Welcome to Home Energy Savings Guide
Michigan Energy Efficient House Plans Article
This is a selection made from among articles on Michigan Energy Efficient House Plans. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.
Putting Home Energy Savings on to Your System
from:Using home energy everyday is easy. But, receiving high electric bills at the end of the month may be a little hard for you. Since most homeowners like you, want to know how to get those electric bill in a manageable and acceptable digits, there are several systems designed to particularly answer this. Systems that are guaranteed to make your electric bills low.
Here are those:
Insulating – The best way to keep your body warm is by wearing not only just thick clothing, but also clothes that will trap the body heat inside. The same principle goes with keeping your house warn during winter. Keeping good and tight batt insulation around wall enclosures is the best thing to do this. But it is not always the easiest. Any gaps at any point around the wall enclosure will definitely degrade the quality of the insulation installed. Gaps mentioned here are electrical boxes, pipes, and wires; places where batt insulation can be tricky to install even for professionals. As an alternative, you may want to use materials such as cellulose insulation for maximum area coverage. The cellulose insulation eliminates gap and voids, making your walls 100% insulated.
But this is not all.
After insulating your home, you might think you have done enough. It is true that insulating your home well will keep cold air from entering your home and degrading the performance of your heating system. But, your house is not 100% assured that it would e 100% insulated. The next thing is one important thing you should understand…
Airsealing – Leaks around the house are accounted for as much as 40% of your heating and cooling consumption. This means that no matter how good your insulation is, if your house have leaks, you still cannot assure total savings.
Airsealing your home is the next important thing you should remember and do in order to maximize the use of your heating system. Leaks from the front doors must be sealed by weather stripping. Doors leading to garage and attic, and doors to individual rooms should also be sealed. Sealants must be applied on windows, joints and sills. Walls with leaks can degrade the quality of air as well as the performance of your heating system. Leaks from floors will make your heating system work harder as well. All of these should be sealed in order to make your home leak-free that would equate to savings.
Extra savings – Now that you have ensured that your home is well insulated and air-sealed, it is time for you to solve minor problems that add big cost on your home energy.
Cleaning your air filter will give you 2 good effects:
1. Clean air filter reduces the heating system’s demand to work extra.
2. Clean air filter will provide clean recycled air around the house.
Making sure that the ducts are leak free will give you as much as 30% on energy savings from your heating system.
Turn on your appliances only if you will use them. Never leave them on while you were away. Lights should be turned off if not used. Lower down your thermostat if you are away or sleeping.
Set your washing machine to cold. Washing machine consumes as much as 90% more power on heating the water than using tap water.
Using small electric burner when cooking will give you better savings than using large burner. It will also keep your heating system less stressful in maintaining the temperature of the house.
Lower down the thermostat of your refrigerator.
Using your fireplace to warm the house up is much cheaper than using the heating system.
Maintaining – Keeping your home well maintained will give you a lot of savings. Invest on energy saving devices that will keep your home warn at the same time, enables your heating system to work as efficient as possible. Regular check on the leaks of the duct and periodical cleaning of the air filter will certainly make your heating system work efficiently.
With all these, you may now have electric bill that is both manageable and acceptable.
Try all these and see the difference they can do to your monthly electric bill.
Michigan Energy Efficient House Plans News
Democrats want detailed plans for auto bailout - The Washington Times
Within hours of Mr. Reid and Mrs. Pelosi's news conference, GM, Ford and Chrysler all had promised in public statements to give the Democratic lawmakers the blueprint they seek. But many on Capitol Hill argue the companies themselves are at least ...
Read more...Democrats want details for auto bailout - The Washington Times
Top congressional Democrats Thursday conceded they lacked the votes to pass a $25 billion bailout for the U.S. auto industry and said they would try again in December. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of ...
Read more...Waxman win elevates energy, climate change issues - Boston Globe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, a California liberal, won the chairmanship of a key congressional energy committee on Thursday and promised to work closely with President-elect Barack Obama to promote alternative energy, ease global ...
Read more...Reid seeks to lower expectations for auto bailout - Ann Arbor News
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Senate Democrat sought Wednesday to lower expectations for legislation this week to help endangered carmakers, saying it would be the Bush administration's job to save the industry if Congress doesn't. "No one should be ...
Read more...Wild ride for US motor industry as bail-out falters - Guardian Unlimited
Shares in the big US car manufacturers experienced a volatile ride yesterday after a deal to bail out the struggling motor industry fell flat, prompting Congress to give the carmakers 12 days to submit a more workable rescue plan. General Motors and ...
Read more...