Energy Saving Tips To Help You Reduce Your Energy Bills

Research information partially provided by Austin Energy

Stretch your Money as Far as It Will Go

Saving money by conserving energy is easy! Many of the tips below require no special tools or extra expenditures. Changing a habit is free and can save you money!

Cooling and Heating

In Austin, your cooling system accounts for 60 to 70 percent of your summer electric bills (the highest bills year round). In the winter, electric heat (in many apartments), space heaters and heat strips (on heat pumps) can run up the electric bill. The best way to cut your electric bill is to monitor your air conditioning (AC) and heating use.

• Set your thermostat at 78 degrees in the summer and 68 degrees in the winter. Each degree warmer or cooler will increase your energy use by 6 percent to 8 percent.

• Keep debris, high grass and other obstacles away from your air conditioner’s condenser so that airflow to the unit is not blocked.

• If you have central air conditioning, do not close supply air vents in unused rooms. This will increase pressure in your duct system, could cause duct leakage and could damage your compressor.

• Clean or replace filters at least once a month. Dirty filters make your HVAC system work harder and run longer than necessary. Use 1” pleated filters or better. (link to filters article)

• Shade your outdoor AC unit. Condensers shaded by trees and awnings use up to 10 percent less electricity. When planting a tree, plan for the tree’s height at maturity. Make sure you have underground utilities marked before digging.

• Clean your AC condenser/evaporator coils at the beginning of the season. Clean coils will lower your energy costs, extend the life of the unit, and provide cleaner air for you to breathe. The fin coils on the outside air conditioner unit can be washed with a hose. Coils on inside units may be difficult to reach and are best serviced by a trained technician. Have your heating and cooling system inspected annually by a trained professional.

• If your AC unit is an 8 to 10 SEER, consider purchasing a new high efficiency unit. New models use up to 40 percent less electricity for the same amount of running time.

Insulation

A home with inadequate attic insulation can lose as much as 40 percent of its cool air.

• Insulation is measured in R-values. The higher the R-value, the better the insulation resists the flow of heat. The average 10 to 15 year-old home has R-11 to R-15 insulation, but needs R-30 (about 5 to 6 additional inches).

• Don’t leave a hole in the ceiling. A home’s attic access, such as a pull down stairway, if not properly insulated and sealed by a product such as the “Attic Tent,” will increase heat loss in the winter, heat gain in the summer and allows dust to infiltrate into your living areas.

Air Ducts

Ducts in the average 10 to 15 year-old home leak 15 to 40 percent (Austin’s average home leaks 27 percent). Leaking ducts can affect the air quality in your home by sucking in and redistributing pesticides, fiberglass fibers and dust.

Ducts should be sealed with a mastic sealant, a putty-like material that can be purchased at hardware stores. Because of the Texas heat, the glue on traditional duct tape dries out and loses its adhesive quality.

Lighting

• Turn off lights when leaving a room for a short time. Lights generate heat that increases room temperature. Lighting accounts for about 10 percent of your electrical use.

• Keep the dust off lampshades and light bulbs. It can reduce lighting levels as much as 50 percent.

• Change your bulbs to fluorescent. Fluorescent light bulbs use 70 percent less electricity than regular light bulbs, give off five times more light, emit 90 percent less heat and last 10 times longer. On average, a fluorescent light bulb will save about $50 in electricity costs over its life.

Interior and Exterior Paint

• More heat is transferred from outside walls painted with dark colors than from walls painted with light colors. Dark outside colors absorb 70 percent to 90 percent of the radiant heat that strikes the home’s surface.

• Ceilings painted with light colors reflect light downward, which makes room lighting more efficient.

Fans

• Fans blowing directly on you can make temperatures around you feel up to 4 degrees cooler. Fans blowing, but not directly on you will not produce the same effect.

Windows and Doors

• Energy-efficient windows have a special surface coating that blocks out 40 to 70 percent of the heat that is normally transmitted through clear glass, while allowing the full amount of light to pass through.

• Storm windows and doors can reduce the amount of cooling or heating lost through single pane glass by 50 percent.

• Tint films applied directly to windows can block out 40 to 60 percent of sunshine/heat. Solar screens on windows can block out 60 to 70 percent of sunlight/heat.

• Caulking around windows and plumbing penetrations (under sinks) and weather stripping around doors will block the escape of 10 percent of your conditioned air.

Other Appliances

• Consider buying a laptop computer. They use significantly less energy than desktop models.

Water Heater

Next to your HVAC system, your water heater, if electric, uses the most energy in a household (14 percent to 20 percent).

• Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120 degrees. This can save as much as $45 a year.

• Turn off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods. During daily use, turn off running water when you’re not using it (when soaping hands, brushing teeth and the like).

• Wrapping your water heater with an insulation blanket can reduce its energy use by 10 percent to 15 percent. An insulating blanket will pay for itself in one year of less.

Refrigerators and Freezers

Refrigerators are second (or third, if you have an electric water heater) largest user of electricity in the typical household.

• Set the temperature between 36 and 38 degrees. Freezer temperatures should be between 0 to 5 degrees. Test the temperatures by placing a thermometer in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes. Be ready to read it the moment you open the door. Repeat the test for your freezer. Refrigerator temperatures set 10 degrees lower than recommended can increase energy use by as much as 25 percent.

• Defrost manual freezers before the frost is greater than a quarter of an inch thick. Frost buildup makes the freezer work harder and longer than necessary.

• Gently vacuum off your refrigerator’s condenser coils every three months. The coils are located in the back or under the bottom of the refrigerator. Excessive dust buildup makes the refrigerator work harder and run longer.

• Freezers can use up to 25 percent more energy if located in a hot area (such as in your garage during summertime) than if they operate in indoor household locations.

• Let foods cool before putting them in the refrigerator (recipe permitting). Warm food causes your refrigerator to work harder.

• Thaw frozen foods in the refrigerator rather than on a countertop. Not only is it safer, but frozen items will help cool the refrigerator as they defrost and help reduce its running time.

• Freezers work better fully loaded, but remember to leave enough room for air to circulate.

• Consider replacing old refrigerators. Refrigerators more than 10 years old use up to 50 percent more energy.

• Side-by-side refrigerators use about 45 percent more energy than refrigerators with a separate freezer on top. Upright freezers use 10 percent to 25 percent more energy than chest-styled freezers because they lose more cold air when opened. Freezers that must be manually defrosted use 35 to 40 percent less energy than comparable frost-free models.

• Make sure your refrigerator and freezer doors seal properly. To test: close the door over a dollar bill. If the dollar pulls out easily, the seal around the door may need to be replaced, or the door latch may need to be adjusted.

Cooking

• Microwave ovens use up to 70 percent less energy, cook food up to 75 percent faster, and produce much less heat than an electric or gas oven.
• Using covers on pots will bring liquids to a boil more quickly and allow continued cooking at lower temperatures. Trapped steam in the pot will cook food faster. This reduces energy use and heat in the kitchen.
• Every time you open the oven door, the oven temperature drops by 25 to 30 degrees.
• Aluminum foil on an oven bottom blocks air circulation, reducing temperatures as much as 50 degrees. It may also interfere with even browning.
• When not in use, a kitchen exhaust fan allows hot and cold outside air to come into your home. Low cost covers are available for the exhaust fan openings.

Trees

Plant trees to shade your south- and west-facing windows. Trees can reduce indoor temperatures by as much as 20 degrees—and cooling costs by up to 40 percent!

Shaded neighborhoods stay 3 to 6 degrees cooler than treeless ones.

Computer models from the Department of Energy predict that just three trees, properly placed around the house, can save an average household between $100 and $250 in heating and cooling costs annually.

Sources For Information
• Austin Energy (on-line energy analysis available)
• Dept. of Energy