It happens every winter: Homeowners find themselves torn between the need to keep their homes and family comfortable and the dread of having to pay increasing energy bills.
Understandably so, because the bulk (43% in average) of a typical home’s total energy consumption is spent in heating and cooling. Another 12% is spent in water heating. That means over half of what you pay every month goes toward making your home livable. Thus, a small increase in heat and hot water consumption can easily result in an unmanageably high utility bill.
The best way to avoid unpleasant surprises on your next bill is to do anything you can to take control over your home’s energy consumption, rather than let it control you.
Fortunately, since our understanding of building science and performance has significantly improved over the past few years, taking control over your energy consumption no longer means wearing heavy sweaters and layers of blankets indoors, skipping showers, or risking frost bite while doing the dishes.
It also doesn’t mean you need to cough up a large sum to upgrade every single system in your home at once to be able to reap any significant savings in energy. There are a few very small and very affordable steps you can take right now, for little or no money, which can help you save a few dollars almost immediately.
1– Let the sun shine in
Nature has provided us with a free, environmentally friendly and all-natural heat source: the sun. Opening the curtains and letting the sun shine in during the cold winter months, and then taking every step to optimize and conserve that heat gain is a great way to stay warm for less. Windows are excellent conductors of radiant heat from the sun, so seal, weather strip and caulk any openings around the window and window sill and open up the curtains during the day.
2 – Stop overheating your water
If you have to run the cold water along with the hot water to keep from being scorched in the shower, your water heater is working much more than it should. And it is consuming more energy than needed. Manufacturers usually set the thermostat to temperatures as high as 140 degrees. That is about 20 degrees higher than necessary. By turning down your thermostat and reducing the water temperature only 10 degrees, you can save 3 to 5% in water heating costs.
3 – Wrap your water heater
Touch your water heater tank. If it feels warm to the touch, it is loosing heat. That means the water will eventually cool down and be reheated over and over, whether you are using it or not. It happens 24/7, 365 days a year, when you are sleeping, and when you are not home. You are paying for it every single time. If you can’t invest on an updated tank-less water heater, insulating your existing one to prevent standby heat loss is a simple and very affordable way to curb energy loss. While you are at it, consider insulating the pipes as well!
4 – Upgrade your shower head and use aerators on the faucets
Diminishing the amount of water you use when you shower or use the sink saves the energy that is needed to heat the water that is otherwise wasted. Efficient shower heads and flow regulators are not expensive and provide substantial savings in water heating costs.
5 - Install a programmable thermostat
What if you could set your thermostat to operate on “cruise control?” Imagine never again having to drive to work wondering if you forgot to adjust the thermostat. It would automatically turn down when you’re not home, saving you energy, and then turn back up just a few minutes before you get home so you can walk into a comfortable temperature every single time.
Well, programmable thermostats do just that. They are mini computers that store data about your home usage and preferred temperature settings, and set the HVAC system to function accordingly. They are not expensive, especially if you consider the pay off: substantial energy savings along with great peace of mind. Hard to beat that deal!
6 – Replace your incandescent light bulbs with CFLs
I know you probably heard this before. Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFL) save money and last longer. However they are also more expensive than incandescent lights, which is why many homes still don’t use them. Are the savings worth paying 2 to 4 times more for a CFL bulb than you would for a conventional incandescent? Here are some facts that may help you answer that question. If you replace ten standard 60-watt bulbs and five standard 100-watt bulbs with the equivalent CFL, you can save as much as $120 a year, depending on where you live. Over the life of your new CFLs (10,000 hours), you can save more than $650! Isn’t that enough for you to consider replacement?
7 – Install motion switches
Motion switches have sensors that turn the lights on when movement is detected in a given room and shut off when no movement is detected for a certain period of time.
If you have ever had to wrestle with the idea of getting out of your warm bed to turn off lights you may have left on, or if you have ever caught yourself sounding just like your parents, admonishing the children that are tall enough to operate the switch but forget to do so, you will most likely benefit from having motion switches in certain rooms of your home. Relatively inexpensive, they can save you a lot of money and a lot of worry.
Keep in mind that all of the above tips will, of course, help you save some money, but they might be only touching the tip of the iceberg in terms of cutting energy consumption. If you are struggling with high energy bills, there is a chance that your home is wasting a lot of energy and consuming much more than needed.
You might want to consider calling in a home energy conservation specialist to perform a full energy assessment. These professionals will evaluate your home and family's needs, help you determine other ways to save even more in utility bills, and show you which upgrades will give you the best results for each dollar invested.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Winter Comfort for Less: Seven Incredibly Affordable Energy Saving Improvements - Go Green - SustainLane
Pick the Right Insulation for Every Application -
Pick the Right Insulation for Every Application
Choosing the right type of insulation for every room in the house.
Every area of the house has different features which will affect the performance of the material used to insulate them. What works in one area of the house, might not be the best choice for another area. Choosing the right insulation for the job and having it professionally installed will determine how energy efficient your house will really become, and how much money you can save in energy bills.
Old House Beauty, New House Performance - My Old House Online
Old House Beauty, New House Performance
There is something about old houses that definitely attracts people. Whether it is the history behind them, the eye-catching architectural details, or the sturdiness of the construction, old houses have an inexplicable charm that simply compels some people to fall in love, buy and restore them.
Six important steps to making old houses more energy efficient.
For many years, the people buying and restoring these properties felt no need to perform energy-efficient retrofits, because cooling and heating were still reasonably affordable and there wasn’t a lot of data on the environmental impact of home energy waste.
Today, a mix of soaring fuel prices, environmental concerns, and economic challenges have made home energy efficiency an urgent priority. Owners and buyers of old houses, especially those with historic value, are faced with the challenge of retrofitting them to reduce energy consumption, while taking every precaution to preserve architectural and historical integrity.
The good news is that virtually every old and historic house can be made energy efficient.
Fortunately houses are not like cars. While you can’t install a new hybrid engine in a classic car without taking away its value, you can transform an inefficient old house into a “lean, mean, energy-saving machine” without disfiguring it. Energy-efficient retrofits can make an old house perform just like a new green home, and as an added bonus, increase property value.
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to transform an inefficient old house into a green historic property that is valued for energy performance as well as historic appeal.
Step 1 - Get an Energy Audit
If you are serious about making your old house more energy efficient, before you tackle any actual improvement, get a home energy conservation specialist to perform a full home energy audit.
An experienced home energy performance specialist is sure to point out that your house is a system, comprised of smaller systems that work together. The energy-saving improvements made in one area will inevitably have an effect on other areas. A detailed energy audit will help you understand how your home uses and wastes energy, enabling you to make the right decisions to eliminate waste and optimize energy usage.
Using diagnostic tools and procedures like a blower door test and thermal imaging, an energy conservation specialist can detect air leakages, home insulation gaps or areas with insufficient insulation. Based on their report you can then build your plan of action, prioritizing the improvements that will make more sense to you in terms of energy savings and cost.
Step 2 - Attics and Basements
Building scientists –the experts who study all aspects of building performance—have established that a great deal of energy loss occurs in houses because of a phenomenon known as the “stack effect.” Basically, this occurs when the warmest air in the house rises naturally by convection and leaks out of the living space, into the attic and outside. This air loss creates negative pressure inside the house that causes exterior air to be drawn into the house through lower gaps and cracks. This combination of conditioned air leaking out while outside air leaks in is a major cause of poor energy performance.
In an unimproved house, the stack effect is happening non-stop, year round, causing your HVAC system to work much more than it should to maintain comfortable temperatures in the living space.
The air that is moving about also carries moisture, and when that humid air cools down, or finds a cold surface, condensation occurs, creating mold problems in the basement, crawl space and attic.
Even if you don’t intend to use your basement your attic, these spaces should be professionally air-sealed to eliminate as much air leakage as possible. This air-sealing work is the only way to short-circuit the stack effect and stop unwanted air exfiltration and air infiltration.
If you live in an area where summers are hot and air-conditioning systems need to operate frequently, consider installing a radiant barrier in the attic. Whether you install this membrane as a plastic sheet material or a silvery paint, a radiant barrier will reflect some of the sun’s radiant energy so that your attic space will be cooler. Lowering the attic temperature during summer months will help lower your AC bills.
Like the attic, basements and crawl spaces should be thoroughly air-sealed. A vented crawl spaces is a huge energy waster, specially if you have ducts running through it. The energy loss can be enormous. If you have a crawl space, consider having it fully encapsulated and insulated. In addition to improving your home’s energy performance, this treatment , will also keep mold, dry rot and pests from compromising your home’s structural integrity. You can learn more about crawl space encapsulation at dirt-crawl-spaces.org.
With a basement or crawl space, a combination of air-sealing and insulation is the best way to ensure optimum energy performance. This is especially true if you live in a colder area of the US and Canada.
Step 3 – Adding Attic Insulation
After the attic has been air-sealed, the next step is to insulate the attic properly. Installing extra insulation to the levels recommended by the U.S. Dept. of Energy will make a huge difference in the comfort and energy performance of your house just about all year round.
An energy auditor may choose to use a thermal imaging (infrared) camera to locate attic areas that need more insulation. However, most houses don’t have adequate levels of insulation, so it’s a pretty sure bet you need more. An experienced home energy specialist will be able to recommend the best type of insulation based on the size and design of your attic space. Flooring installed in the attic for the purpose of storing things can limit the amount of extra insulation that can be installed. If you use your attic for storage, be prepared to move some stored items or talk to your energy performance specialist about building a new storage platform that provides clearance for extra insulation.
Step 4– Solving the Window Dilemma
Replacing existing windows for new energy efficient ones in old and historic homes usually poses a challenge. Many of these windows are made in custom sizes, but most importantly, they often have custom woodwork and details that are an important part of the house’s historical character. Replacing them with standard vinyl windows would, most likely, take away some of that architectural appeal.
The good news is that in many cases, you do not need to replace them at all, especially if they still function properly and aren’t damaged by rot. .
Heat loss through windows actually represent only 10%- 20% of a house’s total energy loss. Also, most of the energy loss occurs not on the window itself, but through air leaks between the window frame and the wall framing. So by caulking and sealing these leaks, replacing broken panes and, reapplying the putty, you can reduce that energy loss significantly –and save a huge amount of money compared to what you’d pay to install replacement windows.
What about the window itself –the sash, frame, stop moldings and other parts? A skilled carpenter can fully restore historic windows, bringing their energy performance much closer to that of new windows than you’d imagine.
In colder climates, a storm window can add an extra layer of protection and energy efficiency, while keeping the old windows intact.
Step 5 – Improving the Ductwork System
Many older houses with forced-air heating and/or cooling systems have dirty, leaky uninsulated ducts that waste a lot of energy. Leaky, uninsulated ductwork can diminish HVAC system performance by as much as 40%.
The hard done by bad ductwork isn’t limited to energy loss. Leaky ducts can contribute to indoor air pollution and pose a serious health hazard to family members.
Dirt in the ducts can cause HVAC system failure and bring undesirable pollutants into the conditioned area of the house. Pressure imbalances caused by leaky ducts can cause backdrafting in combustion appliances, increasing the risk of exposure to carbon monoxide, a deadly gas. To avoid these undesirable consequences, it’s necessary to have ducts professionally sealed and insulated, and to have ducts cleaned periodically.
Step 6 – Upgrading HVAC Systems
After taking every step to make sure the house is more airtight and better insulated, it is time to look at the HVAC system.
There are many different types of HVAC systems. Some houses have furnaces, while others have boilers or heat pumps. Regardless of what HVAC components you’re dealing with, older equipment will never operate as efficiently as new ENERGY STAR™ equipment. A gas or oil-burning furnace that’s more than 15 years old may be working perfectly, requiring only regular maintenance that costs very little. But even in perfect condition, this furnace will only be around 60% efficient at converting fuel into heat. A new ENERGY STAR™ gas furnace, on the other hand, can work at 90% efficiency. These same differences in efficiency exist for heat pumps and boilers.
It my not be in your budget to upgrade the HVAC system after investing in all the other energy-saving improvements mentioned above. But when you do elect to replace an old HVAC system, your new system can be smaller because your home’s building envelope is now more airtight and better insulated. The reward for your insulation, air-sealing and duct-sealing improvements is a less-expensive downsized HVAC system with lower energy requirements.
With proper expertise and guidance, you can restore and preserve your old house and all its historic beauty and character, and have it perform as well as a 21st century home.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Memorable Earth Day Posters
Beautiful collection of Earth Day commemorative posters, from the 1970's to date. To make us remember and re-think.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Earth Day 2011
We’ve come a long way since the first Earth Day. Over 40 years ago, on April 22, 1970, one in every 10 Americans participated in the first Earth Day, demonstrating their demands for a cleaner, healthier, safer environment. Forty years ago, environmental protection didn’t exist. Companies all across the country were allowed to turn waterways and industrial sites into toxic waste dumps. Ohio’s Cuyahoga River became so fouled with oily pollutants that it caught fire. Yes, a river became a fire hazard.
Earth Day launched a groundswell of environmental awareness. Americans from all walks of life spoke up and our government listened. Before the end of 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency was established. Landmark legislation soon followed. The Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act have had a sustained, far-reaching positive effect on the quality of our environment.
Today Earth Day is truly a global event. Thanks to the Earth Day Network (http://www.earthday.org/), over a billion people in 192 countries will participate in a wide range of Earth Day activities. It’s fitting for Earth Day to be the biggest civic event on our planet, because we need all the help we can get. The potential for global climate change (a term that didn’t exist back in 1970) to disrupt agricultural production, increase severe storms, raise sea levels and alter ecosystems is truly scary.
Earth Day gives all of us an opportunity to “think globally and act locally,” not just for one day but on an ongoing basis. Although the prospect of “saving the planet” may seem far-fetched, it’s what we all need to be doing in various ways. Earth Day reminds us that regardless of religion, political affiliation or economic status, we’re all hurtling through space on the same orb. We’ve all got a stake in preserving life as we know it. Here are a few ways to celebrate Earth Day 2011 –by increasing your awareness and then acting on it.
Read something by Bill McKibben. Widely recognized as one of our leading environmentalists, McKibben continues to write about a broad range of environmental issues. A new edition of his best-selling book, The End of Nature, has just been published. You can read articles and essays at his website:
http://www.billmckibben.com/articles.html
Learn more about the EPA. The scope and depth of information at the Environmental Protection Agency’s website is truly impressive. Whether you want to learn more about acid rain, lead paint removal, contaminated well water or household hazardous waste, you won’t be disappointed. http://www.epa.gov/
Get your hands dirty. Volunteer opportunities at the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can provide rewarding hands-on exposure to our wealth of protected wilderness areas. There’s a good article about these programs at The Wilderness Society website: http://wilderness.org/content/earth-day-what-are-you-doing-year
Reduce energy use at home. Here in the U.S., buildings are responsible for over 40% of our total energy use. Today we have the technology and products to transform an energy-wasting building into an energy miser. But we’re not putting these resources to use nearly as much as we should. If you haven’t had your home tested and evaluated for energy performance, don’t delay any longer. Find out what upgrades (like insulation, air-sealing, a new water heater, an ENERGY STAR™ dishwasher, etc.) your home needs to reduce energy use, and make a plan to complete as many improvements as you can. The nationwide impact of home energy upgrades is huge –less dependency on fossil fuels, lower carbon emissions, improved air quality and lower utility bills. There’s a wealth of useful information about home energy performance at Dr. Energy Saver (www.drenergysaver.com).
About Tim Snyder: A journalist specializing in sustainability, energy efficiency and home building topics, Snyder is a former executive editor of Fine Homebuilding magazine. He recently produced a green remodeling manual for the EPA and a chapter on “Smart Shelter” for The Whole Green Catalog, published by Rodale Press. Snyder’s advice and commentary can be found on numerous sites including Wisebread, Green-energy-news, MotherEarthNews and Dr.EnergySaver. He also provides training and support for Dr. Energy Saver, a nationwide network of energy auditors who also perform a comprehensive range of prioritized energy-saving improvements.
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Tagged as: earth day, earth day 2011, environment
Monday, February 28, 2011
ENERGY BOOMER: Save Money by Making Your Attic Energy Efficient
Save Money by Making Your Attic Energy Efficient
The following article was guest written by Cynthia Freeney
For some, the attic is just an unused (and unusable) portion of the building. For others, an attic is just a place where ducts, wires and vents can be found. For many, an attic represents valuable storage space and there are even those who convert unused attics into additional living space.
For people who use part or their entire attic, having an attic that overheats in the summer and freezes during winter can be a huge hassle. They are deeply impacted by these temperature changes, and they can feel it.
On the other hand, if you are not using the attic for storage or as a living area, you are still suffering the effects of these dramatic temperature shifts in your attic. You just don’t know it. You might have missed the signs of a problematic attic.
You probably think your energy bills are supposed to be that high, and that the icicles are supposed to be dangling down the edge of your roof because the snow is melting. Aren’t they pretty?
What you do not know is that these are all symptoms of an energy-wasting attic.
During the summer, every time your attic overheats, your house gets hotter, making your air conditioning system work much harder, especially if you have ducts running through the attic.
Likewise, ice damming and icicles are signs of energy waste. This means that heated air that was supposed to keep the living area warm is leaking into the attic, warming the roof and making your furnace work much harder.
Even if you don’t use your attic for storage or as a living area, controlling temperature and moisture in the attic by following these four steps will help you protect your home and save you a lot of money in energy bills.
1 - Air Sealing
The first thing you want to do is to take every necessary step to keep the air that you are paying to cool and heat where it belongs: in the living areas of your home.
Due to a physics phenomena called the “stack effect”, the warmest air in your home tends to rise and leak into the attic and then to the outside.
As it does, new, a similar volume of unconditioned air is sucked in from the outside, through leaks in the lower levels of the building.
Considering that 40% of what you pay in energy bills every month goes toward cooling and heating, can you imagine how much money you could be saving if you could only control or slow down that process?
That being said, the first step to an energy efficient attic is sealing air leaks between the living space and the attic.
2 - Proper Ventilation
After sealing the air leaks, the next step is to make sure your attic is properly vented.
Good attic ventilation is essential not just for energy efficiency, but for moisture control as well.
Due to differences of temperature between the attic and the conditioned area of your house, any moisture present in the air that enters the attic tends to condense all over attic surfaces. The insulation in the attic will then become useless, because damp insulation loses its R-Value. To make matters worse, condensation on wood and gypsum board can cause mold to develop.
Attic ventilation usually consists of a combination of soffit and ridge vents, but additional vents can also be installed in gable ends.
3 - Beef up the Insulation
Many homes in the US, especially in the North and Northeast, including newly built ones, suffer from the same problem: inadequate attic insulation.
The U.S. Department of Energy recommended insulation R-Value for homes in these areas is between 49 and 60, yet many homes have only about 1/3 of that R-Value.
The choice of insulation materials will also have an impact on how well it performs in the attic.
4 – A Silver Lining
You might think that a radiant barrier in the attic makes more sense for homes built in warmer climates than it would in colder areas.
However, don’t rule it out for your home just yet.
A radiant barrier improves cooling efficiency in the summer by reflecting the sun’s heat back to the outside.
It also improves heating efficiency in the winter by reflecting the heat back into the attic and living space.
That is especially desirable if you have ducts or heating and cooling equipment running in the attic. Or if you plan to use your attic for storage.
The most common type of radiant barrier is a thin sheet with reflective finish on both sides. There is also a “bubble-wrap” looking type of radiant barrier and a spray on coating for hard-to-reach surfaces.
An energy efficient attic is one of the main components of a green, energy efficient home, but is also only the first step to achieving the best performance and savings.
A building is a system, much like your body, comprised of smaller systems that work together. A better performing attic will definitely impact positively all of the other systems in your house.
Cynthia Freeney is a social media manager for many companies in the home improvement industry and currently works for Dr. Energy Saver, (http://www.drenergysaver.com) a nationwide franchise of contractors specialized in providing home energy-saving services such as home insulation, installing and upgrading furnaces and water heaters, replacing windows and doors, home energy evaluations (http://www.drenergysaver.com/contact-form.html) and more.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Baby Steps to a Greener Life
But because I want to live a better life now, and I want the same for everyone. Every living thing in the planet.
The first thing I've learned: that living green is not about undertaking herculean responsibilities, forfeiting comfort and technology and live a prehistoric lifestyle. Not at all.
Small, individual, daily choices will ultimately have the biggest impact in the future of this planet.
To start this blog, I could not have found anything better than this article, which puts in a nutshell much of what we will discuss here, in the form of a set of resolutions for the new year: 10 Resolutions for the Green Revolution.
I have the honor to work next to the author of this article, Tim Snyder, which is also a sort of mentor when it comes to green building and energy conservation.
He also keeps an awesome Home Energy Conservation Blog I recommend you look into.