Room-By-Room Home Audit - Part 3, The Mechanical Room

We are continuing our series on making your home more efficient and comfortable.

Last time we went through items in the kitchen. Now we are moving to the mechanical room, which is just a fancy term for where your items like the furnace and water heater are located. These items can make a large impact on the efficiency of the home. Here are a few ways to improve:

1.     Heating (furnace)/Air Conditioner Unit: Sure it would be great if everyone went out and replaced their unit with a high-efficiency one. We know that is not a practical solution but there are ways to increase the efficiency of your current one:

a.     Have your unit serviced by a professional. They will be able to make sure it is operating at optimal efficiency as well as prolong the life.

b.     Change Air Filters regularly. This will be dependent on how often the unit is running but a good rule of thumb is to change them at least every 3 months. An easy way to remember is to change them every season.

c.      Check the thermostat. While this is technically not located in the mechanical room, we are including it here because it controls the items in this room. Installing a programmable thermostat or a smart thermostat can really impact your heating and cooling costs. These thermostats will adjust to your living, keeping the home comfortable while you are there and then adjusting the temperature and energy usage when you are away.

d.     If it is time to replace your unit, make sure you talk to your installer about the efficiency of what they want to replace it with.  You might need to spend a little more up front, but considering how much your HVAC system is used, that extra money spent for a more efficient unit will more than pay itself off in the long run.

2.     Water Heater: As with the furnace, it would be great if everyone replaced their water heater with a high-efficiency one but again that might not be practical. Here are some things you can do:

a.     Set the temperature to 120 degrees or lower. This way the heater is not overheating the water – wasting energy.

b.     Many new water heaters have significant insulation built into the unit. If you have an older one, consider wrapping the unit with an approved insulating product (usually available at your local home improvement center).

c.      Turn the temperature down when you are away. If you are going on vacation, turn the heater to the lowest setting. Just remember to turn it back up once you return.

d.     Insulate hot water pipes. This will reduce the amount of time and water you need to run before you get hot water.

e.     If it is time to replace your unit, make sure you talk to your installer about the efficiency of what they want to replace it with. Like the furnace, you might need to spend a little more up front, but considering how much your water heater is used, that extra money spent for a more efficient unit will more than pay itself off in the long run.

f.      HVAC Joke – Don’t call it a Hot Water Heater, just refer to it as a water heater. If you do call it a “Hot Water Heater”, you will get the reply – “If it is already hot water, why do you need a heater?”

3.     Fresh Air: Newer homes are being built to a much higher insulation level – this is a good thing. You might hear it called a “Tight” house. Basically, it means that drafts are eliminated. While this is very good for the heating and cooling of the home, it presents a problem for bringing fresh air into the home. In tight homes, a source of fresh air is needed. Many builders are bringing that fresh air in through the mechanical room. Some units utilize the HVAC system, some work independently (such as the Air King FAS and QFAM units). Things to look for in fresh air or make-up air systems include:

a.     What is the efficiency? These units run continuously or for large parts of the day, so you want to make sure the energy being used is minimum.

b.     How does the unit bring the air into the home? Does it need the HVAC to be running? This can be a big one. Even with higher efficiency HVAC units, the fan used to push the air through the home can be very inefficient so if the unit bringing the fresh air in needs to kick this on to operate, it can reduce the overall efficiency.

c.      What type of controls are in place? Does the unit have systems in place that limit the temperature of the air coming in (too cold or too hot)? The Air King QFAM has a controller that can be set for temperature and humidity levels.

Don’t miss our next post when we will take a look at other areas of the home.

To learn more about ways to make your home more efficient, saving money and energy, visit www.airkinglimited.com.

Room-By-Room Home Audit - Part 2, The Kitchen

We are continuing our series on making your home more efficient and comfortable. Last time we went through items in the bathroom. Now we are moving to the kitchen.

The kitchen is full of opportunities to save energy with the appliances making up the largest source of energy usage. Here are a few ways to improve:

Refrigerator: If it is time to replace your refrigerator, look for an ENERGY STAR certified one. These can save a considerable amount of energy/money, even up to $75 per year. Also make sure to recycle your old fridge. If replacing your fridge is not in the cards right now there are steps you can take to improve your current one.

1. Keep your coils clean. Vacuum them regularly and make sure there is a gap between the back of the fridge and the wall to lessen the build-up of dust and debris on the coils.
2. Minimize the number of times you open the doors. Also minimize the amount of time the kids sit there with the door open staring blankly into the fridge looking for who knows what.
3. Keep the fridge full – sounds odd, but a full fridge retains cold better than an empty one.

Range: With a range, it is more about organizing your usage.

1. Use the appropriate size burner for your need.
2. When baking, minimize the number of times you open the door. Each time you open it, a considerable amount of heat is lost.
3. Organize your task to minimize the energy usage. If you have multiple things to bake in a day, do them all at once while the oven is already pre-heated.
4. Don’t have items on the cook top longer then they need to be. Things like boiling water – once it is to temperature make sure to get the items you are cooking in right away instead of wasting energy.

Dishwasher: As with the fridge, if it is time to replace, look for an ENERGY STAR certified one. ENERGY STAR certified dishwashers can reduce the amount of water you use by almost 4,000 gallons over the lifetime of the dishwasher. Other ways to optimize the dishwasher are:

1. Only run the dishwasher when it is full. Sort of goes without saying but we are going to go ahead and say it.
2. Keep the dishwasher’s jets clean. Clogged jets will reduce the effectiveness and cause the need to re-wash items.
3. Use the cycle that you need. If a shorter cycle is all you need, use it.

Range Hood: Yes, we know many people don’t think about the range hood in the kitchen but we are a ventilation company so we think about it everyday! As with other appliances, if it is time to replace, look for an ENERGY STAR certified hood. Here are a few other ways to improve the efficiency of your hood:

1. Keep it clean. Regularly clean the grease filters of the hood. Dirty and clogged filters will reduce the efficiency of the hood.
2. If it has a light, replace the bulb with a LED.
3. Use It! Many people are tempted to not use the range hood – mostly due to the sound level (by the way there are really quiet ones now). This is a huge mistake. When cooking, the kitchen is full of contaminates that are just not good for you. If you are not ventilating them out of the home, that means you are breathing them in.

In addition to the above items also read our last post regarding the lighting and windows, as these can also be places to improve your efficiency and comfort.

Don’t miss our next post when we will take a look at the mechanical room.

To learn more about ways to make your home more efficient, saving money and energy, visit www.airkinglimited.com

How Energy Efficient is Your Home?

One of the joy’s of home ownership (and for many renters) are the wonderful reminders we receive each month of how much it costs to live where we live – bills.

Have you ever looked at your energy bill and asked yourself how it could be so high? Or worse, have not looked at it and just chalk it up to “it is what it is”.

Thankfully there are some easy steps that we can take that can greatly decrease our energy usage. ENERGY STAR® has developed some great resources to help you asses your home and look for ways to improve. Through the “My ENERGY STAR” program you can assess your home’s energy usage, find recommendations on how to improve it as well as a host of other information about saving energy. Most of the recommended items are very easy to complete but can have large lifetime impact on your energy usage. A large benefit of utilizing these tools is creating awareness that can have a positive influence on your decision making. The next time you need to buy an appliance, you might look a little more into what the energy usage is and make that a determining factor on which model you choose. How about the next time you need to replace a light bulb. Instead of just using what you have always used, see what changing to an ENERGY STAR certified LED will do.

The nice thing about saving energy is there is a multitude of ways to go about it and they all help. To learn more about the My ENERGY STAR® program visit the ENERGY STAR web site at www.energystar.gov. For more energy savings ideas and information on how Air King can help, visit www.airkinglimited.com

Reduce your carbon footprint – 10 easy steps to take today.

A lot has been written about carbon footprints and reducing the impact we have on the environment. While living “off the grid” might not be something all of us can do, there are some easy steps we can all take to reduce the impact our daily lives have on the environment. The added bonus is that most of these also save us money in the process. Here are ten:

1. Adjust your thermostat 2 degrees (up in the summer, down in the winter). It will lower your energy bill and reduce up to 500 lbs. of Greenhouse Gases (GHGS) per year.
2. Perform regular maintenance on your vehicles. Your car will drive better and save up to 800 lbs. of GHGS per year.
3. Reduce your driving by 20 miles a week. Do you have an opportunity to car pool? Can you take one car instead of two to the kid’s game? You will save on your gas bill and up to 1,000 lbs. of GHGS per year.
4. Reduce your kilowatt-hour usage by 20 per month. Does every light in the house need to be on at all times? You will save on your electric bill and up to 200 lbs. of GHGS per year.
5. Enable the power saver feature on your computer and monitor. A simple setting that can save up to 100 lbs. of GHGS per year.
6. Run your dishwasher only when full. This is one that has multiple benefits, you save water and energy, which save money and saves up to 100 lbs. of GHGS per year.
7. Wash clothes in cold water. Save the energy needed to heat the water being used and save up to 200 lbs. of GHGS per year.
8. Replace your incandescent bulbs. By investing in LED or CFL light bulbs instead of traditional incandescent bulbs, you can greatly reduce your energy usage saving up to 40 lbs. of GHGS per bulb per year.
9. Recycle. Recycling is something that is easy and in a lot of areas required. By recycling aluminum, steel, plastic, glass and paper, you can reduce up to 1,300 lbs. of GHGS per year.
10. Reuse. Even better that recycling, is reusing. Do you need a new bottle of water each time you leave the house or can you use a refillable one? The paper bag you pack your lunch can be recycled but what about a reusable container?

As you can see, some very easy and mostly free steps can greatly reduce your impact on the environment. Now here is the challenge – how many of these are you going to start doing today? For more tips and information visit www.airkinglimited.com

GHGS calculations courtesy of www.epa.gov