Every year, January 10th is observed as National Cut Your Energy Cost Day. It’s a great way to encourage consumers to review their goals, learn about energy-saving options, and keep up with maintenance on the home front.
Whether you're a concerned consumer who simply wants to lower your own utility bills or a caring conservationist who wants to do your part, here are some ways to conserve energy in your home and improve energy efficiency.
Of course there are so many ways to go about this, and it really depends on the climate you are in, how old your home is, how much money you want to spend, whether you are thinking about renovating your home or building a new one.
What contributes to high energy costs?
Before we discuss how to cut your energy costs, let’s talk about what contributes to high electric bills in a home. The big 3 culprits are:
Size of the home
All of the factors discussed below are typically amplified by the size of your home. Although older and smaller inefficient homes can use more energy than newly-built more energy-efficient homes, in general, the bigger the home, the bigger the energy use. A 4000 sq.ft. home is generally going to use more energy than a 2000 sq.ft. home. Something to keep in mind before you upgrade to the bigger house.
2. Heating and Cooling
It’s no surprise that most of the high energy use occurs during the summer and winter months, when temperatures are extreme. Heavy equipment such as your air conditioner and electric furnace use a lot of power. Btw, so does the pool equipment, water heater, clothes dryer, and electric oven. When they run for long periods of time, especially during adverse weather, it can rack up your utility bill. This is true even with the most efficient equipment, but it’s worse when they’re old or need maintenance and repairs.
Therefore the best strategy to reduce energy consumption from these systems is to reduce heating and/or cooling loads on the equipment, so that they don’t run for long periods of time and they don’t do as much work. See specific strategies and actions items below.
3. Lighting
Artificial lighting is a sneaky high energy usage line item, especially since most homes still use incandescent bulbs. Perhaps you turn on your lights during the day because your interiors don’t get enough natural light, or maybe you use a lot of lights during the evening and nighttime hours.
Electronics and phantom load
Phantom load, also known as vampire power, is the energy drained by any number of devices that are not in actual use, but still use electricity while in standby or sleep mode. Think of your electronic equipment such as computers, TVs, gaming consoles, chargers, other gadgets, and appliances like the microwave, coffee maker, etc. While each might drain only a small amount, they add up. This is certainly not an energy-hog like the top 3. You personally may not see big $ savings but utility companies like to optimize this because it adds up across their large customer base. It’s easy enough to use a smart power strip that can control multiple devices instead of unplugging devices individually (because, let’s be real - who’s going to remember to do that everytime?!).
How to cut your energy costs?
If you are in a hot and humid climate like we are in Austin, Tx, below are a few ways to reduce the energy usage in your home and thereby cut the energy cost. In a climate like ours, we focus on reducing cooling loads so that the air conditioner is not working at peak capacity all the time. Since our winter climate is pretty mild and lasts for short bursts, heating loads are only a secondary concern.
Simple habits to save $ on utility bills
We can all start with simple habits and small shifts in our lifestyle that will help lower the energy usage in our homes. You probably already know some of these.
Clean or replace your air filters regularly
Change to a programmable thermostat
Raise / lower your thermostat by 1 or 2 degrees in the summer and winter respectively
Set the fan to “auto” mode on your thermostat
Schedule regular maintenance on your air conditioning and heating equipment
Reduce your water heater setting to 120 degrees
Use less hot water by washing clothes with cold water (better for your clothes too), and taking shorter showers (this one is the hardest for me!).
Use the exhaust fan when showering or cooking. Removing the humidity that comes with these activities can help your ac work more efficiently.
Cook / grill outdoors in the summer
Turn off lights and fans when you’re not in the room
2. Home updates to renovate for energy efficiency
If you are not able to do all of the following or you're unsure where your dollars are best spent, it’ll be worth it to perform an energy audit to identify the areas in your house that are energy-hogs so you can work through a priority list.
Upgrade to energy-efficient Energy-Star appliances - refrigerator, induction cooktop, oven, dishwasher, washer and dryer
Upgrade to energy-efficient equipment - air conditioner, water heater, pool pump, pool heater
Consider an instantaneous water heater rather than a traditional storage tank
If you are putting in a new ac unit, the following will make a big difference
Sizing the ac unit correctly
Replacing old ducts with new, metal, insulated ducts, or sealing old leaky ducts
Adding a dehumidifier (stand alone or better if it’s tied to your ac)
Replace old windows with new energy-efficient windows with better glazing. Go for the double-pane windows with low E coating for those south and west facing windows.
Cover those windows that get direct sunlight with solar screens or awnings
Install a metal roof or replace the old roof decking with one that has a radiant barrier coating before your next shingle roof repair
Add more insulation or better quality of insulation in your attic. It’s best to seal your attic with foam insulation applied under the roof. If you’ve got ac units or ducting in the attic, which you most likely do, they will perform better and last longer.
Fix air leaks, weatherstrip and seal all holes, especially gaps around doors and windows
Replace incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs
3. Design strategies to create an energy efficient home
As an architect, I use a variety of design strategies, both passive and active, to set up a home for reduced energy use at the very outset. If you are lucky enough to be designing and building a new home, then you should be excited to note that using the following design strategies can make the biggest difference in reducing your energy usage.
The first 5 are the simplest passive design strategies used for hot and humid climate zones. Getting the passive strategies wrong can mean that you have to employ more active strategies to get the same result.
Consider the size of home carefully. As I mentioned before, the bigger the home, the more your energy consumption will be.
Orientation of the house and layout of spaces to minimize sun exposure and heat gain, but take advantage of prevailing breezes
Thoughtful placement of windows and amount of glazing facing direct sunlight, well shaded windows and doors using porches and shading devices
Consider the height of ceilings carefully. Big spaces with tall ceilings or vaulted ceilings means bigger volumes of air that need to be heated and cooled.
Design for good natural daylighting inside the house to reduce relying on artificial lighting
Planning for air conditioning systems, specifications that matter, zoning, thoughtful placement of units and layout of ducts - so it’s not an afterthought
Since the roof is a primary source of heat gain, addressing it with a metal roof and a sealed attic
A well balanced lighting layout using LED lights
Specifying insulation and sealing for an airtight home
High performance building envelope: Investing in good materials, construction techniques, and details that result in a high performance home
but, what about solar?
You’ll notice that I’ve not mentioned a solar array as one of the strategies. I’ve always considered solar to be a supplemental energy source for an energy-efficient home. Yet, curiously, it’s the first thing that most people mention as a priority when I ask them if energy-efficiency is an important consideration for their home project!
Which action item or strategy are you going to implement today?