Free Green Magazine

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.

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.

Please subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for stopping by!