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Maintain and upgrade your heating and cooling equipment

Wed, 12/26/2007 - 1:00am — efadmin

More energy dollars go towards your heating and cooling system than any other system in your home. "Typically, 56% of your utility bill goes for heating and cooling. What’s more, heating and cooling systems in the United States together emit over a half billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, adding to global warming. They also generate about 24% of the nation’s sulfur dioxide and 12% of the nitrogen oxides, the chief ingredients in acid rain."

"One of the most important things you can do to save energy is to regularly tune up your furnace. Up to 50% of the energy you use in your home goes to heating it. And a heating system can waste up to 50% of the energy it uses if it’s not operating efficiently. This can represent as much as 3,750 pounds of CO2 wastefully going into the air each year."

There are a number of things you can do to improve the efficiency and life of your heating system:

  • Seal leaky ducts. Many duct systems are poorly insulated or not insulated properly. "Leaky ducts are notorious for decreasing the efficiency of warm-air furnaces and typically decrease their efficiencies by 20-30 percent." "Ducts that leak heated air into unheated spaces [such as attics or vented crawl spaces] can add hundreds of dollars a year to your heating and cooling bills. . . In addition, unconditioned air can be drawn into return ducts through unsealed joints. In the summer, hot attic air can be drawn in, increasing the load on the air conditioner. In the winter, your furnace will have to work longer to keep your house comfortable. Either way, your energy losses cost you money."
  • Clean or replace air filters regularly. Dusty air filters block air from flowing freely through the filter, making fans have to work harder, in turn driving up energy consumption and raising bills.
  • Clean warm-air registers and baseboard heaters, and make sure they are not blocked by furniture, carpeting or drapes.
  • Insulate supply and return pipes. If you use a boiler to heat your home, be sure hot water and steam pipes that pass through unheated areas are wrapped with proper insulation.
  • Install radiator reflectors. For boiler-heated homes, installing radiator reflectors avoids heat transfer from the radiator to the adjacent exterior wall, instead sending more of the heat into the room.

Other heating and cooling tips include:

  • Adjust your thermostat appropriately. Set it as low as is comfortable in the winter (so-called "sweater" temperature when home, and "blanket" temperature at night or when away) and as high as is comfortable in the summer;
  • Turn off exhaust fans. Turn off kitchen, bath and other exhaust fans sooner after you finish cooking or bathing;
  • Passive heating and cooling. Keep draperies and shades on your south-facing windows open during the day (to take advantage of passive solar heating) and closed at night (to avoid heat loss) during the heating season, and keeping window coverings closed during the day to prevent solar gain during the cooling season.
  • Get your appliances inspected. Have your heating and cooling system inspected by a technician on a regular basis to ensure it is operating at maximum efficiency.

In the case of room air conditioners, it is important to install a properly sized unit for the area being cooled. An air conditioner that is too big will actually perform less efficiently because room units are most effective when they run for relatively long periods of time instead of continually switching off and on. Longer run times allow air conditioners to maintain a more constant room temperature and remove excess humidity.

If your in the market for a new air conditioner, be sure to shop for an energy-efficient model. New, more energy-efficient air conditioners can save you up to 50% on your utility bill for cooling. Look for the ENERGY STAR and EnergyGuide labels.

Even if you are not in the market for a new air conditioner, there are several things you can do to increase your energy efficiency, save money and reduce your CO2 footprint:

  • Use a whole-house fan to help cool your home. Whole-house fans pull cool air through the house and exhaust warm air through the attic. They're most efficient when the outside air is cooler than the inside.
  • Don’t set your thermostat any lower (colder) than normal when you first turn on your air conditioner. A lower setting will not cool your home any faster and, if left untended, wiill result in excessive cooling and unnecessary expense.
  • Use interior fans with window AC units. Use of an interior fan in conjunction with a window air conditioner can be effective at spreading cooled air through your home without greatly increasing your power use.
  • Don’t place lamps, TVs, or other appliances that give off heat near the thermostat. The thermostat is designed to sense heat, and will run longer than necessary in such instances.
  • Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units from the sun but not to block the airflow. When possible, place your room air conditioner on the north side of the house. "A unit operating in the shade uses as much as 10% less electricity than the same one operating in the sun."

Programmable thermostats can also help you save money and energy. "You can save as much as 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills by simply turning your thermostat back 10% to 15% for 8 hours. You can do this automatically without sacrificing comfort by installing an automatic setback or programmable thermostat."

Smart landscaping is yet another way to keep your home cool in the summer, warm in the winter and reduce your energy bills. "Carefully positioned trees can save up to 25% of a typical household’s energy used for heating and cooling. . . . [J]ust three trees, properly placed around the house, can save an average household between $100 and $250 in heating and cooling energy costs annually." Planting trees also helps to further reduce your carbon dioxide footprint, as a single tree will absorb roughly one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

If you are upgrading your heating and cooling system, select energy-efficient products. Look for the ENERGY STAR and EnergyGuide labels.

When upgrading, consider newer technologies, including geothermal heat pumps. Heat pumps are the most efficient form of electric heating in moderate climates, providing three times more heating than the equivalent amount of energy they consume in electricity. Heat pumps collect heat from the air, water or ground outside your home and concentrate it for use inside.

"In winter, a heat pump removes heat from the outside air and transfers it inside the home. In summer the processed is reversed. Heat pumps are an economical and energy-efficient way to provide space heating and cooling. . . . According to the EPA, geothermal heat pumps can save the average homeowner 30-70 percent in heating costs and 20-50 percent in cooling costs. This could save some homeowners up to $400 per year or more."

Geothermal systems should likewise be considered when upgrading your heating and cooling system. Geothermal systems provide the greatest energy savings in climates that have extreme heating and cooling loads and generate high energy bills. Geothermal systems are more expensive to install than other central heating options, but over time will save you money and help to reduce your CO2 footprint.

Solar power is yet another option that is rapidly gaining momentum in the United States. Incorporating a passive solar system, where the sun helps heat the house in cold weather and is shaded from the house in warm weather, into new or existing home design, can greatly reduce your heating and cooling costs. Unlike solar panels, which can require a large initial investment of money and time, designing a passive solar system can be surprisingly simple and inexpensive.

"In contrast to passive solar systems, active solar systems use supplemental electrical equipment, such as pumps and fans, to move heat around your home. In an active system, solar collectors harvest the sun’s energy to heat either liquid or air that is then pumped or blow through pipes or ducts to your living space. . . . Active solar heating systems are good choices in climates that have long heating seasons with high proportions of sunny days and above average fuel prices."

Rapid advances in solar-powered systems are revolutionizing the technology and increasing the ability of homeowners to generate "home-grown" electric power. "Installing clean, reliable, inflation-proof solar power is easier than ever, thanks to the invention of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) laminates that can be bonded directly onto metal roofing panels. Unlike crystalline PV material, there’s no need for obtrusive racks and heavy, expensive glass. Instead, unbreakable thin-film PV is produced using amorphous silicon, encapsulated in Teflon and other polymers."


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