2) Lifestyle Changes Both can offer considerable savings.
The typical home can reduce its’ energy consumption 20% to 40% by improving efficiency through insulation, air sealing and other inexpensive methods. More expensive technologies such as ground source heat pumps can reduce the homes heating and energy cost up to 75%.
To save energy in the home, you need to look at where the energy is being used and its cost. The following list shows average energy cost for a typical home broken down by use:
44% Heating and Cooling
33% Lighting, Cooking, and other appliances (TV, Computer, Washer & Dryer)
14% Water Heating
9% Refrigeration
Since the majority of the home’s energy cost is consumed by heating and cooling, the opportunities for savings are greatest in this area. But significant reductions can be made in each of the above categories and all savings which show as cost effective should be considered.
Increase Efficiency of Home
Increasing the home’s efficiency is generally accomplished by air sealing and insulation. Typically air sealing is the most cost effective method to reduce heating and cooling cost. Sadly, it is the most overlooked by home owners and contractors. It is estimated that well insulated homes lose 40% of their heating and cooling from air leakage. Think of your home as an insulated cooler. Now drill holes in the cooler. No matter how well it is insulated, it will lose it ability to prevent the transfer of heat, due to air leakage.
If you have electric heat or an older gas or oil furnace/boiler you may see significant reductions in your energy cost by upgrading your heating system. How much? Without the Home energy Tune up, I cannot tell you, but some have seen reductions of 40% on their heating/cooling bills. But it is not just the efficiency you have to consider, you must also account for the large differences in the fuel cost of the system installed and that of others available. Click here to read about Efficiency vs. Energy Cost.
Appliances
If you have older appliances and hot water heater, upgrading these appliances to energy star rated appliances can result in dramatic savings. Often the savings may pay for the new appliances in just a couple of years. It may save you money to buy new appliances. Reducing hot water for washing clothes can result in significant savings with no loss of cleaning ability. In addition, WV offer tax credits for the purchase of energy star rated appliances.
Change Lifestyles
No one really wants to change their lifestyle, but sometimes changing circumstances may dictate a change. If you can’t afford the increase in heating fuel cost, you may have to make that same fuel go further.
A decrease in thermostat setting of one degree, typically results in a decrease of heating/cooling cost by 2% to 3%. Dropping the thermostat several degrees and throwing on a sweatshirt on can result in considerable savings. This is especially true on very cold days. As the temperature difference between outside and inside increases the rate of heat transfer from the home increases dramatically.
To illustrate this principle, in the chart below it takes $1 of energy to heat the home the first 10 deg above the outside temperature. To heat the home an additional 10 deg it now takes an additional $2 worth of energy. The next 10 deg takes $3 of additional energy. And so on. Like a tire going flat, when the pressure difference is greatest air rushes out. As the pressure differences become smaller the rate of air loss slows dramatically. The same is true with heat loss. The chart below shows the energy dollar it takes to maintain a home at 70 deg with different outside temps. While the chart below is not technically accurate, it is close and demonstrates this principal.
Outside Temp
Difference Inside/Outside
Cost for Additional 10 Deg
Total Cost to Heat
60
10
$1
$1
50
20
$2
$3
40
30
$3
$6
30
40
$4
$10
20
50
$5
$15
10
60
$6
$21
For the reasons above, programmable thermostats can result in heating and cooling savings of 10% to 15%. They accomplish this by setting the temperature back during the time when no one is home or are sleeping. Rooms that are not in use should have the heating and cooling reduced or shut off.
