Tips for an energy efficient home

Cooling and heating your house drains more energy bucks than any other standard system in your house. Around, 43% of your utility bill will go towards heating and cooling. Further, heating and cooling systems in the US all together emit approximately 150 million tons of carbon dioxide into the earths atmosphere each year, adding to the controversial global climate change. Not to mention they also generate about 12% of the United State’s sulfur dioxide and around 4% of the nitrogen oxides, one of the chief ingredients in acid rain.Energy Saving Tips

No matter what type of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system you may have in your home, you can save a substantial amount of money and noticeably increase your comfort by correctly upgrading and maintaining your equipment. An energy-efficient furnace by itself will not have as great an effect on your energy bills as using the entire-house approach. You could possibly cut your energy use by twenty to fifty percent simply by combining equipment maintenance and quality upgrades with insulation, air sealing, and even thermostat settings.

Cooling and Heating Tips

  • Try to set your thermostat at the lowest setting that is comfortable in the cold weather of the winter and as high as you can with it still being comfortable in the heat of the summer.
  • Cleaning or replacing filters on furnaces at least once a month or as is needed.
  • Clean your warm-air registers, base board heaters, and also your radiators as needed; make sure that they are not blocked by your furniture, carpeting, or possibly your drapes.
  • Bleed the trapped air from your hot-water radiators possibly once or even twice a season; you may need a professional for this task.
  • Install heat resistant radiator reflectors in between the exterior walls and your radiators.
  • Turn off your kitchen, bath, and and other exhaust fans you may have within 20 minutes after cooking or bathing; while replacing exhaust fans, consider using low-noise, high-efficiency models.
  • During the winter season, keep the drapes and shades on your southern-facing windows wide open during the daylight to allow the sunlshine to enter your house and close them at night, reducing the chill you could feel from the cold windows.
  • During the summer season, try to keep the window draperies closed during the daytime to prevent the effect of solar gain.

Long-Term Energy Savings Tips

  • By using energy-efficient home products when you are shopping for new cooling and heating equipment. You can get energy fact sheets from your contractor for different models and designs to try and help you compare their energy expense.
  • For your heating furnaces, look for higher Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rates. Apparently the national minimum is supposed to be 78% AFUE, but there are quality “Energy Star” models available that can exceed the 90% AFUE.
  • For cooling air conditioning systems, try to find one with a high Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) rating. Currently the minimum is at 13 SEER for a central air conditioning system. The ENERGY STAR models are at 14 SEER and possibly more.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Tips for an energy efficient home”

  1. Malcolm Van Ness on July 4th, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    If you are looking for a way to save some money and do something a little green. These tips are very useful. If you look for every opportunity to conserve you can find it. Good luck

  2. Tips for an energy efficient home | howsolarworks.info on July 4th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

    [...] Cooling and vaporisation your concern drains more forcefulness bucks than some another accepted grouping in your house. Around, 43% of your programme calculate module go towards vaporisation and cooling. Further, vaporisation and chilling systems in the US every unitedly expel roughly 150 meg heaps of copy whitener into the earths region apiece year, adding to the disputable orbicular status change. See more here:  Tips for an forcefulness economical home [...]

  3. big sky country on July 4th, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    I just put some of these ideas into the works. Hope that the energy saving ideas help with my utility bill and my carbon footprint.

  4. Malcolm Van Ness on July 6th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    Good luck big sky. I’m doing the same.

  5. Margaret McIntire on January 8th, 2010 at 9:26 am

    Do you know of any homes that are net carbon zero due to using a geothermal hvac system coupled with solar pv and perhaps passive solar?

  6. Malcolm Van Ness on January 20th, 2010 at 9:01 am

    I haven’t. That sounds like a good combination though.

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