Category: Saving Energy

Baseboard Heaters

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Electric baseboard heaters can provide an excellent way to keep you warm during those freezing cold months when you are longing for spring. They also offer many advantages to homeowners as well as investment property owners. However, be advised that along with the advantages that electric baseboard heaters provide there are also some disadvantages that you should be aware of as well. First, we’ll try to answer what are electric baseboard heaters and how do they work? Then we’ll see if we can answer the question, how much electricity does a baseboard heater use.

Electric baseboard heaters are one type of electric resistance heater that is installed on the wall along the floor. They have metal fins inside that heat the air as the air moves past the metal fins. As the cool air falls and goes through the metal fins, the cool air is heated and rises and this is how the room is heated. Electric baseboard heaters are normally installed beneath window both to take advantage of any falling cool air from the window and because windows are located on outside walls where heat may be lost due to low or no insulation.

Electric baseboard heaters can be cheap to install because they do not require any ducts to be used like in a central HVAC system. This keeps costs to a minimum when building an edition that would be difficult to heat or when remodeling an investment property. Electric baseboard heaters can also be a good option if you live in a climate that does not see very many cold days. They can be a good option versus installing a heat pump.

Electric baseboard heaters allow you to heat different areas of your home or office independently of one another. This can be advantageous for those who live in families or work in offices where one person is cold all of the time and the other person is always freezing. This can also be advantageous if you live in a large home and only want or need to heat your bedroom at night and do not want to pay to heat the entire home. For example, you could set your main thermostat on 65 degrees and in your bedroom have a baseboard heater set to 70 degrees. This way you can be warm in your bedroom at night.








For all of the advantages that electric baseboard heaters provide there are also disadvantages as well. The main disadvantage being electricity usage. Many people ask how much electricity electric baseboard heaters use. Do baseboard heaters use a lot of electricity? Typically electric baseboard heaters consume about 250 watts per foot. This means that if you have a 6 foot electric baseboard heater installed in your bedroom that it would consume about 1500 watts (250 watts per foot x 6 feet). Many people will tell you that baseboard heaters are efficient. And in regard to the amount of electricity that is turned into heat they would be correct. Because they are resistance type heaters they convert nearly 100% of the electricity into heat. However, do not be fooled. Heat pumps are more effective at keeping your power bill low than electric baseboard heaters are.

How much electricity does a baseboard heater use? Let’s do an example of how much a small home with only electric baseboard heaters could cost. For the example let’s say that the house if 1,000 square feet with 3 rooms and one bathroom. Each room has one 6 foot baseboard heater, the bathroom has a 2 foot heater and the living has two 6 foot heaters. So we have 5, 6 foot heaters and one 2 foot heater for a total of 32 feet of baseboard heaters. Remember from before that the average watts per foot is 250 watts. So 32 x 250 = 8,000 watts. So for every hour that the baseboard heater is on you will use 8,000 watts of power. Now let’s say that they run for 8 hours per day for 30 days. 8 hours x 8,000 watts x 30 days = 1,920,000 watthours. If we divide that by 1,000 we get the kilowatt hours which is what you are billed on and that equals 1,920 kilowatt hours. Now if we multiply that times say $0.10 we get $192.00 just to run your baseboard heaters to heat your home.

So, the biggest disadvantage is the usage of the electric baseboard heaters. Do they put off good heat? Yes. Are the cheap and easy to install? Yes. Are they expensive to run? Yes. There is one alternative and it is the electric hydronic baseboard heater. They use a liquid inside that is heated and radiates the heat in the room longer than the metal fins do. This means that they may run less often than regular electric baseboard heaters. But be aware that they also use the same wattage when they are running.

If you want to know more about baseboard heaters, check out How Baseboard Heaters Work.




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5 tips to saving energy when on vacation

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So you are ready to go on a long vacation and you are worried about your electric bill being high when you get back and you want to know if there is anything you can do to keep you bill low when you get back. Well, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that your electric bill is not through the roof. Most of these tips even work well if you are only going out of town for the weekend as well.

1. Turn off the water heater.

That’s right. An electric water heater is one of the largest consumers of electricity in your home next to the A/C. For a normal family, a water heater can account for as much as 25% of the electricity that is consumed in your home. To put it another way, they can easily uses 300 kwh per month which can equal $30 or more. Let’s understand why we would want to turn off our water heaters while we are out of town. The water heater has a thermostat inside just like the A/C does. What that means is the water heater will be keeping the water at that temperature regardless of whether you are in your home or you are one vacation. One argument that I always hear from people is that they want to be able to take a shower as soon as they get home from vacation and they do not want to be waiting on the water to get hot. Well, let me put your mind at ease. Most water heaters have about a 30 minute recovery. This means that it takes the water heater about 30 minutes to be full of hot water again. So, walk in from you vacation, turn the water heater back on and then unload your car and get ready to take your shower. By this time the water should be nice and hot for you to take a shower. The next question is, “how do I turn it off?” The most convenient way is in the breaker box. Find the breaker labeled as water heater and turn it off. Alternatively, there should be a disconnect at the water heater. You can pull this disconnect and this will turn off the water heater as well. I would only use the second method if you are comfortable dealing with electricity because it could be dangerous.

I want to note that I would not turn the water heater off if you live in a climate that freezes and it is the winter time when you will be gone. This is only recommended during the times when temperatures are above freezing.

2. Turn off the A/C

The A/C is the largest consumer of electricity in the home and because of this, you do not want to overlook it when you leave for vacation. Now, if you are hardcore, depending on the time of year, you will just turn off the A/C when you leave for vacation and turn it back on when you come home. But, if it is in the middle of summer you may want to ensure that the house is not an oven when you get back. My recommendation is to turn the thermostat up to at the very least 80 degrees in the summer time when you leave, higher if you think you can stand it. If you are going on  vacation in the winter time you will want to turn the thermostat down to at least 60 degrees. This will ensure that your A/C or heat are not running constantly while you are gone trying to keep your couch comfortable.







3. Unplug, unplug, unplug!

In this day in age when you turn your lights off at night you can just about still see everything because of all the lights from your devices that are still on. The lights may be from computers, television, gaming systems, microwaves, etc. Whatever the lights are coming from, they are drawing electricity to be kept on. Unplugging things that are not necessary to be on while you are gone, such as your wireless router (if you have networked security cameras you may need to leave that on). All of these little things do not use very much on their own but collectively they do add to your bill. Remember that nothing is free!

4. Turn off lights

This sounds like a no-brainer but many people forget to turn their lights off when they leave. Often times they will get home from vacation only to discover that they light in their bedroom or bathroom had been left on. Do a once over before you walk out the door and make sure that the lights are off. If you are going to leave a light on for security reasons, look at getting a timer so that it does not run all the time. Or, put in an LED bulb in that particular light fixture.

5. Turn off the water

I know this does not appear to have anything to do with electricity but if something happens while you are gone, such as a busted water line or a leaking toilet, you will be in for a big water bill. If the water line breaks and it is a hot water line and you have forgotten to turn off the water heater, it will constantly run trying to heat the water. Check the weather because this is only recommended during warmer temperatures.

6. Bonus!

If you are hardcore like me and you do not care if you have to reset your clocks when you get back then this tip is for you. When I go out of town on vacation, as long as it is not a time where we are having freezing temperatures, I just go and turn off my main breaker. If your main breaker is off, your electric meter will not turn while you are gone. This is how my power bills during the summer when I have been on vacation have been as low as $40 when the base charge takes up $20 of that $40.

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Five ways to Cool your house without A/C

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The weather can be hard to cope and during the summer time many people struggle with high power bills because their A/C runs constantly. Here I want to offer five ways to cool your house without using your A/C.

1. Use blinds

One of the most effective ways how to cool your house without using A/C is by not letting any sunlight into our home to begin with. Heat is transferred three ways. It is transferred by conduction, which is when you touch something, convection, which is when heat is transferred by air (think convection oven), and by radiation. So, think about when you are cold and your go out and stand in the sun to warm up. This is radiation and this is what we are trying to stop by closing our blinds. If we can stop the sunlight from entering our homes then we do not have to cool them back down. Try to use blinds that do not allow any sunlight to come into your home when they are closed. This is the first way that we can combat the heat and keep our homes cool without using A/C.

2. Use curtains

This is basically the same as number one above except that curtains, when used in conjunction with blinds can make a huge difference in blocking the sunlight that enters your home. And, the thicker they are the better. Think about taking a blanket outside and blocking sunlight versus a sheet. The blanket will not let any light through while the sheet will allow some light to pass through. When the light passes through the heat is passing through as well. This is the second way that you can keep your house cool without using the A/C.

3. Use fans

By using fans we move the air around us. We can perceive a three degree difference in temperature just because the air is moving. Think about a cool spring day. As long as you are out in the sun and the wind is not blowing you are warm. But, once the wind starts blowing you need to go and get your jacket. Using fans has the same effect. Ceiling fans do a good job of mixing the air. However, to move hot air out of your house you will want to use a box fan. If you open the windows on one side of the house and place a box fan in a window on the other side of the house you will be surprised at how well this cools off the house. Even better is to use two box fans. One pushing the hot air out of the house and the other pulling the cool air into the house. Do this and your house will be cool in no time. A note that I would like to make about using the box fans is this, do it at night. If you try to do this during the day you will be pulling hot air into your house. Make sure that you wait to do this until the air outside is cooler than the air inside the house.








4. Open the windows

This may sound simple and not effective, but this can be very effective especially during spring. Opening the windows allows the air to flow naturally in and out of your house. This natural movement of air moving past your body can actually make you feel like it is cooler than it is. This is because sometimes there is more moisture in the air outside the house than inside. When our bodies are in this moist air we often feel like the air around us is cooler than it actually is. So, go ahead and open those windows! And again, this works best when the temperature outside the house is cooler than the temperature inside the house.

5. Open the doors

Opening the doors is something that we typically forget that we can do. We often think that if we just leave the door open some random person will just walk in our house. But, if we utilize this huge opening and allow it to be used just like a window we will be able to reap the rewards of using the opening just like the window!

If you put these tips to use, you will be well on your way to keeping your house cool without using the A/C! If you have a window unit check out our Top 5 Tips for Using Window Units. If your like this article be sure to visit our Facebook page and like it to keep up to date with all of our articles!










Solar Water Heaters

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Solar water heaters can be a very useful way to saving money on your power bill. A water heater alone can easily cost a family of two $20-$40 dollars per month. Now think if you have a larger family what that could cost you throughout the year. Solar water heaters are a great way to harness solar power to reduce your energy bills. By integrating solar water heaters with effective solar metering, you can track your energy consumption and savings more accurately.

Heating your water by the sun is not a new concept. If you have good weather, it may be a good option, and its not the only way to use Renewable Energy. Back in the 1970’s there was a big push to conserve energy by heating your water with the sun. It however did not last very long. There are a few different types of solar water heaters out there. They can be as simple as laying a garden hose in the sun to a full enclosed system that uses a heat exchanger to transfer the heat from a liquid that does not freeze to the water.

The system that you decide on depends upon your location. If you live in a warm climate where it never or very rarely has freezing temperatures then you can go wth one of the more simple systems where the sun directly heats the water. The basics of the system include the solar water panel, some pipe and an old water heater. This is my favorite system because you can utilize your old water heater as a backup in case it is cloudy and there is not sufficient sun to heat the water. The old water heater also acts as a storage tank for the hot water and keeps it hot and ready for whenever you need it.

If you live in a climate that sees freezing and below freezing temperatures, you will need to go with a system that uses an antifreeze type of liquid just like your car so the water in the system does not freeze. You would also be wise to utilize your old water heater as a backup for when there are clouds or if the panels are covered in snow. You can also use the old water heater as a hot water storage tank using this method as well.








One of the best thing about solar water heaters is that they do not need electricity to run! This not only will save you money on your power bill but it will also allow you to take hot showers when there is no power! Imagine that there is a storm that comes through while you are at work and the power is out. You will still be able to take a hot shower.

Another advantage to having a solar water heater is that once you have it installed you are one step closer to being off the grid. In my opinion, this should be one of your first things to consider before going off the grid. Before you go and install $30,000 worth of electric solar panels on your house, put a solar water heater up there and start saving right away. It is also more efficient to heat your water with the sun than it is to power your old electric water heater by the electric solar panels you are thinking about putting up. This is because there are always losses with electricity. There will be losses due to heat, wire and electronics. This means that you are better off to heat your water with the sun first. This also means that you can save some money on the electric solar panels because the load that they will need to carry will not be as great. Electric water heaters can typically pull anywhere between 1500 and 4500 watts. This is 1500 to 4500 watts that you will not need to buy solar panels for.








Top 5 tips for using window units

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Introduction

When summer approaches we all want to beat the heat and the way that some of us go about it is to use window air conditioning unit. These unit do their job and they do it well but there are a few things that we can do to help them cool our homes more efficiently. Using a window unit can be a cost-effective way to stay cool, but to maximize efficiency and savings, it’s crucial to use them correctly. Here are the top five tips to help you get the most out of your window unit and help create a more Energy Efficient Home.

1. Check the rating.

Window units are typically rated by the number of BTU’s they can produce. However, most of us, do not have a clue what a BTU is and so the manufacturer’s of window units will typically tell you how many square feet the unit will cool. To find your square footage measure how big your room is and multiply the length times the width. You will want to make sure that you get a unit as close to your square footage as possible.

Most of the time it is better to go over just a little if you will be cooling an area with a kitchen or if you have high ceilings. You want to make sure the rating is close because if it is too small it will run constantly and not cool very efficiently therefore making your power bill higher. If it is too large the room could feel a bit moist since part of the job of the window unit is to dry the air as well.

2. Use fans and Curtains.

That is right. Use fans to help mix the air in the room that you are using the window unit. This will help you be more comfortable instead of having one area that is hot and one that is cold. Another thing that the fans do as well is give the perception that it is cooler than it is. Moving air in the home can give us the perception that it is up to 3 degrees cooler than is. This means that we can set the thermostat to a higher temperature so that it does not run as much.

During the hottest parts of the day, close your curtains or blinds to block out sunlight. This helps keep the room cooler and reduces the load on your window unit. Reflective or blackout curtains are especially effective in maintaining a lower indoor temperature.

3. Use the thermostat.

This is very important but it also depends on the room that you are cooling. If you have one big window unit in the living room that you are using to cool the entire house then you want to find a temperature that is comfortable and set the thermostat and leave it. Now, if you are using a window unit in your bedroom you can set that thermostat higher when you are not in there so that it will not run all day to cool a room that you are not using.

Set your window unit to a comfortable but efficient temperature, typically around 78°F (25°C). Using a programmable thermostat can help maintain this setting consistently, saving energy when the room is not in use. Avoid setting the temperature too low, as this increases energy consumption.

4. Keep the filter clean.

Keeping the filter clean on your window unit can help save you energy when you are using it. When the filter is dirty the window unit has to work harder to move the air. This in turn means that it will take longer to cool the space that you are trying to cool. I know that when I am hot I do not like to wait any longer than I have to to be cool. This will also help your window unit last longer and operate more efficient. Because the filter will be clean and the motor will not have to work as hard, the window unit will last longer.

5. Seal the air gaps.

Ensure there are no gaps around your window unit to prevent cool air from escaping and warm air from entering. Use foam strips or caulking to seal any gaps. This simple step can reduce energy loss and increase the unit’s efficiency.
This sometimes seems like a no brainer but I cannot tell you how many times I have had someone complain about their power bill only to find out that they are using a window unit. When I go inside to inspect I see air gaps everywhere. The fan on the window unit not only blows cold air but it sucks air in as well. This air has to come from somewhere and it is going to take the path of least resistance and if that means that it is going to come from around the door where you can see outside then so be it. Go to the hardware store and buy some insulation and some weatherstripping to keep out the drafts. Even tape can help on old drafty windows. Another problem area to address many times is the attic access.

These may be stairs or just an access hole. Many times the seal around these holes is not very good and lots of hot air can come from your attic. If you are not sure where to start with weathersripping and insulation, look at your windows and doors and if you can see daylight (I am not talking about through your glass window panes for you wise guys out there) you can bet that cold air is escaping and hot air is coming in. You can also crawl up in your attic and see if there is insulation. If there is no insulation, start here. You will see a dramatic improvement.

6. *Bonus Tip* Choose the Right Location.

Place your window unit in a central location where air can flow freely. Avoid areas with direct sunlight, as this forces the unit to work harder. Installing it in a shaded or less sunny window can improve efficiency by up to 10%.

By following these tips, you can enhance the performance of your window unit, save on energy costs, and enjoy a cooler living space throughout the summer. Remember, efficiency is key to comfort and savings. You will be suprised how much better your window unit works after you follow these tips!

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Creating an Energy-Efficient Home: A Guide to Going Green

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Introduction

So let’s say that you are planning on building a home and you are wondering what you can do to make your home the most energy efficient. What are some of the things that you need to take into account when planning for a more energy efficient home? You want to have a green home but you do not know where to start.

Here are a few tips that you can use when you are planning your green energy efficient home.

The first thing that you need to ask yourself is whether your initiative to go green is because you want to save money or because you want to save the planet. I know this sounds like a dumb question but if you are trying to go green simply because you want to save money then you may want to think about different traditional alternatives. Going green can typically save you money in the long run but the upfront cost may be prohibitive to some. If you are wanting to go green because you want to save the planet and you do not care what it costs you then thanks for helping out the rest of us! You may also want to consider investing in an energy monitoring device.

The next thing to consider about building a green home is where you are going to be building the home. In some states there are incentives to using energy efficient materials such as energy efficient windows and appliances. Another factor to take into consideration are the utility rates that you will be paying where you build your home. Often times co-ops have lower rates than municipalities. Also, large energy companies can have cheaper rates and also offer rebates on things like geothermal heat pumps.

Planning is important in the building stages of your green home. You want to make sure that you have the proper amount of insulation in your home. It does not cost much more at this point to add more insulation than is recommended and it will save you in the future. Also, be aware of your eaves and overhangs, and the Weather.

If you are trying to build a green home one of the things that you need to be aware of is that the most expensive appliance in your home is typically your heating and air system. You will most likely be looking at a central air conditioning system instead of using Window Units. If you can plan ahead and put in extra insulation and plan so that you have no direct sunlight coming into your home during the day in the summer and have direct sunlight coming in during the winter your heat and air will not need to come on and off as often to keep you comfortable.

Green appliances are also a must. Get the highest SEER heating and cooling system that you can afford. Which leads to my next recommendation. You may also consider installing a smart thermostat to help your HVAC system run more efficiently. Currently for most people it is cheaper to heat, cook and heat water with gas. This may vary depending on your location. If you can put in gas it would be to your advantage.




Another option is out there for heating your home. It is called a water stove and they are becoming very popular. Heating your home and your water can be upwards of more than 2/3 of your power bill. If you have access to cheap or free wood to burn and do not mind a little elbow grease this is a very good way to heat your home and your water.

Water stoves are basically boilers that heat water. They then use a heat exchanger to transfer that heat to the water. Finally, the hot water flows to your hot water tank and heats your home. They are typically installed away from the home because of the smoke and lines are run into the house.

Another thing that you can do to keep sun off of your house is to plant plants that have large leaves that provide good shade. This helps especially on the west side of the house to keep the hot setting sun off of the house.

Which reminds me that you want to make sure that you have south facing windows. These windows will allow sunlight in all year long without the sunlight being too direct.