Have an Energy Efficient Home
In these harsh economic times, cutting down on bills has probably become one of your top priorities.
While the gas prices may be rising and thus straining your pockets, you can mitigate this by reducing your household bills.
Make your home more energy efficient by reducing its energy consumption levels.
A simple step such as upgrading your windows can reduce your costs by a sizeable margin.
Consider the following tips to help you improve your home's energy efficiency.
Tip 1: Replace or Upgrade your Windows Old and leaky windows significantly raise your air-conditioning and heating bills.
To counter this, replace them with models that are more energy efficient.
You can also shore up their efficiency with storm and weather-stripping windows.
These newer models are Energy Star-rated, and can save between 7 to 24 percent of your bills.
Single-glazed windows are the most energy-taxing and in need of replacement than other types.
Tip 2: Be Frugal One way to keep your bills low is to learn to switch off lights or unwanted appliances.
While lighting up the whole house creates a sense of security, it also pushes you to dig deeper to pay the rising bills.
If you can do without them, why not switch the lights off? The resulting savings can be channeled towards replacing any inefficient devices in your home.
Tip 3: Install Compact Fluorescent Lights If you use incandescent bulbs, replace them with CFLs.
The energy needed to power a single bulb during its shelf life is more costly than the bulb itself.
A certain type of CFL about three dollars more and uses 27 watts to produce the same amount of light as a 100-watt incandescent bulb.
Its usual life is 10,000 hours, in which it consumes $22 of energy.
On the other hand, a 100-watt bulb, though cheaper (at $5), lasts for 1000 hours, hence 10 bulbs are needed to last for 10,000 hours.
In this period, the bulbs will consume energy amounting $80.
In short, CFLs are much more energy-efficient and although they are initially more expensive you need to purchase less of them to equal the same lighting lifespan and you'll pay for about a third of the energy.
Tip 4: Improve the Efficiency of Water Heating System Set your water heater's temperature to a warm setting of 120°F.
Then enclose your hot water pipes with a proper insulation to avoid loss of temperature in between usage.
Next, install low-flow fixtures in your baths and showers.
Such measures reduce the amount of energy spent in pumping and reheating water in your home.
Tip 5: Insulate you Wall and Attic During the winter, heat flows out of your house, while the reverse happens in summertime.
With proper insulation, the rate of heat outflow during winter is minimized, while in summer, flow of heat into the house is slowed down.
As such, your house will consume less energy to cool or heat the house.
If there is no wall insulation in your house, install a blow-in insulation system.
Lastly, you should ensure that your attic is properly insulated.
Tip 6: Conduct an Energy Audit A vital, and possibly first step to improve your home's energy efficiency if you are truly committed to the cause, is to schedule an appointment with your local energy auditor.
This expert has specialized skills and equipment such as infrared goggles, which he uses to calculate your home's energy efficiency.
He also recommends any measures you should take to improve the existing efficiency levels and also offer you an independent opinion of your contractor's job quality.
This way you can find out the most significant upgrades you can do for your house first and use the money you save because of that renovation to fund the other suggested renovations.
While the gas prices may be rising and thus straining your pockets, you can mitigate this by reducing your household bills.
Make your home more energy efficient by reducing its energy consumption levels.
A simple step such as upgrading your windows can reduce your costs by a sizeable margin.
Consider the following tips to help you improve your home's energy efficiency.
Tip 1: Replace or Upgrade your Windows Old and leaky windows significantly raise your air-conditioning and heating bills.
To counter this, replace them with models that are more energy efficient.
You can also shore up their efficiency with storm and weather-stripping windows.
These newer models are Energy Star-rated, and can save between 7 to 24 percent of your bills.
Single-glazed windows are the most energy-taxing and in need of replacement than other types.
Tip 2: Be Frugal One way to keep your bills low is to learn to switch off lights or unwanted appliances.
While lighting up the whole house creates a sense of security, it also pushes you to dig deeper to pay the rising bills.
If you can do without them, why not switch the lights off? The resulting savings can be channeled towards replacing any inefficient devices in your home.
Tip 3: Install Compact Fluorescent Lights If you use incandescent bulbs, replace them with CFLs.
The energy needed to power a single bulb during its shelf life is more costly than the bulb itself.
A certain type of CFL about three dollars more and uses 27 watts to produce the same amount of light as a 100-watt incandescent bulb.
Its usual life is 10,000 hours, in which it consumes $22 of energy.
On the other hand, a 100-watt bulb, though cheaper (at $5), lasts for 1000 hours, hence 10 bulbs are needed to last for 10,000 hours.
In this period, the bulbs will consume energy amounting $80.
In short, CFLs are much more energy-efficient and although they are initially more expensive you need to purchase less of them to equal the same lighting lifespan and you'll pay for about a third of the energy.
Tip 4: Improve the Efficiency of Water Heating System Set your water heater's temperature to a warm setting of 120°F.
Then enclose your hot water pipes with a proper insulation to avoid loss of temperature in between usage.
Next, install low-flow fixtures in your baths and showers.
Such measures reduce the amount of energy spent in pumping and reheating water in your home.
Tip 5: Insulate you Wall and Attic During the winter, heat flows out of your house, while the reverse happens in summertime.
With proper insulation, the rate of heat outflow during winter is minimized, while in summer, flow of heat into the house is slowed down.
As such, your house will consume less energy to cool or heat the house.
If there is no wall insulation in your house, install a blow-in insulation system.
Lastly, you should ensure that your attic is properly insulated.
Tip 6: Conduct an Energy Audit A vital, and possibly first step to improve your home's energy efficiency if you are truly committed to the cause, is to schedule an appointment with your local energy auditor.
This expert has specialized skills and equipment such as infrared goggles, which he uses to calculate your home's energy efficiency.
He also recommends any measures you should take to improve the existing efficiency levels and also offer you an independent opinion of your contractor's job quality.
This way you can find out the most significant upgrades you can do for your house first and use the money you save because of that renovation to fund the other suggested renovations.
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