April 01, 2010 17:04:56

 

Heating and Cooling accounts for 45% of our home energy use. Reducing heating costs is the most important thing you can do in Colorado.  Here's some quick tips to cut your utility bills...

 Heating

• Set your thermostat as low as comfortable (68 degrees F is suggested) when you are at home. (with percent of annual energy use noted).
• Set back the thermostat to 60 degrees F at night or when no one is at home.
• Set back the thermostat to 50-55 degrees F when the house is empty for over 24 hours.
• Install a programmable thermostat to automatically provide these setbacks.
• Close your fireplace damper and make sure the opening is sealed when the fireplace is not being used.
• Reduce heat to unused rooms in the house, and close their doors.
• Replace furnace filters once a month during the heating season.
• Regularly clean heating registers and make sure they are not blocked.
• Have your furnace checked annually by a trained professional.
• Seal all joints in sheet metal ducts in a forced air furnace with mastic or other appropriate tape.
• Insulate ducts passing through unheated spaces.
• Use kitchen, bath, and other ventilating fans only when needed.
• Install insulating gaskets behind electrical outlets and switch plates on exterior walls.
• Caulk and weather-strip your doors and windows.
• Caulk and seal leaks where plumbing, ducting, or electrical wiring penetrates through exterior walls, floors, and ceilings.
• Use an inexpensive door sweep to reduce air leakage under exterior doors.
• Seal small holes around water pipes and stuff insulation into larger holes around plumbing fixtures.
• Use foam gaskets that fit behind cover plates to reduce heat loss around light switches and electrical outlets.
• Upgrade ceiling insulation to R-38 (higher R values mean greater insulation levels and thus more energy savings).
• Insulate exterior heated basement walls to at least R-11.
• Insulate floors over unheated areas to R-19.
• Open blinds and shades on sunny winter days, and close them at night.
• Install storm windows over single pane windows or use plastic film window kits.
• Replace an aging furnace with an efficient model, preferably one with an Energy Star label.
• Replace single pane windows with energy efficient double pane windows mounted in non-conducting window frames.
• Replace water heater, when needed, with an energy efficient model.

Cooling

• Open windows at night to bring in cool night air and close them during the day.
• Close your blinds and shades during the day.
• Shade west facing windows.
• Draw cool night air into the house with a whole house fan.
• Install an evaporative cooler.
• Use room air conditioning only where needed.
• Install an efficient Energy Star central system air conditioner if one is needed.
• Maintain an air conditioned house at 78 degrees F or higher.
• Regularly change air conditioning filters and clean the condenser.
• Plant trees that leaf out during the cooling season on the west and south sides of your house.

(Blog Contribution by: Melissa Woodley, Broker Associate RE/MAX Properties, Inc.)