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Home Energy Conservation Challenge – Week 4

By Solar energy | March 4, 2009

Home Energy Conservation Challenge – Week 4

Welcome to this week’s Home Energy Conservation Challenge! If you’re here for the first time, you can find how this challenge works here.

If you’ve been taking the action steps in the first three (3) weeks of the Energy Challenge, you would know or have these things:

1.    How many kilowatt-hours your home used last year,
2.    The average kilowatt-hours used per month last year,
3.    A tracking excel sheet to track kilowatt-hour usage,
4.    How much energy your refrigerator uses (measured by your Kill-A-Watt meter)
5.    A refrigerator running as efficiently as possible and
6.    A water heater efficiently heating water when YOU decide you need it

Energy Conservation is a conscious decision; making a choice to change the way you use energy. In other words, you create a new energy habit. Experts say it takes 21 days for repeated action to become a habit.

But we can let a little technology help us out!

Last week you put your water heating system on autopilot.

This week you will put your home heating/cooling system on autopilot as well.

Let’s talk about your home Heating/Cooling System.

If you have a thermostat on your home heating/cooling system, there are three (3) strategies to help your system run more efficiently.
1.    Install a digital, programmable thermostat,
2.    Program your selected temperatures to
3.    Heating/Cooling system Maintenance:

1.    Set your home thermostat comfortably low in winter and comfortably high in summer. Start with deciding the lowest daytime temperature comfort level for your family in winter. Most people find 68 degrees an agreeable temperature; you particular comfort level may vary a few degrees either way.

Next, determine a comfortable nighttime temperature which is three (3) to five (5) degrees cooler than your daytime temperature.

After you’ve decided the temperature you can live with, remembering to make adjustments can be problematic. How do you remember to keep making adjustments to your home’s thermostat? You could figure out a way to do this 21 times to form this new thermostat adjustment habit.

Or you can put it on autopilot which brings you to step two (2).

2.    Install a digital, programmable thermostat compatible with your heating/cooling system and your lifestyle. This is one of the easiest ways you can save money on your utility bill. These thermostats manage the temperature adjustments for you at temperatures you decide.

Think about this. Say you find 62 degrees at night allows your family to sleep snugly and warm. But getting up for that morning shower at 62 degrees seems chilly. So, program your thermostat to turn up the heat about 30 minutes before the first family member gets up.

Do all family members leave home for the day for work or school? Why heat your home when no one is there? You can program your thermostat to automatically go back down when everyone leaves for the day, and up again just before everyone returns home.

Digital, programmable thermostats vary in price depending on the particular device complexity. We use a Honeywell product but there are many others on the market.

The EnergyStar site will help you:

•    Choose the right programmable thermostat for you
•    Have your thermostat properly installed
•    Properly set and use your thermostat

3.    Heating/Cooling System Maintenance. Alas, some things you just have to put on the calendar. This step goes on autopilot only if you hire someone to do this for you on a regular basis.

Contact a professional to check your heating/cooling system once a year—put this on your calendar. This yearly checkup keeps you system in good efficient working order.

Check the air filter on your heating/cooling system monthly. Check your owner’s manual for recommended filter types. When a filter is dirty, airflow is restricted causing your system to work harder. Working harder means wasting energy; which means you pay more on your energy bill.

So check the air filter monthly. If it looks dirty, change it. At the bare minimum, you need to change the filter every 3 months.

Take Action:
1.     Decide on minimum day and night temperature settings for your home
2.     Purchase and install a digital, programmable thermostat compatible with your home heating/cooling system
3.    Clean or replace your heating/cooling system air filter monthly (check owner’s manual for suggestions).
4.    Put regular heating/cooling system maintenance on your yearly home maintenance calendar

5.   Notate implementation dates of these energy savings strategies in your excel sheet or on your calendar

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