You’ve heard the well-worn advice to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and you probably have at least a few compact fluorescent light bulbs in your home. But what else can you do to reduce the environmental impact of your living space? Energy efficiency specialist and author of The Home Energy Diet Paul Scheckel offers his top 10 ways to save energy (and money), selected from AMC members’ suggestions and his own experience.
I’ve written an entire book about home energy efficiency, but I can’t tell you the best ways for you to save money and energy. To do that, I’d need to look at your house and learn about your habits. Variables from the type of fuel you use to heat your home to the energy consumption of your appliances affect your situation. Instead, I’m offering you the best general strategies for reducing your home’s carbon footprint.
To get more specific about your savings potential, learn to read your electric and gas meters and buy and use an appliance electrical meter such as the Watts-Up or Kill-a-Watt. Once you measure your energy use, you can more appropriately manage for savings. If you don’t own your home, some of the following tips may be beyond your reach, but you can make a noticeable difference upgrading to efficient lighting and appliances, and being aware of how your behavior affects your energy use. Talk to the building owner about upgrading heating equipment, reducing drafts, and adding insulation. It will lower everyone’s costs and make the building more renter friendly.
You will probably find that there isn’t a single “silver bullet” improvement that’s cheap and easy and has a big energy savings impact. The big savers generally cost more, and the little things can add up quickly in both cost and energy savings. The best approach is to have a professional energy audit, then follow the advice of an expert. But there is plenty you can do on your own.
1. GET A HOME ENERGY AUDIT
(Thanks to Paul Czaplicki, Connecticut Chapter)
Have a comprehensive energy audit of your home performed by an experienced, certified energy auditor. A serious auditor—one who takes a whole-house approach—will be certified by the Building Performance Institute or the Residential Energy Services Network. The knowledge you gain about your home will be worth the cost (which may run from $150 to $500), and you’ll receive a prioritized list of energy-saving measures. Be sure to have the work performed by a contractor who knows you want to buy maximum efficiency and understands how to deliver it. Your auditor may perform or supervise the work; some will apply the cost of the audit to the bill for making the changes.
The improvements will not be free, but you may be able to find low-interest loans to finance the work (contact your state energy office to learn more). Often the improvements you make will save you more in energy costs than the cost of the loan. If you perform all the recommended improvements in an existing home, you might spend $10,000 or more to save as much as 30 percent of your home’s energy use.
You can do your own free, low-tech energy audit too. Just look at everything that’s plugged into an outlet, look in the attic and examine the insulation, and look for holes in the foundation walls. (Insulation should be 12 inches deep, evenly placed, fully lofted, and dry. Look for dark spots that may indicate the presence of mold or suggest air leaks between your living area and your attic.) When I do audits, I’m visiting a new place where I look at everything for the first time. Try to see your own home this way, and ask yourself “why” about everything. I once encountered two outside lights left on in the daytime. The owner told me that the switch was broken. Those two bulbs were costing $50 a month to keep on and the switch costs under $2. Sometimes just doing the math is enough to push you into action!
Shrink your carbon footprint. Photo by Christopher Percy Collier.
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