home energy bills

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Take Advantage of the Sunshine

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

Image by Jeff Kubina via Flickr

Take Advantage of the Sunshine
I love summer. But it’s wearing thin here in South Texas with temperatures still reaching into the triple digits, daily. Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to take advantage of this sunlight and reduce the electric bill?
Here are a few places you can learn about [...]

Summer Energy Efficient Windows

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Image by zz9 via Flickr

Summer Energy Efficient Windows
Summer in South Texas has arrived. The solar thermal energy heats up our gardens, our cars and our house. Solar thermal on a cold winter day is a welcome treat.
Solar thermal energy during summer makes my air conditioner run.
Most people frame their energy efficient windows discussion around saving [...]

Energy Efficiency

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Image via Wikipedia

Energy Efficiency
Our plan to go solar and make our home a net ZEH variety home began nine (9) months ago with the implementation of energy conservation measures. Conservation meaning, daily choices that conserve energy and eliminate wasteful practices.
We’ve done all of the small, inexpensive, easily fixed steps to conserve energy and reduce our [...]

Energy Conservation Works

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Energy Conservation Works
Going solar. Sometimes it seems the going is slower than I’d like. But occasionally I get motivation to keep going. Ours is defiantly a “Tortoise and Hare” story.
The most recent encouragement to keep our hare in the race was the arrival of our electric bill.
For eight months now, we’ve had our home on [...]

Watch Your Phantom Loads

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Watch Your Phantom Loads
Before you purchase that solar power system, you need to know how many panels you need to support your home energy use.
Soon after you begin the energy discovery process you learn about invisible critters called “phantom loads”  that haunt your home.
It’s hard to see evidence of these little devils but here’s a [...]

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Image by Joshua Davis (jdavis.info) via Flickr

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
Did you know you can calculate your home energy carbon footprint? There’s a nifty carbon footprint calculator at BeGreenNow.com. All you have to do is enter your kilowatt-hour usage and/or your natural gas usage for the month (or year).
Using the BeGreenNow calculator, I calculated my home’s [...]

Home Energy Reduction Progress

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Image by thingermejig via Flickr

Our Home Energy Reduction 2008 Progress
This week I paid my last electric utility bill for 2008. As mentioned in Monday’s post we went off our “energy diet” during the holidays, so the monthly bill was higher than usual.
Still, in spite of our holiday energy binge, we used fewer kilowatt-hours (kWh) than [...]

Programmable Thermostats for Home Energy Conservation

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

Programmable Thermostats for Home Energy Conservation
On this solar energy journey, one of the most helpful gadgets to help reduce home energy consumption and thereby reducing the size of the solar energy system required, is a programmable thermostat.
The Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) estimates a programmable thermostat can save the average American household up [...]

Another Tutorial on Home Solar Energy

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

Another Tutorial on Home Solar Energy
You want energy independence. You want to reduce your carbon footprint. You want lower home energy bills.
Educate yourself about solar energy and other renewable energy sources.
Find out how to incorporate them into your lifestyle.
And then do something.
Alternate Energy Source gives you the basics on solar power.
Check them out.

How to Gain Control of Your Home Energy Consumption

Friday, December 12th, 2008

How to Gain Control of Your Home Energy Consumption
The buzzwords these days are green, renewable, sustainable, and carbon footprint. You care about all these, but sometimes your busy life keeps you from making changes. With work, kids, household upkeep, and bills, there just isn’t time to make huge changes.
Instead of thinking about all the pieces [...]

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