Ideas for Green Living
Ideas for Building Green
- Tankless Water Heaters.
- Solar Water Heaters
- Add a tube-type skylight which lets you bring in the sun's rays without the hassle or expense of installing a conventional skylight.
- Plant deciduous trees (trees that have leaves in the summer and lose them in the winter). You will have shade in the summer, sun in the winter.
- Install a smart ceiling fan make sure any fan you buy is ENERGY STAR-rated
- New Dual flush toilets. Choose between 1.8 gal water or .6 per flush.
- Select a flush – Toilet valve fittings for existing toilets.
- ENERGY STAR-rated EVERYTHING (appliances, doors, windows) Get your tax credits!
Making Homes More Energy Efficient
- A large portion of your energy use is lost every day via air leaks, power leaks, inefficient appliances, etc.
- The first step to savings is to identify where your energy is being used. Once you know this, then you can take steps to reduce energy consumption.
Water Heating Tips
Your hot water use accounts for about 30-40% of your total utility bill. There are ways to reduce your water-heating bill:
- Turn down the thermostat on your hot water heater (120-125 degrees).
- Instant water on demand - water heating unit for under your sink.
- Insulate your hot water pipes (and older water heaters w/o insulation).
- If you can, buy a new more efficient water heater (always look for ENERGY STAR).
- Use less hot water (take shorter showers and less baths).
- Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.
- Wash your clothes in cold water and save up to $400 a year.
- Install aerating, low flow faucets and showerheads.
- Repair leaky faucets promptly; a leaky faucet wastes gallons of water.
Other Energy Saving Tips
- Insulate and Seal Air leaks everywhere. Call Trehab for a blower-door test.
- Replace can lights (recessed fixtures) these fixtures usually are not sealed and cannot have regular insulation above them. They allow heated air to escape. You can buy insulation kits from the local hardware stores for these recessed lights.
- Install a Programmable Thermostat - this allows you to preset temperatures for different times of the day. You do not need to keep your home at 68 degrees around the clock.
- Close your open fireplace damper - this lets the same amount of heated air escape up the chimney as much as a wide-open 48-inch window. Make sure your flue is closed when you do not have a fire going.
- Clean your refrigerator coils.
- Replace weather stripping - over time, the seals around windows and doors wear out. If you heat a building, the rising hot air will pull cold air from outside into the house (called "Stack Effect"). To defeat it, cut down on the spaces cold air can enter your house, like under a door to the outside or around windows.
- Ceiling Fans that are spinning counterclockwise move air around the room. Help to bring heated air down to earth in rooms with cathedral or high-sloped ceilings by sliding the reversing switch on the side of the motor housing to winter (clockwise) position. Then run fan at its lowest speed.
- Move furniture away from vents, registers and radiators.
- If you can rattle your windows, they are letting a lot of heat escape around the frames. Seal the open spaces with puttylike rope caulk before shrink wrapping. Install clear plastic film across the inside of you windows - available in kits that contain plastic film and double-sided tape. Usually a blow-drier is used to install plastic wrap.
- Change Your Furnace Filter - if you have a forced-air system, changing the furnace filter can save you some energy (up to 5 percent) and keep dust down.
- Motion Sensors and light timers - reduce your light pollution. Put a motion sensor or a timer on your all-night garage floodlights, TV's, and even room lights.
More on Household Electric
- Computers use up to 70 percent less electricity when you put them to sleep instead of using standby, and...
- Laptop computers use 40% less energy than a desktop computer
- When buying an appliance or electronic device, choose the model that uses the least standby power.
- A 22-watt CFL has about the same light output as a 100-watt incandescent. CFLs use 50-80 percent less energy than incandescent.
- Be sure to buy ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs. They will save you about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime.
- Power strips - Put as many appliances, office equipment, home electronics on power strips as possible. When plugged in, the circuit is open - each unit using 40% of their total energy even when NOT IN USE.
Beware of Phantom Loads
Phantom loads, also called standby power or vampire loads, refer to electricity used by appliances and equipment while they are turned off or not performing their primary function. Almost any appliance with an external power supply, remote control, continuous display or battery charger will draw power continuously even when switched off.
Hypothesis: Phantom loads account for more than 25% of the total daily energy consumption of appliances. We measured Phantom Loads to be 33% of Total Energy Consumption.
- Speakers = 6% Phantom load was 2.4 W for single speakers tested
- Laptop = 4% Phantom loads ranged from 0.9 W to 2.1 W, average = 1.4 W
- Printer15% = Phantom load was 6.3 W for single printer tested
- Gaming Console = 7% Phantom load was 2.9 W for the single console tested
- Desktop = 6% Phantom loads were 2.6 W for single desktop tested
- TV = 44% Phantom loads ranged from 0.8 W to 17.2 W, average = 6 W
- Microwave = 18% Phantom loads ranged from 2.2 W to 3 W, average = 2.7 W
- Coffee maker = 2% of total daily energy consumption (turning it off is fine…uses no watts)
To reduce phantom loads, homeowners should consider:
- Unplugging appliances that are not frequently used.
- Using a switchable power strip to switch off several devices that are often used together such as a computer, a monitor and printer or in the kitchen such as coffee maker, toaster oven, or microwave.
- When buying new appliances, search for low standby power products such as ENERGY STAR appliances.