Making Cents of Energy - HELP Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electric

Spring Cleaning Home Energy Tips (Part 1)

There’s something invigorating in the springtime air and the warm sunshine streaming in through the windows that make many of us want to clean our homes from attic to basement.  We finally get rid of unused or broken items, re-organize the rest, and generally refresh everything, inside and out.

What a great time to also review our home’s energy usage, and take some actions to increase energy efficiency. In the spirit of spring cleaning, the team here at Thompson Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling has put together a list of energy-saving ideas. Maybe you’d like to squeeze a few on to your home’s springtime cleanup and landscaping list!

A Home Energy Audit

According to the Department of Energy, an average U.S. household spends $2,200 a year on utility bills. One of the best ways to lower those expenses is to do a home energy audit. An audit will help you discover exactly how much power your home uses, and also how much it wastes or loses. Then you can draw up a plan for the best, most affordable ways to lower your utility bills.

Many power companies offer free audits to help homeowners find out how much energy their household uses on heating, cooling, electronics and other appliances. Here in the Tristate area, Duke Energy is currently offering free energy audits, called Home Energy House Calls. Here’s a link with more information: http://www.duke-energy.com/ohio/savings/home-energy-house-call.asp

You can also hire a professional to do a home energy inspection. Professional home energy inspectors use a variety of tools, like infrared camera images, to show exactly where your house is losing energy. This is usually the most thorough and effective type of energy audit, but be careful to hire an independent company, not one who is connected with an energy saving product and might be using the audit as a sales opportunity. 

The Benefits of Basement Insulation 3

You have decided to insulate your basement, now what? The first thing to figure out is what R-value the insulation should have. As you’re probably aware, R-value is how insulation’s performance is measured. It tells you what the insulation’s resistance to heat flow is; the higher the R-value number, the better the product is at insulating. You need to choose insulation based on R-value, not its thickness. The Department of Energy has a map for determining the necessary R-value of basement insulation here: http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/insulation_airsealing/index.cfm/mytopic=11470

After you find out which R-value is best for your area of the country, it’s time to pick the type of insulation you want to use. First, you need to find out the building codes for your area—they will have an effect on what kind of insulation you choose and how it’s installed. For example, if you decide to apply batt or foam insulation, most fire codes require that it be completely covered by some type of finished wall, such as drywall.

The choices of insulation for basements are as follows:

Rigid foam board—It has a high R-value per its thickness, which makes it thin and fairly easy to install. However, this is one of the types of insulation that has to be covered by a finished wall.

Spray foam insulation—Spray foam is great because it expands to fill nooks and cracks. It must be applied by a professional and needs to be covered by a fireproof covering.

Loose fill insulation—Like spray foam, loose fill is excellent at filling cracks and holes. It likewise needs to be installed by a professional.

Fiberglass batts—The most commonly chosen type of insulation for all areas of the house. Many homeowners choose to install this type of insulation themselves. Tiny pieces of the fiberglass break off and float into the air during installation, so if you go that route, make sure to wear the proper safety equipment—gloves, a hat, safety goggles, long sleeves and pants, and a dust mask.

To sum up, remember not only is it possible to insulate a basement, it can save you hundreds of dollars every year, not to mention making your basement an even more comfortable and appealing living space in your home.

The Benefits of Basement Insulation 2

If you are thinking about insulating your basement, there are two potential trouble areas that must be resolved before you can consider insulating it: moisture, and troubles with your foundation. Let’s take a look at these issues one at a time.

First, let’s look at the foundation of your house. You need to do a careful inspection of your entire foundation, searching for any buckling, cracks, or holes. You might want to hire a foundation expert for this, to make sure there are no structural problems or potential problems that could develop soon. If you find any, you must fix them and eradicate their source before insulating your basement. For example, while some cracks that appear in a home’s foundation are the result of harmless “settling” of the poured concrete, others can indicate a shift in the soil outside that could lead to serious structural damage.

The other significant challenge to basements almost everywhere is moisture. Before you can insulate your basement, you need to make sure it is dry and will stay that way. If you have any leaks or seepage, the source of them must be traced and eradicated, whether it’s an improperly draining gutter, badly designed basement window wells, inadequate grading of the soil surrounding your house, or something else. And it’s crucial to consider future possible moisture seeping through the foundation or filling the air of your basement. If you live in a very wet part of the country, or one with frequently water-logged soil, you may want to consider having a professional waterproof your basement.

Once you’ve made sure your foundation is secure and your basement has no moisture problems, it’s time to consider what type of insulation you should choose.  We'll discuss insulation choices next week!

The Benefits of Basement Insulation

Basements were not always basements. Many years ago, the lower level of homes used to be known as cellars, or root cellars. The cool temperatures of root cellars made them perfect for storing a household’s preserves, jellies, pickles, and root vegetables. But this changed when houses started being built with poured concrete foundations. A potential room was added to a house’s living space by this new type of construction, one that many homeowners have taken advantage of by finishing off into a game room, or home theater. And even if you don’t have a finished basement, chances are you use yours for at least a laundry room. Basements can be an integral part of the house, in a way that root cellars never were. It can really pay to insulate your basement in the same way the rest of your home should be insulated to save on your heating and air conditioning bill.

Although it helps lower home heating costs, insulating a basement poses its own unique problems, which is why many homeowners are reluctant to invest in basement insulation. However, it’s well worth looking into; traditional basements, made of concrete or concrete block or stone, have almost no natural insulating properties. According to the Department of Energy, insulating your basement can save you between $300 and $500 every year on your heating and air conditioning budget.

Hot Water Heater Tips - More Helpful Fixes

In addition to altering your water usage habits, there are some devices available that can also help you save on your hot water bill. If you have an electric hot water heater, consider installing a timer that turns it off at night or when you’re out of town. (Timers don’t work with gas hot water heaters because of the pilot light.)

You can also install heat traps on the pipes that lead to and away from your hot water heater. Heat traps are loops of pipe that allow water to flow into your hot water heater, but stop unwanted flows of hot water back out. Heat traps have to be soldered to the inlet and outlet pipes, so this might be a job for your local plumbing contractors.

Finally, you might have to consider that the best way for your household to save energy and money is by replacing an old, inefficient, poorly insulated hot water heater with a new model. A good rule of thumb is that if your hot water heater is ten years old, it has lost 50% energy efficiency (or even more) and you will save money and energy by replacing it. Also, this year, you could save tax money. If you replace an old hot water heater in your primary residence with a new one that has a thermal efficiency of at least 90% or an energy factor greater than .82, you will qualify for a Federal Tax Cut of 30% of the cost, up to $1500, if you install the new water heater before December 31, 2010.

So if you’re looking to save money and reduce your energy usage, your hot water heater is an excellent place to start.

Hot Water Heater Tips - Evaluate

Evaluate Your Hot Water Habits

Another way to cut costs is to examine your hot water usage and make some changes. First, you might need to install low flow shower heads. A great way to assess this is to place a one gallon bucket in your tub, turn on the shower full force, and see how long it takes to fill the bucket. If it takes less than twenty seconds to collect one gallon, you need a low flow shower head.

Also, if you don’t already, consider washing all your laundry in cold water, or at least never set the temperature dial on your washer higher than “warm.” Your clothes and household linens will be every bit as clean as if you used hot water, especially if you use one of the many cold water laundry detergents available. And a nice upside to cool water washing is that your wardrobe will retain brighter colors longer, and the material will shrink less.

Another habit to possibly change is to switch from tub baths to showers, at least the majority of the time. Baths typically use twice the amount of hot water as showers.

Hot Water Heater Tips - Insulate

For one thing, consider insulation. How do you know if your hot water heater should be insulated? There’s an easy way to tell. Touch the outside of it. If it’s warm to the touch, it needs some insulation. There are a variety of products on the market—like hot water heater blankets that can be custom cut to fit—to do this job. However, if you have a gas hot water heater, it’s very important to remember not to insulate the top or the bottom. The airflow cannot be obstructed in any way and the thermostat must remain uncovered. Most homeowners with gas hot water heaters opt to call in home heating or plumbing contractors to properly and safely insulate their gas hot water heater.

Also, insulate your hot water pipes with pipe insulation wrap, especially the pipes within three feet of your heater, and the cold water inlet pipe for those same three feet. (However, if you have a gas hot water heater, make sure the pipe insulation stops at least six inches from the flue.) Insulating all your hot water pipes can raise the temperature of the water they carry by 4 degrees.

Heat Up Your Savings With Our Hot Water Heater Tips

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, hot water heaters consume between 14%-25% of a home’s total energy use, and are the third largest energy expense in your house (behind the refrigerator and clothes dryer.) Here are some ways you can help cut your home’s energy usage and save money, by improving the performance of your hot water heater.

First, if you have an electric hot water heater, consider switching to gas. According to national average fuel costs, gas hot water heaters cost half as much to use. They do cost more to purchase, but they net you 50% energy savings from the moment you start using one, earning back the difference in purchase price in less than a year.

However, if you can’t, or would rather not replace your electric hot water heater with gas, there are other ways to help cut the energy drain from hot water heaters.  Stay tuned for more information.