Maria Polidoro is the owner of Ace Tool Online, a Wantagh, New York based dealer and service center for over 70 brands of hand and power tools. Find the right Milwaukee miter saw, Festool router and more at Ace Tool.
Homeowners are paying more attention than ever to energy efficiency when renovating, but you do not have to commit to a major renovation to improve the efficiency of your home. In fact, you do not have to renovate at all; small steps toward improved energy efficiency can save you money in the long run while reducing your home’s environmental impact. Here are some renovation-free upgrade ideas that will give you a more energy efficient home:
Look for the Energy Star label when replacing appliances and electronics. The Energy Star certifies that a product complies with precise efficiency guidelines put forth by the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Department of Energy. The Energy Star qualification can be found on products ranging from light bulbs to kitchen appliances to new homes. Please visit www.energystar.gov to find Energy Star Qualified Products.
Replace incandescent light bulbs in your home with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Replacing incandescent lighting in your home with compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs, is an inexpensive and easy step toward improving the energy efficiency of your home. According to www.energystar.gov, Energy Star CFLs consume around 75% less energy than incandescent ones, and that translates to real energy and money savings over time.
Install a programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat allows you to set your heating and cooling system to automatically adjust at certain times of the day based on your schedule, allowing for reduced energy consumption at times when no one is home. Because heating and cooling accounts for a sizeable percentage of energy consumption in most homes, a programmable thermostat helps keep utility expenses down while making daily life a little more convenient.
Replace drafty or single pane windows. If your windows and doors are old or not properly sealed, a portion of your utility payments are going, well, right out the window. Though new windows require a more sizeable investment than most of the other upgrades mentioned here, homes with updated windows appeal to home buyers and the investment can likely be recouped at resale.
Want to learn more about energy efficient home upgrades? Please visit the home improvement section of the Energy Star website.
Filed under Home by miniwash
In America today, we spend over $100 billion each year on fuel and electricity for our homes. Even Seascape condos, often models of efficient living can have utility bills that can make the owners cringe. Nearly half of this cost is taken by the heating and cooling of the home, with water heating accounting for 14% and appliances account for approximately 41%. If you’re interested in lowering your overall energy bills, there are a number of household items that can help you in your quest.
Changing the appliances in your home is one of the easiest ways to not only reducing your overall energy bill, but also your overall impact on the environment. Two great places to start are your washer and dryer. Prior to 1998, washers were significantly inefficient. In fact, if you have an older washer, you might be paying almost $150 more each year on your utility bill than if it was more energy efficient. Unlike the older washers, today’s energy efficient models use a small amount of water since they don’t have a central agitator. Advanced top loaders and front end loader machines use a sophisticated wash system to spin and spin through a smaller stream of water. These newer designs dramatically reduce the amount of hot water used in the wash cycle, reducing your water consumption, and the cost of heating it. Plus, the higher spin speeds of these more efficient motors allow more moisture to be extracted from the clothes. This means less time spent in the dryer. These are just a few of the many reasons why Seascape resort condos make use of these more efficient machines.
Of course, a washer or dryer can be a sizable investment. If you want to start on a smaller scale, there is still a lot that you can do as a home owner. One of the easiest and quickest ways to reduce your utility bill and help the environment without sacrificing is by changing your light bulbs.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Incandescent light bulbs are remarkably inefficient, both in their manufacturing, and in the amount of light emitted by the bulbs themselves. There are a number of more energy efficient choices available. Two of the most popular are Compact Fluorescence Light Bulbs (CFLs) and LED lights.
CFLs use significantly less energy to produce the same lighting effect. In fact, a CFL bulb can use only 13 watts of electricity to provide the same light as a traditional 60 watt incandescent bulb. According to the Department of Energy, an Energy Star qualified CFL bulb can use up to 75% less electricity, and can last up to 10 times longer. Since lighting can account for almost 20% of the cost of your electric bill, using these more efficient bulbs can be a great way to not only save energy, but also a lot of money. In fact, if every home in America replaced just one traditional bulb with a CFL bulb, enough energy would be saved to light nearly 3 million homes in just one short year.
Of course, CFL bulbs are not the only energy efficient choice when it comes to lighting in your home. LED lights, or light-emitting diode lights, use approximately 15% of the energy of a traditional light bulb. They’ve been around for quite a number of years, and are very durable. A quality LED has a lifespan of approximately 60,000 hours, almost five times longer than the compact fluorescent bulbs described above, and almost 60 times longer than a traditional bulb. In fact, these bulbs use so little energy, that they are often used in outdoor lanterns, since they can easily be powered by solar energy or a small battery. As the cost comes down and more manufacturers integrate them into household lighting, they will become more familiar and available.
Another way to conserve energy and help the environment is by installing a programmable thermostat. This thermostat can allow you to automatically adjust your home temperature based on your daily routine. By making sure the house is warm or cool only when you need it to be, you can potentially lower your energy bill by almost a third. When you’re not using your Seascape home, you’ll be helping the environment by conserving energy by just pressing a few buttons.
By installing and learning how to program an energy saving thermostat, you can make sure your home furnace, and air conditioning systems operate only when they are needed. Depending on your family’s schedule, you will be able to see significant savings in your electric bill, and the reduction in power usage will also make your environmental impact less. The key is to make sure that you use the programmable thermostat so that your home is heated and cooled only when you need it to be. Programmable thermostats on the market today are extremely user-friendly and often come with pre-programmed settings that match average settings for daily, weekly and monthly schedules. If your daily schedule tends to change, a 7 day model programmable thermostat is the best choice. It gives you the most flexibility for those times when your children come home early from school or your mother-in-law stops by for Sunday dinner. Seven day programmable thermostats usually have four possible temperatures period for the day, so you can change things as you need to. If your schedule isn’t as dynamic, other options for thermostats are available.
These are just a few of the easy to use household items that can help reduce your environmental impact as well as your energy use. There are many more, and a number of websites can give you great ideas. One of the easiest to use and understand is the Government’s Energy Star website, energystar.gov. You’ll be able to read about which items have be awarded the Energy Star certification, and get helpful hints on what you can do to make your home more energy efficient.
Gregg Camp is an experienced Santa Cruz real estate broker who has spent more than 20 years working in the beautiful Santa Cruz home market. Search for homes with a Santa Cruz Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES)
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With all costs on the rise, adding up to the already huge problem with the New York housing crunch and worldwide economic woes; more and more people are searching of ways to cutback on costs. In our homes, one of the largest shares where our hard-earned budget goes to is the energy bill, thus making the efficient use of energy a great way to reduce monthly expenses. With that said, let us look into superb ideas to achieve energy efficient homes which are practical whether you are in Long Island, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan or Queens.
Energy Efficient Homes Idea #1:
Proper and Enough Insulation and Sealing
Other than maximized indoor comfort and increased home value, proper and enough insulation and sealing also makes your HVAC systems work less hard thus resulting to less operation costs and lower energy bills. Unknown to many homeowners, a well-insulated home extends beyond just the exterior walls and the attic. You should also ensure insulation in these areas: floors, ceilings especially those below unheated areas, basement walls, kneewalls, overhangs, and between interior walls.
Air leaks are silent predators that waste much energy even if you own a set of state-of-the-art energy efficient systems. Sealing should be approached in such as way that the whole house is benefited starting from the systems alone with its series of ducts and pipings to the walls, ceilings, floors, windows and doors, electrical outlets, and lighting and plumbing fixtures.
Energy Efficient Homes Idea #2:
Lighting
Saving energy with lighting can be done in many ways.
• Replace existing lighting fixtures with efficient models that give off as much brilliance but uses up less electricity like compact fluorescent bulbs, reflector lamps and tungsten halogen.
• Make use of lighting controls such as dimmers and other devices that reduce the time that lights are on unnecessarily.
• Make full use of natural lighting.
Energy Efficient Homes Idea #3:
Solar Panels
When thinking of energy-efficiency, nothing beats making full use of natural resources as not only are they powerful, they are free as well. One of the most popular innovations in natural resource-use is solar panels. Solar panels can come as solar thermal collectors with which the energy from the sun is used to heat water or liquid fuels, or solar photovoltaic modules that convert sunlight into electricity.
Energy Efficient Homes Idea #4:
Appliances
A good percentage of energy consumption in homes results from operating appliances. When shopping for appliances, it would be wise to pick those with the Energy Star label. Though the initial cost would be much higher, think about the long-term benefits. When computing the ‘real’ cost, you should also take operating costs and annual energy consumption into consideration. Looking into such factor proves that energy-efficient appliances are wise investments.
Energy Efficient Homes Idea #5:
Proper Maintenance of Appliances and Home Systems
Without regular cleaning and proper maintenance, appliances and HVAC systems would be working laboriously. This added strain would not only lead to damages but more consumption of energy as well. So, check your manuals for recommended ways of cleaning and proper equipment maintenance.
Eugene Makeev uses his skills and expertise to help home owners in Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island avoid the common pitfalls by matching their needs with prescreened remodeling contractors New York.
Visit us for more on Remodeling Long Island.
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Whether heating or cooling your home, you will be using energy and this costs money. If you are able to make your home more energy efficient, you can save some money and as a bonus you can help preserve the environment. Here are some ideas about how to make your home more energy efficient.
The first step that you have to make is to use a lighted incense stick or a tissue to find out any drafts. You can move them slowly next to windows or doors and this will move the smoke or the tissue. Check the caulking around the windows.
There must be no gaps between them and the walls of the house. If there is a leak, remove the old ad install the new caulking. One good way to save energy is to check the caulk every year.
Check also the weather stripping on the doors. They prevent drafts from getting in or cool air from getting out.
If you have no weather-stripping them, it is easy to add them and lots of it is adhesive-back and it easily sticks to the doorframe or the bottom of the door.
You also have to check around the electrical outlets. These areas are often insulated, but you can buy thin foam insulation especially designed for fitting under the outlet panel that blocks the drafts.
Here are some steps to conserve energy. First you have to install a programmable thermostat to control the temperature. It will adjust the temperature to match the schedule and to make sure that you are not heating or cooling an empty room.
You can use compact fluorescent light instead of regular incandescent bulbs. They provide a given amount of light and use much less energy and do not produce as much heat as regular bulbs.
Turn down the temperature in your water heater. They are usually so high set so that somebody may get burned. You have to adjust the temperature to 120 degrees. You can add insulation to your water heater and hot water pipes.
Insulating blankets are designed to wrap around a water heater and insulating foam tubes that go around the hot water pipes and are already available. You can replace your furnace filters on a regular basis.
If the furnace filters are blocked they can make your HVAC system work harder and longer with the use of more energy. If the filter is clean the system will work more efficiently. You have to adjust ceiling fans in order to blow warm air from up high in the room during the winter.
You have to conserve the energy efficient rating (EER) of the appliances that you replace. Modern appliances are much more energy efficient than the few years old appliances. You have to adjust your habits.
You can use heat generated appliances in the cooler evening hours. This will be good for heating your home in the winter and will be easier for the air conditioner during the summer. You have to turn on the washing machine and the dishwasher for full loads only.
Washing the partial load will waste both energy and hot water. It is preferable to take showers and not baths. Showers usually use less water. It is good to install water-saving showerheads that will conserve hot water.
The last step is to open blinds and drapes so the sun to be able to come in during the winter and close them to keep the sun out during the summer.
Most of the ideas will cost you less than 20 dollars and some of them will not cost you anything. If you put them together you have a major impact on the amount of the energy that you use.
The things that you are going to need are insulation for hot water pipes and electrical outlets, replacement furnace filters, programmable thermostat, compact fluorescent lights.
Care to know more? Visit www.The-Handyman-Guy.com and grab a copy of my eBook titled “The Handyman Guy Secrets”, totally FREE!
The Handyman Guy is the owner of www.The-Handyman-Guy.com , a site dedicated to helping people finding their “inner-handyman”. You got one, too!
Filed under Home by miniwash
Government statistics report that conserving energy costs in the home can save a household several hundred, even several thousand, dollars per year on their utility bills. Replacing your older appliances and elements of your home’s structure, such as older windows and doors, with more energy-efficient alternatives, such as products that meet ENERGY STAR guidelines, is an important step to maximizing the amount of money you can save.
ENERGY STAR is a government program that identifies products - including appliances, home electronics, and home improvement products - that meet energy efficiency guidelines that exceed the minimum federal standards, as determined by the U.S. Department of Energy. You can identify a product that meets the organization’s guidelines by looking for the signature blue ENERGY STAR logo.
The ENERGY STAR program began as a voluntary labeling tool to “identify and promote energy-efficient products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” It started with the labeling of computers and monitors and more than a decade later, has expanded to identify all types of products used in homes and offices that conserve energy. The result: Consumers and businesses have saved billions of dollars since the program began - $12 billion in 2005 alone.
Energy-efficient appliances - such as refrigerators and freezers, clothing washers, dishwashers, dehumidifiers and window air conditioning units - can cut consumer utility bills in half when compared with standard models. And home improvement products with an ENERGY STAR rating - such as vinyl replacement windows, doors, skylights and siding - help to better maintain your home’s temperature control, cutting heating and cooling costs anywhere from $20 to $400 per year.
If you’ve been searching for a product in any one of the more than 40 categories rated by ENERGY STAR, you may have come across the organization’s blue logo. That seal of approval indicates that the item can perform as well as, or better than, comparable products, but save you more money than if you purchased a less energy-efficient option.
A refrigerator meeting ENERGY STAR’s energy conservation guidelines today: Uses 40% less energy than models sold in 2001, saves its owner 15% in energy costs when compared with other models (freezers save 10%) and compact models, with volumes less than 7.75 square feet, save 20%. A washing machine that meets ENERGY STAR guidelines: Saves its owner up to $110 per year, requires 50% less energy than standard washing machines, uses up to 50% less water and has more efficient spinning cycles to reduce drying time.
Energy-efficient appliances provide an obvious cost savings for a household’s energy expenses. And other products that meet ENERGY STAR standards, such as vinyl replacement windows, doors, skylights and siding, make a significant contribution to keeping those costs down as well. Replacing your existing windows and siding with newer, better designed vinyl replacement windows and insulated siding can quadruple the insulation value of your home and save an average of 30% on your utility bills.
In addition to saving money, vinyl replacement windows with this rating create a more comfortable living environment by eliminating drafts, blocking heat, Offering protection from sun damage and reducing interior condensation on windows. In the winter, energy-efficient vinyl replacement windows keep the interior glass warmer for better temperature control. And the warmer the window, the less interior condensation that, over time, can damage your window sill and paint job, and encourage mold growth.
In the summer, these windows also block 45 to 70% of the sun’s heat and provide “sunscreen” to your home by blocking ultraviolet light that can reduce fading up to 75% without compromising visible light.
Whether you are looking to add to the beauty of your home and lower your energy bills by installing vinyl replacement windows, or you want to make a smart decision when choosing your next dishwasher or window air conditioning unit, products that meet ENERGY STAR guidelines offer an economical alternative that leaves more money in your pocket.
Michael Clem is Operations Manager of Creative Energy of Richmond, Virginia. The company?s ENERGY STAR-compliant vinyl replacement windows and doors conserve energy. http://www.creativeenergyexteriors.com/windows.htm
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Using environmentally friendly cleaning products, recycling and using biodegradable bin liners are just a few ways families are going green in the kitchen. However one of the most important, and significant changes many households are making is buying and using energy efficient kitchen appliances.
For many families, the kitchen is the room in the house where the most energy is consumed. Refrigerators, cookers, ovens, dishwashers and other kitchen appliances can account for nearly 40% of the total energy consumed in some homes. Buying energy efficient appliances, and changing the way kitchen appliances are used on a daily basis can easily make the kitchen a greener place.
Once you make the decision to buy kitchen appliances, for your new eco-friendly kitchen, it’s important that you consider the size of the kitchen appliances. Many families buy oversized kitchen appliances that they don’t need and end up wasting energy in the process. Larger kitchen appliances with lots of features can be very tempting. However if you have a small family, it’s best to buy energy efficient kitchen appliances that will fit your family’s needs, rather than opting for larger models. You’ll save space, money and you’ll be helping to save the environment too.
Dishwashers are great for convenience, but it’s important that you use them wisely. Did you know that many of the newer, more energy efficient dishwashers use less water than old models? Additionally, many of them are engineered so that you don’t have to waste additional water rinsing your dishes before you place them into the dishwasher. When buying an energy efficient dishwasher, choose a compact model, and remember to run it only when it’s full to help save both energy and water.
It’s imperative for families that cook often to use energy efficient appliances. Using kitchen appliances such as cookers and ovens can require a great deal of energy. When possible, use microwaves or other smaller kitchen appliances to prepare or heat food. And if you need to boil water, try using more practical smaller kitchen appliances such as a cordless kettle, rather than utilizing the cooker.
Do you still use an oven that requires preheating? Most newer models have made preheating a thing of the past, thus just one of the ways energy efficient ovens can help you reduce energy consumption. And remember, when it’s time to use the oven, always try to cook more than one dish.
Another great kitchen appliance to consider when going green is a range hood. A range hood can help with the ventilation in your home, and keep the air in your kitchen cleaner. Clean air is essential in any eco-friendly environment.
When considering buying new kitchen appliances, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the price tag. While purchasing energy efficient appliances can be a significant investment initially, you’ll see the savings instantly on your energy bill and save even more in the long run. Energy efficient appliances can save you between 10 - 50% in monthly energy costs. So in reality, by purchasing energy efficient appliances you’re not only doing your part to help protect the environment, you’re also saving a substantial sum on energy costs too.
Internet Kitchen Appliances is a leading online retailer of branded, quality kitchen appliances. CompareBase. For more information and free, impartial advice on buying energy efficient appliances, visit Internet Kitchen Appliances (IKA) online.
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