Your Home's Energy Use
The first step to taking a whole-house energy efficiency approach is to find out which parts of your house use the most energy. A home energy audit will show you where these are and suggest the most effective measures for reducing your energy costs. You can conduct a simple home energy audit yourself, or you can contact professional for a more comprehensive examination.
Energy Auditing Tips
1. Check the level of insulation in your exterior and basement walls, ceilings, attic, floors, and crawl spaces. Contact a qualified contractor for additional assistance.
2. Check for holes or cracks around your walls, ceilings, windows, doors, light and plumbing fixtures, switches, and electrical outlets that can leak air into or out of your home.
3. Check for open fireplace dampers.
4. Make sure your appliances and heating and cooling systems are properly maintained.
5. Study your family's lighting needs and use patterns, paying special attention to high-use areas such as the living room, kitchen and exterior lighting. Look for ways to use day-lighting, reduce the time the lights are on, and replace incandescent bulbs and fixtures with compact or standard florescent lamps.
Formulating Your Plan
After you have identified places where your home is losing energy, assign priorities to your energy needs by asking yourself a few questions:
1. How much money do you spend on energy?
2. Where are your greatest energy losses?
3. How long will it take for an investment in energy efficiency to pay for itself in energy savings?
4. Can you do the job yourself, or will you need to hire a contractor?
5. What is your budget and how much time do you have to spend on maintenance and repair?
Once you assign priorities to your energy needs, you can form a whole-house efficiency plan. Your plan will provide you with a strategy for making smart purchases and home improvements that maximize energy efficiency and save the most money.
Another option is to get the advice of a professional. Many utilities conduct energy audits for free or for a nominal charge. For a fee, a professional contractor will analyze how your home's energy systems work together as a system and compare the analysis against you utility bills. He or she will use a variety of equipment such as blower doors, infrared cameras, and surface thermometers to find inefficiencies that cannot be detected by a visual inspection. Finally, they will give you a list of recommendations for cost-effective energy improvements and enhanced comfort and safety. A good contractor will also calculate the return on your investment in high efficiency equipment vs. standard equipment.
Heating And Cooling
Heating and cooling you home uses more energy and drains more energy dollars than any other system in you home. Typically, 44 of the nation's sulfur dioxide and 12 AFUE and 10 SEER.
9. Look for the ENERGY STAR® and EnergyGuide labels. ENERGY STAR® is a program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designed to help consumers identify energy efficient appliances and products.
Ducts
One of the most important systems in your home, though it's hidden beneath your heat and over your head, may be wasting a lot of your energy dollars. Your home's duct system, a branching network of tubes in the walls, floors, and ceilings, carries the air from your home's furnace and central air conditioner to each room. Ducts are made of sheet metal, fiberglass, or other materials.
Unfortunately, many duct systems are poorly insulated or not insulated properly. Ducts that leak heated air into unheated spaces can add hundreds of dollars a year to your heating and cooling bills. Insulating ducts that are in unconditioned spaces is usually very cost-effective. If you are buying a new duct system, consider one that comes with insulation already installed.
Sealing your ducts to prevent leaks is even more important if the ducts are located in an unconditioned area such as an attic or vented crawl space. If the supply ducts are leaking, heated or cooled air can be forced out unsealed joints and lost. In addition, unconditioned air can also be drawn into return ducts through unsealed joints. In the summer, hot attic air can be drawn in, increasing the load on the air conditioner. In the winter, you furnace will have to work longer to keep your house comfortable. Either way, your energy losses cost you money.
Although minor duct repairs are easy to accomplish, ducts in unconditioned spaces should be sealed and insulated by qualified professionals using the appropriate sealing materials. Here are a few simple tips to help with minnow duct repairs.
Duct Tips
1. Check your ducts for air leaks. First look for sections that should be joined but have separated and then look for obvious holes.
2. If you use duct tape to repair and seal your ducts, look for tape with the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) logo to avoid tape that degrades, cracks and loses its bond with age.
3. Remember that insulating ducts in the basement will make the basement colder. If both the ducts and the basement walls are un-insulated consider insulating both.
4. If your basement has been converted to a living area, install both supply and return registers in the basement rooms.
5. Be sure a well-sealed vapor barrier exists on the outside of the insulation on cooling ducts to prevent moisture buildup.
6. Get a professional to help you insulate and repair all ducts.
Heat Pumps
If you use electricity to heat your home, consider installing an energy-efficient heat pump system. Heat pumps are the most efficient form of electric heating in moderate climates, providing three times more heating than the equivalent amount of energy they consume in electricity. There are three types of heat pumps: air-to-air, water source and ground source. They collect heat from the air, water, or ground outside your home and concentrate it for use inside. Heat pumps do double duty as a central air conditioner. They can also cool your home by collecting the heat inside your house and effectively pumping it outside. A heat pump can trim the amount of electricity you use for heating by as much as 30.
Heat Pump Tips
1. Do not set back the heat pump's thermostat manually if it causes the electric resistance heating to come on. This type of heating, which is often used as a backup to the heat pump, is more expensive.
2. Clean or change filters once a month or as needed, and maintain the system according to manufacturer's instructions.
Solar Heating And Cooling
Using passive solar design techniques to heat and cool your home can be both environmentally friendly and cost effective. Passive solar heating techniques include placing larger, insulated windows on south-facing walls and locating thermal mass, such as a concrete slab floor or a heat- absorbing wall. Close to the windows. In many cases, you can cut your heating costs by more than 50 less electricity than the same one operating in the sun.
Programmable Thermostats
You can save as much as 10 to 15 of your utility bill.
There are four ways to cut your water heating bills: use less hot water, turn down the thermostat on you water heater, insulate your water heater, or buy a new, more efficient water heater. A family of four, each showering for 5 minutes a day, uses 700 gallons of water a week; this is enough for a 3-year supply of drinking water for one person. You can cut that amount in half simply by using low-flow nonaerating showerheads and faucets.
Water Heating Tips
1. Repair leaky faucets promptly; a leaky faucet wastes gallons of water in a short period.
2. Insulate you electric hot-water storage tank and pipes, but be careful not to cover the thermostat.
3. Insulate your gas or oil hot-water storage tank and pipes, but be careful not to cover the water heater's top, bottom, thermostat, or burner compartment; when in doubt, get professional help.
4. Install non-aerating, low-flow faucets and showerheads.
5. Buy a new energy-efficient water heater. While it may cost more initially than a standard water heater, the energy savings will continue during the lifetime of the appliance.
6. Although most water heaters last 10-15 years, it's best to start shopping for a new one if yours is more than 7 years old. Doing some research before your heater fails will enable you to select one that most appropriately meets your needs.
7. Lower the thermostat on your water heater; water heaters sometimes come from the factory with high temperature settings, but a setting of 115°F provides comfortable hot water for most uses.
8. Drain a quart of water from your water tank every 3 months to remove sediment that impedes heat transfer and lowers the efficiency of your heater. The type of water tank you have determines the steps to take, so follow the manufacturer's advice.
9. If you heat with electricity and live in a warm and sunny climate, consider installing a solar water heater. The solar units are environmentally friendly and can now be installed on your roof to blend with the architecture of your house.
10. Take more showers than baths. Bathing uses the most hot water in the average household. You use 15-25 gallons of hot water for a bath, but less than 10 gallons during a 5-minute shower.
11. Consider the installation of a drain water waste heat recovery system.
Solar Water Heaters
If you heat with electricity and you have an unshaded, south-facing location (such as a roof) on your property, consider installing a solar water heater. More than 1.5 million homes and businesses in the United States have invested in solar water heating systems and over 94 of Americans didn't realize the air in their homes might be a health hazard.
The good news, however, is that more are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of indoor air quality and health. Slowly but surely, they are demanding better comfort and healthier air -- and who better to satisfy their needs than HVAC contractors and builders?
Ventilation is a system of exhaust and supply that creates a flow of air. Effective systems require a proper balance of exhaust and supply air. A good home ventilating system provides a wide array of benefits, which are highlighted in this Guide. Additionally, offering these systems gives HVAC contractors and builders an edge. Those who discuss the benefits of proper ventilation with their customers and prospects -and show them how to achieve it - demonstrate a sincere regard for the customer, perhaps opening their eyes to considerations the competition isn't even mentioning.
Indoor Air Quality
To help improve your indoor air, here are suggestions:
1. Avoid accumulation of dust, animal dander and other allergen-causing materials.
2. Clean your chimney, air conditioners, humidifier, refrigerator coils, air ducts and heat exchangers, and change filters regularly.
3. Never allow smoking in your house.
4. Improve ventilation by leaving doors open between rooms and leaving windows open whenever possible.
5. Install ceiling fans to increase circulation.
6. Decrease excessive humidity by installing exhaust fans in bathrooms.
7. Fit gas ranges with hoods and install an outside exhaust to prevent carbon monoxide.
8. Prevent backdrafts by having your furnace serviced regularly. Have your gas water heater and clothes dryers serviced regularly.
9. Keep fireplace dampers completely open during use.
10. Use only wood in the fireplace, not paper or charcoal.
11. Watch for mold and mildew, and remove any accumulation of standing water in cellars, basement or garages.
12. Reduce exposure to household chemicals, cleaning solvents, pesticides, paints, kerosene and gasoline.
13. Test for levels of radon-a radioactive gas from soil and rock-beneath and around your home's foundation.
14. Avoid keeping plants in your home if you're sensitive to molds.
If your home was built prior to 1978, have it inspected for asbestos, lead and formaldehyde contamination by the local health department. Some people are sensitive to even low levels of formaldehyde, which is used to add permanents-press qualities to clothing and draperies, as a component of glues and adhesives, and as a preservative in some paints and coating products. In homes, the most significant sources of formaldehyde are likely to be in the adhesives used to bond pressed-wood building materials and in plywood.
Ventilation
There has been more than 17 million single family homes constructed since the late 1970s. Built and insulated to be extremely tight, they are also those homes with the highest incidences of indoor air quality problems.
Common pollutants from the home, people, and contents, along with temperature and humidity conditions, can create an unhealthy environment.
They include:
Moisture
Too much moisture can cause allergy problems and structural damage by encouraging the growth of mold, mildew, bacteria, dust mites, dry rot, and insects.
Common Household Chemicals
1. Cleaning supplies
2. Paints and solvents
3. Formaldehyde from furniture, carpet, and building materials
4. Pesticides
5. Volatile organic compounds
6. Odors
Particles
1. Dust and dust mites
2. Pet dander
3. Lead
4. Pollen
5. Asbestos
Tobacco Smoke
A health risk to smokers and non-smokers alike - children are especially at risk.
Combustion Products
These are produced by fuel-burning heating equipment, gas water heaters, fireplaces, woodstoves, gas ranges, and candles, and include:
1. Carbon Monoxide
2. Nitrous oxides
3. Unburned fuel
4. Carbon Dioxide
5. Soot
6. Moisture
Heat
Overheating in the attic from sun exposure.
Ventilation systems and components are designed to:
1. Remove excess moisture;
2. Remove airborne chemicals, particles, tobacco smoke, and odors;
3. Help keep humidity levels in proper balance;
4. Help control combustion byproducts; and
5. Keep attics under control to avoid water damage in the winter and overheating in the summer.
These factors come together to enhance the comfort and indoor air quality of the home to help keep occupants safe. A quality ventilation system also contributes to preserving the structural integrity of the home, reduced maintenance costs, and adding to the home's value.
Strategies for use throughout a home include:
Local Ventilation - for bath, kitchen, and other moisture- or odor-producing areas.
General Ventilation - to remove stale, polluted air and bring in outdoor air. May be provided by using local ventilation fans and intakes, or centrally ducted continuous ventilation systems such as heat or energy recovery ventilators (HRVs/ERVs).
Proper placement of vents and ventilators-to protect the attic and crawlspace.
Manufacturers of home ventilation products try to ensure that their products are simple and require little to no maintenance. However, no matter how well products are made, it's up to the HVAC contractor to select the right products for the particular application and to install them properly. It's also important that contractors educate customers about the importance of regularly scheduled system checkups to ensure that the entire home comfort system is operating efficiently, as intended.
I am a mother of two currently working at an HVAC company on Long Island, NY. Passing along information that I think may be helpful to others.
