Energy Saving Devices

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Properly insulating and air sealing your attic will help reduce your energy bills. Attics are often one of the easiest places in a house to insulate, especially if you’d like to add insulation.

Before insulating or deciding whether to add insulation to your attic, first see our information about adding insulation to an existing house or selecting insulation for new home construction if you haven’t already.

Warning: if you think you have vermiculite insulation in your attic, there’s a chance it could contain asbestos. Don’t disturb it. Only insulation contractors certified to handle and remove asbestos should deal with vermiculite insulation.
Attic Insulation Techniques

Loose-fill or batt insulation is typically installed in an attic. Although installation costs may vary, loose-fill insulation is usually less expensive to install than batt insulation. When installed properly, loose-fill insulation also usually provides better coverage.

Before installing any type of insulation in your attic, follow these steps:

* Seal all attic-to-home air leaks. Most insulation does not stop airflow.
o Duct exhaust fans to the outside. Use a tightly constructed box to cover fan housing on attic side. Seal around the duct where it exits the box. Seal the perimeter of the box to the drywall on attic side.
o Cover openings—such as dropped ceilings, soffits, and bulkheads—into attic area with plywood and seal to the attic side of the ceiling.
o Seal around chimney and framing with a high-temperature caulk or furnace cement.
o At the tops of interior walls, use long-life caulk to seal the smaller gaps and holes. Use expanding foam or strips of rigid foam board insulation for the larger gaps.

* Install blocking (metal flashing) to maintain fire-safety clearance requirements (usually 3 inches) for heat-producing equipment found in an attic, such as flues, chimneys, exhaust fans, and light housings/fixtures unless the light fixtures are IC (insulation contact) rated. IC-rated lights are airtight and can be covered with insulation.

* Make sure insulation doesn’t block soffit vents to allow for attic ventilation.

* Check the attic ceiling for water stains or marks. They indicate roof leaks or lack of ventilation. Make repairs before you insulate. Wet insulation is ineffective and can damage your home.

Also insulate and air seal your attic access if it’s located in a conditioned part of the house.

You’ll want to properly insulate and air seal any knee walls—vertical walls with attic space directly behind them—in your home as well.

Finally, if you’re constructing a new home or remodeling, make sure any attic decking, which provides additional storage space or a platform for an HVAC unit or hot water tank, is raised above the ceiling joists to ensure proper insulation depth. The decking then should be installed securely to the top of the raised lumber after the insulation has been installed.
Other Considerations

If you live in a hot or warm climate, you might consider installing a radiant barrier in your attic along with the insulation.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

Your home needs ventilation—the exchange of indoor air with outdoor air—to reduce indoor pollutants, moisture, and odors. Contaminants such as formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, and radon can accumulate in poorly ventilated homes, causing health problems. Excess moisture in a home can generate high humidity levels. High humidity levels can lead to mold growth and structural damage to your home.

To ensure adequate ventilation, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) says that a home’s living area should be ventilated at a rate of 0.35 air changes per hour or 15 cubic feet per person per minute, whichever is greater.

Source: U.S. Department of Education

You may already know where some air leakage occurs in your home, such as an under-the-door draft, but you’ll need to find the less obvious gaps to properly air seal your home.

For a thorough and accurate measurement of air leakage in your home, hire a qualified technician to conduct an energy audit, particularly a blower door test. A blower door test, which depressurizes a home, can reveal the location of many leaks. A complete energy audit will also help determine areas in your home that need more insulation.

Without a blower door test, there are ways to find some air leaks yourself. First, look at areas where different materials meet, such as between brick and wood siding, between foundation and walls, and between the chimney and siding. Also inspect around the following areas for any cracks and gaps that could cause air leaks:

* Door and window frames
* Mail chutes
* Electrical and gas service entrances
* Cable TV and phone lines
* Outdoor water faucets
* Where dryer vents pass through walls
* Bricks, siding, stucco, and foundation
* Air conditioners
* Vents and fans.

You can also try these steps to depressurize your home to help detect leaks:

1. Turn off your furnace on a cool, very windy day.
2. Shut all windows and doors.
3. Turn on all exhaust fans that blow air outside, such as bathroom fans or stove vents.
4. Light an incense stick and pass it around the edges of common leak sites. Wherever the smoke is sucked out of or blown into the room, there’s a draft.

If you don’t want to turn off your furnace, you can just turn on all your exhaust fans to depressurize your home.

Other air-leak detection methods include the following:

Shining flashlight at night over all potential gaps while a partner observes the house from outside. Large cracks will show up as rays of light. Not a good way to detect small cracks.

Shutting a door or window on a piece of paper. If you can pull the paper out without tearing it, you’re losing energy.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

Air leakage, or infiltration, occurs when outside air enters a house uncontrollably through cracks and openings. Properly air sealing such cracks and openings in your home can significantly reduce heating and cooling costs, improve building durability, and create a healthier indoor environment.

It is unwise to rely on air leakage for ventilation because it can’t be controlled. During cold or windy weather, too much air may enter the house. When it’s warmer and less windy, not enough air may enter. Air infiltration also can contribute to problems with moisture control. Moldy and dusty air can enter a leaky house through such areas as attics or foundations. This air in the house could cause health problems.

The recommended strategy in both new and old homes is to reduce air leakage as much as possible and to provide controlled ventilation as needed.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

he basic unit of measure of electric power is the watt. One thousand watts are called a kilowatt. If you use one thousand watts of power in one hour you have used a kilowatt-hour (kWh). Your electric utility bills you by the kWh.

The standard electric power meter is a clock-like device driven by the electricity moving through it. As the home draws current from the power lines, a set of small gears inside the meter move. The number of revolutions is recorded by the dials that you can see on the face of the meter. The speed of the revolutions depends on the amount of current drawn; the more power consumed at any one instant, the faster the gears will rotate.

When reading an electric meter, read and write down the numbers as shown on the dials from right to left. When the pointer is directly on a number, look at the dial to the right. If it has passed zero, use the next higher number. If the dial has not passed zero, use the lower number. Record the numbers shown by writing down the value of the dial to your extreme right first and the rest as you come to them. Should the hand of a dial fall between two numbers, use the smaller of the two numbers.

Note that some newer electric meters use digital displays instead of dials. The difference between one month’s reading and the next is the amount of energy units that have been used for that billing period.

You may also wish to contact your local utility company for more information about reading your electric meter.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

The electricity industry is changing. At least 50% of customers have the option to purchase renewable electricity directly from their power supplier, and all customers have the option of purchasing renewable energy certificates. Such power is sometimes referred to as “green power” or “clean power.”

In most states, you can buy clean power through one or more of the following programs:

• Green pricing

  Customers pay a small premium in exchange for electricity generated by clean energy sources.

• Competitive electricity markets

  Customers choose to have their electricity produced by an independent clean power generator, instead of buying it from the power provider assigned to their area.

• Green certificates

  Customers buy the environmental attributes of the electricity that a clean power generator is feeding into our nation’s electricity grid.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

There are many ways you can reduce electricity use in your home and help reduce your energy bills. Also, if you’re interested in using a small renewable energy system to make your own electricity, reducing your electricity loads will help make your system more cost effective.

You can reduce electricity use in your home by focusing on where and how you use electricity in these areas:

• Appliances and electronics

  Purchase energy-efficient products and operate them efficiently.

• Lighting

  Purchase energy-efficient products, operate them efficiently, and incorporate more daylighting into your home using energy-efficient windows and skylights.

• Electric space heating and cooling

  Purchase energy-efficient electric systems and operate them efficiently. Incorporate passive solar design concepts into your home, which include using energy-efficient windows. Properly insulate and air seal your home. Select an energy-efficient heating system that doesn’t use electricity.

• Electric water heating

  Purchase an energy-efficient electric water heater and operate it efficiently. Or select an energy-efficient water heater that doesn’t use electricity.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

If you’re wondering when you should turn off your personal computer for energy savings, here are some general guidelines to help you make that decision.

Though there is a small surge in energy when a computer starts up, this small amount of energy is still less than the energy used when a computer is running for long periods of time. For energy savings and convenience, consider turning off

• the monitor if you aren’t going to use your PC for more than 20 minutes
• both the CPU and monitor if you’re not going to use your PC for more than 2 hours.

Make sure your monitors, printers, and other accessories are on a power strip/surge protector. When this equipment is not in use for extended periods, turn off the switch on the power strip to prevent them from drawing power even when shut off. If you don’t use a power strip, unplug extra equipment when it’s not in use.

Most PCs reach the end of their “useful” life due to advances in technology long before the effects of being switched on and off multiple times have a negative impact on their service life. The less time a PC is on, the longer it will “last.” PCs also produce heat, so turning them off reduces building cooling loads.

For cost effectiveness, you also need to consider how much your time is worth. If it takes a long time to shut down the computer and then restart it later, the value of your time will probably be much greater than the value of the amount of electricity you will save by turning off the computer.

Power-Down or Sleep Mode Features

Many PCs available today come with a power-down or sleep mode feature for the CPU and monitor. ENERGY STAR® computers power down to a sleep mode that consume 15 Watts or less power, which is around 70% less electricity than a computer without power management features. ENERGY STAR monitors have the capability to power down into two successive “sleep” modes. In the first, the monitor energy consumption is less than or equal to 15 Watts, and in the second, power consumption reduces to 8 Watts, which is less than 10% of its operating power consumption.

Make sure you have the power-down feature set up on your PC through your operating system software. This has to be done by you, otherwise the PC will not power down. If your PC and monitor do not have power-down features, and even if they do, follow the guidelines above about when to turn the CPU and monitor off.

Note: Screen savers are not energy savers. Using a screen saver may in fact use more energy than not using one, and the power-down feature may not work if you have a screen saver activated. In fact, modern LCD color monitors do not need screen savers at all.

Source:  U.S. Department of Energy

When it comes to shopping for and comparing energy-efficient appliances and home electronics, look for the EnergyGuide and ENERGY STAR® labels.

EnergyGuide Label

The Federal Trade Commission requires EnergyGuide labels on most home appliances (except for stove ranges and ovens), but not home electronics, such as computers, televisions, and home audio equipment. EnergyGuide labels provide an estimate of the product’s energy consumption or energy efficiency. They also show the highest and lowest energy consumption or efficiency estimates of similar appliance models.

ENERGY STAR Label

ENERGY STAR labels appear on appliances and home electronics that meet strict energy efficiency criteria established by the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The ENERGY STAR labeling program includes most home electronics and appliances except for stove ranges and ovens.

• Use the octane level your car’s manufacturer recommends.
• Beware of “gas saving” gadgets that claim to boost mileage.
• Consider Alternative Fuel Vehicles if you’re in the market for a new car.
• Drive more efficiently—observe the posted speed limit and avoid quick starts and stops.
• Maintain your car, truck, or motorcycle—keep it tuned, check your tires, and change oil and filters regularly.
• Leave your car at home and consider walking, bicycling, or public transportation whenever you can.