Home Energy Savings
If you live in a cold climate, the MOST IMPORTANT THING you can do to prevent climate change and to make energy savings is to insulate your home. Next, is to seal it, taking special attention to your windows. Buying new efficient furnaces or boilers are also between the most important options to get energy savings...
Energy-efficient homes
Energy-efficient homes are cheaper to operate, more comfortable, more valuable and more environmentally-friendly. To get an energy-smarter home, we should improve insulation, ventilation, landscaping, day-lighting, appliance efficiency, or seal air-leakage and rethink our windows and skylights...
See: Smarter energy-efficient homes
More energy-efficient air conditioning
Air-conditioners are expensive and environmentally-unfriendly. And there are alternatives to them, but if you need air conditioning, prefer High rated Air Conditioners and Ductless air conditioners or room air conditioners instead of central air-conditioning.
Cooling strategies without air-conditioners
There are several proven air-conditioning alternatives. Some are inexpensive and very simple: awnings, venetian shades, blinds or draperies... (see Shading devices), solar screens and reflective films (see Window films), ceiling fans and whole-house fans (do not underestimate them; see Fan basics), natural ventilation, evaporative coolers (in hot dry-climates and temperate climates), roof cooling coating...
Try also more structural cooling approaches: shade the hottest parts of your walls and rooms with trees; plant hedges to drive cooling breezes towards your home. Landscape is crucially important, and trees are part of some small cooling miracles (see: Landscape basics). Bet also on attic insulation (see Roof and Ceiling Insulation and Attic Insulation).
Natural Cooling
In most climates it's wise to bet on ventilation, ceiling fans, and natural cooling techiques for cooling our homes. That's something that depends greatly on climate issues.
See: Climate and Cooling
Cooling For New Homes
If building a new home, or remodeling a new one, do not bet on air conditioning. Instead, bet on natural cooling techniques: proper orientation for home exposure to breezes, adequate shading and natural ventilation, shades and awnings, proper insulation and windows, landscaping, etc.
Old Heaters are inefficient
If your furnace, heat pump or boiler is more than 12 years old, its replacement will allow significant energy savings and smaller energy bills. New qualified units are highly efficient, and provide huge energy savings.
See:
Energy Efficient Heaters
New Fireplace Basics
Furnaces Basics
Boilers Basics
Electric Heaters
If you live in a cold climate and your heating needs aren't restricted to some days during the year, electric heaters are a bad economical and environmental choice. In this case, consider heaters using fuels such as pellets, or even wood and gas…
Also consider more radical solutions involving high levels of home insulation, or radiant heating, or environmental choices like solar and geothermal heat pumps.
See: Electric Heaters
Image: Modern green pellet boiler
Insulation Is Critical To Get Savings And Smaller Heaters
Do not buy a new heater - even a new energy-efficient heater... - without considering issues like insulation, sealing or the efficiency of your windows and doors. This wider approach is crucial to higher savings. And never forget: insulation is the single most important element to reduce energy bills. Before installing or remodeling any outdated heating system (air conditioning, boilers, furnaces...), assess your home's insulation.
See: Insulation Basics
Qualified windows and doors
Old conventional windows and doors may account for over 25% of the heating and cooling energy bills in a typical home.
Indoor and Outdoor Lighting
Lighting is responsible for around 5 to 15% of residential power use - something that can be reduced by 50% or more using proper indoor and outdoor lighting or through fluorescent lights and lighting controls like dimmers and sensors.
See: Lighting basics
Skylights
Roof skylights can provide daylighting, natural ventilation and views. But you also should take into account possible drawbacks, their different types, their energy-efficiency or their sizing.
See: Basics on Skylights
If just half of our homes used solar water heaters
If most of our homes used solar water heaters, CO2 emissions cuts would equal the emissions of millions of cars. Solar water heating demands an higher initial investment, but its payback is very short.
See: Solar Basics
Heat Pumps: an environmental choice for home heating and cooling
Geothermal heat pumps are a sound environmental choice both for heating and cooling. See: Heat Pumps Basics
Heating Your Home
There are plenty of ways for reducing our energy heating bills. Some involve easy measures like weather-stripping, sealing or insulation. Others involve more structural approaches: insulation, passive solar techniques (building orientation and shape, thermal materials...), solar power systems, geothermal heat pumps, energy-efficient windows, doors...
See:
Weather-stripping and sealing
Solar Basics
Passive Solar basics
Heat Pumps Basics
Energy efficient windows, doors and skylights
Insulation Basics
Protecting the environment & Energy Savings
Our most innocent acts - driving a car, heating or cooling our homes – are deeply associated with global warming and climate change. But there are some ways of keeping our homes comfortable without costs.
Just an example: using compact fluorescent lights reduce electrical consumption for lighting by 80 percent... With a little effort and investment in our homes we all can obtain substantial energy savings and lower energy bills with a smaller carbon footprint.
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