Save Energy & Money NOW!
(Page 3 of 8)
October/November 2001
By Joe Hurst-Wajszczuk
Change furnace filters. If you have a forced-air heating system, replacing your furnace filters monthly can save about 5 percent on your energy bill. Just as important, clean filters keep dust and grit out of the heater and out of the indoor air. Write the date you change filters on the cardboard frame for reference.
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Fix your fireplace. A crackling wood fire provides a primal pleasure, but that roaring fireplace can exhaust 20,000 cubic feet of heated air per hour, and draw in cold air from the outside, forcing your furnace to work overtime. When the fireplace is not in use and the damper is left open, the same amount of heated air escapes up the chimney as from an open, 48-inch-wide window. For maximum savings, the Rocky Mountain Institute's Heede recommends plugging the flue, but if you can't resist the pleasure of open fires, install a set of glass fireplace doors to prevent large volumes of unheated air from escaping. And always keep the damper door closed when not in use.
The spin on fans. Ceiling fans can actually earn their keep. Using about as much electricity as a 100-watt light bulb, a fan's circulating abilities can lower utility bills by providing both cool and warm air. During the summer, a ceiling fan's breeze can make you feel 5 to 10 degrees cooler. If you bump your thermostat up these 5 to 10 degrees, you can shave 15 percent or more off your electric bill. In winter, switch the fan to reverse, and run it on low to move hot air down from the ceiling. If you have cathedral ceilings, bringing the heat down to ground level can save you as much as 10 percent.
Windows of Opportunity
Old windows are almost as bad as having holes in your walls. Single-paned glass windows (still in 62 percent of homes) account for as much as 30 percent of your heating bill. In comparison, today's high-performance windows can cut those bills in half. Most of these savings come from using two panes of glass, separated by a non conductive inert gas, and low-emissivity (low-E) coat ings, which allow visible light through, but block infrared ra diation (heat). Low-E coatings can reflect solar radiation away from, or back into a home depending on the climate.
With all the scientific jargon and confusing acronyms, finding the right windows may seem harder than installation. That's where the National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) comes in. This nonprofit organization tests windows and then rates them with a standardized system. The results are stuck on participating manufacturer's windows. The NFRC tests four criteria, solar heat gain coefficient, visible transmittance, air leakage and U-factor, which measures how well a window prevents heat from escaping. U-values are the inverse of R-values, so the lower the number, the better.
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