Six Ways to Make Your Home Energy-Efficient
Although the cost of energy has decreased slightly over the last year, that does not alter the intractable trend of ever increasing energy prices. As such, homeowners everywhere have begun to consider how they are losing money each month in utility bills as the result of energy inefficiencies within the family home.
Attempting to sure up the energy waste in your home can be a difficult task without a plan. The following easy steps will provide you with ideas that can help streamline your energy-efficiency project. If you follow these steps, you can feel confident that you will maximize the energy savings of your family home.
Seek Professional Help
The first thing that a homeowner should do is to get what is called an energy efficiency audit. Because the green movement has become so ubiquitous, there are professionals whose sole job it is to assess the energy efficiency of residential homes. By seeking the expertise of one of these professionals, home owners can rest assured knowing that they are making the right choices in their energy efficiency project.
Easy Energy Solutions
The second step that owners must take is to seal leaks within the home that allow air to escape. Escaping air causes a heat transfer between the inside of your home and the outside of your home. This heat transfer causes you HVAC system to work harder in order to maintain your desired indoor air temperature. Sealing areas around doors and windows or in the attic are quick economical ways to promote energy savings.
The third way homeowners can substantially improve energy efficiency within their home is to insulate their attic space. As everyone knows, heat rises. As heat rises into your attic, it escapes into the atmosphere. According to some estimates, about half of America's homes are under-insulated.
The fourth way to improve your energy efficiency is to properly seal the duct work that carries heated and cooled air throughout your home. Your HVAC system works by heating and cooling air in one area and pumping that air throughout the home. If this ductwork has leaks, it forces your HVAC system to use more energy in order to heat and cool your home.
Window and Door Changes
The fifth method that can promote energy efficiency is to install new energy efficient windows into your home. Most of your home has insulation within the walls to prevent heat transfer to the outside world. Because windows directly connect indoor air with outdoor air, they often provide poor insulation that results in large amounts of heat transfer.
Likewise, doorways present the same problem in that they lack the insulation present in your home's walls. Certain door materials are extremely efficient conductors, which results in wasted energy. Homeowners should replace hollow metal doors with solid doors that are poor conductors of heat.
If replacing entire windows seems too costly, there are other alternatives that provide an insulation effect in a more economical way. One good example is the storm window. By installing storm windows, homeowners provide another layer of insulation between indoor and outdoor air, thereby increasing energy savings.
Energy Efficient Technology
The sixth method of promoting energy efficiency is to take advantage of recent technology. As technology has evolved, all manners of household amenities have become more energy efficient. New HVAC systems are all designed in order to run on the least amount of energy possible. Replacing an old air conditioner or heater with a new one will most certainly result in immediate energy savings.
Another appliance that has adapted with the energy conservation trend is the water heater. Traditional water heaters have massive tanks that hold roughly eighty gallons of water. These tanks heat this immense amount of water before your family even needs hot water. When your family is not using hot water, traditional water heaters constantly expend energy in order to keep the entire volume of water at temperature.
New tankless water heaters do not use energy when your family does not need hot water. Instead, they heat water only when your family needs it. As such, no energy is wasted keeping water at the desired temperature in anticipation of your family's water usage needs.
The aforementioned are just some of the easiest and most effective ways to improve the energy-efficiency of your family home. By hiring an expert energy auditor, you can decide which of the above ideas will result in the greatest energy savings. Likewise, they can provide you with other ideas to stop wasteful energy practices in your home.