Feel like you’re a slave to the energy companies?

1. Turn up your thermostat.  That’s right, turn your thermostat up in the summer and turn it down in the winter.  A few degrees is more significant than you might think.  Did you know that you use less energy turning your thermostat way down at night in the heating season than turning it down a little, even though your system will work harder to bring the temperature back up when you turn your thermostat back up.  Keep temperatures more moderate in unused zones if you have a multiple zone system.

2. Call your utility companies and ask if they provide energy audits free of charge or for a nominal fee.  I’ll bet they do.

3. Increase your insulation.  In CT, R values of 19 in walls, 30 in floors and 38 in ceilings are the minimum you should try for.  Unless your house is relatively new or recently upgraded, chances are you are well below these values.

4. Improve your attic ventilation.  Most buildings more than 15 – 20 years old have only 20 – 25% of the ventilation capacity required by the current ventilation standard.  This means you are overworking your air conditioning system.

5. Consider converting your interior lighting to CFL bulbs.  These compact fluorescent lighting bulbs use around one quarter of the energy required by conventional incandescent light bulbs.  Concerned about the small amount of mercury in these bulbs?  Return the used bulbs to your retailer, who is required to take them back and dispose of them properly.  Way simpler than cleaning up the Louisiana coastline.

6. Turn your lights off when not in use and check your house for “vampires”, the numerous electrical devices which we have running all of the time, often unnecessarily.

7. Consider changing your driving habits slightly.  Combine trips wherever possible, drive 5 mph slower, accelerate more slowly.  

8. Caulk and weather-strip.  Doors and windows are primary targets.  An energy audit can also identify other logical targets (see paragraph 2, above)

9. Install a setback thermostat (or thermostats if you have multiple zones).  You can program these thermostats to provide moderate temperatures when you are sleeping and when you are not in your house or workplace.  They never forget to turn the thermostat up or down, unlike us.

10. Buy “Energy Star” appliances.  These will save you money and many of them qualify for tax breaks, tax deductions and tax credits.

11. Make some simple laundry adjustments: Adjust water temperature and height in your washing machine to the most efficient settings.  Use the “auto dry” feature on your dryer and set the heat to the lowest effective setting.  Keep your dryer vent pipe clean and consider changing it to solid duct pipe or a non-corrugated flex pipe.

12. When replacing big ticket items such as heating or air conditioning systems, roofing, siding, or windows, consult a competent contractor who can advise you about choices that can increase your comfort and significantly reduce your energy consumption.

Questions?  Comments?  Contact me at rhboothroyd@aol.com or 203-952-3414