How to Save Money on Your Energy Bill

ENERGY LOSS IN HOMES: How Proper Insulation Helps You How Your House Consumes Energy and Money The average U.S. family spends $1,900 a year on home utility bills. 54% Heating and cooling your home account for the largest portion (54%) of your utility bills Space Heating 45% • Space Cooling 9% • Computers and Electronics 6% • Lighting 6% • Cooking 4% Refrigeration 4% Wet Cleaning 3% Water Heating 18% • Other 5% Mapping Out Heat Loss 25% Roof/attic 25% Windows and doors 35% Walls 15% Floor Ways Your House is Losing Heat Poorly insulated attics Heat escapes from the top. Wrong-sized heating systems Depending on your house's square footage, your furnace could be producing more heat than you need. Holes in exterior walls Gaps where windows, doors, or walls weren't joined together let heat seep out. Leaky ducts Leaky ducts mean heat that is intended to keep you toasty in your living room escapes into walls instead, never making it into the rooms you need to heat. How Insulation Can Help Proper insulation lets you save more and makes better use of the energy and heat in your house. 20% As much as 20% of your energy bill can be saved by good roof insulation. 40% Insulation reduces the cost of heating and cooling by over 40%. Wall insulation can reduce this loss by 2/3 and make your home more comfortable. You can lose as much as 10% of heat through uninsulated floors. Insulation pays for itself in around five to six years. | Tips to Better Insulate Your Home Roof/Attic Loose-fill or batt insulation is typically installed in an attic Install attic air barriers such as wind baffles along the entire attic eave to help ensure proper airflow from the soffit to the attic. If the thickness of your attic insulation is less than R-30 (11 inches of fiberglass or rock wool or 8 inches of cellulose), adding more could help you. Seal and insulate ducts in unconditioned space. If you're building a new house, place ducts in the conditioned space to avoid the energy losses. Do not insulate under water tanks that may freeze. Ensure all pipework and the attic hatch are insulated. Windows and Doors To reduce air leakage, caulk and weather-strip around windows. Window treatments and coverings also help save energy. • Insulated blinds are effective at reducing heat in the summer and keeping in heat during winter. • The use of high-reflectivity films work to block summer heat gain. • Storm panels reduce winter heat loss by as much as 50%. Best Insulating Window Coverings • To lower A/C bill and block heat, the best products for insulation are cellular shades and shutters. • They create an airspace "barrier" between the window and the room. Cellular Shades • "Cells" are visible side pockets on a honeycomb shade. • The more cells there are, the more energy efficient the shade is. • Cells trap air in the pockets which helps prevent extreme temperature changes in your home. Shutters • Very good insulators because they are the thickest, tightest fitting window coverings. • Reduces energy cost by successfully preventing the transmission of air between the window covering and the glass of the window. Walls Check your house's wall type - the kind of wall insulation you need will depend on this. If there are cavity walls they can usually be safely filled with insulating fiber, beads or foam. Internal insulation is highly effective for solid walls. Consider using loose-fill or sprayed foam insulation for exterior walls. If you're building a new house, consider structural insulated panels, insulating concrete forms, an insulated concrete blocks. Floors, Basement and Crawlspace Try using insulating blankets under suspended floors. Laying boards over concrete floors could also help. When insulating floors above unconditioned garages, first seal all possible sources of air leakage. Basement wall insulation is more preferable to ceiling insulation. Interior wall insulation is a practical solution to fixing basement heat problems. For unventilated crawlspaces, seal and insulate foundation walls. In most parts of the U.S., insulating the exterior edge of a slab can reduce heating bills by 10% to 20%. Clueless about Energy Conservation? Many Americans don't know the first thing about how to save energy. • "Insulate my home", the most effective way to save energy was listed last as an energy efficiency action by Americans. Categorized responses to an open-ended question about the single most effective thing that could be done to conserve energy: Behavior Category Curtailment (C) or Efficiency (E) Percentage of Participant Turn off lights 19.6 Conserve electricity 15.0 Drive less/bike/use public transportation 12.9 Change the setting on the thermostat 6.3 Change my lifestyle 5.9 Unplug appliances 5.7 Shut off appliances/use appliances less 4.9 Recycle 4.2 Other (for behaviors only mentioned once) 4.0 Education/think about my actions 3.8 Use efficient light bulbs 3.6 Use efficient appliances 3.2 Use efficient cars/hybrids 2.8 Sleep more/relax more 2.8 Buy green energy/solar energy/alternative energy 2.6 Insulate my home 2.1 There is no way/l don't know 0.8 = Best way to save energy! Many don't understand that efficiency improvements are far more effective than curtailment efforts. Curtailment means doing without or with less. Efficiency improvements give you the same benefits, but with less energy spent. Sources: http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/tips-your-homes-energy-use http://nansulate.com/nanoblog/HomeProtect_Heat%20loss%3Again.png http://www.freesaveenergy.co.uk/heat-loss-in-the-home.php http://blog.gaiam.com/blog/the-top-4-ways-homes-lose-heat-and-how-to-fix-them/ http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/where-insulate-home http://www.net.org.uk/esove K nouses/Wall-Insulation.asp n nergy-gov/energysavern u:/www.dedc.co.Uk/ddvice http://energy.gov/energysaver/ http://voices.yahoo.com/go-green-save-money-decorating-insulated-483438.html http://teddbenson.com/2010/10/25/insulate-my-home/ http://www.blinds.com/control/subCategory/categoryID,11 http://www.blinds.com/control/subCategory/categoryID,22 http://www.blinds.com/control/productSearch?pid=8798,8522,8309,8525,8801,8852,8522,80066,8305,80064, .deac.co.uk/advice- Ver/arficles/energy-efficient-window-treatments 8793,8727,8774,8308,76845,8307,8759,8794,8851,88078309,8524,76850,8202,8777,8761,8206,8207,8641,8304,8672, 8525,8801,8310,8209,8897,8208,76852,8802,8699,8830,8772,8821,8370,82621,8452,8800,8655,82624&cid=insulation.htm