Go Green and Save – Five Energy-Efficient Home Upgrades

The global financial crisis hitting the world is expected to have a negative impact on homes across America.  Already there are reports of layoffs or work slowdowns, possible salary freezes and an increase in unemployment claims.

One of the best ways to deal with the impending crisis is to go into a ‘savings’ mindset – not necessarily in terms of penny-pinching or trying to build up your financial deposits, but more in terms of looking for means to reduce household expenses, especially in your home.  Reducing household costs can be as simple as ‘thinking green’ or taking an environmentally friendly and more energy-efficient approach to your home life.

Five Energy-Efficient Home Upgrades

As a first step, consider having an energy auditor go through your house.  As the name implies, this is a specialized contractor who can check your home, identify areas for improvement and make recommendations.  While there are DIY kits or home improvement sites available, having a professional with the proper equipment undertake an energy audit will translate into monies well spent down the road.  If you’re not yet ready for a full-scale energy audit, however, here are some stop-gap measures you can consider:

1. Consider a programmable thermostat.
Here’s a thought:  how many hours in a day are there people at home?  You and your wife are at work, the kids are at school, you don’t have pets that indoor (not all the time, anyway) – so why should your house be ‘comfortable’ 24/7 when there’s no one at home to benefit?  Secondly, consider your sleep cycles.  Do you really need to have your air conditioner or heater going full blast the whole time when you won’t even be awake to ‘feel’ the heat or cold?

A programmable thermostat may be just the ticket.  Program it to kick in thirty minutes or so before the first family member gets home.  And program it to turn off climate-control appliances two or three hours before people start waking up (and perhaps just turn them on again thirty minutes before wake-up time).

2. Check for leaks.
I’m not referring to water faucet leaks.  Check your windows and ducts (which carry cooled or heated air to your rooms) for leaks through which hot or cold air escapes.  Such leaks force your air conditioners or heaters to work harder which, in turn, means additional energy costs.  Properly insulating your home (especially windows and ducts) could translate into as much as 10 percent in savings on utility bills.

3. Unplug appliances.
How many of your home appliances have clocks blinking away at all hours of the day?  Never mind if you don’t know how to program the clocks; the mere fact that they’re ‘blinking away’ means that they’re using energy even if the appliance is ‘off.’  Standby lights (such as you’ll find on your television) are also dead giveaways of energy (and thus money) being drained in vain.  Take a walk around the house and unplug your appliances and you’ll find yourself saving a bit more on your electrical bill.  If you need appliances to tell the time, buy a couple of inexpensive, battery-operated clocks.

A word of caution:  you have to be careful of unplugging high-end television sets or you may irreversibly damage your appliance.  Some such displays have special unplugging instructions; for instance, some require a proper cooling down period before they are unplugged.

4. Buy a better light bulb.
Change your incandescent lights with compact fluorescent light (CPL) bulbs.  The latter require 75% less energy and last ten times longer than your conventional light bulbs.  Granted, they may be a bit more expensive than the ordinary light bulbs but the savings they will provide you in the long term will be absolutely worth the initial expense.  Additionally, how much are you ‘saving’, really, if you constantly have to replace burned-out bulbs?

5. Shop wisely – shop ‘green.’
When shopping, look for energy-efficient appliances, especially those with the ‘Energy Star’ label.  Energy Star is a joint program of the US EPA and Department of Energy that, among other things, identifies and labels energy-efficient appliances.  Currently, this program has identified various appliances in 44 product categories – everything from major appliances like washers to home electronics products – to be energy-efficient.