Are you about to buy a new appliance? Remodel your house? Upgrade your heating or cooling system? If you’re like most of us, you don’t do these things very often. When you do, you want to make good choices, both for your pocketbook and for the environment. But you probably don’t have time to become an expert. That’s where this guide can help.
Our Ultimate Guide to Home Energy Savings will help you decide which products to buy and how to use them for maxi mum energy savings. We’ve sorted through the thousands of major home appliances and heating systems on the market and picked out those that are the most efficient. We’ve listed the best ways to tighten up your house so that your heating and cooling systems won’t have to work as hard—or use as much energy. We’ve pulled together tips on operating new and existing appliances to reduce energy use and improve performance. But before getting into the details, let’s take a look at why it makes sense to buy the most efficient appliances and conserve energy in the home.
ENERGY USE and THE ENVIRONMENT
Every time you buy a home appliance, tune up your heating system, or replace a burned-out light bulb, you’re making a decision that affects the environment. You are probably already aware that most of our biggest environmental problems are directly associated with energy production and use: urban smog, oil spills, acid rain, and global warming, to mention a few. But you may not realize just how big a difference each of us can make by taking energy use into account in our household purchasing and maintenance decisions.
For example, did you know that every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity you avoid using saves over two pounds of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be pumped into the atmosphere? (This assumes that your utility company produces electricity by burning coal. If another fuel or hydropower is used, less CO2 will be produced.) Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the number-one contributor to global warming, a process that scientists say could raise the earth’s temperatures by 5 - 9°F over the next hundred years. If you replace a typical 1973, 18-cubic-foot refrigerator with an energy-efficient 2010 model, you’ll save over 1,200 kWh and over a ton of CO2 emissions per year! Installing a 15-watt compact fluorescent light in place of a 75-watt incandescent light bulb will save about 600 kWh over the life of the compact fluorescent.
Carbon dioxide is only one of the environmentally harmful gases resulting from energy use. Others, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone, have much more direct effects —effects that can be seen and smelled in every major urban area of the country. That new refrigerator mentioned above each year will save over 20 pounds of sulfur dioxide emissions, the leading cause of acid rain.
Other energy-saving products and improvements around the home can help the environment just as much, or more. Table 1.1. shows the reductions in CO2 emissions achieved from a few relatively easy energy improvements in the home. With some of these you’ll notice different CO2 savings depending on the type of fuel used. That’s because some fuels give off less CO2 than others. If you’re interested in this kind of analysis we will later cover details on the CO2 emissions from different energy sources.
TABLE 1.1 ENERGY CONSERVATION and CO2 SAVINGS IN THE HOME
Energy conservation measure |
CO2 Savings (tons/yr): Gas |
CO2 Savings (tons/yr): Oil |
CO2 Savings (tons/yr):Electric |
Installing 10 13-watt compact fluorescent light bulbs in place of 10 60-watt incandescent bulbs. Replacing typical 1972 refrigerator with energy-efficient 1990 model. Replacing a 65% efficient furnace boiler with one that is 90% efficient. Substituting gas or oil heat for electric resistance heat. Replacing single-glazed windows with argon-filled double-glazed windows. Planting shade trees around house and painting house a lighter color. Installing a solar water-heating system. Boosting energy efficiency of house being built from standard. insulation levels to super-insulated standards. |
— — 2.0 23 2.4 — .84 5.5 |
— — 3.0 19 3.9 — 1.4 8.8 |
1.1 1,4 — 9.8 .9 - 2.4 4.9 23 |
1. Assumes electricity generated using coal.
2. Assumes lights on 2,000 hours per year (51% hours per day).
3. Average 1972 model uses 2,000 kWh per year; energy-efficient 1990 model uses 839 kWh
4. Assumes 1.850 square-foot house of average (good) energy efficiency (heating load of 6.95 BtuIft2/ in a northern climate (6,300 heating degree-days).
5. Data from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif. Based on computer simulations for various locations around the country.
6. Assumes two-panel system providing 14.25 million Btu/year (75% of demand).
7. Assumes 1,850 square-foot house in northern climate (6,300 degree-days). Boosting energy efficiency from 6.95 Btu/ft to 1.37 Btu/ft (going from R-1 9 walls, R-30 ceilings, double-glazed windows, and relatively loose construction to R-31 walls, R-38 ceilings, tight construction, and low-E windows).
Worldwide, we pump some 20 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year—four tons for every man, woman, and child on earth. The United States is responsible for one-quarter of that, or 5 billion tons per year. On a per-capita basis, that comes to 22 tons for each American, though some of us pro duce a lot more than others.
Reducing CO2 emissions by a few tons per year may not seem like a lot, given the billions of tons released worldwide each year. But the collective actions of many will have a dramatic effect, particularly in a high-energy-use country like the United States. For example, the new appliance efficiency standards that went into effect at the beginning of 1990 will save more than 30 billion kWh in 2010—about 22 million tons of CO2 If the roughly 40 million households in climates with large heating needs boosted their furnace or boiler efficiencies from 70% to 90%, some 45 million tons of CO2 emissions would be eliminated each year. Substituting compact fluorescent lamps for the ten most frequently used incandescent lamps in every house in the country would reduce CO emissions by about the same amount. To get a sense of just how effective energy conservation can be, take a look at the 1970s and 1980s. From 1973 to 1986, the US, gross national product grew 36% with no increase in energy use at all. Had efficiencies remained at 1973 levels, we would be spending an extra $150 billion in energy bills each year and pumping 1 1/2 times more CO2 into the atmosphere! We are already saving 13 million barrels of oil each day—half of the OPEC output—and, compared with 1973 projections, we’re getting by with 250 fewer large power plants than would have otherwise been required.
DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL
The risks associated with heavy reliance on foreign oil were brought back into focus by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and the costly war that followed.
Lest we forget: in the late 1970s, the United States imported over 40% of its oil, with a peak of 46.4% in 1977. Then dramatic price increases and supply shortages fueled highly effective energy conservation efforts. Net petroleum imports dropped to 28% by 1982. But by the mid-80s, as fuel prices softened (due in part to successful conservation efforts), interest in conservation dropped and oil imports crept back up—to over 40% since 1989. During several months of 1990, in fact, dependence on foreign oil reached an all-time high of over 50%. Experts had warned us about rising vulnerability to price increases and political instability, but it took Iraq’s invasion to really wake us up and rekindle interest in energy conservation.
The answer isn’t to open up wilderness areas to oil exploration, but to use less energy more efficiently. A 1 1/2 gallon (mpg) increase in fuel economy by automobiles in the United States would save more oil than is estimated to lie under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Just a 1 mpg increase would save more oil than is beneath the Georges Bank, a treasured fishing area off the Atlantic coast threatened by oil exploration. Adding low-emissivity coatings to all windows in the country would save an equivalent of one-half million barrels of oil per day—one-third of the oil we import from Arab OPEC countries.
Indeed, energy efficiency improvements and aggressive energy conservation measures could totally eliminate U.S. dependency on foreign oil. We can’t look just to the governing bodies to bring about these changes—it’s up to each of us. and it should start in our homes and in our cars.
SAVING THE EARTH—AND GETTING PAID TO DO IT
The wonderful thing about saving energy is that, in addition to helping the environment, you save money. It’s like contributing to a good cause and ending up with more money in your pocket. Many of the energy-efficient appliances and heating or cooling systems covered in this guide cost no more than their inefficient counterparts. With most others, the extra cost is easily repaid in energy savings over just a few years.
When you buy an appliance, you pay more than just the sales price—you commit yourself to paying the cost of running the appliance for as long as you own it. These energy costs can add up quickly. For example, running a refrigerator 15-20 years costs two to three times as much as the initial purchase price of the unit. That 100-watt light bulb you just put in will cost about $6 in electricity over its (short) life.
The sum of the purchase price and the energy cost of running an appliance or light bulb over its lifetime is called its life- cycle cost. The life-cycle costs of energy-efficient appliances are lower than those of average models even though the aver age-efficiency models may cost less to buy.
To increase the economic benefits of buying more energy- efficient appliances and boosting your overall home efficiency, your utility company may offer a rebate program for the purchase of energy-efficient appliances. Utility companies have realized that it costs less money to conserve energy than to build new power plants and that they can save money by paying you to save energy. Rebates are most common for high-efficiency heat pumps, central air conditioners, refrigerators, and freezers. Rebates on room air conditioners, water heaters, and energy-efficient lighting are also sometimes available. Rebate programs are much more common among electric companies than gas companies, although some gas utilities offer rebates for high-efficiency furnaces and boilers. If you plan to buy a major appliance soon, ask your utility if it offers rebates for efficient models.
Always consider how much it will cost to operate a new appliance or light bulb —not just how much It costs to buy.
Next: Buttoning Up Your House