Energy & Money Saving Tips

Energy & Money Saving Tips

 
 
10 things to do to reduce your heating and hot water bill this winter
Existing homes can be 50% more efficient and new homes can be up to 70% more efficient than conventional construction.  Here's how:
 
1. Seal Cracks, Gaps and Holes

Air leakage is often the single greatest contributor to heat loss in a home. And your home is likely more leaky than you think. Winter dryness is a good indicator of air tightness. So if your home is dry in the winter this is a symptom of excessive infiltration.

There are a few common locations for cracks. For starters where the baseboard trim meets the floor, a continuous crack occurs that is often leaky. This is because it is aligned with a crack in the structural framing creating a straight shot to the outdoors. In our home I sealed this crack with a clear silicone caulk. I crawled around the house, in and out of each room, making sure I sealed the entire crack length. When you’re down there you will likely run into other cracks or gaps that previously went undetected. Where the ceiling meets the wall is another common crack. Also repair cracks in walls, floors and ceilings. Sealing these leaks also reduces moisture and mold damage by preventing moisture from condensing within exterior wall, floor and roof assemblies.
 
2. Install Rope Caulking on Windows

Windows are often a large source of air leakage. Rope caulking goes on easy in the fall and comes off easy in the spring. It is not very noticeable which makes it preferable to temporary plastic coverings. I usually rope cock our most leaky and least used windows early in the heating season and then complete the remaining windows as it gets colder.

3. Weather-strip Doors

Most exterior doors are already weather-stripped. But weather-stripping wears out and loses its effectiveness quickly. Doors that are used frequently may need annual adjustments to make sure the door makes a snug fit when closed. Doors to the attic and basement should also be weather-stripped. This is because the vertical height of our homes causes a positive pressure at the top and a negative pressure at the bottom. This is the same force (called a stack effect) that causes a draught in a fireplace or woodstove. By weather-stripping the attic and basement doors vertical air movement is restricted and air leakage is reduced.  

4. Upgrade Showerhead

The topic of showering is a touchy one. When I suggest a new showerhead and explain that improved designs have resulted in reduced water use with no loss in showering pleasure, the skepticism is palpable. The fact is that shower head designs have been steadily improving. Significant energy is used to heat hot water, and showers are the single greatest user of hot water in most homes. My current showerhead is a low-flow model and also has an optimizing lever that allows the volume to be throttled back while I’m in the shower.

5. Turn Down the Hot Water Tank Temperature

Domestic water heaters are often set higher than they need to be. Adjust the aquastat at the water heater down as low as possible without compromising shower comfort or dishwasher performance. In our house it is set a 120F. Water heaters continuously lose heat to their surroundings, called standby losses. Heat loss is proportional to temperature difference so reducing the tank temperature from 140F to 120F can reduce standby losses by 25%.

6. Get Your Boiler Serviced

Get your boiler or furnace serviced before the heating season. Among other things the technician will test the combustion efficiency and make adjustments that assure that fuel combustion is optimized for your particular boiler or furnace.

7. Add Insulation in Attics

In many homes it is easy to add insulation in the attic because the insulation is exposed and the thickness is not limited. (Walls on the other hand are very difficult to add insulation.) More insulation in the attic will help to offset less accessible places such as finished walls. Take care not to block vents at eaves that help to prevent ice damming.

8. Add Insulation to Water Heater

Most hot water heaters are marginally insulated so heat flows easily from the stored hot water to the surrounding space (often a cool basement). Wrapping the water heater with insulation is like putting on a warm jacket. Use 3-1/2” thick fiberglass batts with paper face, or better use peal-and-stick foam sheet insulation.

9. Turn Down the Heat

I’m not a big fan of suggesting that people need to suffer to save energy. I’m more interested in eliminating waste. So turn down the heat when your not home. Turn down the heat in unoccupied rooms. Turn down the heat at night. See how low you can go depending on your home short of suffering. Turning the heat down to 60F for example may kill your house plants if they are positioned too close to cold window sills where it is colder than where the thermostat is sensing the temperature. Homes with forced hot air can recover from set-backs more quickly than homes with forced hot water so may be more amenable to deeper set-backs.

10. Replace Light Bulbs

This one is not related to your heating bill but if you have not done it already, replace incandescent light-bulbs with fluorescent. Fluorescent lighting uses about 75% less electricity for the same amount of light. The light quality of fluorescents has improved as well as the variety of replacement bulb types available. I replaced under-cabinet fixtures without detection by my wife. Temporary deception is sometimes a good way to get by strongly held pre-conceptions.

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