Give your home an energy audit
Filed under: Home, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, run by the University of California provides a great resource for finding ways to reduce your energy consumption through its Home Energy Saver website. The energy calculator takes climate data as well as local information and combines it with your current residence to find projects you can do to increase your energy efficiency. While the questions are geared toward someone living in a house, my results provided useful tips for apartment living,
I think my favorite part about this energy savings project is that it lets you choose the number of years between installation and the time the upgrade pays for itself. For example when I ran the survey I choose items which would pay for themselves in the first year, since i hope to be moving into a home by that time. I ended up with three actions to take on the actual building which I will pass on for now and two interior activities to reduce energy consumption all of which should pay for themselves in year one. If I purchased a programmable thermostat and finished my conversion to CFL lighting as the survey recommends I would save $120 in energy costs in just one year.
This is a really easy way to get a snapshot of your home energy uses and look for ways to lower your monthly bills. I can't emphasize how great it is to choose actions and upgrades based on the time it takes to pay for itself in savings. Finally the use of local information and the ability to enter my own utility prices pushes this tool over the top. The options I went with are just the tip of the iceberg, homeowners looking for items that pay for themselves over longer periods of time will find even more ideas. I am definitely bookmarking this so that I can run it on any home I am ready to purchase, in case I want to ask for any upgrades before I purchase.
Recent Posts
- Don't waste your money: extended warranties an even worse purchase this year (11/21/2008)
- Burger King loses wallets to gain customers! (11/21/2008)
- Cyber Monday's the day for crowd-hating shoppers like me (11/21/2008)
- Move to Massachusetts for the best unemployment benefits (11/21/2008)
- What's out: The mall. What's in: Thrift stores. (11/21/2008)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-12-2008 @ 3:52AM
gumbo koontz said...
The easiest energy audit is to turn off your themostat!!! Turn it on as needed then turned off manually. Also, just ditch your guzzling clothes dryer you dont need cuz you can hang washed clothes to dry and keep your indoors humid from the evaporation. Your clothes may feel rougher but will be free of statics and smell like clean ... Install a small room air conditoiner for just one of your rooms that you watch TV in a lot. You dont need to cool or heat your entire house all day and night.,... just one warm or cool room is all you really need like you do in a tent... Why deal with the whoile house??? It doesnt matter if you live in a McMansion if you just heat or cool one room.... The rest of your house is just storage space not living space.... Wear themral pants and shirts during wintertime, you will be amazed at how you stay warm with thermostat off most of the times... Just pay more attention to your themostat than ever before... We will beat Big Oil and Coal senslesss!!!
Reply
6-12-2008 @ 3:55AM
Gumby said...
The easiest energy audit is to turn off your themostat!!! Turn it on as needed then turned off manually. Also, just ditch your guzzling clothes dryer you dont need cuz you can hang washed clothes to dry and keep your indoors humid from the evaporation. Your clothes may feel rougher but will be free of statics and smell like clean ... Install a small room air conditoiner for just one of your rooms that you watch TV in a lot. You dont need to cool or heat your entire house all day and night.,... just one warm or cool room is all you really need like you do in a tent... Why deal with the whoile house??? It doesnt matter if you live in a McMansion if you just heat or cool one room.... The rest of your house is just storage space not living space.... Wear themral pants and shirts during wintertime, you will be amazed at how you stay warm with thermostat off most of the times... Just pay more attention to your themostat than ever before... We will beat Big Oil and Coal senslesss!!!
Reply