 |
 |
|
|
|
      
|
What's the most common mistake people make in trying to save energy around the house? Common mistakes people make include: · letting the furnace or air conditioner salesperson sell them a unit that's much bigger than they need, · not getting the ducts checked for leakage when installing a new heating and cooling system, · thinking that "since heat rises, we only need to insulate the attic." Floors over a basement or crawlspace, walls and windows also matter. · not using ceiling and portable fans to improve comfort in the cooling season. They use very little electricity. Use them to circulate air in the house, tomake the house feel cooler by doing this, the thermostat setting for your air conditioner can be raised to 85°F, and still maintain the same comfort as the lower setting. What's the single biggest user of electricity in my house?
If your house has
central air conditioning, the air conditioner will probably be the
biggest user by far. Although used only a few months of the year, the
annual cost can be much greater than the annual cost of your
refrigerator, which is typically the next largest user. In hot climates,
the annual air conditioner cost can exceed a thousand dollars. You can
get a very rough idea of what your air conditioner is costing you by
subtracting the electric portion of your bill in a spring month when you
aren't using your air conditioner from the electric portion of the bill
in the summer when you do use it. This gives you the monthly cost.
Multiply this by the number of months you use your air conditioner to
arrive at your approximate annual cost.
There are a number of
factors that cause differences in energy bills, so comparing your bill
to someone else's is like comparing apples to oranges. The ages of major
appliances, especially refrigerators and air conditioners, can make a
dramatic difference in your bill. In addition, if your house leaks air
like a sieve while your neighbor's house was just weatherized and
insulated, you will have much higher heating and cooling bills. Other
factors that can result in significant differences in bills are the
number and kinds of lighting fixtures, thermostat settings for heating
and cooling, the number of loads of laundry, old refrigerators out in
the garage, and hobbies which result in electricity use.
Whether you should
insulate or replace your furnace first depends on the situation in your
house. Factors that influence this decision are the age and efficiency
of your furnace, and the amount of insulation currently present in the
house.
Yes, programmable
thermostats can reduce the energy used for air conditioning or heating
by 5 to 30%. Programmable thermostats, while not always digital, save
money by turning the air conditioner to a higher setting (or heater to a
lower setting) when no one is present in the house, or in the evenings
when it is cooler. You can achieve the same savings without the
programmable thermostat, but you would have to remember to change your
thermostat every day when you leave the house, and turn it down every
night when you go to bed. In addition, if you are using the thermostat
to regulate your heater, you would wake to a cold house. The
programmable thermostat does all of the remembering for you once it is
set. A sample of a heating schedule you might program into a thermostat
is:
|
|
|