Posts from — April 2010

Dear Mr. Energy,
A while back I had a home energy audit and per my auditor’s suggestions I reduced my home’s heating and cooling costs by sealing my attic, testing and sealing my HVAC ducts, adding insulation, and closing up gaps and cracks all over my house, but is there any way to reduce my baseload energy consumption? It is higher than I’d like it to be.
–Morrisville Mama

Dear Mama,
Congratulations on getting a professional energy audit, following through, and reducing your heating and cooling bills. Many experts think that this is the single most impactful thing you can do to lessen your carbon footprint, as home heating and cooling homes in the United States is responsible for about 20% of the greenhouse gases that an individual creates in his or her lifetime. That’s way more than the greenhouse gases created by the food we eat or the vehicles we drive. So – bravo to you!
The answer to your question is yes, you can absolutely reduce your baseload energy consumption. Mr. Energy noticed you did not ask about cost-effectiveness, so keep in mind that some of these suggestions may cost you more money than you’ll save. Some require you to buy or replace items in your home, and some address behaviors. But they’ll all reduce your energy baseload.

• Appliances. How old are they? Are they Energy Star? Are they the most energy efficient of their kind? If they’re not something that needs to run all the time, like a refrigerator, do you have them plugged into a power strip that you can turn off when not in use? Do you have a clothesline set up for hanging your clothes to dry?
• Water. Extremely energy efficient water heaters are available these days; electric heat pump water heaters cost about half what a conventional electric or gas storage model costs to run per year. If you’re not looking to replace your water heater, however, you can also turn its thermostat down to 120 degrees, insulate it if it’s warm to the touch (newer water heaters have efficient built-in insulation and you do not need to add more), and limit your showers to a few minutes.
• Lighting. All your lighting should be outfitted with compact fluorescent lightbulbs or LEDs.
• Energy vampires. Anything that’s plugged into an outlet is potentially an energy vampire. Televisions, video games, stereo equipment – these all use energy even when turned off. Plugging items like these into a power strip, then turning off the power strip when the item is not in use, saves more energy than you’d think.

This is the weekend for the NC Appliance rebate, and if you want to take advantage of 15% off a replacement Energy Star appliance you should do it ASAP. Like right now. Like this morning! News from the trenches (i.e. when we went to our local big box hardware store to buy a new replacement washer) is that yesterday (Thursday) at 2 p.m. 25% of the rebate money had already been applied for. We predict that by Saturday morning it will all be gone.

We bought a Bosch front-loading Energy Star washer to replace our old, less energy efficient washer that dates back to 1994. Our old washer will be missed – it was our first joint purchase as a couple and washed a ton of clothes for us, including our children’s baby clothes, diapers, and 40,000 mud-stained little boy socks. But our new washer will cost us lots less per year to run – largely because the newer washers get a lot more water out of wet clothing before you put them in the dryer. The dryer, which is the real energy hog when it comes to getting clothes clean, has to work a lot less.

The only thing I’m not thrilled about in the appliance rebate is that to get the rebate we have to turn in our old washer. I know the point is to get the old “clunkers” off the street, but our washer (a Maytag) has been problem-free for 16 years. I bet a family that couldn’t afford a brand-new washer would get a lot of use out of it. And if they hung their clothes on the line instead of using a dryer, it really wouldn’t impact energy use that much. I would love to donate the washer to our local Habitat for Humanity Home Store instead of sending it off to be destroyed…

I’ve written a few posts about how we’ve made our own 100-year-old house more energy efficient, and I plan to write more, but I wanted to send our readers over to the blog for The Rosemary House Bed and Breakfast, located in Pittsboro, which is a wonderful little B&B created from another 100-year-old house.

The owner just wrote a post about the energy audit we did for her a couple of months ago. After the audit, she contracted us to do the suggested repairs. 

In the post she reports a 27% savings on her energy bills since we came. She says that the audit and work we’ve done will have paid for itself in 18 months. After that, it’s all money in the bank.

We love hearing stories like these!

Dear Mr. Energy,

I need to replace my old, inefficient hot water heater. What should I get to save the most energy (and therefore the most money)?

–Morrisville Mama

Dear Mama

You’ve said that your goal is twofold: to save the most energy over the long haul, as well as to save the most money. In a perfect world the answer to this question would be the same. But alas (Mr. Energy has always wanted to say alas!), we are not living in a perfect world.

First, the type of hot water heater that is most energy efficient to run is a solar hot water heater.

This is also the most expensive type of hot water heater to install. According to American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the overall cost of this type of heater over a 13-year period (which is the average lifetime of all hot water heaters) is about $7000.

The type of hot water heater that’s least expensive to install is the conventional electric storage model, but this is the most expensive to run, even if it’s an energy efficient model. Its 13-year lifetime costs are about $6500.

An on-demand hot water heater, which is what Mr. Energy has in his home, is on the lower end in terms of energy costs per year, but not the lowest. It’s about half-way between solar and conventional storage models. But at a lower cost to install it is a pretty good option for many people, with its 13-year cost at $5000, and if you curb your hot water usage by using cold water in your wash, for example, you can come in well under the yearly costs that the ‘average’ family generates.

Finally, the overall cheapest system to install and run is an electric heat pump water heater. This is a relatively new type of hot water heater and it works much the same as the electric heat pumps people use for their homes. It costs about double to install one of these over a conventional gas or electric storage model, but uses only a touch more energy a year than a solar hot water heater (an estimated $190/year). According to industry models, this type of heater will cost a homeowner only a little over $4000 in the 13 years it will last.

With the possibility of HomeStar/Cash for Caulkers looming on the horizon, which will extend and increase rebates on replacement of hot water heaters if it passes, plus any rebates your electric or gas companies may be offering, the installation costs of many of these items may be cut significantly, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Dear Mr. Energy,

I’m trying to figure out how much money I spend heating and cooling my house. How to I separate that cost out from the rest of my energy bill?

–Pittsboro Papa

Dear Papa,

To figure out your heating and cooling costs you need to calculate your baseload energy consumption.

Baseload energy consumption, simply put, is the amount of energy your household consumes under the best possible conditions. It’s the time of year when your heat isn’t running and your air conditioning isn’t yet on.

In central North Carolina, where we live, this is not an exact science Spring, while overwhelmingly beautiful, can also be a time of contrasts in terms of the weather. Some nights (and even days) in April might be 50 degrees – so cool enough so that you are using your heat – and a week later we might hit high 80s or 90s, which to Mr. Energy means air conditioning.

The same kind of thing can happen in the fall, as well. In many parts of the country September means cool, pleasant temperatures. In the North Carolina piedmont September is Hot. It’s still flip-flop and beach weather. And October can be hot, or it can be cold, or it can feature a hurricane.

Mr. Energy loves this little slice of heaven, but the weather can be fractious!

To figure out your baseload, you’ll need your electric and/or gas bills (if your home uses gas). Several years’ worth of bills are best, but if you only have one year you can still figure it out. For each year, take the lowest three bills you have, add them together, and divide by three. This is your baseload energy cost.

To calculate how much you’re spending on heating and cooling, simply multiply your base energy consumption times 12, then subtract that total amount from your total energy bills. The remainder is the amount you spend to heat and cool your home.