Energy of the City

 

In this era of heightened green awareness, most of us want to reduce our carbon footprint, even if we don’t know exactly what that means. Essentially the phrase translates into “reduce your energy consumption,” but the notion of totally retrofitting an existing home can be intimidating. Homeowners are often reluctant to embark on an expensive remodeling project, especially in these times of economic downturn. The good news? There have been extraordinary advances in energy-saving building materials, construction practices, and household systems and equipment. These days it’s even possible to upgrade an older structure that squanders energy and make it remarkably energy-efficient. Now you can create a significantly greener home more easily and affordably than ever before.

Here’s how:

1. Replace outmoded incandescent bulbs with ENERGY STAR-rated compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Over the lifetime of five CFL bulbs, your contribution to preventing harmful emissions will be equal to taking 3.5 million cars off the road.

2. Put a water heater appliance blanket around your tank. The insulating wrap, available at most home improvement stores, keeps heat in to significantly reduce heating costs and prolong the service life of the appliance.

3. For ultimate hot water savings, invest in an “on demand” tankless water heater system fueled by natural gas. These consume energy to heat water only when you turn on a hot water tap, saving many hours of energy each day. They also provide hot water instantly, with no wait time.

4. Caulk around doors and windows, add weather stripping, and increase the insulation in the attic and in any walls that are poorly insulated.

5. Change the air filters in your HVAC system. It’s worth an extra few dollars each, since dirty air filters negatively affect the performance of heating and cooling systems, thus sending your bills through the roof.

6. If you do not yet have a modern programmable thermostat, spend $30-$40 to get one. These have more accurate settings than other thermostats and make your HVAC system work smarter, not harder. You may recoup the cost of the thermostat within just a month or two.

7. Outdated refrigerators are a constant drain on electricity, so replace your old fridge with a newer, ENERGY STAR-rated one. Within a year or two, your electricity bill savings will offset much of the extra appliance cost.

8. Consider upgrading to a more energy-friendly natural gas furnace, stove and clothes dryer. If you do not have a gas line to your property, one can be installed fairly easily. The washingtongasliving.com website offers information on how to get the conversion process started.

9. Reduce the amount of grass in your lawn by installing more flowerbeds, a vegetable garden or features such as a rock garden or patio. Not only does this minimize the maintenance (less mowing and reseeding each year), but it also drastically shrinks your carbon footprint.

10. In order to benchmark your progress in tangible, quantifiable ways, it helps to generate some current baseline data before doing your upgrades. Request your utility bill history of the past year or two. Utility companies will usually give you a printout of your bills at no extra charge. For a greener option, find a web based option, where you can track and compare all of your electric, gas, and water usage in one place online

11. Use that seasonal data to establish your average costs and consumption numbers for electricity, heating oil, natural gas, water, etc. After taking steps to save more energy, you can refer back to these baseline figures to track your progress and calculate your actual savings.

12. To generate more specific and comprehensive information, hire a licensed professional to perform an on-site energy audit. They use infrared imaging technology, for example, to pinpoint where energy may be leaking through insufficiently insulated walls. Various tax incentives and rebates available to homeowners that conduct energy audits allow you to offset some or all of the cost of the audit.

Many resources are available to provide additional savings on greening your home. Check with your local utility company to see what rebates or incentives are available in your area.