Residential Energy Efficiency

Topics:

• New Partnership Promotes Energy Efficiency
• Energy Star Products, Savings All Around
• Hidden Energy Usage
• Keeping Your Home Comfortable and Affordable

Articles:

• Watch Out for Vampire Appliances
• Energy Saving Tips

New York Energy $mart has almost a dozen programs that can benefit homeowners, multi-family building managers, contractors, builders, and retailers. Making homes more energy efficient not only saves money, it reduces air and environmental pollution. A number of incentives are available for owners of single and multi-family homes, including:

• Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® Program - improving the energy efficiency of existing homes.
• New York ENERGY STAR - labeled Homes Program - promoting energy efficiency in new construction.
• Low-interest financing, including the New York Energy $mart Loan Fund and ENERGY STAR® financing through the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® Program.
• Incentives to install solar (PV) electric systems and advanced meters on homes.

For information on these and other programs that will help you use less energy and improve the environment, call the New York Energy $mart Program at 1-877-NYSMART.

ENERGY STAR® is a federally backed program designed to help individuals and businesses protect the environment through superior energy efficiency - and it's working! NYSERDA, through its New York Energy $mart programs, promotes ENERGY STAR® awareness within our state.

Once you think about it, the ENERGY STAR® message is quite simple: make products we use every day more energy efficient. Energy efficiency saves you money, reduces the need to generate electricity, and results in burning less fossil fuels and a cleaner environment.

Now, let's look at the benefits of some ENERGY STAR® products. An ENERGY STAR® clothes washer will use nearly 7,000 fewer gallons of water a year! This can amount to an astounding savings when you think of the costs associated with buying clean water, heating water for washing, treating dirty water, and digging a deeper well in times of drought. Also, many ENERGY STAR® washers spin out more water so your drying time is reduced.

ENERGY STAR® refrigerators use 50% less energy than a refrigerator purchased 10 years ago. With improved design and better insulation, the ENERGY STAR® refrigerator works better, has many high performance features and again, saves you money. ENERGY STAR® dishwashers are at least 13% more efficient than standard models. They save 1,200 gallons of water a year! That's 6 times the amount of water the average person drinks in a year. ENERGY STAR® room air conditioners use at least 10% less electricity than non-ENERGY STAR room air conditioners. A compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) burns cooler, lasts much longer than an incandescent bulb, has good color rendering, and uses 75% less electricity.

Hidden Energy Usage
Did you know we typically have many appliances in our homes that use electricity even when they are turned off? A good clue as to which appliances may be involved is to think about the ones that need to be reset or re-programmed anytime the power goes off.

Appliances that have clocks or memories built in need power to keep them going. Although it is only a little energy, it is being consumed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and adds up over time.

Take an inventory within your home. How many clocks are plugged in? Does your coffeemaker have a timer and clock for turning it on and off at preset times? How many CD and/or DVD players are plugged in that have clocks or memories? Most televisions also have memories that use a small amount of electricity all the time.

Consider reducing the number of appliances that are plugged in all the time. When replacing an appliance, consider the ongoing impact it will have on your energy consumption. When in doubt as to the impact it may be having, remember that if it is not plugged in, it cannot be using energy.

Keeping Cool
Use window fans instead of an air conditioner to cool down the rooms in your home. A window fan uses as little as one-tenth the electricity of an air conditioner. Run the window fans at night after it has cooled down to bring cooler air into the home.

Close drapes and shades on hot, sunny days to reduce solar heat build-up. Close windows and doors during the hottest parts of the day to keep cool air inside and the hot air outside.

If you do use an air conditioner set the thermostat at 78° or higher. Only cool the rooms you will be spending time in and close the doors to unused rooms. Turn off the air conditioner when you leave home.

Staying Warm
The end of summer is a good time to have your heating system cleaned and inspected to make sure it is working properly. Replace or clean furnace filters when they get dirty or once every month.

Do a quick check of all the places where heat enters a room. Make sure drapes and furniture do not interfere with the flow of heat into the room. Dust on radiators or baseboard units acts as insulation and wastes heat. Dust or vacuum these surfaces frequently.

If your radiators are near cold walls, a sheet of aluminum foil between the wall and the radiator will reflect heat back into the room that would otherwise be lost.

How can an electrical appliance that is switched off continue to consume electricity? Manufacturers have designed them with certain features to enhance their usefulness. Electrical appliances slurp up energy when switched off in order to support features such as timers, clocks, memory, and remote features. The cost of energy becomes significant when audio systems, garage door openers, clock radios, phone/answering machines, microwave ovens and standard ovens are just some of the vampire appliances found in our homes. Alan Meier, a researcher with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, reports that stand-by-power needs of appliances vary greatly. One television, evaluated by Lawrence Berkeley Lab, used a very frugal 0.7 watts of stand-by-power to maintain convenience features, while an energy-thirsty TV consumed 14 watts of stand-by-power. Why do some appliances use so much more stand-by-power than others? According to Meier, stand-by-power consumption can be traced to power transformers within the appliance. Manufacturers build and install a variety of transformers in their appliances, from very efficient to very inefficient.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now including stand-by-power limits in their qualifications for the ENERGY STAR® program. The ENERGY STAR® label allows consumers to quickly identify the most energy-efficient products available. Products labeled with the ENERGY STAR® have met strict criteria set by the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy. To earn the label, products must use significantly less energy than non-labeled products. In the case of electronic appliances, ENERGY STAR® appliances must use 50% less energy than standard appliances when they are operating, as well as when they are in stand-by mode. Purchase ENERGY STAR® appliances to prevent the vampires from wasting energy and your money.

So what's the big deal if some electrical appliances use a bit of electricity when they are switched off, especially if that increases consumer convenience? Consider that there are about 20 vampire appliances in the typical home, and some of these appliances use almost as much electricity when switched off as when they are on. On a national level, vampire appliances cost consumers over a billion dollars per year! What does that mean in NYS? Let's look at televisions. If the average cost of electricity in our state is 13.9 cents per kilowatt-hour, it would cost about $14.18 per year to pay for the electricity consumed while this energy thirsty TV was switched off. But if you owned the frugal, energy-sipping TV, the electricity consumed while this switch was off would cost only 69 cents per year. The energy-efficient TV consumes 20 times less electricity while providing the same level of convenience as the conventional TV. While $14 may not seem like a lot of money over the course of a year, remember the typical home contains 20 vampire appliances; and the cost to feed energy-slurping vampires adds up quickly.

Saving electricity used by vampire appliances also has environmental benefits. The U.S. EPA reports the amount of electricity consumed by vampire appliances is equivalent to the annual output of 12 electrical generating plants! And since electricity is often generated by burning fossil fuels, stand-by power consumption contributes to the production of greenhouse gasses and other air pollutants.

Consumer advocates suggest two immediate changes to help reduce stand-by electricity consumption.

1. If the appliance is on stand-by, and not really off, it should be labeled accordingly. This would alert consumers that the appliance is still consuming electricity. For instance, in many European countries, electrical appliances have three switches: on, off and stand-by. Consumers can switch the appliance to stand-by only if they want to maintain the appliance's convenience features.
2. Manufacturers should be required to label their appliances with the stand-by energy usage, which would allow consumers to make informed comparisons concerning the total electrical demands of appliances before making purchasing decisions. This may also increase competition among manufacturers to produce more efficient appliances.

There are some steps consumers can take to prevent vampire appliances from bleeding them of electricity and money.

• Very thirsty vampire appliances can be plugged into fuse-protected power strips. When the appliances are not in use, the power strip can be switched off. This will completely cut off the flow of electricity.
• Consumers can encourage their U.S. representatives to support legislation that would require labeling of appliances with their stand-by energy requirements.

ENERGY SAVING TIPS
Did you know that the typical U.S. family spends close to $1,300 a year on utility bills? Where do your home energy dollars go? 44% are used on heating and cooling, 33% on lighting and cooking, 14% on water heating, and 9% on refrigeration. There are several simple actions you can take to save energy and save dollars this fall.

Lighting - Turn off lights when not in use, even for just a minute. Replace your most-used incandescents with compact fluorescent bulbs, which use 75% less energy and lasts about 10 times longer.

Water Heating - Set the water heater to the lowest temperature that provides you sufficient hot water. Wrap your older model water heater with a water heater blanket, especially if it is in an unheated area.

Thermostats - Set your heating thermostat at 68 degrees or lower by day and put on a sweater if you feel chilly. Use an ENERGY STAR® qualified programmable thermostat that can automatically adjust the temperature of your home when you are away and don't forget to clean or replace furnace filters regularly.

Cooking - Pre-heat only for baking. Avoid opening the oven to check progress. Turn oven off before food is done and use retained heat to finish cooking. Use microwave whenever possible---it saves energy.

Clothes Washers - Replace your clothes washer with an ENERGY STAR® model when it is time. They use 50% less water and 70% less energy and that adds up to $100 every year. Run your washer, dryer, and dishwasher only with a full load.

Refrigerators - Upgrade your refrigerator if it is over 10 years old. Refrigerators use more energy than any appliance in your home. Vacuum refrigerator coils at least twice a year.

Bathing - Showers use much less hot water than baths. Install energy saving low flow showerheads and flow restrictors. And fix leaks to save energy and water.

Weatherproofing - Don't let air escape that you've paid to heat or cool. Caulk and weather-strip to reduce air leakage around doors and windows, baseboards, and whereever pipes, wires, and vents enter a house.

For more information on ENERGY STAR® programs and products, visit www.GetEnergySmart.org or call 1-877-NYSMART. You can also check out http://www.eere.energy.gov/.

For home improvement projects that help your home become more comfortable, eco-friendly, and energy efficient, please visit the Upstate New York resident's portal: http://www.upgradeupstate.org/.

For more energy-related information, you may also check out Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County at: http://ccetompkins.org/energy.