including insulation, would eliminate the need for 600 new power plants.
• With gas heating costs expected to rise by roughly $300 per household, and heating oil costs projected to increase by around one-fifth this winter, simple things such as sealing, weather stripping, proper insulation, and programmable thermostats stand to have a dramatic effect on consumer energy costs.
• A programmable thermostat could save up to $100 per year on utility bills.
• An ENERGY STAR® qualified furnace, when properly sized and installed, along with sealed ducts and a programmable thermostat, can save up to 20 percent on heating bills.
• For each degree you lower your thermostat in winter, you can save up to 5 percent on the heating portion of your energy bill, depending on the climate where you live.
• An ENERGY STAR qualified furnace will use about 15 percent less energy than a standard model.
• If just 10 percent of U.S. households replaced their old heating and cooling equipment with an ENERGY STAR qualified model, and ensured that it was sized and installed properly, it would prevent the equivalent emissions of more than 17 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.
• The average home produces twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as the average car. New homes with the ENERGY STAR label are certified to use at least 30 percent less energy than required by the national model energy code and 15 percent less energy than the state energy code.
• If every U.S. household replaced just one incandescent bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified fluorescent bulb, it would save enough energy to light 7 million homes and save $600 million in utility bills.
• The average home has 2 televisions, a VCR, a DVD player and 3 telephones. If these items were replaced with ENERGY STAR qualified models, it would save more than 25 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road for a year.
• Households that replace existing equipment with ENERGY STAR qualified products can cut annual energy bills by 30 percent, or more than $500 per year.
• When you make energy efficiency part of your everyday activities, you are reducing energy demand. Reducing demand means that less natural gas, coal and other resources are needed to produce energy. This means less greenhouse gas emissions and cleaner air for all of us—and cost savings for you.
• Businesses across the U.S. are doing their part to improve their energy efficiency. Many are working with the EPA’s ENEGY STAR program to ensure that their buildings use 40 percent less energy than the average building. They are educating their employees about the value of saving energy at home and at work.
• Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, consumers and businesses can receive tax incentives for specific energy-efficiency upgrades to homes and commercial buildings, such as upgrades to home insulation and windows and commercial building lighting improvements. In addition, the law includes tax credits for energy- saving technologies such as hybrid vehicles, appliances, heating and cooling systems, solar energy systems, and high-efficiency new home and commercial building construction.
For more information and ways to save,
visit:http://www.powerisinyourhands.org/
Energy Audit
An energy survey or audit of your home’s energy usage and costs identifies specific energy efficiency measures appropriate to reduce your home energy bills.
The Department of Energy and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab have developed a Home Energy Saver audit tool that can give you a more detailed estimate of your total energy use, as well as savings estimates for various energy efficiency options. You can also find listings of energy-efficient appliances, and other resources. This is an Internet-based tool, so you don’t need to download any software.
The Department of Energy offers good information about your choices when it comes to your home energy audit.
An energy survey or audit of your home’s energy usage and costs identifies specific energy efficiency measures appropriate to reduce your home energy bills.
The Department of Energy and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab have developed a Home Energy Saver audit tool that can give you a more detailed estimate of your total energy use, as well as savings estimates for various energy efficiency options. You can also find listings of energy-efficient appliances, and other resources. This is an Internet-based tool, so you don’t need to download any software.
The Department of Energy offers good information about your choices when it comes to your home energy audit.
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