Tag: cooling’

Heating Your Home – Quick Trendy Tips to Go Green

November 21, 2008 - by admin

Is heating your house burning a hole in the ozone?

Quick Trendy Tips to Go Green

The bad news is that almost 50 percent of your household energy costs go toward two things – heating and cooling. The good news is you have a lot of room to make small changes that can make dramatic improvements in household efficiency.

Did you know that replace your older heating and cooling systems with an efficiency models can cut your annual energy costs by almost 20 percent. Replacing the old with the new is a wonderful idea, but not the most practical for most of us.

Here as some quick Trendy Mom Tips for things you can do right now to make sure you’re house is using your household energy more efficiently:

· Tune up your heating system. By keeping your furnace clean, lubricated and properly adjusted, you can save up to 5 percent in heating costs.

· Clean vents, close unused vents, and change filters in the vents. Again, just these simple things will save you up to 5 percent in costs.

· Buy a programmable thermostat, which can regulate different temperatures at different times of the day. And if you have one, use it! These thermostats reduce energy use by 5-30 percent and save you $100-$150 in energy costs each year.

If only 1 in 10 households serviced heating and cooling systems annually, cleaned or replaced filters regularly, or replaced old equipment with brands like ENERGY STAR models, it would prevent the emissions of more than 17 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.

· Add two degrees to the AC thermostat in summer, and two degrees in winter. If everyone did this, the cumulative impact is significant.

· Make sure windows and doors are sealed. Again, this will dramatically improve your household fuel efficiency. Sealing air leaks and adding insulation can reduce your annual energy bill by 10 percent.

· Of course, if you can stand it, by far the best approach is to avoid using air conditioners. Ceiling fans use 80 percent less energy than central air conditioners. By only using ceiling fans you can reduce your annual cooling costs by 10-65 percent. In warm weather run the fan blades in a counter-clockwise direction to feel 5 degrees cooler. During the winter set the fan blades to rotate clockwise at a low speed to force warm air from the ceiling down into the living space.