- letting the furnace or air conditioner salesperson sell them a unit that's much bigger than they need,
- not getting the ducts checked for leakage when installing a new heating and cooling system,
- thinking that "since heat rises, we only need to insulate the attic." Floors over a basement or crawlspace matter.
- ceiling and portable fans use very little electricity. Use them to circulate air in the house, keeping the air mixed. This will reduce the amount of time that your heater or air conditioner needs to run. In addition, when used with fans, the thermostat setting for your air conditioner can be raised to 85°F, and still maintain the same comfort level as the lower setting.
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| There are a number of factors that cause differences in energy bills, so comparing your bill to someone else's is like comparing apples to oranges. - The ages of major appliances, especially refrigerators and air conditioners, can make a dramatic difference in your bill.
- In addition, if your house leaks air like a sieve while your neighbor's house was just weatherized and insulated, you will have much higher heating and cooling bills.
- Other factors that can result in significant differences in bills are the number and kinds of lighting fixtures, thermostat settings for heating and cooling, the number of loads of laundry, old refrigerators out in the garage, and hobbies which result in electricity use.
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| If your house has central air conditioning, the air conditioner will probably be the biggest user by far. - Although used only a few months of the year, the annual cost can be much greater than the annual cost of your refrigerator, which is typically the next largest user.
- In hot climates, the annual air conditioner cost can exceed a thousand dollars. You can get a very rough idea of what your air conditioner is costing you by subtracting the electric portion of your bill in a spring month when you aren't using your air conditioner from the electric portion of the bill in the summer when you do use it. This gives you the monthly cost. Multiply this by the number of months you use your air conditioner to arrive at your approximate annual cost.
- Refrigerators are typically the largest users in houses without air conditioning or in climates where the air conditioners are used only a few days of the month during the cooling season.
- If your refrigerator is more than ten years old you might want to consider replacing it. New efficiency standards went into effect in 1992, and older refrigerators are typically two to three times more expensive to run than a new unit.
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| - For a typical house, windows can account for 10% to 30% of the heating and cooling bill. Upgrading from single-pane windows to 'superwindows' can cut this in half or better, so savings of up to 15% of your current bill are reasonable. Depending on where you live, this can amount to $50 to $100 per year. Spread over 20 years, this means $1,000 to $2,000. You can get a better estimate by running our Home Energy Adviser.
- But the big thing to keep in mind is that many of these window replacement firms use simple double-pane windows; for just a little more money up front, you can save a lot of energy over the long haul by asking for windows with special low-e coatings and inert gases, such as argon or krypton, which fill the space between the panes of glass. Some manufacturers even offer 'superwindows' with one or two thin plastic films sandwiched between the panes of glass. These windows can reduce energy loss to one-half as much energy as standard double-pane glass, and one-fourth as much as single-pane glass.
- Ask the salesperson to tell you the "U-value" of the windows they offer. This is sort of like the miles-per-gallon rating for new cars; an independent agency performs these ratings. In this case, lower is better: the best you can buy today have U-values of around 0.2, while a typical double-pane window is around 0.5.
- Note: One thing to keep in mind is that retrofit windows may not be very cost-effective. The cost of replacing windows in existing housing is quite expensive and you typically get payback periods of 20 to 30 years or more. However, retrofit windows will make a substantial difference in the comfort of your home, which could well be worth the cost. Also, double-paned windows typically add to the value and saleability of your home if you put it on the market. In new construction, the labor costs are equivalent regardless of the quality of window installed, so buy the best you can afford.
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