Sam Houston Electric Cooperative

Indoor cooling and heating has greatly increased the quality of living in our modern society. And while your air conditioner and heater allow you to stay as cool or warm as you want to, regarless of the weather, these systems account for the majority of the energy usage, and therefore the biggest portion of the monthly electric bill, for the typical American household.

There is good news. By modifying your cooling and heating habits, as well as performing some simple home improvements, you can not only make your heating and cooling system run more efficiently, but also save money on your monthly bill.

Home Improvement Projects That Save Money

By: Chris Dorsi

Improvements to the outside of your home offer excellent opportunities to incorporate energy-saving measures with little additional effort. New siding, windows, and doors, for example, can improve the efficiency of your home if they are installed carefully. They add beauty and value, too.

If you plan to repaint or replace the exterior siding on your home, don't miss the chance to add wall insulation. Many older homes have wall cavities that are un-insulated or only partially insulated, allowing rapid heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer.

Wall insulation is one of the most cost-effective energy savers available. Loose-fill insulation can be installed in these wall cavities through holes that are drilled through the siding or sheeting underneath the siding. This requires specialized tools, so you should have a professional insulator do the job. Your new siding will cover the installation holes, saving the price of repair.

Some types of siding can be installed over a layer of foam insulation that's added between the old and new siding. This layer can be added with or without the new cavity insulation described above.

New high-efficiency windows and doors can save a lot of energy if installed properly. One key to maintaining their efficiency is sealing the edges where they meet the wall, so cold air and moisture can't enter the home. Pay close attention to the hidden joints where the window or door meets the wall framing, as well as the visible seams at the siding. Fill large, hidden gaps with liquid urethane foam in a can, or with tightly packed fiberglass. Install a bead of good quality caulk at the surface of each joint, and paint it to match. Now your new window or door will perform at its best.

Chris Dorsi is a nationally recognized expert on energy-efficiency.

By: Chris Dorsi

If your home is too hot in the summer, there are many ways you can help keep heat out of your house. Planting trees, for instance, is one of the best ways to diffuse the hot summer sun before it enters your home. But a surprising amount of heat comes from inside your home.

The biggest sources of internal heat gain are lights and appliances. Reducing their use will save electricity and keep your home cooler. In humid climates, moisture that is released by cooking, bathing, and other activities will also make it harder for air conditioners to cool your home. A drier home feels more comfortable.

Here are some easy ways to keep cool in the summer:

Courtesy of Saturn Research Management

You can save energy this fall and winter by having your furnace tuned up.

Electric, gas and propane furnaces can go approximately three to five years between service calls and longer, if you change the filters regularly. Oil furnaces need to be serviced once a year, because they get dirty and need annual adjustment.

As many know, changing filters regularly is one of the key maintenance tasks to keep any type of furnace running efficiently. Make sure that you know where your furnace’s filter is located and what size it is. Inspect it periodically, and replace it when it is dirty. How frequently you need to change the filter depends on the amount of dirt in the house and around the furnace and also how much time the furnace runs.

Duct air leakage is one of the largest energy-wasters in your heating system. Heating contractors can check your ducts for air leakage, and seal the biggest leaks. Contractors start by sealing the larger joints near the furnace, and then work out towards the branch ducts as access allows.

Believe it or not, duct tape is not a good choice for sealing ducts because its adhesive usually fails after a short time. Duct mastic, available in cans or buckets, is an effective and permanent material for sealing duct air leaks.

By Chris Dorsi

The U.S. Department of Energy has recently enacted a new set of standards for air conditioners that will help reduce the cost of cooling. This upgrade is just the latest in a series of improvements to air conditioning equipment. Today's systems are up to 50 percent more efficient than the equipment available a generation ago.

The efficiency of central air conditioners is rated by the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER). The higher the SEER number, the less electricity the equipment will use to cool your home. Federal standards require manufacturers to provide equipment that meets minimum a SEER rating, and for many years that minimum was SEER 10. As of January 2006, the minimum rating is now SEER 13. Buyers of this new equipment will benefit from a 30 percent increase in efficiency, and they will see a corresponding decrease in their summer electric bill.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the change to SEER 13 will save 4.2 quadrillion BTUs of energy between 2006 and 2030. As a point of perspective, this is equivalent to the annual energy use of 26 million U.S. households, with a total savings to consumers of approximately $1 billion by 2020.

The new SEER 13 equipment is more expensive to purchase, but studies show that the average U.S. family should recoup their investment within three and a half years. For more information about efficient air conditioners, go to the ENERGY STAR website: www.energystar.gov.

Chris Dorsi is co-author of Residential Energy - Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing Buildings.

Many large electric attic fans to help with summertime cooling. By exhausting hot attic air, they reduce the amount of heat that is transmitted down through the ceiling into your home. If you use air conditioning, this will tend to reduce the length of time that your air conditioner runs, and so reduce its operating cost. But in many houses, two other simple measures - insulation and ventilation - are more effective and cheaper in the long run than attic fans.

Attic insulation is still one the best ways to keep your home comfortable in both summer and winter. A thick blanket of attic insulation-12 to 16 inches in temperate areas, and 16 to 20 inches up north-will effectively stop attic heat from moving down into your home. In winter, attic insulation works by slowing heat flow out of your home and up into your attic.

Attic ventilation takes advantage of simple passive attic vents to remove heat from your attic in summer as well as removing moisture in winter. Attic vents should be distributed around your attic so heat or moisture don't accumulate in the corners, and they should be split with some high and some low in the attic to encourage natural circulation. If installed properly, they will remove almost as much heat from your attic as a powered fan.
Check your attic insulation and ventilation, or have a contractor do so, and add more if needed. These simple measures will last as long as your home and will improve your comfort year round. They'll also reduce the cost of running an air conditioner or attic fan. Best of all, these two energy-savers don't use a bit of electricity and they are perfectly quiet.

Chris Dorsi is co-author of Residential Energy - Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing Buildings.

Your home's thermostat controls how long your heating or cooling system operates. You can save energy and money by learning how this simple device operates.

One common myth is that the higher you set your thermostat when you return home, the faster your furnace will heat up your house. This isn't true since most furnaces deliver heat at the same rate no matter how high the thermostat is set. So just set your thermostat at the temperature you'd like, and your furnace will heat your home as fast as it can.

Another myth regards the efficiency of setting your thermostat down when you don't need heating or cooling, such as at night or when no one is home. This myth states that a furnace works harder than normal to heat your home back to a comfortable temperature after the thermostat has been set back,
resulting in little or no savings. This is not true, as has been proven by years of research and field observations. The longer your house stays at a reduced temperature when heating-or at an increased temperature when cooling-the more energy and money you'll save.

This is because your heating or cooling cost depends mostly on the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors. When you adjust your thermostat down in the winter-or up in the summer-you simply reduce this temperature difference. If you set your temperature back 10 to 15 degrees for 8 hours while you're asleep or at work, your energy savings can be 5% to 15% on your energy bill.

By the way, you can install a setback thermostat that automatically adjusts your home's temperature at pre-set times. But your can achieve the same savings if you faithfully remember to change your thermostat whenever you leave home or go to bed.

John Krigger is a nationally recognized author of numerous energy efficiency books, including Surviving the Seasons, and Residential Energy: Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing Buildings.

Furnace filters are designed to perform an important task: to keep your furnace and air-conditioning coil clean. Since your furnace's heat exchanger and air-conditioning coil have narrow, hard-to-reach passageways, they are quite difficult to clean. When they get dirty, the efficiency of your heating and air conditioning system will suffer, and your equipment's lifespan will be reduced.

In recent years, consumers have purchased millions of super-efficient furnace filters to reduce dust levels in their homes and to hopefully improve their respiratory health. But many researchers have asked, "Are these filters effective?" The answer depends on your definition of effective. If effective means that the filters catch small dust particles and perform to their advertised specifications, the answer is "yes." However, if the definition of effective is substantially reducing the amount of dust that you breathe, then the answer is "probably not."

Researchers for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) have discovered that your activity level around the house is the leading determinant of how much dust you breathe, since we all tend to stir up dust as we perform our daily activities. The CHMC research shows that while the furnace filters are catching plenty of dust, they can't really keep up with the production of dust by active families.

If you must reduce dust for acceptable respiratory health, a good furnace filter is an excellent start. But it should be just part of a multi-faceted strategy that includes as many of the following guidelines as possible: