Make Your Home Energy Sufficient
The previous posts in this series have focused on fuel-efficient methods of transportation. While greening up your commute goes a long way to decreasing America’s reliance on oil, most of us spend more time in our homes than in our car and the home is a perfect place to save energy and money. Let’s start with the basics, things you can do without demolishing a home and rebuilding or retrofitting an existing structure.
Before you buy, think smaller. In the case of energy efficiency, smaller is better. The economy of the 90s not only allowed us the ability to super-size our rides, but super-size our homes as well. And just like with larger vehicles, larger homes take more energy to run. Ya, ya, ya,… I know what you’re saying. I’ve heard the excuse before. “But my home is an investment.” Listen, you have to be able to afford your monstrous house before you can live in it. Or did you not learn your lesson the first time it was foreclosed on. One of the best ways to reduce your energy bill is to live in a home that fits your family’s size and needs. Not everyone in your family needs their own bedroom and bathroom. Less space means less energy necessary to heat and cool your home. My favorite advantage to a smaller home: less time needed to clean it. More energy for me!
People will tell you that success in business is all about location, location, location. This simple motto extends to your home also. To be energy efficient, start with a home that is near public transportation or places you frequent. You can jump on the commuter rail to get to work or walk to the store to pick up groceries for the day without firing up your car. By doing this alone you already have a heads up in the energy race.
Turn it up in the summer and down in the winter. It’s just common sense. Turning down your thermostat during the winter and putting on an extra layer of clothing saves you money. Turning down your thermostat six to ten degrees when you are away from the house and at night when you’re underneath the covers will also save you a chunk of change also. Another benefit, you get to wear more of those fashionable winter sweaters. Did you know it costs more energy to cool a house than to heat it? By turning up the temperature on your thermostat in the summer you can save 5 to 10% on the operating cost of your air conditioner for every two degrees of cooling you are willing to give up. Use a programmable thermostat instead of a rheostat. It will take all the thought process out of remembering to adjust it manually and increase your overall savings.
Don’t be a dim bulb. Use energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs. A 15 watt fluorescent bulb lasts 10,000 hours compared to 500 for a 60 watt incandescent and uses one quarter the energy. Yes they’re more expensive, but they pay for themselves in the long run.
Use energy efficient appliances. For example, front-loading washers use 40-60% less water and 30-50% less energy than typical top-loaders. Your clothes will last longer with a front-loader also, because they gently tumble your clothes instead of jerking them around with an agitator. Couple the front-loader with drying your clothes on a line during the summer to further reduce your energy consumption. Look for appliances marked with the Energy Star label.
If you have forced air, clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.
Wow, that was easy. We didn’t even have to knock down any walls. I’ve saved the dirty work for tomorrow.
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