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All walls need some kind of insulation otherwise you’re risking a loss of heat in your home through cool drafts, thermal leakage, or actual condensation and damage along the inside of the wall itself. By adding this barrier between your walls, you will be able to reduce drafting, dust build-up, noise pollution, and the temperature on your thermostat, creating savings on your utility bill. However, if you live in an older house with no pre-existing form of interior padding, then your best option is blown-in insulation. Unlike the common batting which is often installed in walls as the original construction is being performed, this loose fill material is literally pumped into the pre-existing wall through a small opening made by your contractor.
These 19 tips, from easiest (and cheapest) to hardest, will help you save money by going green, this year and for years to come. Don’t delay: Winter’s coming, and lucrative federal tax incentives won’t last forever.
1. Dodge the Draft(s)
2. Change Furnace Filters
3. Run Fans in Reverse
4. Winterize Your A/C and Water Lines
5. Turn Down Your Water Heater
6. Install Storm Doors and Windows
7. Give Your Heating System a Tune-Up
8. Mind That Thermostat
9. Put Up Some Plastic
10. Use an Energy Monitor
11. Use Caulking and Weatherstriping
12. Put on a Sweater
13. Boost Insulation
14. Insulate Your Pipes
15. Seal Those Ducts
16. Take Advantage of Tax Credits
17. Choose the Right Contractor
18. Get Creative and Go Alternative
19. Upgrade to an Efficient Furnace
Electric heaters are the most popular way to warm rooms not only in United States, but across the globe. People use electric heaters to warm their homes and offices because they are convenient and efficient; all you need to do is plug it into an electric outlet and it will start providing you instant warmth. The ample varieties in design as well as capacities offer plenty of options to a buyer. However if they are not used correctly, they may be unsafe and not efficient. Here are a few tips on how to use electric heaters wisely.
Don’t leave an electric heater unattended while in use. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, electric heaters account for 40% of the deaths and 30% of the injuries each year in the United States that are heating related. Even with safety features, electric heaters may catch fire if used for long hours without supervision, or something near heater may catch fire after long exposure to the heat.
Use only as directed. Place the electric heater on a level, flat surface. Use the heater on a tabletop, only if the manufacturer permits it. If you place it on furniture, it could fall and be damaged or cause fire or injury. Do not use electric heater in a damp or wet area unless designed for use in bathrooms or the outdoors.
Keep children and pets away from an electric heater. Children may put their hand on a hot electric heater and can burn themselves. Pets could knock the unit over or could also be injured.
Use it when you need it. Electric heaters take less time to warm an area, so when you don’t need it on, turn it off. Some electric heaters include a thermostat that maintains the temperature you set. By keeping this tip in mind, you will not only save on electric bills but will also save energy.
Get it inspected by an expert regularly. This ensures that all electricity points are working correctly and helps prevent any injuries or fires. Get the electric heater repaired if there is a problem.
These suggestions will not only help you use electric heaters safely but will also reduce the costs on your electric bill.
Being passive isn’t always a bad thing, especially when it’s passive solar heating and cooling. The idea behind passive solar is to design buildings that take advantage of natural heat from the sun in winter; and shade and wind and in the summer. Although the concept has been used in many cultures for centuries, passive solar design principles recently have been refined a great deal, even since the 1970s.
We know, we know: The economy’s iffy, jobs are tight, housing values aren’t what they once were. But if there were ever a perfect time to invest in your place by adding more insulation or replacing a creaky old water heater, it’s now. The economic stimulus package passed by Congress last February included a federal tax credit—not just a deduction, but a full-on credit—of 30 percent of the cost of all sorts of energy-saving systems, with a cap of $1,500 per house, if installed by the end of 2010. These upgrades pack the double benefit of slashing your utility bills while increasing your house’s long-term value, too.
From the wacky to the practical, renting instead of buying can save you serious money, as well as benefit the environment.
1. Tools
In these tough economic times many people are looking for ways to shave expenses off their budgets. One tried-and-true method is to rent instead of buy. Environmentalists have long pointed out that we can also significantly reduce our impact on the planet if we borrow the things we only need occasionally.
If you’re looking for simple ways to save energy at home, your refrigerator is a good place to start. That’s because your fridge is one of your home’s single biggest electricity users (other members of this club include your air conditioner and your water heater.) But with a few simple steps you can make your current refrigerator more efficient — and when it’s time to buy a new fridge, these resources can help you make a smart choice.
These recommendations depend actually on the height and size of the room; the season; and the activity taking place in the room.
The basic fact of nature is that warm air rises to the top and cold air settles on the bottom. Air settles in layers from warm at the top to cold at the bottom, if left alone at equilibrium.
Ceiling fan recommendations:
In the winter
Set the fan to run counterclockwise (reverse; this looks clockwise as you are looking up). This will redirect the warm air from the ceiling and down the walls and into the living space where the people actually are. In a house, you would run the fan at a low speed so that you don’t actually cool the warm air that you are moving downward. If you have a high ceiling, or are trying to heat a hall or a church, you may want to increase the fan speed so that the warm air will reach the living space as long as the fan speed does not create an unwanted downdraft at the people below.
In the summer
In a room of normal height (8 – 10 ft), you should operate your fan so that it turns clockwise (this looks counterclockwise as you are looking up), causing a more directed downdraft, especially with the fan running slightly faster. This causes a wind-chill effect because the skin evaporates slight amounts of water from the sweat glands and thereby provides cooling through the skin’s surface. However, the air is only moved but not cooled! You may find that you can turn your thermostat down a degree or two and save more money on energy costs. The air blowing down won’t actually cool the room though, so you should turn the fan off when there are no people (or animals) in the room.
In a high hall or church
It may be best NOT to run the fans at all in summer. This lowers the demand for cooling since the hot layer on top is an excellent insulation between the cool air near the floor (and the people) and the hot roof and outside.
A large, tall manufacturing hall would typically have different goals. There one would have a floor full of heat producing machinery plus the people operating it, working hard and welcoming a bit of a breeze. Then it would make sense to run the fans at fairly high speed to create a certain and directed downdraft. And with the shifts going throughout the days of the week, the fans should be running all the time and maybe in all seasons.
Finally, fans typically use 80-100 watts. When used properly, ceiling fans can really help to optimize the comfort level of the people and save energy and money.
1. Build a clothesline
Next to your refrigerator, your dryer is likely the biggest energy-guzzling appliance in your house. And while we wouldn’t ask you to store your food in a vintage icebox, an old-fashioned clothesline is actually a pretty good idea. (If that sounds too retro, think of it as a “solar dryer” instead.)
You can buy a pulley kit like the one pictured here at the hardware store. Or you can order the components online. But it’s easy to make a traditional clothesline yourself, using 4×4 or 6×6 pressure-treated posts for the uprights and 2×8s for the cross arms (which don’t need to be pressure-treated). Simply notch the posts to receive the cross arms, set them in concrete, and run the lines on eye hooks between them. A 4- or 5-foot cross arm should give you enough room for five lengths of line, nicely spaced.
Lumber: $42
Hardware: $10
100 feet of line + 100 wood clothespins: $17
Total: $69
The object of reducing is to ultimately eliminate excess consumption in your household. In order to do this you’ll want to first measure how much consumption is in your home by determining how much garbage your family produces each week. Take note of what takes up the most space in your trash and try to reduce it.
Here are some suggestions of easy ways we can reduce the amount we are using and throwing away in our daily lives:
- Replace your incandescent bulbs with compact florescent light bulbs which consume much less energy.
- Look at the cleaning products in your home and replacing them with biodegradable cleaning products.
- Buy food in bulk, such as grains or cereals. Be sure not to buy large quantities of food that will spoil quickly.
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