Energy Conservation
Remember Cash for Clunkers? The federal program that paid people money to trade in their old, gas guzzlers for newer, more efficient, less polluting ones? Our representatives in Congress having been working on creating a version of this program for homeowners. Cash for Caulkers, otherwise known as the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010 has passed the House of Representatives with a lot of great provisions for homeowners looking to save energy and money.
In the House version of the bill, rebates are available for everything from insulation and air sealing work, to window replacement, to furnace and boiler upgrades. Houston Neal, of Software Advice, has written a clear and comprehensive guide to the bill–itemizing the 13 retrofits of the bill, along with the requirements and rebate amount for each. There’s another great piece about the bill, including the political backstory over at Grist.
I’m not sure what’s happening with the Senate version. News reports from last week indicated that Senator Reid has incorporated Cash for Caulkers into the much pared down energy bill that has taken shape in the wake of the collapse of comprehensive climate legislation.
Home Star would be a very good thing; if and when the Senate bill passes, it will be financially feasible for many more of us to retrofit our homes. This doesn’t mean, of course, that we should give up on comprehensive climate legislation. We can and should let our congressional leaders know that they have let us down, and that they must try again. You can get some ideas about how to do this at 1Sky.org and at The Union of Concerned Scientists website. If Home Star passes, we’ll be able to continue to fight for this from homes that use energy much more efficiently.
If you read one of my recent posts about my green goals for summer, you know that I have (overambitiously) vowed to line dry all my clothes this summer. I’ve been working on line drying for a couple of years now, so I have a few of the tricks of the trade figured out. Which isn’t to say that I’m using them consistently–hence the goal.
The first trick is accessibility: Before you get started give some thought to where you are going to dry your clothes and what kind of system you are going to use: How close or far is your chosen spot from your washing machine? Will you string a clothes line? Use drying racks? Will you have a permanent system or one you have to set up and take down each time you use it? The bottom line is that if your line or rack is much harder to use than your dryer you probably won’t use it. And unfortunately many of us live in homes that were designed (or have been redesigned) for dryers but not for line drying. Which isn’t to say it isn’t doable. You just may have to get creative.
For me, outside drying is easy: my laundry area is in my mudroom, a mere 5 steps away from the clothesline strung out my back door, which remains strung all year long. Inside drying is a different story. I use racks when I dry indoors but there isn’t really enough space for them: my mudroom is too narrow and small to adequately accommodate the racks. Which means that we don’t hang our clothes to dry much in the winter.
The second most important trick to successful line drying is planning. I have found that in order to line dry all of my clothes I need to wash and dry a load of laundry almost every day (there are 4 in my family, not counting the dog who thankfully doesn’t wear clothes). Lack of planning and daily washing is currently the biggest barrier to my achieving my laundry goal. If I don’t wash every day we get backed up and inevitably end up relying on our dryer.
Which brings me back to my goal: the warmer months are my best opportunity to establish a solid line drying habit. And who knows, come late fall, it may be so ingrained that I’m inspired to come up with a creative solution to my indoor space constraints…
Do you line dry your clothes? If so, what tricks and techniques have you found to be most helpful? If you don’t, what do you feel are your biggest obstacles?
In my part of the world, we’re experiencing a very early season heatwave–both yesterday and today have brought near record temperatures (right now my computer is showing 91 for my town of Newton, MA. Temperatures like this are more typical for late July and August, not May.
Granted it’s only been two days of the extreme heat, but I’m happy to report that–at least so far–we’ve been living AC free. Here’s how:
- During the day we shut our windows and put down our shades to keep the sun from heating up the house.
- When the temperature begins to fall in the evening we open windows to introduce as much cool air as possible.
We use our grill for cooking and our microwave for reheating. Mostly we eat cold food like salads & sandwiches.
- We take cool showers before bed.
- We use powerful but fairly quiet window fans that fit snugly into the window, minimizing light infiltration.
Once summer kicks into high gear living AC free can become a lot more challenging, especially as high nighttime temperatures make it hard to maintain comfortable indoor temps.
Last year we did pretty well and kept our use of our central air conditioning system to a minimum (maybe 7-10 days the whole summer). But last year we didn’t consistently close our windows and shades during the day, so our house was probably hotter and more humid than it (hopefully) will be this summer. Stay tuned for updates…
Do you know how much electricity you’re using right now? I do because I have a whole-house energy monitor that tells me in real-time exactly how much electricity my house is using. Right now we’re using 5.7 kwh and paying roughly $.70/hour for it. But when I turn my clothes dryer off these numbers plummet to .46 kwh and $.05/hour (I try to but don’t always hang my clothes to dry!). Energy monitors are great change motivators, for kids and adults alike: if your family is anything like mine, an energy monitor will soon have you playing “how low can we go.”
There are two basic types of monitors: a hard-wired monitor like The Energy Detective and a wireless monitor like the Blue Line. The downsides of hard wired monitors are that you need an electrician to set them up and they need to remain plugged in (and only work in certain outlets). The upside is that there is no lag time between your usage and your display unit. While you can install a wireless monitor yourself, installation can be tricky. Because the display unit is wireless too, you can use it anywhere in your house it receives a signal from the sensor attached to your meter (which in my house isn’t everywhere). Also there is a slight lag time between your actual usage and the usage you see on your display unit. They both cost about the same: lower end models for both are run around $120
You can find out more about your options by visiting The Energy Detective and Blue Line Innovations.
If you’ve been delaying replacing aging, inefficient appliances, now–or rather soon–may be the time to act. Thanks to $300 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 it’s about to get a little cheaper to invest in Energy Star qualified appliances.
Within the next couple of months all 50 states will be rolling out rebate programs for consumers who meet state eligibility requirements and purchase qualified products. The Department of Energy, which is coordinating and overseeing the initiative, has given states leeway to design their own programs, with the result that timing and eligibility will vary by state. You can stay abreast of what’s happening in your state and when by visiting Energy Savers (a DOE website).
In theory, CFLs are a great thing. They last longer and use less energy than incandescents; it’s even possible to get them for free (MA residents visit Mass Save for a free energy audit that includes free replacement of incandescents with CFLs; click here to learn more about Mass Save). In practice, however, transitioning to CFLs can cause major headaches.
For example, you can’t just put any old CFL in a fixture with a dimmable switch. You need a special dimmable CFL and even then, the dimmable CFL may not work well with your fixture and/or your switch. And even if you find one that works, whose light quality you like and that does not buzz (a tall order), you may find that the bulbs need time to reach full capacity, that they won’t fully dim and/or that will not turn on if your dimmer switch is lowered.
Here are some tips to make your transition to energy efficient lighting go as smoothly as possible:
- Check out the Energy Star Guide to choosing CFLs to make sure you get the right light for your application.
- Make sure to buy Energy Star rated bulbs (believe it or not, there are some CFLs that do not have Energy Star rating).
- The lumen rating tells you how much light the bulb puts out. For general room lighting you want a bulb with roughly 900-1300. For reading you may want a bulb with a lumen rating in the 1700 range.
- The kelvin rating tells you the color of the light. For a warm color equivalent to the color of a conventional incandescent bulb, look for a 2700 kelvin CFL.
- CFL bulbs come in a variety of shapes and sizes beyond the spiral. There are bulbs for recessed lights, outdoor lights, chandeliers and decorative fixtures. A great online source for a variety of CFLs is Energy Federation Incorporated, or EFI.
- When replacing bulbs in a dimmable fixture, make sure to buy dimmable bulbs from a source (like EFI) that will take them back if they don’t work well with your fixture and/or dimmer switch.
Did you know that in the average home 75% of the electricity used to power electronics and appliances is consumed while the products are turned off? The power that electronics draw when they are turned off is called a “phantom” or “standby” load, which–considering that electronics account for 20% of the average home’s energy bill–could be costing you a pretty penny.
You can eliminate phantom loads by unplugging small electronic devices when not in use (like your cell phone charger and coffee maker) and plugging larger ones (like TVs and computers) into power strips that you switch off when not in use.
If you won’t or can’t switch off your power strips you can get “smart” power strips that completely power down your electronics for you. Smart strips have at least one controlling outlet, and when you power down the device plugged into this outlet, the strip automatically powers down the peripheral devices plugged into the other outlets. Smart strips also have one or more “hot” outlets for devices that you do not want to completely power down (like your router).
You can buy smart strips from a variety of retailers including Amazon & Walmart. The price for a small size (1 controlling outlet, 2 hot outlets, 4 peripheral outlets) at Amazon is $27.
So you’ve heard that idling is bad for the earth, that it isn’t “green”. But did you know that idling your car contributes to health problems? Even with advanced emissions controls, cars and light trucks (not to mention large trucks) emit pollutants such as carbon monoxide, ground level ozone and particulate matter that can contribute to headaches, asthma and allergies. And did you know that idling wastes fuel? In fact, you use more fuel idling for 10 seconds than you turning off and restarting your engine. 10 seconds! Add to this the fact that idling (for more than 5 minutes) is illegal in MA and there are lots of reasons for each of us to idle no more.
Spring is a great time to start thinking about line drying your clothes. Of your appliances, your clothes dryer is second biggest energy hog (behind your refrigerator). On average, drying your clothes costs $85/year, which doesn’t seem like a lot until you think about what that can add up to over the lifetime of your dryer: $1500 or more (numbers courtesy of CA’s Consumer Energy Center). By contrast, line drying your clothes costs your nothing–not to mention that it uses pure solar energy to get the job done.
Think you don’t have time to line dry your clothes, or that the piles of dirty laundry will add up? I have found that I am most successful at line drying when I wash and hang one load of laundry each day. On really hot summer days, you’ll find that some laundry dries in just a couple of hours.
Remember Cash for Clunkers? The federal program that paid people money to trade in their old, gas guzzlers for newer, more efficient, less polluting ones? Our representatives in Congress having been working on creating a version of this program for homeowners. Cash for Caulkers, otherwise known as the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010 has passed the House of Representatives with a lot of great provisions for homeowners looking to save energy and money.