Energy Efficient Homes
May 18, 2009 by admin
Filed under Energy Efficient Houses
There are many benefits to improving your homes energy efficiency
Solar power is probably the most energy-efficient investment you could possibly make in your home. However, having a solar and wind energy system installed can be expensive. These costs can be reduced greatly if you are the do it yourself type and enjoy home projects but there is one step that you must be willing to take in order to keep these costs at a minimum. It’s part of the process of going solar and will reduce the costs of converting to solar energy greatly. Energy efficient homes are the key to making solar a viable option for most of us because the less energy required to operate your house the smaller the solar system required to provide the energy you need.
Now this doesn’t mean you have to change your life style and live in the dark, freezing in the winter and over heating in the summer. It simply means that you will have to make some changes to make your home more efficient. And it’s the first step you should take if you want to convert to solar and wind energy. An energy efficient home can be as much as 50% less expensive to operate and maintain than one that is not energy efficient. Those lower costs translate to huge savings when installing solar and wind energy equipment.
If your motivation is reducing your electric bill, a reduction of as much as 50% can be obtained simply by becoming more energy efficient. If your motivation is to save the planet, you will be happy to learn that for every watt you are able to reduce your energy consumption, the demand on the utility company may be reduced by 2 Watts. This reduction is largely due to the inefficiencies of power distribution lines.
Energy efficient homes of today are much more comfortable to live in and much less expensive to maintain and operate than the inefficient homes of our grand parents. We spend billions of dollars every year for space heating, air conditioning, to heat water and light our homes. The costs for upgraded, tighter construction and better insulation should only add 5 to 10% to the total building cost for a new home. Even if you live in an older home there are some big savings available to you without spending large amounts of money.
There are many incentives available including cash rebates and low-cost loans for home owners who are interested in taking the steps to improve their homes energy efficiency. There are many things you can do without spending a lot of money. Remember, these changes don’t mean you have to change you lifestyle.
How To Make Homes More Energy Efficient
May 23, 2009 by admin
Filed under Energy Efficient Houses
There are a lot of simple things you can do to save energy in your home and reduce your electric bill. These are the common changes that we here about almost daily, such as turning lights of when leaving a room, turn your thermostat down to a lower setting in the winter or set it higher in the summer and these things all impact our demand for energy to some degree. However, when I’m cold I want to be warm and when I’m hot I want to be cooler. It’s just our nature, we like to be comfortable, and sometimes we forget to do the small things that can make a difference, like turning lights off or taking shorter showers, leaving heaters on when we don’t need them.
To make our homes more energy efficient we basically have two options
- Take the necessary steps to make the equipment in our homes work more efficiently, heating and air conditioning, water heater etc…
- Supplementing or upgrading our current equipment, by purchasing more efficient appliances etc…
Most people would be surprised to learn that they can make huge improvements in energy conservation by making some simple changes in their homes. This doesn’t mean you have to spend thousands of dollars doing major construction just so you can upgrade your insulation or buy the most efficient heat pump, air conditioner or furnace although these are good options when the equipment is due to be replaced.
It’s hard to justify upgrading your heating or air conditioning system and spending thousands of dollars when the old equipment works fine, most of us need to be efficient with our money also. When the time comes for windows, furnace and cooling equipment to be changed for whatever reason, that is the time to upgrade them. Use the same rule for appliances, upgrade them to more efficient models when they need to be replaced. If you build a new house design it to be more energy efficient. You can achieve enormous reductions in you power bill by working with what you have.
The biggest areas of energy consumption
- Space heating and cooling - 53%
- Water heating - 21%
- Appliances - 12%
- Lighting - 8%
- Electronics - 4%
- Other - 2%
You can make big improvements in some of these areas to reduce monthly energy consumption without spending a lot of money. Use energy efficient light bulbs, add extra insulation where you can, do your best to conserve. Often it’s the simplest and easiest to implement changes that will have the biggest immediate impact.
Reducing energy consumption in your home can lower your monthly energy bill substantially. I just read an e-book written by Peter Lindemann called Save On Home Energy. He believes the average home owner can reduce their electric bill by 50% using the strategies in his book. You can read my Save On Home Energy Review and decide if it’s something you may be interested in.
