Home Energy Resources

Date Published: 09th January 2009
Author: Anita

 

The key to keeping your house warm during the winter season while conserving energy and your money is to make your home energy- efficient. The important staples of an energy-efficient and cozy home during the chilly months are insulation and draft proofing. However, you can take other strategies to remain warm inside when it’s cold outside.

       Insulation acts as a defending agent to keep the heated air in your home and the chill air outside throughout the winter. Make sure that there is ample insulation in your attic, basement and walls of your home. After that, you should draft proof your home with weather stripping. Weather stripping your doors and windows seals the cracks and crevices surrounding doors and windows, preventing the warm air within your home from seeping out and the cold air outdoors from coming in.
       Doors that lead from your home to outside typically have a small space in between where the door base and the floor join. These doorsteps need to be draft proofed as well. Since weather stripping may not work in this area, you can suspend a heavy curtain over the doorway to help keep the cold air at bay. You can also roll up a bath towel and situate it along the bottom opening of the door to keep the cold air from seeping in and the warm air from seeping out. Heavy drapes or curtains on windows also help to further insulate the home.

       Keeping your home heating system in proper working condition helps to economically heat your home. During the summer months, mark your datebook to test your heating system. You ought to have your heating system professionally maintained at least once a year. This helps to clean out any residue in your heating system, allowing it to work correctly and more economically.
I       f you wear cold-weather clothing during the winter months, even while hanging out at home, you can run your heater at a lower temperature. This conserves power, saves money and keeps you comfortable all at once. Dressing in layers of clothing is one technique to adjust to temperature fluctuations in your home. As your body temperature goes up, you can eliminate a layer of clothing, and as you get colder, you can add another layer of clothing. This acts as a natural heating system for your body and conserves energy on heating your home.

       There are numerous energy-efficient ways to keep the warm air circulating in your home. By draft proofing and insulating your home, keeping your heating system in optimal shape and dressing in suitable clothing inside, you can keep warm inside without breaking the bank or harming the environment.
Locate energy-efficient homes in Texas: “Richardson Heights Eco-Friendly Real Estate” http://www.viewrichardsonheightshomes.com/28025-Richardson-Richardson-Heights-TX-Green-RESCmty.aspx
and Rockwall Golf Propertyand Rowlett Luxury Property.

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Richard W. Acles
Home Energy Resources
http://home-energy.hostei.com
saturnent@tm.net

Where Does Your Electricity Go?

       Did you ever wonder where does your electric consumption go? And did you ever wonder how are you going to save on your electric bill? Well, you need not to ask these questions without getting the right answers anymore. This article will tell you the answers to these 2 questions.

      The largest portion of your electric consumption goes to space heating, 47% to be exact. This is almost half of the cost of our electric bill. The other half is shared by lighting and appliance with 24%, water heating with 17%, air conditioning with 6%, and refrigeration with 5%.

       With this information at hand, we can easily determine when to start our move to keep the our electric consumption low.

 

       The largest part of our electric consumption goes to space heating and/or cooling

This is where the your major effort should be, This is where you can save the most and usually where the biggest problems lie.

 Insulating your home particularly the ceiling and walls can save you as much as 30% on heating expenses that equates to 15% savings on total electric cost. Doing this will of course require you to invest in materials that will be placed around your home but it is worth the money. Imagine a $150 savings per year just by insulating your home. Also, you can further save on heating expenses if you superinsulate your home in a colder environment.

Landscaping and some other changes around your home will certainly make a difference on your electric bill. If you live on warm climate, a shade of a deciduous tree will cool down your area and will save you on air conditioning. In a cooler climate using trees or bushes as a wind break can save on the heating bill. Appropriate roof and wall painting will give you further savings.

Covering your windows with plastic sheets will provide extra insulation. This will help to keep the heat from escaping outside as well as the cold air from sneaking inside the house.

Sealing all the air leaks around your home will ensure that the heat will stay inside. Leaks will often come from windows, doors, sills, joints and walls.

A regular maintenance check on the furnace will keep it running efficiently, thus, ensuring you get space heat equal to the electricity consumed. A clean air filter will also ensure that you get efficient air recycling as well as clean air. Leaking ducts will make your heating system work 30% more, thus, you are using power and spending more on wasted energy. Air conditioners should be checked regularly also.

A quarter of our electric bill goes to the lighting and appliances.

Here, we would concentrate on the control and responsible use of lights and electronic devices.

Turn the lightsand appliances off when not in use. Turn off the lights when you leave the room even for a few minutes. Turn off the stereo and television if you are not using them.

Reduce the thermostat of your refrigerator. It constitutes 20% of your household electric consumption.

Wash your clothes with cold water. You can save as much as 90% on washing machine’s electric consumption if you do not use hot water. You do not need warn water to kill the germs on your clothes. The detergent will do this.

Only use the dishwasher with a full load. Dishwashers use the same amount of power and water whether you have a full load or not. Also, prefer air-drying your dishes instead of heating them inside the dishwasher.

Reducing the temperature of your water heater will also help you to further reduce the cost of your home energy bill.  If the thermostat of your water heater is set on 140 degrees Fahrenheit, lower it down to 120. It will be enough to give you warn water. Invest on water heater jacket. It is cheap but will certainly yield to bigger savings.

When replacing your appliances, make sure you select energy efficient ones. Energy guide details can be seen on the label of each new appliance.

Compact energy bulbs are cheaper and more energy efficient than incandescent lights. Compact lights also last 8-10 times longer than incandescent bulbs so you will also save yourself from buying incandescent bulbs 8-10 times.

Replace your regular showerheads with low-flow ones. This will reduce your water consumption by as much as 40%.

 

       Energy saving can be done with a small amount of effort and a keen eye for trouble spots.  By checking the the areas outlined above a significant reduction in electric consumption can be acheived by anyone.

       Hiring an energy audit will show you specific trouble areas and is another way cutting your energy costs (See Home Energy Audit)

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Richard W. Acles
Home Energy Resources
http://home-energy.hostei.com
saturnent@tm.net

You Want a House

    Okay, so you decided that you want a house. However, you do not want it to be just any house, you want a house that won’t cost you much to maintain. So you decide to look for energy efishent octagonal home kits. But, wait a minute… something’s wrong. Whenever you try typing the phrase energy efishent octagonal home kits on the internet, no results come up.

    Well, here’s what’s wrong: the error has nothing to do with the web directory you are using. In fact, you may find that the reason why you cannot seem to find information about energy efishent octagonal home kits is something simple.

    Here’s the deal: you need to correct your spelling. There is no such word as “efishent”. In fact, the word is actually spelled “efficient”. This simple change of spelling can give you a lot of results on your search.

    How do you prevent this from happening again? Well, you might want to expand your vocabulary. None of us are born with the knowledge on how to spell properly. However, you could try to learn how words are spelled correctly.

How do you expand your vocabulary?

Here are some tips you can use:

1. Read – This is the best way to learn how to spell words and expand your vocabulary. Some people actually find it boring to open up a book. People nowadays just want to pick up the remote and turn on the TV.

    Well, here’s some information for you: you won’t learn how to spell correctly by watching television unless, of course, you are into watching Sesame Street.

    Of course, no one is suggesting that you pick up the dictionary and start memorizing the spelling of each word. What you need to do is pick up something interesting to read. For the beginner, I wouldn’t suggest going into the complex plotlines of Robert Ludlum yet.

    In order to get you started in the wonderful world of reading, you might want to pick out a book that movies are based on. These books are often what get people started down the road of wordiness.

    In time, you will find yourself reaching for books with more and more complex plotlines and words. Because of these you will expand your word power.

2. Write – Communications nowadays are of such a high technology that we often ignore the power of the written word. We all want to talk on the phone instead of writing a letter. However, how else would you learn to spell correctly, if not through writing?

    People may find it a bit boring. In fact, writing nowadays is mostly done through emails and text messaging. Text messaging has also done its share of damage to people’s spelling abilities. Nowadays, people make frequent use of “shortcuts” in their messages. This leads to the deterioration of spelling skills all over the world.

    In order to train yourself to spell properly, you’ll need to be able to take criticism for your mistakes. You need to want to improve your spelling skills.

    These tips should take you far into improving your word skills. You next have to learn how to apply those skills to your search.

    Of course, when you learn about the proper spelling of words, you won’t make the mistake of looking for energy efishent octagonal home kits. However, there are still more mistakes that can be made on the internet.

    When you search on the internet for energy efficient octagonal home kits, you might want to prepare some standard protection like anti-virus software, anti-spyware, popup blockers and other tools that might make your search easier and more convenient.

    Another thing you should consider doing is to examine each link before you click it. There are a lot of useless junks out in the internet and you do not want to encounter them. In order to be able to avoid “traps” set for the unsuspecting surfer, you need to be able to discern which websites do contain information you need and which ones are full of nonsense.

    By now, though, your new love for reading will have given you different inferences as to what signs to look for in examining information. And that, my friend, will help you a lot in your quest.

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Richard W. Acles
Home Energy Resources
http://home-energy.hostei.com
saturnent@tm.net