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Energy Conversation

2006 was one of the hottest years on record in the U.S., made evident by rising utility costs for homeowners in the Central Texas area. With 2007 projected to break last year's records, it's important to start good habits now to reduce the amount of electricity we use before the hot summer months begin. The good news is lowering utility costs doesn't require spending a lot of time and money. There are plenty of ways to make a difference without breaking the bank.

 

Keep in mind that 40-65% of your electric bill in the summer is keeping your air temperature at a comfortable level.

• Set your thermostat to 80˚ or higher during the day when no one is home. It has been proven that each degree in temperature will cause an increase of 3-4% in energy cost.
• Avoid closing air vents in unused rooms. Instead, adjust vents to reduce the amount of cool air delivered. Closing off vents and rooms creates a pressure imbalance and reduces the effectiveness of your cooling system.
• Clean or replace you’re A/C filter once a month. Clean filters require less work by the A/C.
• Shade the outside condenser unit to you’re A/C unit. This is often overlooked and could save money by saving you’re A/C unit.
• Have your air ducts cleaned regularly and check for any air leaks. Air leaks in the duct work release cool or warm air into the attic space.

Low Cost options include:  

• Have your condenser/evaporator coils cleaned yearly. Any HVAC company will do this.
• Buy a digital programmable thermostat. They use less energy and because they are mercury free, we keep the waters clean too. Make sure you dispose of your old thermostat properly especially if it has mercury in it.
• Replacing old weather striping around doors. Caulking in cracks around windows and doors where there are air leaks. We can all do a simple home test to check for our homes air tightness. On a windy day, hold a lit incense stick next to your windows, doors, electrical boxes, plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets, ceiling fixtures, attic hatches, and other locations where there is a possible air path to the outside. If the smoke stream travels horizontally, you have located an air leak that may need caulking, sealing, or weather-stripping.
• Install ceiling fans in larger rooms to keep air flowing.
• You can even try adding more insulation to your attic and/or installing a radiant barrier to the interior portion of your roof. Both of these options keep the attic cooler and release less heat into your home.
• Installing window film to your home. The newer films are less visible, safe for all glass, and allow more natural light in while still reducing solar heat energy from coming in to your home by at least 50%. These films also reduce fading on furniture giving you a much quicker return on your investment.
• Put the kids to work digging a whole for some new shade trees on the east, west, and south facing windows to give more shading on the home.
• When repainting your home, use a lighter paint palette when choosing your paint colors. Darker colors will absorb more heat transferring it into your home.

Appliances

After the refrigerator, the dryer is the most inefficient appliance in the home. To reduce the amount of energy we use:

• Keep the dryer in a warm part of the house. The machine won’t have to work as hard to generate and maintain sufficient heat.
• Dry similar fabrics together. A load of thin, synthetic articles will be done much faster than a mixed load of heavy towels and light-weight sheets.
• Take advantage of warm weather by drying clothes outdoors on a clothesline.
• Run separate loads consecutively to take advantage of residual heat and use the Permanent Press setting to complete the tumble cycle with leftover heat.
• Clean the lint filter after every load.

Other appliances:

• Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher's drying cycle.
• Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.
• Plug home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips; turn the power strips off when the equipment is not in use (TVs and DVDs in standby mode still use several watts of power - up to 75% of the power it uses while on!).
• Lower the thermostat on your hot water heater to 120° F.
• Buy appliances that are energy star compliant. Go to www.energystar.gov to find a list of products broken down by category.

Lighting

• Turn off the lights in any room you're not using, or consider installing timers, photo cells, or occupancy sensors to reduce the amount of time your lights are on.
• Replace your old light bulbs with more inefficient ones. Start focusing on the rooms that are used the most they are typically the kitchen, bathroom, living room, and outdoor porch lights.

Lighting

• Run your pool pump during off-peak hours. Eight to twelve hours a day of filtering is recommended during the summer, and six to eight hours daily during the winter.
• Installation of a timer on your pool pump will allow the convenience of having the pump turn off automatically during higher-cost, on-peak hours.

Remember that energy used in your home can be responsible for more than two times the greenhouse gas emissions of your car. When you use less energy at home, you reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and help protect our environment from the risks of global climate change.

 

Our federal government is making massive changes and offering rebates to help reduce our energy consumption in half by the year 2010. AIA (The American Institute of Architects) have gone to great lengths to help the government renovate old buildings to make them more energy efficient. With the government, news media, and economists forecasting a possible crisis in energy in the very near future, it is up to us to help make the changes on a smaller level.

 

For more information about energy conservation or links to websites to learn more please visit www.sunsationalsolutions.com.

 

Jonathan A. Thompson

Owner of SUNsational Solutions

512-246-8468

jonathan@sunsationalsolutions.com

 

 

Mosquito Control: What You Can Do

Read this interesting review in the Landscape Committee page. <Click Here>
Anyone with questions regarding the West Nile Virus or dead birds should contact the Animal Control Division of the Cedar Park Police Department at 258-3149 or the Zoonosis Control Division of the Texas Department of Health at 1-254-778-674

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