Energy bills can be the one of the largest expense you have as a homeowner. The good news is you can take action to lower those bills. A NARI remodeler can help you make smart decisions when it comes to making selections for appliances, windows, and insulation for your project. In addition to the best product selection, YOU can also have a major impact on energy use in your home.
Energy use, which continues for the life of the house, contributes to air pollution, mercury poising of water and land if your energy comes from coal fired power plants. The biggest users are usually the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems and water heater, all of which make up about 60% of a typical home's energy budget.
True. The average size of a new single-family home has more than doubled since1950. As size increases, so do environmental impacts, including resource consumption and energy consumption.
A programmable thermostat can save up to one third of heating and cooling costs. Heating is one of the largest home energy uses. Additional ways to save energy in home heating:
- Seal leaky ducts
- Clean or change air filter regularly
- Replace you furnace with an energy-efficient model
True. Although most major appliances made today are more energy efficient, electricity is used to power a wealth of new appliances and gadgets like cell phone chargers, laptops and WIFI add to the drain.
Fly ash: a product recovered from coal combustion. In the past it was disposed of in landfills, today it is used in concrete and drywall.
True. Studies show that only 20 percent of homes built before 1980 were well insulated. Improving your home's insulation is one of the fastest and most cost affective ways to reduce energy waste.
Geothermal heat pumps. They are among the most efficient heating and cooling technologies available. Geo-thermal heat pumps can decrease annual energy use by 30 to 40 percent, according to the US EPA.
Lighting accounts for between 20 and 25 percent of U.S. electricity use. The average house dedicated 5 to 10 percent of it energy budget to lighting. To cut your use switch to LED lights, turn off unneeded lights and where possible, use natural light.
For houses without central air conditioners, the refrigerator is the biggest user, accounting for up to 15% of the home's energy bill.
Triple-pane, Low-E insulated frame windows can save 33% of the heating cost for a typical home in Boston, MA and in a hot place like phoenix, AZ double-pane low solar-gain windows can save 32% in cooling costs. High-performance windows not only lower heating and cooling bills, they also reduce peak heating and cooling loads.
Trees positioned to reduce summer sun and winder wind can reduce a household’s energy use by 25% or more. In summer trees can lower air temperature as much as 9 degrees F through shading and evapotranspiration. In winter, a well-designed landscape can cut heating bills by about one-third.