Low Cost Solutions

Programmable Thermostats

The average household spends more than $2,000 a year on energy bills — nearly half of which goes to heating and cooling. Homeowners can save about $180 a year by properly setting their programmable thermostats and maintaining those settings. Depending on your family’s schedule, you can see significant savings by following Energy Star guideline settings or adjusting them as needed.

Using a programmable thermostat in your home is one of the easiest ways you can save energy, money, and reduce our dependance on dirty  coal . Pre-programmed settings regulate your home’s temperature in both summer and winter — primarily when you are asleep or away.

Weatherization

During your energy audit, you may hear the term “envelope” referring to your home’s exterior walls, ceiling, and floors. Sealing the envelope is an important step in controlling the indoor environment and lowering energy bills. Simple, DIY solutions such as improved weather-stripping around windows and doors can improve comfort by reducing drafts.  However, most dollar savings are realized by air sealing attic stairs, recessed lights, and other hidden rical envelope penetrations.  (Sealing duct work and and adding insulation are other key improvemnts to consider.)

Air leakage from a punctured envelope can waste 20 percent or more of the energy used to heat or cool a home. With effective air sealing and insulation, heating and cooling systems will not need to work as hard. While poorly sealed windows and doors can contribute to air leakage, the bigger sources are typically holes and penetrations through the home’s envelope that are hidden from view. These include penetrations for piping, wiring, lighting, and duct work as well as seams where materials join. We can help you identify and repair these leaks, not only to improve electric bills, but reduce exterior noises and drafts.

Finding Power Vampires

According to the Department of Energy, standby power is now responsible for about 5% of residential electricity use. We can help you find these vampires that continuously suck energy from electrical outlets, and unnecessarily waste energy. Since 2001, all products and appliances must meet a one-watt standby standard to earn the ENERGY STAR^® label. So take care to identify all non Energy Star appliances (particularly those made before 2001) to address this issue.

We recommend purchasing a Kill-A-Watt (or similar device) to measure standby power use where practical. As part of the auditing process, you are welcome to borrow our Kill-A-Watt for a few days to track down your vampires.

Many common household appliances, such as televisions, VCRs, telephones, computers, cordless phones, answering machines, and dust busters use significant standby power. An appliance will consume standby power if it has remote control, an external power supply, a digital display, a soft-touch keypad, or battery charging features. When practical, plug those appliances into a surge protector and power off the surge protector when not using it. For rarely used appliances just unplug them altogether.

Energy Efficient Lighting

TIP: To save the most energy and money, replace your highest use bulbs and fixtures with ENERGY STAR^® lighting. Focus on the kitchen ceiling lights, the living or family room table and floor lamps, and outdoor porch or post lamp. Not only will you save on electricity costs, but your kitchen and workspaces will be much cooler with CFLs or LEDs compared to traditional incandescent bulbs. Know that incandescent bulbs generate far more heat than light from the electricity they use.

According to the DOE, lighting accounts for about 20% of your electric bill. Americans can save money and protect the environment by installing ENERGY STAR^® qualified lighting. The easiest way to start saving energy is to change out the light bulbs in your current fixtures. If you are remodeling, building a new home, or just updating the look of a room, consider installing new ENERGY STAR^® qualified light fixtures.

Finally, consider revolutionary LED lighting. We support locally-operated CREE lighting technology by utilizing their EcoSmart LED Downlights for residential retrofits and their L4/L6 models for new construction.  Learn more about the CREE LED Revolution here.  The LED downlights save $15 per year per light, are "instant on", dimmable and produce a warm glowing light for 1/6th the cost of traditional incandescent bulbs.