Sam Houston Electric Cooperative

Little things mean a lot - especially when it comes to your electricity bill.

While upgrading to Energy Star appliances and more efficient heating and cooling units do yield immediate impact on your bill, they also require a large upfront capital investment.

However, doing small things around the house can also have an impact, and are easy and affordable to do right now.

The first thing to do when performing your own home energy audit is to make a list of any existing problems, such as condensation and uncomfortable or drafty rooms. The next thing is to look for air leaks. They are common around electrical outlets, switch plates, window frames, baseboards, weather stripping, fireplace dampers, attic hatches, and wall or window-mounted air conditioners. When inspecting windows and doors for air leaks, if you can see daylight around the door or window frame, that is where the leak exists.

When looking at the outside of your home, examine areas where two different building materials meet. This includes exterior corners, areas where siding and chimneys meet, and places where the foundation and the bottom of the exterior brick or siding meet. Make sure to plug and caulk holes or penetrations for faucets, pipes, electric outlets, and wiring. Also, look for cracks and holes in the mortar, foundation and siding of your home and seal them with the appropriate material. Finally, check the exterior caulking around doors and windows to see if they are sealed tightly.

When performing your own home audit, make sure to examine the ceilings and walls. If these two areas are not properly insulated, you risk heat loss in the winter and cool-air loss in the summer. Check to see that the attic hatch is as heavily insulated, as well as weather-stripped and closed tightly. In the attic, determine if openings for items such as pipes, ductwork and chimneys are sealed. If you see any gaps, seal them with expanding foam caulk or another permanent sealant.

For your convenience, Sam Houston Electric Cooperative's 2006 Annual Report provides a handy checklist of what to look for and quick and inexpensive remedies to solve common energy hogs. The Cooperative also provides professional energy audit to all members. To schedule an appointment, contact your local branch office.

Source: National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Touchstone Energy, the North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives, and Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, Inc.

By Chris Dorsi

Have you ever wondered what portion of your electric bill is consumed by the lights in your home?

According to the Energy Information Administration, lighting accounts for up to one-fifth the total electrical consumption in many U.S. households. And a good portion of that energy may be wasted because light fixtures are poorly located.

You can save energy and money by using spot lighting. Spot lighting is located close to the area where you’re working, whether that is a desk, a kitchen counter, or the bathroom sink. Spot lighting can be used in conjunction with area lighting that illuminates an entire room, or it can be used alone for maximum savings.

You may have noticed that it’s hard to read under a dim light unless you move close to the lamp. That’s because as light travels outward from its source, the same amount of illumination falls upon an increasingly large area. This explains why overhead ceiling fixtures are often configured to hold three 100-watt incandescent lamps, while a nearby table lamp provides plenty of light for a desktop task with only one 60-watt bulb.

One of the best places for spot lighting is in your kitchen. Small lamps that fit under an upper cabinet will direct light right where you need it the most, and there are many different styles available at home improvement stores. If you install new fixtures, be sure to place the switches in a convenient location so you can shut them off as you leave the room.

When you are using spot lighting, remember to shut off the area lighting in the room save even more energy and money.

Energy Hogs are villainous creatures that feed on wasted energy. Don't let your home be their home, too. Prevent Energy Hogs this winter.

Insulate your house. Insulation traps warm air inside so you don't have to turn up the heat. In the summer it keeps the cool air in and warm air out reducing the amount of energy it takes to cool your home.
Close the damper. Fireplaces add warmth to your home, but when not in use hot air escapes up through the chimney. By closing the damper, Energy Hogs cannot get in.
Caulk or weather-strip windows. Windows are one of the easiest places to lose warm or cool air and energy. Check for cracks or loose panes and repair them. Make sure you can't feel a cool breeze around your windows.

These helpful hints along with other energy conservation tips can be found by going to the Energy Hog Buster Web site at www.energyhog.org. There's fun stuff for kids, too!

Lots of people wonder whether it saves energy to turn their lights off every time they leave a room. The answer depends on two things: the type of lamp (the technical term for what most of us call light bulbs) in your fixtures, and how long you'll leave it off.

If you are still using old-fashioned incandescent lamps, then you should shut them off whenever you'll be out of the room for at least 5 minutes. But experts from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory advise that fluorescent lamps are different, whether you are using the long tube-type fluorescents or the compact fluorescent lamps that screw into standard light fixtures. They suggest turning fluorescent lamps off only when you won't need them for 15 to 20 minutes. The recommendations for these two types of lamps are different because the lifespan of incandescent lamps isn't affected by the number of times they are switched on and off, while the lifespan of fluorescent lamps is slightly shortened every time they start up.

These recommendations are based on an average electricity cost of 5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). If you pay considerably more than that, then it may be economical to shut off your incandescent lamps if you'll be gone for 3 or 4 minutes, and to shut off fluorescent lamps if you'll be gone for 10 to 15 minutes.

These recommendations also account for the varying life span of fluorescent lamps, depending upon the number of hours they are used per start. For example, if you use a fluorescent lamp for 3 hours per start, it will last for about 20,000 hours; if you use it for 6 hours per start, you'll get an increased lamp life of about 24,000 hours.

You also may have also heard that switching off a fluorescent lamp doesn't save much energy because the savings are erased by a surge in current when it is first switched on. This isn't really true: there is indeed a startup surge, but it lasts only a fraction of a second and the energy consumption during this small time interval is negligible.

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.

Before you select plants to beautify your home, consider another important benefit of good landscaping: energy efficiency.

Think about how much cooler it feels under the shade of a big tree on a hot day. That tree can provide several tons of cooling power, in air conditioning terms. In fact, the Department of Energy estimates that just three trees positioned correctly around a house can cut the energy used for heating and cooling by 25 percent. That could translate to major savings for you!

If your property doesn't have big trees, you might give some serious thought to planting some. When planted on the south and west sides of your home, trees can block the summer sun, reduce the heat pouring into your home and help provide cooling.

Trees and shrubs can also provide windbreaks, as farmers have known for years. Rows of evergreens bordering fields were planted to keep the wind from blowing away soil and damaging and drying out crops. The same principle applies to diverting winds that blow directly toward your home.

Even shading your air conditioner compressor can make a difference. Although you want to keep plants from lying directly on or interfering with the compressor, a unit that's shaded by a tree doesn't have to work as hard as one that's baking under the summer sun. So you pay less to stay cool!

Remember, before planting call the Cooperative to check for underground lines and look up for overhead lines.

During winter in colder climates and during the hot months in warm areas, windows can account for about 25 percent of the heat loss or gain in a typical home. About half of the houses in this country still have old single-pane windows, which are major sources of lost heat in the winter and lost cool air in the summer. Replacing all your windows is likely to be an expensive proposition, but there are many other, less expensive things you can do to make them more efficient: