Lets Celebrate ENERGY STAR® Day

Each October manufactures and consumers across the county join together to celebrate ENERGY STAR® day. While not a national holiday – yet, it provides a vehicle for the exchange of energy and money saving tips as well as promotion of activities that can help us work toward a greener world. The first ENERGY STAR day was celebrated in 2012 and has continued to grow in both size and involvement. ENERGY STAR uses the day to promote energy savings as well as recognizing organizations that have partnered with them to reduce energy usage using the tagline “Save Today, Save Tomorrow, Save for Good”. Activities for the day include increase interactions on many of the current Social Media outlets with both ENERGY STAR as well as manufacturers leveraging large followings. In addition many manufacturing partners also coordinate celebrations within their own organizations.

Did you know there are energy rebates available for purchasing certified products? Rebates are available on a federal level as well as a local level, through your utility provider. Products eligible for rebates include select appliances, windows/doors, insulation, Televisions, HVAC products, lighting, water heaters, ventilation fans and much more. To learn more about rebates that you might qualify for visit the ENERGY STAR rebate finder page by clicking here.

Air King has enjoyed a long partnership with ENERGY STAR and was excited to once again celebrate the day with team members at the main manufacturing facility in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Celebrations include training sessions on how to be more energy efficient at work as well as at home, the annual handing out of high efficiency LED light bulbs and of course cake.

To learn more about Air King and energy savings, visit the ENERGY STAR section under the learning menu on the Air King website at airkinglimited.com. Also be sure to follow Air King on social media – X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Building Energy Efficient Homes

In the home building industry there are constantly changing trends. Items like the hottest new paint color, flooring material, open concept building and so on. We use the classification of trends because they seem to have a limited lifespan until the next hot thing comes in style. What we are more focused on is the direction of the home building industry, which is going to have more staying power. This is where things like building energy efficient homes come into play. Homes continue to be built to higher and higher efficiency levels. Some of this is directed by local and national codes but it is also driven by consumer demand as buyers become more educated on the efficiency of their homes.

More and more of the nation’s leading builders are now making a commitment to building energy efficient homes through the ENERGY STAR® home program. In order to certify a home as ENERGY STAR® there is a stringent list of requirements the builder must meet. This includes almost every aspect of the building process including things that probably won’t surprise you such as windows, doors, insulation, appliances and the HVAC system. What you might not know is that it also includes items such as the ducting, air filtration and ventilation fans of the home. All of these requirements must be confirmed through an independent rater/inspector for the home to receive the final sign off. This is comforting to the homebuyer, as they will have peace of mind that the home is going to perform as advertised.

So why is this a direction and not just a trend. We will get right to it – money. While there are a lot of extra benefits to using less energy (reducing our carbon footprint, using less resources…), the big one from a homeowner’s standpoint is a reduced utility bill. An energy efficient home can reduce the monthly utility bills considerably. According to ENERGY STAR®, a certified home will use up to 30% more energy than a traditionally built home. To put that in perspective, if your utility bills are $300 a month, a certified home would reduce that to $210. That is a saving of $1,080 per year. According to the Redfin the typical US homeowner stays in their home for about 12 years, meaning a savings of about $13,000. Additionally, the home will have better resale value.

Another aspect of building energy efficient homes is there is a movement that is gaining support that in order to qualify for a FHA mortgage, the home must be ENERGY STAR® certified. ENERGY STAR® already has a program called Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM) that helps homebuyers qualify for purchasing a home as it considers that the monthly cost to maintain the home will be less, allowing more to be used to pay off the loan. While these programs are not yet mandatory, the direction they are going looks as if they will be in the near future. The good news is the major builders are already identifying this and are getting ahead of the game, committing to building certified homes.

To learn more about building trends/directions or other industry news, makes sure to read Air King’s other blog posts. To learn more about Air King’s ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation and fresh air intake solutions and how they can be implemented into building energy efficient homes visit airkinglimited.com

How Does ENERGY STAR® Certified Ventilation Help?

For the most part almost everyone in the United States has at least seen the ENERGY STAR® logo and many understand what it signifies. Many people however only think that certification is for things like TVs, computers and appliances. While they are some of the more “big ticket” items, there are many categories of products that can earn certification including ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation.

So what sets certified ventilation apart from typical products? Here are a few of the main items. ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation must perform at a higher efficiency than standard ventilation solutions. Efficiency is measured by taking the amount of air the unit moves (measured in CFM – cubic feet per minute) and dividing that by the amount of energy (Watts) needed to operate the unit. To put this in perspective a standard low end or entry-level exhaust fan operates at about 1 watt per CFM or worse. In contrast a certified unit has to operate at a minimum of 2.8 CFM per watt with some units exceeding that and operating as high as 19 CFM per watt.

A second way ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation products stand out is they are required to offer a longer warranty. While this might not sound like a big deal, it actually is. With a longer warranty, there is more peace of mind that that product is going to last a lot longer and is constructed of high quality parts. In the case of ventilation products that typically means a better motor.

For units that have a light feature, which include some exhaust fans as well as most range hoods, the light bulb must be included or integrated with the unit and it must be a certified LED bulb. The lighting in these units can sometimes be the biggest energy draw of the unit. For instance changing from a 60-watt incandescent light bulb to an equivalent 8 watt LED is saving approximately 52 watts.

Lastly, and this one might seem a little out of the ordinary is that there are sound restrictions on the units. For most units, they must operate at or below 2 sones. Sones are the unit of measurement for sound in ventilation products. We have explained sones in some of our previous posts but basically 1 sone is the sound your refrigerator makes and 4 sones is about the sound of a typical conversation.

When you put all this together, it is hopefully clear that ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation is going to be a much better product than a standard one. For more information regarding ENERGY STAR® certified ventilation solutions from Air King including exhaust fans, range hoods and fresh air intake, please visit airkinglimited.com. For more information about ENERGY STAR®, please visit energystar.gov.

ENERGY STAR Homes

Have you ever used the phrase: I wish I would have (or as we say in eastern Pennsylvania – I wish I wood-a)? Probably most of us have said this phrase at one point in our lives. Building or doing a major renovation to a home can be a place where this phrase is commonly used. “I wish we would have upgraded to the better cabinets”, “I wish we would have put hardwood floors in”, “I wish we would have made the house more energy efficient” and so on. When building a new home a great place to start is making sure it is an ENERGY STAR home.

As the cost of energy continues to rise, making sure your home is as energy efficient as possible will have life long benefits. To this end, ENERGY STAR has developed the ENERGY STAR Residential New Construction Program. As ENRGY STAR puts it: “To earn the ENERGY STAR, a home or apartment must meet strict program requirements for energy efficiency developed by ENERGY STAR's Residential New Construction program. These program requirements are based on extensive interaction with the nation’s home-building industry, including builders, developers, verification professionals, and building scientists.”

So what does the entail? It starts with the exterior, making sure everything is sealed, proper installation, uses ENERGY STAR windows and so forth. You will hear this referred to as the building envelop or the thermal enclosure. All these elements are designed to prevent drafts and make the house tight. This will greatly reduce the monthly utility bills, as the HVAC system will have to work less. There are some consideration when building a tightly sealed home – make sure to read our blog post on the subject by clicking here.

Next we move to the home's heating and cooling system (HVAC). An ENERGY STAR Home will have a certified heater and/or air conditioner installed as well as special attention given to the ducting to make sure they are sealed and installed as efficiently as possible. A mechanical ventilation system that draws fresh, filtered outdoor air into the house and exhausts stale air from inside the house is also a requirement of an ENERGY STAR home. This is where Air King comes into the equation with the QFAMD and a host of ENERGY STAR certified exhaust fans and kitchen range hoods.

Onto the water management – yes we said water management. We don’t think too many people would think to add this to the check list but as ENERGY STAR states: “ENERGY STAR certified homes include a comprehensive package of water management practices and materials that help to protect your home from water damage and reduce the risk of indoor air quality problems.” These processes include making sure water is directed off the roof, the home, has moisture-resistant barriers and that materials are protected during construction. All of these ensure the home is being built to last.

We finish with the appliances and lighting. These are probably the easiest to understand, as they are typically the most visible ones. They are also ones that can easily be changed in an existing home. Many ENERGY STAR Home builders will utilize an appliance and lighting package of products that carry the ENERGY STAR certification. Items such as the refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes washers, ceiling fans, ventilation fans and so forth should all be ENERGY STAR certified. For lighting, high efficiency LED lamps should be used throughout the entire home.

Building an ENERGY STAR home will have long lasting benefits for your utility bills, your indoor air quality, your piece of mind and for the environment. If you are in the market to build a new home, make sure you talk to your builder about building an ENERGY STAR home. Remember our phrase at the beginning of this blog? Now it will be your friends and family saying, “We wish we would have done what you did.”

To learn more about ENERGY STAR certified kitchen range hoods, exhaust fans and fresh air systems visit www.airkinglimited.com. Also visit the ENERGY STAR Residential New Construction Page on their website.

Energy Vampires?!? - Stop the Energy Drain

Halloween might be over but you could still have vampires hanging around your house and they are not looking for candy. We are talking about your electronics that could be draining energy without you really knowing it. They are referred to as energy vampires. These are items that although they are turned “off” still are using energy. Does your microwave have a clock on it? How about your gaming system, TV or your computer? These are all drawing energy even though they are not actively being used.

Identifying energy vampires is fairly easy. Ask: Is it plugged in? Does it have some sort of display (clock, channel number, or any other light on it)? Is it something that charges batteries? Does it have a remote control? If the answer is yes to one or more of these questions, it is probably using energy without you realizing it.

Now that we have identified the vampires, how do we combat them? Sorry, garlic and a cross are not going to work in this case but there are some very simple things you can do. First, if you need to replace any of these items, look to see if there is an ENERGY STAR certified version. This will decrease your overall energy usage. Second, for items that are being charged, make sure to unplug them once they are fully charged. Third, unplug items not in use. This is the difficult one as there are some items you just don’t want to unplug completely. If you have a cable box that has to go through a full reboot after you plug it back in, it might not be something you want to do. On the other hand, if you are going away for a week, save the energy and unplug it. There are also smart power strips that allow you to control your appliances remotely.

Okay, this all sounds great but how much can I really save? The US Department of Energy estimates that in an average home about 10% of the energy usage is due to vampire appliances and electronics. That can add up over the course of a year. Here are a few of the top vampires with the average of how much energy they consume in standby mode:

TV – 145 kWh

Stereo System – 128 kWh

Cable Box – 128 kWh

Router – 102 kWh

Printer – 70 kWh

DVD player – 59 kWh

Microwave – 26 kWh

What can you turn off in your home to start saving energy and money? For more tips on energy saving visit energystar.gov or the Air King website at www.airkinglimited.com

Lets Talk Ventilation – Easy Explanations to Ventilation Terms Part 2 (E – N)

In our last Blog Post we started a series to help explain some of the more common terms used in the ventilation industry. We continue the series with the following:

ENERGY STAR: A government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Learn more at energystar.gov.

ETL - Intertek: ETL (Electrical Testing Laboratories) was founded by Thomas Edison in 1896 and in their words, "Intertek provides quality and safety services to businesses across the globe. We help our customers improve their products, assets and processes to make them more successful in their chosen markets". Learn more at intertek.com/.

Fluorescent (CFL): Compact Fluorescent Lighting - Energy efficient lighting option that uses a chemical reaction of gases inside a tube to generate light. Fluorescent lighting is more efficient that standard incandescent lighting but new technology in LED lighting is slowly phasing out Fluorescent lighting.

Fusible Link: Term used with fire rated dampers. The fusible link is two pieces of metal joined together that will release when the temperature reaches a set point (212° on Air King models), breaking the link and allowing the curtain to seal off the ducting.

GFCI Circuit: Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. Switch utilized for high voltage electrical shock protection. The GFCI will shut off an electric power circuit when it detects that current is flowing in a way it is not meant to, such as through water or a person.

Grease Filter: Filter used to catch grease and other contaminates from entering the unit. Most commonly used with range hoods. Grease filters should be cleaned at least once per month or more depending on usage.

Hanging Brackets: Used to mount certain Air King exhaust fans. They attach from one ceiling joist to another ceiling joist and allow the installer to position the exhaust fan between them. Can also be referred to a Hanger Bars or Hanging Rails.

Horizontal Exhaust: Exhaust that enters into the duct work on the horizontal plane (out the side or the back of a unit).

HVI: The Home Ventilating Institute - HVI - is a non-profit association of the manufacturers of home ventilating products. HVI offers a variety of services including, but not limited to - test standards, certification programs for airflow, sound, energy performance for heat recovery ventilators, market support and three annual meetings to discuss common industry issues. Through a Certified Ratings Program, HVI provides a voluntary means for the residential ventilation manufacturers to report comparable and creditable product performance information based upon uniformly applied testing standards and procedures performed by independent laboratories. Together these activities help to promote the health and growth of the home ventilation while providing consumers with valuable information and confidence in their choices. Learn more at hvi.org.

Incandescent: Common household lighting option. Many incandescent lighting option have been phased out over the past several years in favor of more efficient lighting option such as CFL and LED.

Infinite Speed Control: Controls the speed of the motor. The user has the ability to set the unit at any desired speed level.

Keyhole Slots: Mounting system for installing units where the mounting screws or nails can be put into place and then the unit is lifted over the screws and slid into place.

NFPA: The mission of the international nonprofit NFPA is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating scientifically-based consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. Established in 1896, NFPA serves as the world's leading advocate of fire prevention and is an authoritative source on public safety. In fact, NFPA's 300 codes and standards influence every building, process, service, design, and installation in the United States, as well as many of those used in other countries. NFPA's focus on true consensus has helped the association's code-development process earn accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Learn more at nfpa.org.

Night-Light: Low wattage light feature. Air King products that have this feature utilize either a 4 Watt or 7 Watt bulb.

Have What It Takes to Be Most Efficient

As we come into the holiday season and homes are putting up decorations and lights (you are using energy efficient lights – right) it can be a time of holiday bliss. Then it can turn into holiday regret when the electric bills start rolling in (see, told you, should have used energy efficient lights). The holidays shouldn’t be the only time to be looking at energy efficiency however.

Almost everyone in the United States is familiar with ENERGY STAR®. We see it everywhere. What many people are not aware of is that ENERGY STAR has a special category that recognizes the most efficient products within a product category for that year. Each year ENERGY STAR provides product performance criteria in order to be recognized. In the ventilation fan category, specifically bathroom and utility room fans they must operate at an 85% higher efficiency level than a standard model. This is measure in CFM/Watt (cubic feet per minute of air the fan moves divided by how many watts of energy needed to run the fan). ENERGY STAR has set the criteria at greater than or equal to 10 CFM/Watt. That means that a 100 CFM fan cannot use more than 10 watts of energy to operate.

Great, but what does this mean in real world numbers? Lets first look at the efficiency number of two 100 CFM fans. A standard – builder grade fan operates at about 1.4 CFM per watt. The Air King model D4S, an ENERGY STAR Most Efficient 2017, operates at 15.6 CFM per watt when set to 100 CFM. Now lets take a look at what that means from an electric standpoint. For our purposes, we are going to say the exhaust fan runs for a total of 4 hours a day. The builder grade fan operating at 72 watts for 4 hours needs 288 watts per day. Times that by 365 and you get 105-kilowatt hours per year. Using that same equation the D4S only uses 9.3-kilowatt hours per year.

When needing to replace a fan, energy efficiency is a great starting place. Other factors to consider are sound levels, duct size, fan size and of course price is always going to play a part.

To learn more about the ENERGY STAR Most Efficient Fans visit www.energystar.gov/most-efficient/me-certified-ventilating-fans or the Air King site at www.airkinglimited.com

Look for the STAR – Benefits of ENERGY STAR® certified exhaust fans

You see the logo all over, that bright blue square seems to be on almost every appliance in the aisle but what does it really mean?

ENERGY STAR is a division of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) that is concerned with the energy efficiency (among other items) of products. ENERGY STAR certified products meet strict requirements as put forth by the EPA.

For exhaust fans they must pass testing for energy efficiency (known as efficacy or CFM per watt), sound (sones) and air flow (CFM). The ratings are certified by the Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) – an ENERGY STAR certification body. Once a fan is determined to meet the requirements, it can then be marketed as ENERGY STAR certified.

Certified exhaust fans operate at lower sound levels, use less energy and last longer than traditional exhaust fans which takes a lot of the guess work out of choosing a fan. Not all fans are tested and held to any standard, but ENERGY STAR labeled fans are not only certified but also verified through open market testing. A main benefit of an ENERGY STAR certified product is that you can be assured that the fan has been tested and certified and will perform as advertised.

To learn more about Air King’s large selection of ENERGY STAR certified exhaust fans and kitchen range hoods, visit www.airkinglimited.com