Energy Saving Tips at Home (Part 2)

Hello.
I will continue my post series on energy saving tips at home. This post will deal with three important equipment in your house; air conditioning and heating, water heating, and clothes dryer.

4) Air Conditioner-Heater
One of the factors that most influences the energy consumption in a home is the weather, and more precisely the season variations. In the summer you need to cool your home, and in the winter you need to warm it; on an energy standpoint you need more energy to warm your house than you need to cool it.

The foremost important element that you have to be sure of is your home insulation; if there is poor insulation and/or leaks you'll end up having more heat than adequate entering your house in the summer, and more heat escaping out in winter. This will translate in more energy bill costs. Of course, this is provided you'll have your windows and doors closed most of the time (nevertheless, it is advisable to ventilate your house periodically whenever is possible so air quality keeps good. This is usually more feasible during mild temperatures weather and certainly is more difficult in tough winter weather).
Therefore, you can do a routine check on your windows and doors seals and repair them as needed.

-Winter heater settings
In winter, set the thermostat to (or around) 68F for heater operation; this will keep the house warm and comfortable. Also, this is the most energy efficient setting for cold winter temperatures.

-Summer heater settings
Set the thermostat to (or around) 78F for air conditioning operation.

Other general things you can check and apply are:
-Change the air filter periodically, a clogged filter will cause the air flow to be reduced, thus, more time will be needed to heat or cool the house, which of course will cost you more money. Also, and not less important, the air quality in your house will be poorer.
There are several type of air filters, I particularly recommend high efficiency filters. These filters are designed to capture not only dust, but bacteria, odors, fungi and spores. Some of these filters can last up to 3 months depending on air conditioner usage, I recommend to change this type of filters every 2 months for regular use.

-Operate your unit with the fan in automatic mode, in this manner, it will turn on and off together with cooling or heating unit.

-Consider installing a programmable thermostat. Even though it involves a cost, it is really an investment which savings will provide a quick return. Basically, you can program your thermostat depending on the hour of the day, on a specific day of the week, or considering particular months during the year. For example, in the summer you can program from Monday through Friday that after 7:30AM till 5:30 PM (the time you, your wife and kids are mostly out of home) your thermostat set point goes up to 82F; then after that, you can program thermostat's set point down to 80F till 8:00 when you can set the thermostat down to 78F, for finally setting it at 75F at 10:00PM when you and your family are on bed for sleep. This type of programming (maximum temperature for when nobody is home, and gradual cooling when you are inside saves lots of energy.

Also in the summer, use your ceiling fans as much as possible, and don't forget to turn them off when you are not home (ceiling fans will not cool your house, they will cool you).

5) Water Heater
If not set properly, the water heater is probably the equipment that will waste more energy in your house. Usually all water heaters out of the factory have their set temperature very high and most people never change it. Of course, by this you could cook an egg from hot water out of the faucet, but this is a real waste because you'd burn yourself if you try to shower with such hot water. All electric water heaters come with instructions on how to change their temperature set point; usually their thermostat are on the inside and you have to open a slid with your screw driver to access it, but it is not rocket science.
Adjusting the set point to 100-120F will do a great job.

Of course, the water heater indirectly will consume energy depending on your usage of water; so:

-Use water according to the amount of clothes you are going to wash in washer. Avoid using hot water whenever possible, and never use hot water for rinse.
-Use efficient shower heads so you can distribute water drops efficiently, and thus, use less water for showering.
-Avoid pre-rinsing your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, use dishwasher's own rinsing cycle. Always operate dishwasher on energy saving mode. Always use full loads.

...........in other words, use as less hot water, and water in general, as you possibly can.

Another excellent way to save energy on your water heating is installing a solar water heater. You can set the installation without eliminating your electrical water heater so you can still have hot water on cloudy days. Solar heaters are very efficient and, of course, solar energy is free!

Costs for a solar water heater system vary from a very few hundreds up to $900 depending on their size, capacity, storage capacity and other factors. Savings for the use of a solar water heater give a good investment return.
Also, if you like building things, you can make your own solar water heating system, of course, at a cheaper cost. I will give you ideas on how to make it in a future post.....

6) Dryer
Try always to set temperature to medium no matter what type of clothes you dry. Even though my wife wasn't very convinced of my idea at the start, I tried this with all type of clothes we have and it worked perfectly, no humid clothes, which was her concern. You can save a good deal of energy by doing this.

Also, check the lint filter before every drying cycle begins, and clean it when necessary. Try to maximize the amount of clothes you dry per cycle and always use the dryer's sensor and alarm.

One factor, which is very important and which most people don't realize, is the exhaust pipe length. In some houses, because of the location of the dryer and washing machine room, the dryer's exhaust pile is extremely long; this causes that the dryer's capacity
of extracting water to be affected and lowered. This in turn makes the drying cycle times to increase a lot, which in turn significantly increase your electricity bill. The exhaust point in the house should be as close as possible to the dryer.

Thanks so much for reading.