Winter is quickly approaching and for many areas of the United States that means a significant bump in energy usage – and more money. Thankfully there are some ways to combat the rising bills.
1.
Lighting:
Shorter days means more time with lights on. Saying to keep all the lights turned off
in the house just isn’t practical but you can make a big impact with a simple
switch of bulbs. Changing to an ENERGY STAR® certified LED bulb rather than a
typical incandescent bulb can save over 80% (100 Watt – 16 Watt LED). If you replace 10 bulbs that are on for an
average of 5 hours a day, that is a savings of over 4,200 watts per day. Over a
3 month time that is about 378,000 watts.
2.
Heating:
Here is a tough one. Yes, you have heard it a thousand times, turn down the
thermostat and you will save a bunch of energy and money. While that is very
true, you still want to be comfortable and not have to wear a winter jacket
inside of your home. Programmable thermostats are a great option as they allow
you to adjust the temperature at night or when you are outside the home. Smart
thermostats let you control everything from your phone. Another idea is to use
supplemental heat such as a portable heater for the most occupied rooms or an
installed heater certified for bathroom usage allowing you to keep the rest of
the home cooler. Always make sure to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations
for usage.
3.
Insulation:
Check if you have enough insulation in your home. Think of it like a jacket for
your house. You wouldn’t go out in a T-Shirt when it is 5 degrees out. Okay,
before the letters start coming in – MOST people would not go out in a T-shirt.
You would want to put a heavy winter coat on. The same holds true for you
house. The insulation is basically the jacket. If it doesn’t have enough, you
will have drafts and your heater will have to work extra hard to keep the
temperature. Most of the time the money you spend to insulate will be easily
made up on energy savings. To see what you need, visit https://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_sealing.hm_improvement_insulation_table
4.
Find the
drafts: Eliminating drafts from you home will greatly improve your
efficiency and energy consumption. There are qualified professionals that will
do an energy audit on your home. We wish we could say they are free but
unfortunately unless it is a friend that owes you a favor, there is a cost to
it. A simple and some may consider it a fun way to find drafts is to walk
around the house with a small candle. As the flame encounters a draft you will
see it flicker. Hopefully the problem isn’t so bad it blows the flame out. It
is best to do this when there is a breeze outside, as this will provide an
easier way for you to see where the air is coming in. Once you have identified
the drafts you can then address what to do.
BONUS TIP: Don’t be lead astray - There is a lot of information out
there that is almost dangerous. Especially when it come to exhaust fans and
kitchen ventilation. Articles will say to not use any ventilation as it removes
conditioned air, causing high bills. Being Air King is a ventilation company,
we like to think we know a thing or two about the subject. As with most misguided information, there is a little bit of truth in there. Yes taking
conditioned air out of the home does mean it needs to be replaced with more conditioned
air. Here is the issue. When you properly ventilate the home, you are removing
harmful – yes harmful air from the home. Air that is carrying carcinogens from
the cooking surface, moist air that if not ventilated will cause mold and
mildew growth in the bathrooms and so forth. So it comes down to balancing the
energy usage verses the health of the home. A good step is to use the speed
controls on your ventilation units. If you are just warming up some soup on the
cook top you probably don’t need to crank the range hood up to it’s highest
setting. Think of it this way. If you have a fireplace, you wouldn’t even think
about keeping the chimney closed when you had a fire going. It wouldn’t take
long for the entire home to be filled with smoke. However, by opening the
chimney, you are allowing conditioned air to escape. It becomes the benefits of
having a fire to provide heat verses the negative of loosing conditioned air.
