SAVE ENERGY, SAVE MONEY
Why Develop Power$marts?
Available technology can plug major energy leaks. The average household in the U.S. spends about $1,300 each year on home energy, according to DOE. What if you could save up to a third or half of that using the tips in this booklet? You could go away for a fabulous long weekend, see 40 movies with a friend, save for college, or buy the latest video games, attire, and those cool shoes.
Why Develop Energy Consciousness?
The energy use of two families living in two homes that are EXACTLY alike can vary by 100 percent -- which means that how you use what’s in your home can double (or halve) your energy bills.
Overall Power$marts Tip
Look for the Energy Star label, the symbol for energy efficiency, when buying home and office products. Qualifying energy efficiency levels are set by EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for heating and cooling equipment, windows, major appliances, computers and other office equipment, lighting fixtures, new homes, and some consumer electronics.
Households that replace existing equipment with Energy Star products can cut annual energy bills by 30 percent.
IS YOUR HOME LEAKING ENERGY DOLLARS?
Perhaps your home wasn’t built using today’s high-quality, energy-efficient products or techniques. Perhaps previous occupants never took take care of problems -- and your heating and cooling bills are higher than you’d like. Where might energy be flowing from your home?
It might be going out the window -- literally. The average home has enough leaks around its windows and doors to equal one open three foot by three foot window! Check your home’s first line of defense against the elements -- the roof, walls, floors, windows, and doors. It pays to deal with air leaks first to get the maximum savings from your heating and cooling systems and other energy-efficiency measures.
Power$marts Tips
Appropriate insulation for your climate (based on R-ratings) can increase your comfort and reduce your heating and cooling costs up to 30 percent. Start with attic insulation, followed by exterior and basement walls, floors, and crawl spaces.
If you’re shopping for new windows, glass doors, or skylights, look for the Energy Star label.
Today’s high-efficiency windows are three to four times more energy efficient than windows
commonly installed 10 years ago. Special low-e (emissivity) or spectrally-selective (solar control)
coatings greatly reduce the amount of heat that flows through glass so there isn’t as much heat lost in
winter or gained in summer.
Energy Consciousness Tips
Find and plug those leaks. Just wet your fingertips and run them around the door or window frame
to feel a draft -- or hold up a tissue and see if it waves. Seal leaks between moving parts (between
door and its frame) with weatherstripping. Fill leaks between non-moving parts (between window
frame and wall) with caulking.
Install storm windows or double-paned windows if you only have single-pane windows. If you have
older or leaky windows that you can’t replace, consider temporary fixes, such as plastic films kits
that create the effect of an interior storm window, or low-e retrofit film.
It’s A Fact:
Double-pane windows with low-e coating can reduce heating bills by 34 percent in cold climates
compared to uncoated, single-pane windows. In hot climates, spectrally selective low-e windows
can cut cooling costs by 38 percent.
KEEPING YOUR
C-O-O-O-L
our thermostat controls the heating
and cooling system that consumes
more than half of the energy in your
home -- the biggest chunk of your family’s
energy budget. How much of that energy is
used to keep your house comfortable when
no one is home or everyone is asleep?
Probably a lot, if you don’t adjust the
thermostat when you leave the house or go
to bed.
Introducing the programmable thermostat! It
automatically coordinates the temperature of
your home with your daily and weekly
(weekend) patterns -- so you don’t have to
awaken to a chilly bedroom in winter or
come home to a stuffy house in summer.
Once you make the settings, you don’t have
to adjust the thermostat again.
Power$marts Tips
When adding a programmable
thermostat or replacing a furnace,
air conditioner, or heat pump,
look for the Energy Star label.
You can get additional information
from the yellow EnergyGuide label
to compare every model in a
category, its capacity, and
estimated yearly energy cost.
Energy Star geothermal heat
pumps use the constant
temperature of the earth to
efficiently transfer heat to the
home in winter or cool air to the
home in summer. They require
adequate land and up front
expenditure.
Energy Consciousness Tips
When adjusting the thermostat by
hand, remember that the house
will not warm up or cool down
any faster if you crank up the
thermostat past the desired
temperature. Besides, it is easy to
forget to turn it back down, which
will waste energy dollars.
If you have a heat pump, dramatically turning up the heat by hand is costly because it may
trigger the inefficient backup heater, which is most often electric, eating up any savings from
reducing the thermostat. (A programmable thermostat designed for heat pumps will gradually
raise the heat without activating the backup heat.)
Clean or replace furnace and air conditioner filters once a month during heating/cooling
season.
It’s A Fact
Rule of thumb for thermostat savings: For each degree you lower your thermostat in winter, you can
save about 3 percent on your heating bill. An Energy Star furnace could save $1,700 relative to an
old furnace, or $1,000 over the lifetime of a standard new furnace.
LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE
From 10 to 13
percent of the
average home’s
electricity costs can be
controlled with the flip of a
switch -- a light switch.
You don’t want to live in
the dark, so how can you
light the house more
efficiently?
A good solution: Compact
fluorescent bulbs have
improved tremendously
since first introduced. They
have become smaller,
cheaper, brighter, and offer
improved color quality.
Power$marts Tips
Replace all light fixtures and bulbs that operate four or more hours a day with ones that use
fluorescent bulbs to save money and energy. Use lumens -- the amount of light produced --
to compare lights. For example, a 23-watt fluorescent bulb produces about the same number
of lumens as a 100-watt incandescent. Your investment will generally pay for itself in a couple
of years.
Enlightening Comparisons
Here’s a simple comparison for two
types of bulbs giving off the same amount of light and burning for four hours per day for
three years (4,380 hours). You’ll go through six incandescent bulbs during this
period, while the compact fluorescent will still have another 3.8 years of life left.
Bulb Type 100W Incandescent 23W Compact Fluorescent Total Savings over three years with the Compact Fluorescent: $20.50
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration It’s A Fact If every household in the U.S. switched to Energy Star light fixtures, we could save 70
billion kilowatt-hours and prevent 100 billion pounds of CO2 per year -- equivalent to
removing 10 million cars from the road! Energy Consciousness Tips Halogen torchiere lamps have grown in popularity. Although relatively
inexpensive to purchase, they are expensive to operate and very inefficient. The halogen
bulbs in these lamps operate at temperatures much hotter than regular bulbs and can CAUSE
FIRES, warns the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Consider a safe Energy
Star torchiere.
HOME COOKING
You need to eat, right? The kitchen uses a big chunk of your home energy budget. Your
refrigerator alone -- which is on 24 hours a day -- accounts for about 15 percent of the total
home electricity bill, or about 10 percent of the average home energy bill. So where can you
apply energy efficiency in the kitchen?
Power$marts Tips
Shopping for a major appliance before it breaks down gives you the best chance to find a
higher efficiency model with the features you want. The typical refrigerator sold in 1996
has more features yet uses about half the electricity of a comparable model sold in 1980.
However, there still remains a wide range in efficiency between models. Choose
appliances with the Energy Star label to ensure efficiency.
Energy Conscious Tips
Buy a new fridge that is the right size for your needs to avoid wasting energy cooling
nothing.
Use a microwave or toaster oven to cook small portions and a conventional oven or
stove-top for larger items.
A watched pot will eventually boil -- but putting a lid on it reduces cooking time and
energy use. Also, match the pot size to burner size to avoid energy waste.
It’s A Fact
Refrigerators in the U.S. alone use the equivalent of the output of more than 20 large nuclear power
plants. If all the nation’s households used the most efficient refrigerators, electricity savings would
eliminate the need for about 10 large power plants.
COMING
CLEAN
From tumblers to tutus,
there’s no shortage of
washing to do around the
home, all of which takes energy.
Just making hot water uses about
14 percent of your home energy
budget.
Many new innovations save
energy in the cleaning
department. One of the simplest
and least expensive is a low-flow
shower head -- a familiar
technology that has improved from earlier versions. It can cut your shower water use in half while
maintaining the same pressure as before.
Power$marts Tips
If you are in the market for new appliances, look for these efficient, energy-saving features:
Dishwashers that turn off the heating element and circulate air from outside the washer for
drying.
Clothes dryers that have moisture sensors that turn off the unit when the clothes are dry.
Horizontal axis (front loading) washers that use less water and energy to get clothes as
clean as conventional washers.
Energy Consciousness Tips
Set your hot water heater thermostat at 120 degrees (or “low”). It’s hot enough for most
needs -- including dishwashers, which are generally made with booster heaters -- and it cuts
down on energy needed to keep water hot in the tank.
Wrap your hot water tank in an insulating “blanket” if it feels warm to the touch.
Use warm or cold water for laundry when possible, rinse in cold, and wash when you have
full loads. Today’s cold water detergents do a good job.
TOO "PLUGGED IN"
The economic boom in our consumer-oriented society, the growth of new technologies, and
the changing workforce -- more people working from home -- have dramatically increased
the number of products that require power in the average home. Some of today’s homes
sport multiple computers, printers, faxes, TVs, VCRs, CD players, and hair dryers.
Computer equipment is the fastest growing electric load in the world. In fact, energy use by
computers could double by the year 2000. Unfortunately, much of the energy for computers is
wasted because they are often kept on while not in use.
Furthermore, most idle appliances -- TVs, VCRs, cable boxes, CD players, cassette decks,
cordless phones, burglar alarms, microwaves -- continue to consume energy when switched off. This
energy keeps display clocks lit and memory chips and remote controls working. Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory calculates that these energy “leaks” account for 5 percent of total domestic
energy consumption, cost more than $3 billion annually, and spew 18 million tons of carbon into the
atmosphere.
Idle TVs and VCRs alone cost U.S. consumers more than $1 billion a year, or some $30 per
household. Emissions from power plants supplying that electricity are equal to the pollution caused
by 2 million cars! New technology in TVs and VCRs bearing the Energy Star label will reduce
wasted energy by up to 75 percent.
Power$marts Tips
Activate your Energy Star “sleep” feature on home office equipment (PC, fax, printer,
scanner) -- so that it automatically powers down when not in use to save up to $70 annually
in electricity bills and improve product longevity.
Energy Consciousness Tip
Turning off your computer during long periods of non-use cuts costs and improves longevity.
It’s A Fact
Every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity you avoid using saves more than 11-1/2 pounds of CO2
from being pumped into the atmosphere. If over the next 15 years, Americans bought only Energy
Star products, we would shrink our energy bills by more than $100 billion and eliminate as much
greenhouse gas pollution as is produced by 17 million cars for each of those 15 years!
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Written by:
Alliance To Save Energy
RELATED LINKS:
COMPACT
FLUORESCENT BULB
Purchase Price
$0.75
$11.00
Life of the Bulb
750 hours
10,000 hours
Number of Hours Burned per Day
4 hours
4 hours
Number of Bulbs Needed
about 6 over 3 years
1 over 6.8 years
Total Cost of Bulbs
$4.50
$11.00
Lumens
1,690
1,500
Total Cost of Electricity (8 cents/kilowatt-hour)
$35.04
$8.06
Your Total Cost over 3 years
$39.54
$19.06
Let “Mother Nature” light your home.
Sunlight is brighter than a multitude of light bulbs, and it’s free.
Don’t like coming home to a dark house?
Instead of leaving lights on, put timers on a few of the lights in your home, or install
motion detectors on exterior flood lights to improve your home security. After you get
inside, the sensor will “remember” to turn the lights off.
ENLIGHTENING WARNING!
or to post a link on your favorite sites.
Thank you!
Updated Daily! * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * *