Cooling Down Without the Hot $Tag!

Hey, it is getting hot! But that air conditioning can suck up precious dollars and resources. What else can you do?

1. Use ceiling fans and other fans around your home. Supposedly, even if you ran a power hungry fan 12 hrs/day for 30 days it should only cost you $10 - still less than running your air for the same.

2. Close your shades, blinds and curtains in the am - especially on the east side. The sun won't be able to heat up the air in your house - air or no air.

3. Don't put a lamp or other heat generating appliance next to your thermostat. Your air will run and your house will be an ice box.

4. Switch light bulbs. Incandescents give off a lot of inefficient energy in heat. Every little bit makes a difference.

5. Service your A/C. A clean A/C cost less to run than a dirty one.

6. Plant trees and /or shrubs around your air conditioner. An A/C in the shade costs less to run. Just don't block the airflow! While you are at it - plant trees strategically to shade your home. Less heat in - less energy to cool it down. Avoid the south - so as not to block your winter solar passive heating.

7. I am not big on this one - but hey it would work - you can change to a white roof, or paint yours white. Not sure what the neighbors would think, but if you have a barn etc. This might work.

8. Humidity makes a room feel hotter. Minimize humidity creating activities in the middle of the day.

9. Upgrade your attic insulation if it is not up to par. A switch from 3 inches to 12 inches of insulation can cut you cooling costs by 10%.

10. If you are buying a new A/C make sure it is sized to your square footage and is as efficient as possible.

11. Seal your ducts in your crawl, basement etc.

Drops in the bucket!

All add up!
So what changes have you made - big or small - they all count!
Post 'em here - they might help someone else.

I'm a what?

So, we went to the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair this weekend. http://www.the-mrea.org/energy_fair.php (check it out!). I was commenting to Jason that we would get to meet some real tree huggers there. Well come to find out, as my husband has informed me, I am a tree hugger. I knew I was green, but had not yet embraced the official status of "tree hugger." After pondering Jase's comment further I have decided he might be right. I mean we did go on a date to the MREA, and I was excited to learn about solatubes, flexible PV film, integrated PV building materials, net-zero homes, and the list goes on. Seriously, the coolest thing was that there were no plastic water bottles - just places to fill up the reusable one you brought. They also had composting pails, recycling bins, and garbage containers. Yep, I guess I really am a tree hugger. Here's hoping there are many more out there!

Don't Light Up!

Lighting our homes takes 10-15% of our energy costs. This does depend, of course, on how many lights you have. We have been successful in cutting our electricity consumption (see May's #s below!) and I believe part of this has come from habits do do with lighting.

1. Of course, as our moms all told us - "Turn off your lights when you leave a room!" Leaving a light burning when you are not in the room or have left for the day is costly and wasteful. Turn off those lights.

2. Use CFB or other lower consumption bulb. I posted on 2/9/09 the pros and cons of CFBs if you have questions issues etc.

3. I think this made difference for us. It is the reverse thought- do I need to turn the light on? When you walk into a room stop yourself before turning on the lights. Is there a way to illuminate this room with out turning on the lights? Can you open the shades, blinds or curtains? Alternatively, can you turn on one lamp and not the switch that turns on 5?

3. What is lit up that simply doesn't need to be? Think of all the blinking lights you see in your home at night. How many of them are essential enough to be burning through electricity all night long? Is there a way to turn them off, put them on timers or other solution?

4. Last but not least, turn off the outside lights when you go to bed! These lights are burning up considerable light just to light up our houses while 80% of the population is sleeping. If there are some lights that are for safety purposes put in the least amount of wattage necessary and consider a motion sensor - they have some that run on mini-solar panel with a battery. No coal emissions there!

Coming up next cooling costs and consumption!

May Comparisons

Well, here are our May comparisons.

Electricity
676 kWh - May 2009
1242 kWh - May 2008

Gas
44 therms - May 2009
54 therms - May 2008

Yeah! Look at that electricy reduction. I have been working hard to continue to cut our electricity with some habit changes. See the next post. Last year it was 4 degrees colder last year, so we should have used a bit more last year. Hopefully we can keep up this downward trend!