ENERGY BOOMER

Here’s a Fast Method to Learn the Way Solar Panels Work

The following article is guest written by Barbara Young.

What is solar energy?

Solar power is radiant energy which is produced by the sun. Each day the sun radiates, or sends out, an incredible volume of energy. The sun radiates more energy in one second than people have used since the beginning of time!

The energy of the Sun comes from within the sun itself. Like other stars, the sun is really a big ball of gases––mostly hydrogen and helium atoms.

The hydrogen atoms in the sun’s core combine to form helium and generate energy in a process called nuclear fusion.

During nuclear fusion, the sun’s extremely high pressure and temperature cause hydrogen atoms to come apart and their nuclei (the central cores of the atoms) to fuse or combine. Four hydrogen nuclei fuse to become one helium atom. However the helium atom contains less mass compared to four hydrogen atoms that fused. Some matter is lost during nuclear fusion. The lost matter is emitted into space as radiant energy.

It takes millions of years for the energy in the sun’s core to make its way to the solar surface, and then somewhat over eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles to earth. The solar energy travels to the earth at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, the velocity of light.

Only a small percentage of the energy radiated from the sun into space strikes our planet, one part in two billion. Yet this amount of energy is enormous. Everyday enough energy strikes the USA to supply the nation’s energy needs for one and a half years!

Where does all this energy go?

About 15 percent of the sun’s energy that hits our planet is reflected back into space. Another 30 percent is used to evaporate water, which, lifted into the atmosphere, produces rainfall. Solar power also is absorbed by plants, the land, and the oceans. The remaining could be employed to supply our energy needs.

Who invented solar technology?

People have harnessed solar technology for centuries. Since the 7th century B.C., people used simple magnifying glasses to concentrate the light of the sun into beams so hot they would cause wood to catch fire. Over 100 years ago in France, a scientist used heat from a solar collector to produce steam to drive a steam engine. In the beginning of this century, scientists and engineers began researching ways to use solar technology in earnest. One important development was a remarkably efficient solar boiler introduced by Charles Greeley Abbott, an american astrophysicist, in 1936.

The solar hot water heater gained popularity at this time in Florida, California, and the Southwest. The industry started in the early 1920s and was in full swing right before World War II. This growth lasted before mid-1950s when low-cost propane had become the primary fuel for heating American homes.

The public and world governments remained largely indifferent to the possibilities of solar technology prior to the oil shortages of the1970s. Today, people use solar technology to heat buildings and water and to generate electricity.

How we use solar power today?

Solar energy is used in a number of different ways, of course. There are two very basic types of solar power:

 * Solar thermal energy collects the sun's warmth through one of two means: in water or in an anti-freeze (glycol) mixture.

 * Solar photovoltaic energy converts the sun's radiation to usable electricity.

Let us discuss the five most practical and popular methods solar energy is employed:

 1. Small portable solar photovoltaic systems. We see these used everywhere, from calculators to solar garden tools. Portable units can be utilised for everything from RV appliances while single panel systems are used for traffic signs and remote monitoring stations.

 2. Solar pool heating. Running water in direct circulation systems via a solar collector is a very practical way to heat water for your pool or hot tub.

 3. Thermal glycol energy to heat water. In this method (indirect circulation), glycol is heated by sunshine and the heat is then transferred to water in a hot water tank. This process of collecting the sun's energy is a lot more practical now than in the past. In areas as far north as Edmonton, Alberta, solar thermal to heat water is economically sound. It can pay for itself in three years or less.

 4. Integrating solar photovoltaic energy into your home or office power. In numerous parts of the world, solar photovoltaics is an economically feasible solution to supplement the power of your property. In Japan, photovoltaics are competitive with other types of power. In the US, new incentive programs make this form of solar technology ever more viable in many states. An increasingly popular and practical way of integrating solar energy into the power of your home or business is through the use of building integrated solar photovoltaics.

 5. Large independent photovoltaic systems. When you have enough sun power at your site, you could possibly go off grid. You may also integrate or hybridize your solar power system with wind power or other kinds of renewable energy to stay 'off the grid.'

How do Photovoltaic panels work ?

Silicon is mounted beneath non-reflective glass to produce photovoltaic panels. These panels collect photons from the sun, converting them into DC electrical power. The power created then flows into an inverter. The inverter transforms the energy into basic voltage and AC electricity.

Photovoltaic cells are prepared with particular materials called semiconductors for example silicon, which is presently the most generally used. When light hits the Photovoltaic cell, a certain share of it is absorbed inside the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light is given to the semiconductor.

The power unfastens the electrons, permitting them to run freely. Solar cells also have one or more electric fields that act to compel electrons unfastened by light absorption to flow in a specific direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by introducing metal links on the top and bottom of the -Photovoltaic cell, the current can be drawn to use it externally.

What are the pros and cons of solar technology ?

Solar Pro Arguments

- Heating our homes with oil or propane or using electricity from power plants running with coal and oil is a reason for climate change and climate disruption. Solar energy, on the contrary, is clean and environmentally-friendly.

- Solar hot-water heaters require little maintenance, and their initial investment could be recovered within a relatively limited time.

- Solar hot-water heaters can work in nearly every climate, even just in very cold ones. You just have to choose the best system for your climate: drainback, thermosyphon, batch-ICS, etc.

- Maintenance costs of solar powered systems are minimal and also the warranties large.

- Financial incentives (USA, Canada, European states…) can help to eliminate the price of the first investment in solar technologies. The U.S. government, for example, offers tax credits for solar systems certified by by the SRCC (Solar Rating and Certification Corporation), which amount to 30 percent of the investment (2009-2016 period).

Solar Cons Arguments

- The first investment in Solar Water heaters or in Photovoltaic Electric Systems is greater than that required by conventional electric and gas heaters systems.

- The payback period of solar PV-electric systems is high, as well as those of solar space heating or solar cooling (only the solar domestic hot water heating payback is short or relatively short).

- Solar water heating do not support a direct in conjunction with radiators (including baseboard ones).

- Some air cooling (solar space heating and the solar cooling systems) are very pricey, and rather untested technologies: solar air-con isn't, till now, a really economical option.

- The efficiency of solar powered systems is rather influenced by sunlight resources. It's in colder climates, where heating or electricity needs are higher, that the efficiency is smaller.

Who am i ? - Barbara Young writes on motorhome solar panel installation in her personal hobby blog 12voltsolarpanels.net. Her work is focused on helping people save energy using solar energy to reduce CO2 emissions and energy dependency.

 

The following article is guest written by Barbara Young.

Save Money by Saving Water

Those of us who use “city” water want to save money by saving water because the amount we pay for our monthly water bill keeps going up.

There are a couple of reasons why the cost of water is headed up. The ever increasing cost of energy to pump the water is part of the problem.

The other reason that water bills are going up is the increasing cost of operating wastewater treatment plants. For most of us, our water meters are used to bill us twice. Once for the amount of water used and a second time to bill us for sewage.

The sewer part of the bill is likely to be more than twice as expensive as the water portion of the bill. The rising cost of electrical power to operate the water treatment equipment is part of the problem, but so is the cost to meet the ever increasing burden of government regulations.

Those of you who are lucky enough to live outside of an area served by a city water system have to pay for your own water supply and waste treatment system. A major part of your electric bill is for power to run a well pump.

If you have well water and a septic system you may not experience a monthly bill the way city folks do. From personal experience I know you should be setting money aside monthly to maintain you private water works.

When the cost of fixing you water well or septic system hits, it can take a big chunk of your savings account to get it all working again. The less water you use in your day to day life the less often you will have those big maintenance bills.

So How Do I Save Water?

I waste water. How is that for a confession? I grew up and still live in the part of the USA where the Great Lakes are the major geographical feature. According to the EPA, the Great Lakes hold about 21% of the world’s fresh water or 84% of the fresh water in the USA. I have been spoiled with that abundance of fresh water.

I know folks who live in dry states that think I commit major crimes because of my water wasteful ways. Their bathroom rule of “if it is yellow let it mellow, if it is brown flush it down” does save water, but I don’t like it.

Some relatively small changes in the way you do things at home can reduce your water use.

I have volunteered to stop shaving to save water, but my wife won’t let me. Every day, I need to remind myself to shave using only a wash basin full of hot water rather than just letting the hot water flow continuously.

Long showers are a luxury that I indulge in only when I am staying at a hotel. Never at home where I pay the energy and water bills. I figure that if I am paying the bill for a hotel I should get my monies worth of hot water.

I like the idea of saving water by bathing with a friend. But, those showers tend to take a lot longer and use more water than usual.

If you use a dish washing machine it uses about the same amount of water and energy whether it is a small load or a full load of dirty dishes. So it saves you money to do full loads only.

The same idea applies to the clothes washer. If you absolutely need to do a small load of clothes be sure you adjust the water level to avoid wasting water.

Don’t let the men folk help wash dishes by hand. They tend to start water battles that waste water. Unless you are very frugal with hand washing your dish washing machine will use less water.

Don’t put more water in the tea kettle than your tea pot will hold.

Don’t drown them in excess water when boiling vegetables. Better yet, steam those vegetables. Steaming uses far less water and doesn’t wash away as many nutriments.

I water flowers and the vegetable garden in the late evening so it soaks in before evaporating.

I avoid watering the grass because that just makes it grow and then I will need to be mowed sooner.

If you really want to water the grass make the water do double duty by parking your car on the lawn and washing the car. Wash the car and water the grass with the same water.

For more ideas on saving money by reducing you water use you can read my old article titled Do You Know a Teenager Who Takes Long Showers?

Click here for a free money saving report written by the Energy Boomer titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

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Save Money by Using Energy Just Where You Need it

One of the key principles for saving money is to focus energy just where you need it. The best way to understand this principle is by looking at some examples.

Put Heat Just Where People Need it

You can save money on your home heating bill by heating just the rooms you use. The reason we heat our homes is to keep people comfortable so putting the heat just where people are will reduce waste.

We don’t heat the garage because people don’t spend much time there. If you are working on your car, it is a good idea to use a portable heater. But, heat it just while you are working there.

Inside the house you can save by keeping the rooms that you use the most warmer and letting the rest cool off. Using a space heater to keep the family room a warm 72 while the rest of the house is at a cool 65 is an example of this. (This will work only if the main thermostat is not in the warm room.)

At night when folks are in the in bed for eight hours or so, you should focus energy just on the bed. Using an electric blanket, electric mattress pad or a warm quilt to keep people warm will let you save money by turning your thermostat way down.

At work, office areas should be heated to the 69 to 73 temperature range, but factory work areas can be cooler. 66 degrees is a comfortable working temperature where there is physical activity. Overnight, unoccupied areas should be allowed to cool off. 

Air Condition people not things

Avoid air conditioning empty rooms to save money. If you have a spare bedroom, don’t cool it.

If no one is home don’t cool an empty house. The same idea works at work. If your office is unoccupied over the weekend don’t waste energy heating or cooling it. Your fax machine doesn’t care about the temperature.

Focus the Light on the Job to be Done

Reading lamps are the classic example of using light just where needed. Task lights allow us to put enough light where it is needed without over lighting the whole room.

Another at home example is in the kitchen. We need plenty of light over the stove and where food is being prepared. We don’t need as much light where the trash can is located.

We want good light in the dining area but less light is needed in hallways. A lamp right next to your favorite chair helps you read the newspaper, but it can be switched off when you watch TV.

At work we need really good light at quality inspection areas. We don’t need that high intensity light in the traffic aisles. Task lighting saves money by tailoring the amount of illumination based on the work to be done in that area.

If you understand and apply the idea of focusing energy just where you need it you can save money of your utility bills.

Click here for a free money saving report written by the Energy Boomer titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

Related Posts:

SAVE ELECTRICITY WITH TASK LIGHTING

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Are Electric Space Heaters Energy Savers or Money Wasters?

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HOW MUCH WILL IT COST TO RUN MY ELECTRIC SPACE HEATER

During cold weather, many folks use eclectic space heaters to keep comfortable. One of the most frequently asked questions I get is from folks wanting to know how much their space heater will cost on their electric bill.

Most household electric space heaters in the North America are rated for either 750 Watts or 1,500 Watts. Many of the 1,500-Watt size space heaters have two power settings. High for 1,500 Watts and Low for 750 Watts.

Why is 1,500 Watts the maximum?

A single 1,500-Watt electric appliance is the most you can use on a single circuit in residential housing. If you plugged in anything more powerful, you will blow a fuse or pop a circuit breaker.

In fact, you can only use two or three plug in electric space heater in a typical house because of the limited number of circuits. If you use your hair drier or electric fry pan on the same circuit as an electric space heater, you will knock the power off for that circuit.

Do not be frustrated by this. Remember electric circuit over load protection is there to prevent house fires.

It does not mater if the heating element is a heating coil, a light bulb, or any other device. Plug in space heaters are all made to use 1,500 watts or less.

They are all about 100% efficient so efficiency claims do not matter

Since 1,500 watts is the power input limit, the heat out put limit is about 5,000 BTU (British Thermal Units) per hour. All of the different heating elements are about 100% efficient.

An old fashion light bulb is only about 90% efficient as a heater. However, after the 10% that is light energy bounces around through the air it too becomes heat. Fan motors are only about 80% efficient but the energy wasted is in the form of heat, so it is not wasted when you want heat.

How do I estimate how much my space heater will cost to run?

To figure out how much money your space heater will cost you need to know what you will be paying for your next kilowatt-hour of electrical power. Not easy because the price is different for every utility company in North America.

Check your bill. It may say right on it what your cost of a kilowatt-hour (kWh) is. My home electric bill gives me very limited information, but it says the electric rate is 6.42 cents per kWh.

That number is not the whole story. It does not include taxes, the customer charge, distribution charges or cost recovery charges.

They way to get a good estimate of your cost per kWh is to divide the total dollar amount of the bill by the total number of kilowatts that they are charging you for. On my last bill I was charged $87.47 for 741 kWh used. That divides out to 11.8 cents per kWh.

Rounding that to 12 cents per kWh and looking at the chart above it would cost me about 18 cents per hour to run one space heater. Doesn’t sound too bad for the comfort it gives.

If I used that space heater 10 hours a day the cost per day would be about $1.80. Most of the time there are 30 days in a month, so at most one space heater running 10 hours a day would add $54 to the electric bill. Since my total bill from just after thanksgiving to just before new years was $87, you can tell we do not use a space heater very much.

Actually, my wife uses one for about an hour in the bathroom to boost the temperature while she takes her shower, but only on very cold mornings. I dare not complain.

The $54 a month is most it would be. If the thermostat on the space heater is set right and working, it should not be heating all the time. It should be cycling on and off. It should heat the room, shut off, and then wait while the room cools, and then heat again.

It may be on only 60 or 70% of the time. That means the monthly cost might be more like $35. Reducing the time that you use the heater will reduce the cost.

Folks who live in parts of the country where the electric prices are higher will pay more. Check the chart for how much per hour.

Remember this

A $250 electric space heater rated for 1,500 Watts and a $20 space heater rated for 1,500 Watts both cost the same on the electric bill and both produce the same amount of heat. One looks like a piece of furniture and the other looks like a space heater. Choose wisely.

Click here for a free money saving report written by the Energy Boomer titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

Related Posts:

Are Electric Space Heaters Energy Savers or Money Wasters?

10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ELECTRIC SPACE HEATERS

SAVE ENERGY WHEN IT GETS COOL OUTSIDE?

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Use Child Safety Caps to Save Energy Money

One of my blog readers reminded me that I should write about using child safety caps on the electrical outlets on exterior walls of homes. They do help stop cold drafts and save energy in some houses.

By exterior walls, I mean the walls of your house that stand between you and the great outdoors. They are the walls that have windows in them.

The electrical outlets and switch boxes that are inside of the exterior walls do not leave much room for insulation in that part of the wall. Because of the lack of space inside the walls, there maybe no insulation stuffed between the electrical box and the outside skin of the house. That is why folks notice a cold draft at these locations.

If you can feel cold air coming in during the winter, you know that heat is also escaping and costing you money.

Three things you can do to stop the cold draft

1. Put child safety caps in any outlets that are not being used. They safely fill the holes in the outlet where the cold air is getting in. As an alternate, you can replace the outlet covers with the kind that have a sliding cover over the outlet holes. They are also made for child safety.

2. Remove the outlet cover plate that is held on by a screw or two. Insert a foam outlet cover gasket under the cover plate and put the cover back on. These help seal the outlet cover and add a small amount of insulation. These insulating foam gaskets are also available for wall mounted light switches too.

3. Get a can of foam insulation sealant and squirt some in the wall behind the outlet. To get the foam where you need it, remove the outlet cover and poke the tube of the foam spray can in past the outlet. It is a good idea to shut the power off at the circuit breaker before starting this job. The same method is good for wall switches too.

You can expect to hear some bad words from who ever is stuck with job of replacing a worn out outlet or light switch after it has been foamed in place. The foam can be dug out easily enough it just adds some clean up work to the job.

What about interior walls?

Interior walls are not as much of a problem because they just act as partitions between rooms inside the house. Interior walls are not usually insulated because there is not much of a temperature difference from one room to the next in most homes.

If interior walls do have insulation inside them, it was intended to help muffle the movement of sound from one room to the next. However, since interior walls are mostly hollow, they can act as skinny chimneys. These skinny chimneys make a pathway for warm air to sneak in around electrical outlets and rise up into the attic.

This flow of warm air up and out of your home will make your heating bill higher than it should be. You should stop this escaping of warm air up and out of your living space.

There are two ways to stop this flow of air. You can cut off the flow of air at a choke point at either the top or the bottom of these skinny chimneys.

The best way is to use a can of spray foam insulating sealant to seal the tops of the walls where they connect to the attic. It may be the best way, but some folks do not like the idea of crawling around in their attic searching for wall top openings to seal. This job usually involves the mess of digging through the attic insulation. There is also a risk of putting you foot through the ceiling if you make a miss step off the rafters.

The other way to attack the problem is from the bottom by sealing wall switches and outlets and along the baseboards. For outlets and wall switches, you can use the same methods listed above.

The wallboard or the plaster part of the wall does not actually go all the way down to the floor. A baseboard, trim wood or a plastic cove base covers the gap between the floor and the wallboard. If you have any visible openings between the floor and wallboard, they need to be sealed. You can use caulking or spray foam for this job. 

Yes, I do love playing with a can of spray foam.

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Stopping Basement Drafts with Insulating Spray Foam Sealant

The other day, I was working on cleaning up the stuff stored in our basement when I felt a cold draft down my neck. I really don’t like doing clean up chores so an opportunity to do something else was welcome. 

Using a LED flashlight, to see better, I started searching for the source of the draft. In a few minutes, I found where the draft was coming in. It was in the corner of the basement where the cement blocks of the basement supports the wood wall of the house. The black tar like material that was supposed to seal the joint was gone.

I tried to picture in my mind what was outdoors at that corner. Then I remembered that it is where our friendly chipmunk has take up house keeping. No wonder he likes to burrow in that spot. He is provided with warmth leaking out of my basement. Plus, it is right near the bird feeder.

Fixing the problem from the inside

If I attacked the problem from the outside, I would have to excavate the chipmunk’s home. Better to keep the peace in our home by fixing the problem from the inside. Besides, it is cold out there in January. I’d rather work on this important energy saving project from the warmth of the basement.

After puzzling about how to fix the problem from the inside, I decided that I needed a can of insulating spray foam sealant for this job. Off I went to my favorite home improvement supply store. After spending several long seconds selecting the right brand of spray foam, I quickly grabbed a can of the one that was on sale and marched to the check out. As I marched along, I carefully avoided eye contact with all the other interesting products that were calling my name.

Back in the basement, I used a broom to sweep away the cobwebs and any loose material in the target zone. After wearing out my right arm shaking the can the required length of time, I started squirting the foam in the drafty corner.

Too late, I remembered you should wear old clothes or a hazardous materials suit if you are as sloppy as I am. This stuff really sticks to every thing it touches. I should have bought two cans to make up for the foam that got stuck to the floor and ceiling.

The next day I returned the scene and trimmed away the excess foam using my Ka-Bar knife. Good thing I am better with a knife than I am with a squirt can.

The result is a warmer basement and one less energy leak to worry about on the heating bill. It made a good wintertime indoor energy saving project. And, it was more fun than cleaning the basement.

Click here for a free money saving report written by the Energy Boomer titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

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Touch ’n Foam Spray Insulation Sealant Review

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Use a Meat Thermometer to Save Money on Hot Water

Last week one of my readers sent me a question asking what temperature a home water heater should be set at. I recommended setting it between 120 to 130F.

If it was easy to set the water heater at just the right temperature, 130 F would be my target. Maybe I should have recommended 125 to 135 for a target range. I give a ten-degree range because setting the water heater temperature requires some trial and error.

Any temperature less than 120 is too low for health reasons. Any temperature above 140 is wastefully high if you want to save money on your energy bills.

Check it with a meat thermometer

Don’t trust the markings on the dial or adjustment screws on the heater. I suggest that you check it with meat thermometer. The kind of thermometer that you stick into the meat while it is roasting has just the right temperature range for the job.

Put your meat thermometer in a coffee mug or bowl. Set this test station in your kitchen sink. Let the hot water run into the coffee mug until the temperature reading stops going up.

If reads 140 for rare beef or higher the water is hotter than you need. Make an adjustment on your water heater and check it again the next day. Work the temperature down with small adjustments until it is in the right range.

Once you find the right setting, I suggest you get your magic marker out and mark it so you can find it again quickly. Some day you may have a little helper around who like to twist knobs.

Reducing the temperature saves you money

Heating the water at too high of a temperature wastes money on your energy bill. The higher the temperature the more energy is needed to heat the incoming cold water up to the point where the heater shuts off.

While the heated water sits in the tank, it cools off. More energy is needed to keep the water at the set temperature. This cooling and re-heating goes on 24 hours a day whether you use any hot water or not.

Tank less or “on demand” water heaters, avoid some of the energy waste by eliminating the storage of hot water. But, setting them at too high of a temperature will cost you extra on your energy bill.

New water heaters are usually set at 140 degrees. When folks sell a water heater, they want the customer to get really hot water right from the start. If you have never reset your heater temperature, it is likely to be wasting your money.

There is conflicting information available from our government. The OSHA folks say that workers need to be protected if they are exposed to temperatures of 140 F or above. The U S Health Department wants public use hot water 140 F or higher to kill the bacteria quickly. The U S Department of energy suggests a 115 to 120 F setting residential water heaters to save energy.

My target recommendation of 130 is a level that provides good bacteria control and realistic energy savings.

 A while back, I wrote an article titled; Energy Savings and Healthy Hot Water that you should read.

If you need a new meat thermometer here is a good source for one. I even added this to my Amazon wish list.

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Energy Tax Credits Are Available for Your Home

You can add insulation, put in a new roof, upgrade your heating and air conditioning, or replace doors and windows and get money back on your taxes.

Over the rest of this year and all of next year, you have the opportunity to improve the resale value of your home, make your home more comfortable, save some money on your utility bills, and even get some money back from the government.  Not a bad deal!

Here’s how it works.  Simply replace old inefficient equipment with new high efficiency equipment and get money back on your taxes.  If you install new heating and/or air conditioning, insulation, roof, non-solar water heating, or windows and doors on your existing home that you use as your principal residence, you can get a tax credit of 30% of the cost (up to a maximum credit of $1500) when you file your taxes.  This is a tax credit, not an income deduction, so you get all of that back. 

If you install geothermal heat pumps, small wind turbines, or solar systems you can get 30% back with no upper limit.  New homes and second homes also qualify for this credit. 

I have an old farmhouse that is over 100 years old.  The windows were single pane and some of them were six feet tall. We tried putting up storm windows and caulking and sealing around the windows, but we could still feel the cold air.  We went down to Lowe’s and ordered seven new windows and a new front door.  Lowe’s just finished the installation this week and we can already feel the difference.  Our tax credit will be over $500 next spring. 

Next year I plan to look at adding some insulation, since the program runs to the end of next year and I am nowhere close to my $1500 cap. 

Although my windows and doors only qualified for credits on the material, some systems, like heating also include the installation costs toward the credits.  Check out this website for more details.

This Article was written by my friend, by James Cartwright in December 2009. Jim is a Certified Energy manager (CEM) and an active member of the Association of Energy Engineers.

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Counting and Graphing to Save Energy Money

To really understand how you are doing you need to be able to count something and graph your progress. Do you track dollars spent on your electric bill each month and graph it? Most people and companies don’t.

The physical act of putting together a table of data and drawing up a graph forces you to think about what those numbers mean. Making a graph using either a computer or a pencil and graph paper makes you focus on the numbers.

The computer that you are using to read this is likely to have MS Excel already in it. Excel makes graphing easy as long as you let it have its way on some details.

If you don’t keep score, you don’t know if you are winning or losing

In business, folks are always counting stuff and tracking the results with graphs. I’ll bet one of the first things you learned to count was money.

Business folks count things like:

• Units sold per month
• Dollars earned per month
• Kilowatts used per month

Productivity numbers are also a favorite for calculating and graphing:

• Material cost per unit
• Labor cost per unit
• Kilowatts per unit

At home, most folks just glance at the little bar chart that is on the bill that they get in the mail. They are so focused on the dollars they owe; they don’t try to figure out why the bar on the graph is higher this time.

You need to ask some questions like:

• Was this month warmer or colder than the same month last year?
• Did we have house guests during the month?
• Were we away from home for a few days?
• What was different during the month?

You can feel good about your conservation work when you see the results on the bill after you changed to lighting that is more efficient.

Or, after adding insulation or completed other projects.

Home heating fuels can be tracked and graphed, but allowance needs to be made for weather changes. You can track your heating efficiency by figuring out how many cubic feet of gas you used per Heating Degree Day. Or, how many gallons of heating oil were used per HDD.

Similar tracking and graphing can be done with your water bill. Cubic feet of water per month, or gallons of water per person per month are possibilities. Or, just dollars per month. Everyone understands dollars.

After you decide which energy or water score’s you are going to keep track of, it is good to go back in history to reconstruct a year or more of data to establish a baseline. Then do things to improve your scores and track the results.

If you can show your boss energy money savings on a graph at work, you might even get to move your pay graph up a little.

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Heating Just to Keep Your Pipes From Freezing Saves Energy Money

Frozen water pipes cost more than you could ever save by shutting the heat completely off. Shutting your furnace off saves on your heating bill while you are away from home. But, only as long as the weather does not go below freezing. You need to watch the weather very carefully.

When we lived in Virginia, back when I worked at a shipyard, the management of the townhouse apartment we lived in told us to leave the water running on cold nights. We were warned that the pipes would freeze if we didn’t leave water running.

At first, we didn’t believe them since we were not expecting cold weather like we knew growing up in Michigan. But, we did leave a trickle of water running and sure enough, our neighbors pipes froze and ours didn’t.

Leaving the water running for freeze prevention works, but it is a waste of resources.

I have been trading messages with readers in New York State where the cost of home heating fuel is extremely high and in Minnesota where cold weather is brutal. Both are trying to reduce the money they pay out for home heating.

The objective is saving money

So, we sure don’t want to risk a flood from a frozen and burst water pipe. Then the question becomes, “how low can I go with the thermostat without risking a freeze?”

We all know water freezes at 32F.  We also know that at a distance away from the thermostat it may be colder than what the thermostat reads. To me that means 35 is not warm enough for freeze prevention. 40 may work, but 45 in my choice as a minimum. That is a safety margin of 13 degrees. 13 sounds lucky to me!

I suggest you take some temperature readings where your water pipes are located. Then compare them with the thermostat reading. Find out just how many degrees colder it is where pipes are than the thermostat reading.

If your pipes are at a corner of your basement where the temperature is 20 degrees less that the thermostat reading, you better go no lower than 55 on the thermostat. (35 minimum plus 20 = 55)

Another solution

You can add a heat source right where the pipes are. Space heaters, heat lamps,old fashion light bulbs and electric heat cable have all have been used for this. Put the extra heat where it is needed and let the rest of the building cool down more.

I cannot give you an exact best way to prevent freezing because each building or house is different and the weather varies so much.

Just keep in mind the less you heat an empty building the less it costs..until the pipes freeze.

As you work your empty house thermostat setting lower, you may discover another problem. Some thermostats don’t go very low. The old standard was no lower than 55. You may need to get a different thermostat to allow you to get down to 45 or 50.

To maximize your savings now, I recommend you set the thermostat at 62 or lower while you sleep and down to 55 when no one is home for half a day or longer. You should see the savings on your next heating bill.

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Why More Insulation in Your Walls Doesn’t Help AC Bills

Adding extra insulation to your house walls is a waste of money, if you live where air conditioning bills are more than your winter heating bills.

Adding insulation in the walls of your home is not a very effective way to lower cooling energy use. Field tests have found that walls are only 5% to 10% of all the cooling loads in the average home.

About twice as much solar heat as gets into your house through the attic than through the walls. Investing money to lower attic temperatures makes much more sense for folks with high air conditioning bills.

Walls are not exposed to large amounts of solar radiation because so many things shade them (roof overhangs, landscaping, buildings, and awnings).  Also, the summertime sun is higher in the sky, so most of the solar heat hits your roof not your walls.

The outdoor air temperature is the heat exposure for walls.  During the summer, there is usually little temperature difference between the indoors and the outdoors. Typically, the difference is only 15 to 20 degrees.

Stick with the building code-recommended level of wall insulation (R-5 [block] to R-13 [frame]). Don’t spend money on more wall insulation. Use your resources to plant shrubs, trees, and other kinds of shading devices. Blocking the sunshine is more effective than more insulation.

If you live, where winter heating bills are as big as or bigger than your summer air conditioning bills, wall insulation is a priority. If the winter outdoor temperature averages 20 and you keep it 70 degrees in the house, there is a 50-degree difference.

Than much temperature difference, makes heat flow through the walls more expensive. More wall insulation is worth the cost to protect from very cold winter air.

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Why Doubling Attic Insulation Does Not Cut Your Energy Use in Half

Some folks think that if the double the thickness of attic their attic insulation that it will reduce their heating and cooling bills by 50%. Doubling the R-value of the insulation in your attic does not cut your home heating bill in half. Here is why.

First, what is R & U all about?

Insulation is rated by its resistance to heat flow and is measured in units of R-value. The R-value is used in selling insulation because bigger is better.

It is easier to sell a product when bigger numbers mean it is worth more. It is harder to sell stuff to people, when lower is better.

R-value is an accepted product labeling number to make it easier for folks to understand that thicker is better. And, worth a higher price.

The inverse of thermal resistance is conductance, referred to as the U-value. The U-value is equal to one divided by the R-value (U = 1/R). Your remember fractions and algebra from school right? 

The U value is important to engineers because it describes how fast energy is traveling in or out of your house. It is the number we use in our heat loss calculations.

In the English speaking part of the world, we count U-values in Btu/square foot-Fahrenheit-hour. You don’t need to remember that. Just hold on to the idea that it is the speed of escaping energy, so lower is better.

So how do you use R-value?

R-value is intuitively easier to understand, the higher the R-value, the better the insulation. R-values of different components can be added. As an example if you have three layers of R 7 insulation in your attic the total R-value = 7 + 7 + 7 = 21

You cannot add U-values as easily. Watch out here come the fractions and decimals. Total U-value = 1/(7 + 7 + 7) = 1/21 = 0.048

Let’s see that visually

This graph shows the speed of escaping energy on the left. Squint so you can see the decimal point. The highest value is point 3 with zero at the bottom of the graph. The R-value is shown across the bottom of the graph.

Look at the graph and notice two things.

One. The speed of escaping energy is slowed a lot for each little bit of insulation until you reach R 14 where it turns the corner.

Two. From R 28 onward, there is very little improvement.

If you were to improve attic insulation from R-7 to R-21, for example, you could cut you energy losses through the ceiling by 65%.

Going from 1/7 versus to 1/21 U-value (or from 0.14 to 0.05) is a 65% improvement.

In most homes about 35% of the heat is lost out the roof, the rest gets out through the walls, windows and by air leaks. Therefore, the overall energy bill for the heating season would be reduced by about 23% (a 65% improvement of 35% of the heating bill.)

In this example, three times as much insulation saves less than one quarter of the heating bill.

The myth persists that, if R-11 insulation in your house saves heat and money, R-22 insulation saves twice as much. However, the energy and money you save by adding more insulation diminishes quickly.

Look at the graph again. Starting with an R-value of 3.5, every doubling of units in R-value cuts the speed of heat loss through the wall or ceiling by about half. The R-value points shown on the graph are selected because they are double the previous number.

As the thickness (R-value) gets higher, the speed of heat escaping through the ceiling soon becomes tiny. It reaches a thickness where adding more insulation costs more than it is worth.

So what do I recommend?

If the insulation in your attic is less than R 30 (9 inches or less of fiberglass) then you should add more.

Because the amount of labor to do the job does not change much with thickness, it is best to do the job once. By that, I mean add as much as you need in one new layer. Make it thick enough so that you will not have to do it again when the price of energy goes way up.

You should target a total of about R-50, plus or minus 10. The number does not need to be exact. R 60 is good for far North America. R 40 is good where the snow melts between winter snowfalls. If it hardly ever snows where you live, R 40 insulation will save on your summertime air conditioning bill.

I recommend going big and do it just once by adding one new layer of fiberglass. Use the thickest available single layer of unfaced fiberglass batt insulation that will get you near R 50. That is about 16 inches of total thickness.

The cost to bring in and set up the equipment for blown in loose fill insulation is the same no matter how deep you fill your attic. So, I suggest you shoot for a total of 16 inches deep.

Yes the material cost for thicker is higher, but by going with one new layer that takes you to a total of about R 50 you only pay the labor cost once. Or, if you do it yourself you only risk falling through the ceiling once.

That will give you plenty of insulation now and still do the job when the price of home heating fuel goes up.

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Review How and When to Use Rope Caulking

Rope caulking is a good product for you to use to save money on your heating and air conditioning bills. Rope caulking is an item that most folks don’t know about or use. When I first heard about it, my mind pictured the oakum fiber rope used to caulk seams between the planks of wood boats.

Finger tip rope caulking is not like that at all. It is not really big enough to call rope; it is more like the size of 3/16” cord. I think the finger tip part of its name comes from its small size. I other sizes are available. It looks and feels like putty or gray modeling clay.

It comes in a box rolled up like a ribbon. Each “rope” of caulking needs to be separated from its neighbors when you use it. I suggest that you keep the rope caulk inside your house so it will be warm and pliable when you use it.

One of the best places to use it is between window frames and the siding on your house. Sealing a gap around your windows will stop cold air drafts and save on your heating bill. It is a two-season winner because it will also save on air conditioning. Sealing moisture out will prevent wood rot also.

How to use it

Clean the areas where the cracks and gaps are around the window. If you skip this step, the rope caulk may not stick to the crack you are trying to fill. By clean I mean no loose material no oil on the material the caulk is to seal.

I use a stiff bristle brush to remove any loose stuff. Most of the time a good brushing is all the cleaning you will need.

If the surfaces are slippery, I wash the area using a spray bottle filled with alcohol. If you wash the area, you have to take a break while it dries.

The alcohol does not stain; it dissolves oil and dries fast. You can use rubbing alcohol from a drug store or shellac thinner alcohol available at a paint supply store.

Remove the rope caulk from the box. Measure the length of crack where the draft is coming from on your window. Rip off a piece of rope caulk to match this length. I never seem to get the length right, so I have to add a piece or trim off the extra. To be honest I work with it in lengths of about 6 inches at a time. I find a long string of it gets in the way too much.

Use your finger to work the rope caulk into the cracks or gaps around all four sides of your windows. You fingers are a good tool for this job. Another reason it is called finger tip rope caulk.

I found some places where mortar was falling out between the front door frame and the brick facing on our home. So, I filled these gaps with rope caulking. My fat fingers were too big to get in between the bricks and the door.

I dug a 25-cent coin out of the bottom of my pocket to use as a tool. It worked OK, but my fingers got tired using it. A big straight blade screwdriver is a better tool for this job and may keep you from getting a splinter in your finger.

If you don’t like gray, you can paint over it, but it blended right in with the mortar. For big cracks, you may need to push in more than one layer of rope caulk to fill it.

Less of a Mess

It works good and for me it is less of a mess than squeeze tube or caulking gun stuff. I cannot keep my fingers out of the caulk as I try to push it into cracks and smooth the surface.

With gooey caulk, I get it all over me. Then my wife yells at me when I get it on my clothes.

For me, rope caulking does a neater job. No clean up needed, after the job.

Now He Tells Me!

With this product, it is easier to do a good job while the weather is warm. When the caulk and the window frame are cold, you have to work harder to fill the cracks with rope caulking. Working outdoors on a 50-degree day I found it works better if you roll a short piece between you hands to warm it up a little before pushing it into a crack.

 

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7 WAYS TO SAVE MONEY DRIVING THE CAR YOU HAVE NOW

The price of gasoline at the pump where I live has been going up the last few weeks. I need to remind myself that there are ways to save fuel while driving the Buick that I already own.

1. Avoid Idling.

Running the engine, while the car is standing still gets you zero miles per gallon. That is as low as it can go.

Big engines waste fuel fester while idling than small engines. Idling at traffic lights and waiting at drive in windows waste your money.

Starting your car and waiting until it warms up to clear the windows on winter mornings, wastes gasoline. It is less expensive to use a portable electric space heater, inside your car, to melt the ice on the windshield. Don’t forget to unplug the extension cord before driving away.

2. Tune-ups and clean fuel systems save you money.

You can save about 4 cents on every dollars worth of fuel just by keeping your engine tuned and clean. Fixing a car that is out of tune or has failed an emissions test can improve its gas mileage by an average of 4 percent. Clean fuel injectors are important.

Myth buster: Dirty air filters on cars that have modern computer controlled fuel injection do not reduce your miles per gallon. The computer corrects the air fuel ratio based on the reduced airflow through the dirty filter. For more information see

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/pdfs/Air_Filter_Effects_02_26_2009.pdf

You do loose power because a dirty air filter reduces the maximum amount of fuel air mixture that can get into the engine. A dirty air filter might actually save gas because when you floor the accelerator pedal, the car won’t use as much gas as a clean air filter would let you.

Keeping a dirty air filter on your car is like having a governor that limits your engine’s power. I do not recommend it.

3. Keep your tires up to pressure.

You can save about 3 cents on every dollars worth of fuel by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.3 percent for every 1-psi drop.

Properly inflated tires are safer because you give the best steering control and good traction. Tires with the wrong pressure can blow out. You also save money because tires with the right pressure last longer before needing replacement.
The right tire pressure for your vehicle can be found on a sticker on the edge of driver's side door where the door latch is.

Do not use the maximum pressure printed on the tire's sidewall. The pressure on the tire is a maximum pressure safety rating, not the right operating pressure for your vehicle.

4. Use the right oil

You can improve your gas mileage by about 2 cents per dollars worth of fuel by using the manufacturer's recommended grade of motor oil. For example, using 10W-30 motor oil in an engine designed to use 5W-30 can lower your gas mileage by 1 or 2 percent.

Using 5W-30 in an engine designed for 5W-20 can lower your gas mileage by one percent, or so. Look for motor oil that has an American Petroleum Institute (API) label that says, "Energy Conserving."

5. Lose 100 Pounds

Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your vehicle.  Get the junk out of your trunk. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your miles per gallon by up to 2 percent.

6. Don’t Drive 5 Over

In some States, there is an unwritten rule that it is OK to drive five miles an hour faster than the speed limit. If you drive over 60 mph, understand that you are throwing money away. Most vehicles reach peak fuel economy at speeds below 60.

Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. You can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.24 per gallon for gas.

The science is not that simple, but it is true that the aerodynamic drag increases rapidly above 60 mph.

Observing the speed limit is also safer. Avoiding an accident saves your money big time.

7. Smooth Driving Saves You Money

Jerky stops and starts waste money on fuel. The less you use the gas pedal the less fuel you use. The same is true with the brake pedal.

The difference can be as much as 30 to 40%. The way you drive is the biggest factor when comes to saving money on your fuel bill.

Accelerating slowly and stopping gradually save fuel and wear and tear on your car. It is good to have power available, when you need it to get out of the path of danger, but flooring the gas pedal costs you money.

You can reduce the amount of braking you do by leaving plenty of room between you and the vehicle ahead. Plan ahead by looking as far up the road as you can.

Don’t rush up to a red light. Coasting toward a red light may give it time to turn green so you don’t need to brake.

Drive like you don’t have any brakes and you will save on fuel.

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Save by Warming Yourself Before You Warm the Whole House

You can save your money if you put on a sweater or sweatshirt before you turn up the thermostat. Each degree lower than 72 you can keep the thermostat decreases your fuel bill by about 3 percent.

If you can keep your thermostat no higher than 68 you save, about 12% compared to keeping your house a toasty 72 degrees. So, if your heating bill is about $150 a month you can save about $18. That will add up over the course of a winter.

I have an ugly red plaid wool blend jacket with big pockets that I wear inside the house during cold weather.

My slim wife often wears a blouse under a sweatshirt with her green fleece jacket layered over top along with corduroy pants. The top layer comes off when she is busy with housework. When she takes a break, she puts the green jacket back on.

I don’t know where the idea came from that all you need is a tee shirt and jeans when you are at home. Maybe it is OK for summertime but not in cold weather.

Flannel shirts, wool socks, slipper sox, red flannel long johns, corduroy trousers, long wool skirts, smoking jackets, vests, housecoats, cardigan sweaters, wool trousers and many other old fashion warm clothes should be making a comeback.

Fleece is a great modern substitute for wool for many warm garments. Fleece is easy to care for and less expensive than wool or flannel. My wife makes fleece pullover tops with a hood to keep the grandkids warm.

Warm yourself and the bed to save heating the house at night

Warm flannel or fleece PJ’s and nightgowns will help keep you warm as you sleep. Layer on the blankets and top it with a quilt to stay cozy warm while the furnace sleeps too.

It will cost you less to use an electric blanket while keeping the thermostat low. Keep the bed warm but let the house cool down.

If you have wood floors, keep a throw rug and slippers by the bedside to avoid frozen toes when you sleep walk.

Having the digital thermostat automatically warm up the house a half hour or so before you get up in the morning is a money saving luxury that I like.

We really are comfortable with the thermostat set at 68 during the day and at 62 at night all winter long.

Green folks like reducing the amount of fuel burned to heat their homes. These days the rest of us are happy just to save some money.

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Review Smoke Pencil for Locating Energy Wasting Drafts

Finding and sealing off cold air flowing into your building is one of the most effective ways to save money on your heating bill. Finding the source of cold drafts can be frustrating. We often know it is there but can’t feel it well enough to pinpoint the source.

The engineering word for air leaking into a building is “air infiltration.” Sealing off the air infiltration can cut the energy cost of heating by as much as 30 to 40% in industrial, commercial and residential buildings.

Locating and sealing air leaks saves money during both the heating and air conditioning seasons. Finding drafts is much easier when you use something to make the airflow visible.

Smoke Can Help

Over the years, I have used many different tools to locate the source of drafts that cause expensive energy waste. They range from low-tech cigarette smoke to high tech electronic ultrasonic listing devices.

Way back in the olden days, 30 years or so ago, cigar, cigarette or pipe smoke was one of the best ways to make air movement visible. It was cheap, available and effective. Now days, tobacco smoke is banned in most facilities and is considered a health and fire hazard.

Making a cloud of smoke and watching how it moves helps you to “see” where that cold draft is coming from. Slowly moving a smoke source around the frame of a window will quickly show you exactly where the air is flowing in or out at the window.

Inexpensive smoke sources may not be as effective as ultrasonic listening devices or infrared cameras. But, they are cost effective when you consider that the high tech tools can cost $1,000 or more.

Smoke Pencil

My friends at ChimneyBalloons.us set me a free sample product that they market called “Smoke Pencil.” I spent an hour playing with it and was impressed.

The name “Smoke Pencil” is descriptive of what it does, but not how it looks. It looks more like a Smoke Chimney. It stands about 10 inches tall, so it is a bit bigger than a pencil.

First, you put some of the magic liquid in the unit. Then you squeeze the trigger. In a few seconds, a column of smoke flows out the top of its smoke stack.

The smoke flows out in a lazy cloud that reminds me of the smoke from my childhood Lionel train locomotive. Except this smoke is sweet smelling and there is plenty of it.

Some smart person recognized that a toy called Wizard Stick was a great tool for tracking down drafts. The renamed Smoke Pencil is made of bright blue plastic. The weight of 6 AA size batteries in a large flat base makes it very stable when you set it down.

The liquid in the supply tank does not spill, even when you hold the unit upside down and shake it. Good design.

I had trouble finding air leaks when I first started fussing with it because our house is well sealed. Out on the sun porch I made some air leaks by opening windows just a crack. The Smoke Pencil did a great job making the airflow visible.

Using the Smoke Pencil, I actually did find a draft around the back door that I need to fix.

You can use the smoke pencil just about anywhere, as the liquid is non-hazardous. The liquid is a blend of food grade chemicals so the vapor it produces is non-hazardous. A Material Safety Data Sheet is available so it can be used in buildings where the owners are fussy about safety paper work.

The Smoke Pencil is available through ChimneyBalloons.us for about $25 plus shipping. Batteries not included. The low voltage battery power makes it safe from a fire hazard point of view.

Other Trade Secrets

Some of the more unusual items I have used to find leaks are, incenses sticks, baby powder, candles, soap solutions and shaving cream.

Insence sticks smell nice to some folks, and make enough smoke to do the job. I hate them because the smell is burned into my mind associated with that Crazy Asian War.

Making a cloud of baby powder by squeezing a plastic bottle of the stuff works OK and smells much better than tobacco or incense smoke. It does leave a white dust trail showing where you have been. You get tired of it very quickly.

Soap solutions are good for safely finding compressed air or gas pipe leaks when they make bubbles in the applied liquid soap. It is a good way to find air leaks in your car tires.

Candles are great for jobs where you can safely use an open flame. They work best when you are doing a detailed search for small leaks.

By watching the candle flame you can see when it gets blown by the airflow.

Bring lots of matches or a lighter. Candle flames blow out easily. Dripping hot wax is a problem.

Candles really shine at finding vacuum leaks. I’ve used them in industrial situations where there are vacuum leaks at pipe flange connections and similar equipment. The air being pulled into the equipment makes the candle flame point right at the leak.

When you can’t use a candle due to safety concerns, the next best tool for finding vacuum leaks is spray foam shaving cream. You coat the area where you think the vacuum leak might be, with shaving cream from an aerosol can. Vacuum leaks will suck the foam into the leak revealing its location.

I think that the Smoke Pencil (aka Wizard Stick)is a good replacement for all these methods.

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Save Money at Work by Putting Your Job to Bed Before You Leave

Every evening, just before bedtime, I patrol around in our house to make sure that the doors are locked, the thermostat is turned down and the lights are switched off. I check the kitchen to make sure the stove is off.

When we get our own place to live most of us get into a habit of bedtime checks. Those of us, who pay the electric, heating and water bills, make sure that we are in the energy saving mode before turning in. We take ownership of the situation and eliminate as much wasted money as we can.

We all need to do the same thing at work. Take a look around your workstation at the end of your shift to see what should be done to save energy.

Shutting off lights, fans and computers are good examples. If the next shift needs it, they can turn stuff on. Space heaters and other personal appliances should be off before you head out the door.

Check to make sure the water faucets are off and the flush valves have stopped running. Check the water cooler to make sure the water flow is off.

Before you leave for your lunch break take a look around and shut off everything you can. Give the electric meter a lunch break too. 

A little vigilance on everyone’s part can save a substantial amount of energy. Saving energy at work is good for the environment and good for business.

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Save Money on Your Energy Bills by Stopping Hidden Heat Loss

Heat is always looking for ways to escape from your home during cold winter months. Sealing doors and windows does help, but there are other ways heat can escape.

In the average home, fireplaces, air ducts, and plumbing and electrical access are responsible for over 40% of home heat loss. Sealing gaps and air leaks can result in significant savings on winter heating bills. They also improve the comfort of your home.
Fireplaces

Your chimney is an escape route for warm air from your furnace. When your fireplace is not in use, keep the damper closed to prevent air from going up the chimney.

Check the seal on the flue damper. Make sure that it is as snug as possible. If your damper is warped or doesn’t fit tight, a chimney balloon or similar draft stopper will do the job. Read this article for more on chimney balloons.

Consider installing glass fireplace doors to help block the path of heat trying to escape up the chimney. Fireplace doors also work when you are enjoying a heartwarming fire.

Air Ducts

Over time, air ducts develop leaks, holes, and loose joints. Seal all ductwork in areas that you can reach, such as in basements. Use mastic or metal foil tape to seal the joints. Insulate ductwork in unheated areas, such as attics and crawlspaces. Contact a heating and cooling professional if you suspect more serious ductwork problems. Fixing leaky ductwork saves money during both heating and air conditioning seasons.

Plumbing and Electrical Access

Gaps around electrical lines and plumbing and gas pipes entering your house from outdoors result in significant heat leakage. These passageways are made over size so it is easy for the installer to do his job.

Look where a water faucet supplies your garden hose. There may be a gap around the pipe that needs sealing. Good quality polyurethane caulk is a top choice for this job.

The other place to look is where wires, pipes and ductwork pass into the attic from heated areas of your house. Seal these areas in the attic with spray foam insulation.

Caution if there is a gap around your chimney or other heating vent stack; make sure you use a high temperature sealing material that is rated for this job. Use the wrong stuff and it may cause a fire.

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Black & Decker Lights Out AutoSwitch Review

The other day my loving wife shoved a magazine ad in my face for the new Black & Decker Lights Out AutoSwitch. After reading it a couple of times, I lit up my computer and ordered one through Amazon.com to try out.

Cost is about $30 plus shipping. The in stock delivery was a couple of days at the cheap rate.

It really is easy to install and it works as advertised. It fits well over an existing wall switch with an adapter using the existing cover plate screws.

It Works with CFLs

There is one feature that that just jumped at me as I thought about how it works. Many home use motion detector switches do not work with compact fluorescent light bulbs. Read about my frustration in learning about it the hard way here. Motion Detector Lighting Control Problems

This Black & Decker motion detector switch will work with any kind of light bulb, including CFLs. It does not rely on electric leakage through the light bulb to power the sensor. It physically shuts the existing light switch on or off as needed.

Other Features

Motion activated sensor automatically turns lights on or off, just like a wired in motion sensor.

Easy to install – no wiring required. It is installed by taking the two cover plate mounting screws out. Adding an adapter plate on top of the wall cover plate and putting the two screws back in. The only hard part is picking the screws up off the floor after dropping them. The switch unit snaps in place on the adapter plate. That is it.

Adjustable timer lets you turn off the lights 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes after the room is empty. Set it and try it. If the time seems wrong for you, it is easy to reset.

 Runs on 3 AA batteries (not included); no need for any electrical connections. Yes, you will have to replace the batteries once in a while. The batteries power the electronics of the motion sensor and power a little motor that moves a spring loaded device that snaps the wall light switch up and down as needed.

The unit has a manual slider switch on the outside face so you can turn the lights on or off passing the motion detector. I suspect the manual switch is needed when the three AA batteries give out. You can manually turn the room lights on to see what your are doing when you change the batteries.

Negative features

One negative is the bulky appearance, especially when it is used on one switch where there are several mounted together. It fits fine and works fine, it just is very noticeable visually.

The other negative is that it is noisy. The light switch that it is attached to loudly snaps on when it detects motion. Then you hear a buzzing sound as the little motor inside cocks the spring mechanism. Then silence until it snaps off followed by the few second of motor buzzing while it cocks the spring again.

Will it save money?

Let’s say you can buy one for $30 and your next kilowatt of electricity costs about 12 cents. You would need to save 2,500 hours of lights “on” time for a 100-watt bulb to payback the cost. There are 8,760 hours in a year so that is possible. A two-year pay back is more likely, making it a good investment.

If you are using a 23-watt CFL, it will take 11,000 hours of savings to pay back the cost. That is possible in a few years if you have been real lazy about turning off lights. 4 or 5 years to pay back makes it a poor investment.

When you use one, you can feel good about using less electricity if that is a motive for you.

Where can you use it?

It is made for indoor use only so that rules out a few places it could be used.

There is value in increased safety when the lights come on automatically. You will have fewer slips, trips and falls. Avoiding a trip to the emergency room will save you money.

The unique feature of it mounting on an existing switch makes it something a renter can use and then take with them when they move out.

I recommend the Black & Decker Lights Out AutoSwitch model # SW100 for bathroom, laundry room and entryway lights. I would like to use one in the kitchen but my wife says no way.

The other place to use one is where the light switch always seems to be on the wrong side of the room. That is if you have to cross a dark room to turn the lights on. Or, where you have to escape across a room that you just blacked out.

If you have a safety or security need for a motion detector, the energy savings helps to justify the purchase.

Where do you use motion detectors? Does it save you money? Leave a comment to share your experience.

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Energy Awareness Month Humorous Energy Saving Idea Contest

CONTEST IS OVER

October is Energy Awareness Month here in the USA. Were you aware of that?  To celebrate the Energy Boomer is having a humorous energy saving idea contest.

Energy Awareness Month is a program from the US Department of Energy to put out posters and do some public relations stuff to promote saving energy. Once again, your tax money is hard at work for you.

During energy awareness month, some work places run a contest to see how many energy saving ideas their employees can come up with. For prizes, they raffle off a gasoline card, CFL light bulbs or other energy related items.

Sometimes real money saving, carbon foot print cutting, ideas come to light that may help keep your job in business.

Energy Boomer Humorous Energy Saving Idea Contest

I have accumulated a couple of expensive LED light bulbs (GeoBulb and ZetaLux) and a Black & Decker Lights Out AutoSwitch that I am going to give away as prizes. The prizes are items that I tested before writing review articles about them.

To enter, just leave your idea in a comment on this blog post. You will find the comment button in pale print at the bottom of this blog post.

The winning suggestions will be selected based on two things. First, how funny they are. Second how much energy they might actually save. The contest will close October 23, 2009. The three winners will be notified by email by the end of the month. They will get one prize each.

Here are a few example ideas:

• Coin operated switch to power your computer.
• Timer hot water valve on shower, take too long and you get a cold rinse.
• Coin operated switch to power your TV.
• Use motion detector to turn off office computer when worker falls asleep on the job.

Humor and energy savings count. In our contest fantasy world, the cost to implement the idea does not count.

Will Global Warming Save on Your Heating Bills this Winter?

Because the sun is putting out less energy than normal, we could be hit with some very big heating bills this winter. But, other factors may save you money.

There are a couple of ways that sun watchers keep track of the amount of energy arriving at planet earth from the sun. One method is to track the number of sunspots. The sunspots are an indicator of how active the sun is.

The more sunspots there are the more energy is being set our way. Currently we are in the pits of a deep solar minimum. The sun has an eleven-year sunspot cycle. Right now, we are experiencing the fewest number of sunspots in about a century.

As of September 20, 2009, there have been 723 days without sunspots during this solar minimum. Typically, that number is more like 485 days without sunspots.

There is some indication that the sun is starting up sun spot production again. But, there is no way for us humans to forecast what will happen with the sun.

The other measure of the energy reaching us from the sun is solar irradiance. Solar irradiance is a measure of the amount of energy radiated from the sun that hits the earth.

The trend of solar irradiance over the last few years is downward. Now, we are at a low in solar irradiance as part of being at the bottom of the sun cycle.

If we were to ignore other factors and focus only on the amount of energy arriving here from the sun, we could expect to experience “Global Cooling.” Maybe a new ice age is starting. Some scientists think so.

Other factors influence our weather too

Fortunately, other factors influence how cold our winter weather will be. The temperature here on the surface of the earth is controlled by:

1. The amount of energy escaping from the earth’s core (yes the planet earth is still cooling)
2. The amount of energy arriving from the sun
3. How much of the energy is held within our atmosphere

Number three gets a lot of attention these days

The amount of volcano activity is one of the factors that influence our climate and weather. They are important, not because of the core heat that they let out, but for holding heat in our atmosphere. The more smoke and ash they spew in to the air the more they block the sunshine. On the other hand, the more green house gases that get erupted into the atmosphere the more heat energy is held inside our atmosphere.  Sometimes they balance out.

The volcano factor has been stable during the last few years. Volcanologists predict that there will be some big eruptions at some time in our future, so that my change.

Wildfires are another big influence of weather and climate. Wildfires convert plant material into smoke, ash, water vapor, and carbon dioxide in the air. The wildfires that raged this summer may help keep us warmer this winter. Again, the green house gases and water vapor help hold heat in the atmosphere

Many other factors also influence the climate and weather in North America. Winds from the Pacific Ocean, how far the jet stream wanders south, plankton growth, and insect activity are all involved. Human activity is also on the list.

Global Warming to the Rescue

At the present, we have enough “global warming” from water vapor and green house gases that things are pretty well in balance. By that, I mean that the warming factors are counter balancing the reduced energy from the sun.

The result is we can expect a near “normal” winter. For folks in the part of the country where I live, it will be cold and we will have snow. It is not likely to be a heating budget breaker but snowy and cold enough to call it a real winter.

The 2010 Old Farmer's Almanac says, “The prolonged low level of sunspot and space weather activity in the early stage of Solar Cycle 24 reinforces our belief that we are at the beginning of a period of significant change. Over the coming years gradual cooling of the atmosphere will occur, offset by warming caused by increased green house gasses.”

It never ceases to amaze me how nature works to maintain a balance.

My advice is to ignore global whining and get on with the job of holding heat inside your home to save money on your energy bills this winter.

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Why Do Storm Doors Save Energy?

I have been getting questions asking why storm doors are so important and how do they save energy.

When an engineer calculates the rate of heat loss through a door, each obstacle in the path of the heat flow needs to be evaluated. In the winter heat from inside will flow out to the cold outdoors.

The object is to slow down the heat flow

One of the roadblocks that heat encounters is at the boundary between each material. In the case of a plain solid wood door, the first obstacle that the heat flow hits is the boundary between the indoor air and the wood door.

Every time heat flows from one material (air) into another material (wood) it is slowed down. Each boundary acts like a speed bump to the flow of heat.

The next item is the wood door itself. Wood does not conducts heat slowly so it is a good material for making doors. The thickness of the wood determines how slowly the heat flows through it. The thicker the wood is, the slower heat escapes through it.

The final barrier to heat flow is the boundary between the wood door and the outdoor air.

The total resistance to heat flow is the sum of the three items above. They are the indoor air to wood boundary, the wood, and the wood to outdoor air boundary.

A storm door more than doubles the resistance to heat loss

Adding a storm door to the doorway adds several more “hoops” for the heat to jump through. A description the path that the heat flow takes with a storm door would look like this.

1. Indoor air to wood boundary
2. Thickness of the wood
3. Middle wood to air boundary
4. Thickness of the air trapped between the doors
5. Air to storm door boundary
6. Thickness of the storm door
7. Storm door to outside air boundary

Without the storm door, there are only three obstacles to heat flow. With the storm door, there are seven obstacles to heat flow. The heat flow rate is substantially reduced by the storm door.

Many storm doors are made of aluminum. Aluminum offers very little resistance to heat flow but it still works as a storm door because of the additional obstacles to heat flow that it provides.

Wood storm doors do work better but they are heavier and cost more to buy and maintain. The lightweight and low cost make aluminum more popular.

Make sure both your security door and the storm door are in good shape and shut tightly.

Remember the more boundaries there are the slower the heat escapes. The same idea work for people too. That’s why several thin layers of clothing keep us warmer than one heavy layer.

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Related Posts:

MY NEW STORM DOOR

GREEN ENERGY SAVING GRASSHOPPER

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How to Stop Cold Drafts from Heat Pumps

Folks who heat their home with heat pumps like the low energy bills. However, they often complain that there is, “a cold draft coming from the registers.”

They may have a valid complaint because heat pumps do work differently than fuel-fired furnaces.  Heat pumps heat with lower temperature air than gas or oil fired furnaces do.  

Heat pumps push air that is just a few degrees warmer than room temperature into the house. This low intensity heated air feels cool.

Fuel fired furnaces put out air that is 30 degrees, or more, above room air temperature. The heated air they put out feels warm.

Because of the lower temperature of the air from heat pumps, they have to move more air to get the job done. Gas or oil fired furnaces will get the job done by running 4 to 6 times an hour and rest between each on cycle.

Heat pumps need to run for a long time and push out more air while they are running to keep homes comfortable.

Reroute Those Drafts Don’t Stop Them

Because the larger volume of air from a heat pump is lower than human skin temperature, it feels cool.

When you can feel the air move, you feel cooler. That is called wind chill. The way to stop feeling a cold draft is to redirect the airflow away from people.

Don’t try to stop or reduce the airflow. Stopping or choking the airflow with cause other performance problems.

Send it up a wall or along the ceiling

The airflow should be directed up a wall or along the ceiling. Avoid pushing the air across the floor or toward where people sit.

To get the job done you may need different diffusers or add deflectors on your existing registers to aim the airflow away from people.

Some folks rearrange the furniture to get away from the drafts.

Do what you can so the air flows across the ceiling or up the walls. Avoid sending the air toward places where people sit.

Areas where people just walk through are not a problem. We expect to feel air movement as we walk, but not where we sit.

Remember that heat pumps move air a large percentage of the time.  They operate efficiently with very little off time. If your home stays warm on the coldest day of the year and your heat pumps runs almost all the time it is sized and working correctly.

Sit out of the draft while you enjoy your low energy bills.

Click here for heat register deflectors from Amazon.

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What Everyone Ought to Know About Energy Tax Credits

You can still get $1,500, from the government, for saving energy. Cash for clunkers is over, but there are tax credits available for saving on your energy bills.

Folks can get free money from Uncle Sam for investing in home energy savings projects. It isn’t cash in hand money, but tax credits are work just like money on April 15^th.

If you buy new energy saving doors, windows or insulation you can get a tax credit of 30% of the cost of the materials. You cannot get a tax credit for the cost of installing. The credit is for the purchase of the materials only.

Here is a partial list of item that you can invest in to get the tax credit:

·        Storm Doors

·        Replacement exterior doors

·        Replacement windows

·        Storm Windows

·        Insulation

·        Skylights

·        Biomass stoves

·        Whole house fans

·        Solar water heaters

·        Solar cell systems

·        Home wind turbines

·        High efficiency furnaces

·        Heat pumps

·        High efficiency central air conditioning

About Tax Credits
A tax credit is generally more valuable than an equivalent tax deduction because a tax credit reduces tax dollar-for-dollar, while a deduction only removes a percentage of the tax that is owed. Consumers can itemize purchases on their federal income tax form, which will lower the total amount of tax they owe the government.

Check this government web site for more information.

Tax Credits for Windows, Doors, and Skylights

Federal Tax Credits

On February 17, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009. This bill extends and modifies the tax credits for windows, doors, and skylights established in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The following guidance is not intended as legal advice, and you should consult a tax professional with specific questions.

Qualifying products purchased between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010 are eligible for a tax credit equal to 30 percent of the product cost. Installation is not included; be sure to obtain an itemized invoice from your retailer or installer. The maximum amount of homeowner credit for all improvements combined (including roofing, insulation, HVAC, and water heaters) is $1,500 during 2009 and 2010.

Documentation hoops you need to jump through

You need a receipt that shows the cost of the materials. The material cost must be separate from the cost of installing the items purchased. The date you bought the items needs to be legible.

For major items, you also need to document the date of installation in order to meet all the requirements.

Homeowners must obtain a manufacturer certification statement to document window, door, or skylight eligibility for the tax credit. If the retailer or installer cannot provide this document, it may be available on the manufacturer's Web site.

Here is a link to a good article from Ohio Edison that helped me know more about these tax credits.

The program also includes big-ticket items like high efficiency furnaces, heat pumps, and biomass fuel heating equipment. The tax credit for some big-ticket items is not capped at $1,500.

I suggest you get quotes and manufacturer certification statements first. With that information in hand, then get advice from your tax professional, before you spend your money.

The tax credit boosts the return on your investment.  It is like getting paid to do things to cut your energy bills that you should do anyway.

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Touch ’n Foam Spray Insulation Sealant Review

The reason I bought Touch'n Foam MaxFill spray sealant to test was the review I read on Amazon. I was looking for a crack sealer to block the bees from getting to their nest in the space above my garage.

The can label included the words “Interior/exterior use” and “Blocks insects and pests.” Just what I was looking for!

I next checked out a product review, which read as follows:

By Paul Smith (Jacksonville NC)

I had my mom mail this to me in Iraq. I sealed the walls, window, and doorframe of an old building that would become my sleeping area for a year. I regard it as a miracle product. It even sealed the large 1" gaps that spiders, ants, mice, lizzards, and scorpions would crawl through. I used 2 cans to do my room. I had a third can and nearly caused a riot when I offered it up to my neighbors. Just wear gloves like it says to. I didn’t at first thinking "I know how to use an aerosol can". One of the cracks wasn't as deep as I thought and I tried to guide the over flow with my finger. My hand was "adhesive" for a couple days. I'd highly recommend this product.

I am sure that DAPtex and Do It Best from Dow Chemical are good spray foam sealants too, but after reading that review I had to try Touch'n Foam MaxFill.

It worked great sealing the bee passageways into the bees nest above the garage. No more bee problem without using poison.

I went around the house squirting foam into anything that might be a crack or opening. It not only seals it also insulates. Both help save money on heating bills.

Once I got started using the can of spray foam I was worried that I would have to use up the whole can in one session or waste the left over’s due to a clogged nozzle. That turned out to not be a problem.

There are instructions on the can on how to keep the nozzle from clogging up between jobs. I ignored the instruction and used a tapered plastic plug in the end of the nozzle extension tube.

The next weekend I couldn’t get the plastic plug out of the extension tube. I had to cut about an inch off the end of the tube. After a good shaking, the rest of the foam came out of the can just fine.

The nozzle is well designed. It uses a replaceable drinking straw as an extension tube. When the tube clogs up just replace it with the one that hid under the seat of your car from that fast food place. Or, cut it off like I did.

It is a good idea to scout around your home, ahead of time, to locate enough areas that you can use up the can on the first go round.

Keep your receipt because this material qualifies for the 2009 tax credit if you use it as insulation. You will need your receipt and a copy of the Manufacturer's Certificate Statement that is available on the Touch'n Foam web site.

A couple of comments about my battle with the bees

I first tried clear silicone caulk from a squeeze tube. It was a little awkward to use up a ladder with a flashlight in one hand and the squeeze tube in the other. I worked after dark when all the bees, except for a few delinquents, were in their nest.

The next day I discovered that the bees had dug out the partly cured silicone to reopen their doorways into the garage attic.

Next, I used polyurethane caulk that worked just fine. The bees could not dig it out and it did the sealing job. The only problems were it looked ugly due to my poor workmanship and I ran out before the job was done. The bigger cracks needed more caulk to seal than I planned on. Being cheap, I had bought only one tube.

Always buy more than you think you need, that way you will have some left for the next job. It hurts my head when the Energy Boomer thinks about the gasoline I wasted on three trips to buy bee sealer. Actually, I just added a stop on my way home from work each time so it wasn’t too bad on the fuel account.

I recommend Touch'n Foam MaxFill

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AIR CONDITIONER COVERS SAVE ON HEATING BILLS

The best thing to do is to remove window air conditioners for the heating season. That way you can do a good job of sealing the window to keep heat in and cold out. But, if you choose to leave that heavy monster in the window, it will waste money on your heating bill unless you cover it.

Window air conditioners are designed to help ventilate your house with some outdoor air. The solid parts of the machine housing are made of metal that transfers heat very well. That means they do a poor job of blocking the flow of expensive heat out of your home.

Most folks think that air conditioner covers are intended to protect the outdoor parts of the machine from harsh winter weather. Actually, air conditioners are made to endure the weather. A cover on the outside of an air conditioner does look nicer and it keeps the paint from fading over the winter.

The real money savings is blocking the cold wind from blowing into the house. To do that the outdoor air conditioner cover needs to completely cover the unit and seal to the house.

I suggest using something like packaging tape to seal all the edges of the cover to the house. Looks doesn’t count for energy savings. You want some kind of tape that will seal well but peel off, in the spring, without damaging the house.

An outdoor AC cover needs to be a wind barrier only.

Save the insulation for indoors where it can block the escape of heat. A cover for the indoor part of a window air conditioner needs to both block air movement and insulate.

Think of an indoor air conditioner cover as a quilt to keep the warm comfort inside your home. There are store bought indoor air conditioner covers available to do the job.

You can make your own so it matches the décor of the room. An ideal indoor AC cover would have these features:

1.    Air tight layer facing outdoors to seal the cold air out

2.    Good thermal insulation to slow the escape of heat

3.    A reflective foil layer to reflect heat back into the room

4.    Pleasing appearance in the room

I have seen some foil bubble wrap packaging material that is intended to protect items in shipment form temperature changes.

They would make a great indoor air conditioner cover with the addition of decorator fabric on the room side.

To be most effective, an indoor air conditioner cover needs to be sealed around the edges to complete the weather seal.

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BEWARE OF CHIMNEY FIRES AND HOW TO PREVENT BURNING YOUR HOUSE DOWN

One of my loyal readers sent me a question about chimney fire prevention. She heats her home using a wood burning fireplace stove insert. 

Here are some questions you need to resolve if you are going to heat with wood this winter:

1.    Do you know how to recognize a chimney fire when it happens?

2.    Do you know what to do when you have a chimney fire?

3.    Do you have the materials ready to deal with a chimney fire?

Chimney Fires can be prevented

The most important thing you can do is to have your chimney cleaned and inspected by a certified chimney sweep. The National Chimney Sweep Guild and the Chimney Safety Institute of America are two sources for locating certified chimney sweeps in the US.

Both of these web sites are excellent places to find information about chimney safety.

Having your chimney cleaned removes creosote buildup and keeps the smoke passageway open so your fire can breathe properly.

A full inspection is just as important as the cleaning job. Chimney damage or plain old wear and tear needs to be discovered and repaired to make your chimney safe for the heating season.

Prevent Chimney Fires by burning dry fuel only

Using firewood that is not fully seasoned is the main cause of creosote buildup inside of chimneys. Creosote inside a chimney is what burns with a hot fire that damages the chimney and can start a house fire.

·        Burn only dry wood that has been seasoned at least six months.

·        A small hot fire is better than a big slow burning fire for keeping the chimney clean.

·        Burning plastic, Christmas trees, cardboard and other materials can ignite creosote inside the chimney.

What does a chimney fire look like?

A bad chimney fire will have a big cloud of dense smoke billowing out of the chimney and have flames or sparks shooting out of the top of the chimney. Because you are inside the house, you may not see a chimney fire.

Noise and hot smell are the other two indicators. When you have a chimney fire, you may hear a loud crackling or popping noise. A bad chimney fire will make a loud rumbling or roaring noise. It may sound like a freight train or a jet engine.

Warning: a small chimney fire can go un-noticed but burn hot enough to damage the chimney. A damaged chimney can let fire migrate to the house.

What to Do if You Have a Chimney Fire

If you realize a chimney fire is occurring, follow these steps:

1. Get everyone out of the house, including yourself

2. Call the fire department. If you can do so without risk to yourself, these additional steps may help save your home. Remember, however, that homes are replaceable, lives are not.

3. Put a chimney fire extinguisher into the fireplace or wood stove. Close the glass doors on the fireplace. Close the inlets on the wood stove. Use a garden hose to spray down the roof (not the chimney) so the fire won’t spread to the rest of the structure.

This information is taken directly from the Chimney Safety Institute of America web site.

What to do to be ready for a Chimney fire

Chimney Fire Extinguisher sticks used to be made that worked like a railroad flare. You struck it to light it, like a flare. Then you tossed it into the fireplace or stove.

The chemical smoke from the extinguisher stick would put out the chimney fire. They have been out of production or a number of years so any that are available are too old to trust.

If you are heating with wood, you should have a large dry chemical fire extinguisher fully charged and ready to go. Get a bigger extinguisher than is normally found in homes. One in the ten to twenty pound size range is recommended.

Store the fire extinguisher by the door of your house, not by the fireplace or wood stove.

When you have a fire, your first action should be to get everyone out. Then after calling for help evaluate the situation. If you decide you can safely fight the fire, pick up the extinguisher on your way back in.

With the fire extinguisher by the door, you can get it ready from a safe distance and then move toward the fire with your back to the escape route. Discharge the fire extinguisher into the fireplace or wood stove.

Close off the airflow into the fire as best you can and get outside.

Expect a real mess to clean up after the fire and the dry chemical extinguisher. When the firefighters get there they will do what needs to be done, but they will add to the mess. Be sure to thank them.

It is your house and your fire so it is your mess to clean up. Just be thankful that you still have a house to clean.

Smoke alarms save lives

Everyone, whether you heat with wood or not, needs to have several smoke alarms installed and working in your home. If you don’t have them get them and call you local fire department for free advice on where to install them. They would rather help you before a fire than during one.

The following products are accepted by the Chimney Safety Institute of America for use in fireplaces and wood stoves.

Java Log 100% Natural Crackling Fire Log, 3-Pound (Pack of 6)

Creosote Sweeping Log For Fireplaces #SL 824-12

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Battle with Bees is Showing Me Places to Save Energy

I am having an ongoing battle with bees that have taken up residence above our garage door. There is a small gap between the brickwork facing on our garage and the woodwork above. The mortar between a few of the bricks has crumbled leaving a bee size passage into the attic above the garage.

We try to keep a wildlife and bird friendly yard by not using chemicals. So, the bees have been thriving on the clover in the yard as well as the pollen from our flower garden.

I don’t like poisoning the bees because they are beneficial. However, my wife is allergic to bee stings so we need to take precautions. She tells me that they are not bees but yellow jacket hornets.

Late summer is the time of year when hornets, wasps and bees are looking for winter homes anywhere they can get in out of the weather. I recommend that you take a slow walk around your home watching for flying hole hunters. If you take time to observe them at work, insects will show you the openings that need to be sealed to keep the heat inside your house this winter.

When I locate an opening that they are using as a doorway, I attack. Well not right away. These flying house hunters all return to their nest just before dark.

Attack well after dark

These critters don’t fly at night so they will all be inside the nest. Night is the safest time to approach the nest. Armed with a ladder, flashlight and a can of poison free wasp & hornet sparay I climb right up to the opening.

I spray right into the hole to soak the nest. Sometimes I use a drinking straw to direct the spray inside the opening. Then it is time to retreat and wash up. I have not been stung in the dark.

The next day it is usually safe to approach the area in the day light. I seal up the opening with long lasting polyurethane caulk.

These bees refuse to die

The bees above the garage door are refusing to die. They just get madder every time I spray in their entrance.

I am guessing that their nest is actually up the wall above the garage door. Next time I am going to try using a bent copper tube to direct the spray upward.

If that doesn’t work, I will wait until dark and seal the openings with polyureathane caulk. Then hope they don’t find a way into our living quarters.

Poison Free Wasp & Hornet Killer - 2 Pack

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Plug In Motion Detector Virtual Review

I’ve been looking at plug in motion detectors for home use. Normally I’d just buy one and test it in my home so I could write a review article about it.

However, after I walked around our home looking at each electric outlet I didn’t find a place where I could give it an honest trial. These plug in motion sensors are intended to switch on a lamp or some other small appliance when someone walks into the room.

Most of our room lights are plugged into outlets that are located behind furniture.  As example, a motion sensor could not see through the couch to know when someone walked into the room.

I thought there was an opportunity in the kitchen. We have some plug in fluorescent lights stuck up under the cupboards. When I mentioned this idea to my wife, I got booted out of the kitchen.

We also have a plug in fluorescent light under the cupboard above the clothes washer. I put that light up to satisfy the need to see into the tub of our top loading washer. Using a flashlight to search for that missing sock gets old real fast.

Folks normally enter the laundry room with both hands carrying over loaded laundry baskets. A perfect use for motion sensor controlled light.

But, my loving wife uses that light as a signal. She leaves it on to remind herself that there is quilting fabric or laundry in the machine. As long as the machine is in use the signal light must stay on.

She reminded me that I am not allowed to enter the laundry room without special permission. Good thing I put in a low wattage light.

Fun with Motion Detectors

I can think of some practical joke uses for a plug in motion detector. I’d use it to turn on a tape recorder with a funny message when someone enters the room.

We have a small decorative pine tree named Douglas Fir who talks to you when you walk by it. I guess the Billy Bass wall mounted fish works the same way.

News Flash: Motion Detectors Use Electricity

I thought about using it in a hallway to turn on a nightlight when someone wanders around in the dark. But, it takes more energy to operate the motion sensor than it does to leave a LED nightlight on all the time.

The plug in motion detector that is getting some advertising buzz now is rated for 0.3 amps, when the light is off. That does not sound like much. But, it equals 36 watts times 24 hours a day or 0.86 kilowatts a day. That is about $37 a year in addition to the purchase price.

They might actually save money if they are used in an outlet that has a good clear view of the room to control a light that gets used often.

It can light your way and save money by shutting the light off automatically after is does not “see” any motion for ten minutes.

If you want to keep the light on you may have to wave at the sensor every few minutes. It would work well in an exercise room. If you rest too long between each exercise, the light will go off reminding you to get moving.

Don’t Over Power Your Motion Detector

I bought a motion detector that screw into a light bulb socket and then screwed in a 100-watt bulb into it for testing. It stopped working after about the third test. I then read the instruction that said it was recommended for no more than 75 Watts. Read the instructions first.

Keep in mind that all electric devices have a limit as to how much power they can control. Home use plug in motion detectors usually can safely handle 500 Watts of power.  If you go over their power limit, they will either not work or you will be risking a fire. Do as I say, not as I do.

Safety Saves Money but Not Energy

Some motion sensors can make your home safer. Automatically turning on a light may prevent you from tripping as you cross a dark room to reach a light switch. Preventing injuries does save money.

Please leave a comment or send me an email if you have found an application where a plug in motion detector is saving you money on your electric bill.

by Birney Summers – 2009 All Rights Reserved

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Save Energy Prepare for Cold Weather Now

Yesterday I was watching the chipmunks working at full speed stealing the sunflowers that we put out for the birds. They are getting ready for winter and we should too.

Many people don’t start on winter preparations until after Labor Day. I’d rather get the job done early so I don’t waste any football weekends working around the house.

We need to start fixing the air conditioners in January to have them in good working shape by hot weather. To be ready for the heating season we need to start working on it now. The same schedule is true at work too.

We need to start fixing doors and windows both at home and at work.

If you are adding insulation to your attic you need to plan it now and get the materials all lined up so when the weather cools just enough to work in the attic you can get’er done.

Some folks are better at remembering to winterize their ride than they are about winterizing their homes.

A little time and effort put in now will save you cash on your heating bills this winter. Pick one of these projects and get started.

·        Add a storm door

·        Fix up storm windows

·        Caulk around the window frames

·        Patch that hole in the wall before the hornets move in

·        Seal cracks in the basement walls

·        Add clear plastic dome covers over your basement window wells.

·        Fix or add door sweeps and weather stripping

These low cost “Do It Yourself” projects will pay you back this heating season.

Click here for a free money saving report written by the Energy Boomer titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL

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WHEN IS E85 A BARGAIN?

With the rapidly changing prices for fueling your ride, don’t forget to consider the E85 alcohol gas mix.

For E85 to be a bargain, the price must be lower than gasoline

The E85 blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline gives at least 15% fewer miles per gallon than regular gasoline.

When E85 is priced 15% or lower than regular gasoline, using E85 can save you money.

In several states, the price of E85 has been very favorable this year. In some States, the price of E85 has been better than 20% less than gasoline.

E85Prices.com has a good up to date information on E85 prices.

General Motors is the leader in flex fuel vehicles that can use either E85 or regular gasoline or any blend of the two. If you have a GM car with a yellow gas cap, you should be watching the price of E85.

If you don’t have a flex fuel car, you should trade up to a GM car with a yellow gas cap so you can save with E85.

Yes, I am proud to say that GM benefits from my energy engineering services. They do make more flex fuel capable vehicles than any other manufacturer.

Multiply the gas price by 0.85 to get the bargain price for E85

What does a 15% price difference between E85 and regular gas look like? Here is a link for you to down load an MS Excel spread sheet covering a range of prices.

Download E85 Buy Price Chart

At what price do you buy E85?

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Save Energy by Driving With Your Dog

The photograph tells the story better than my words can. It arrived in an email with a joke about speeding. The point is that you should drive more carefully when your dog is with you. Careful driving saves you money at the gas pump.

Most folks make sure that their children are safely belted in the car when they go for a ride. Parents drive noticeably slower and more carefully when there is a child on board. Driving slower and more carefully saves energy and money.

I don’t recall seeing a pet dog securely held in with any kind of restraint. I have seen “Caution Dog On Board” signs on some cars that are transporting the family pet.

Dogs are most often the first to climb aboard and usually left free to roam about in the vehicle. That freedom leaves the dog vulnerable to injury when the driver stomps on the brakes or makes a sharp turn.

You know what kind of look your dog will give you after he has bashed his nose into the dashboard at a stop sign.

To prevent injury to the dog and to avoid the guilt of causing injury to a “dumb animal” folks drive better when there is a dog in the car.

I don’t mean to imply that dogs are dumb. They know when you made them bounce off the ceiling in the back seat. And, they will let you know about it by delivering one of those heart-melting looks.

I do not know the circumstances leading up to the scene in the photograph, but by the looks of the claw marks on that seat, it must have been traumatic.

Save energy and drive as if man’s best friend is always sitting right next to you.

by Birney Summers – 2009 All Rights Reserved

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30 Ways to Save Energy While You Are Away on Vacation

Summer is a great time for vacations. However, appliances and electronic devices in your home will waste money unless you shut them off.

By using a checklist, you can minimize energy wasted by your empty house. That will save you a few dollars for your vacation. 

 

1. Check to make sure the kitchen stove top is off
2. Check to make sure the oven is off
3. Look at each wall outlet and decide which items to unplug like the coffee maker, can opener and microwave
4. Turn all the water faucets off
5. If you have a chest freezer throw a couple of blankets or a quilt over it
6. If you are leaving for a short period, check the refrigerator thermostat setting, 38 degrees for the refrigerator, and 5 degrees for the freezer
7. For longer trips (such as four weeks or more), consider emptying your refrigerator and unplugging it.
8. In each bath room, shut all the water faucets off
9. Check to make sure the toilet is not running
10. Unplug the night-lights
11. Close the storm windows
12. Close the storm doors
13. Unplug your cell phone charger and pack it to go
14. Unplug the electric blanket from the wall outlet (We had a cat that would paw at the control until the blanket would come on)
15. I do not unplug electric clocks, but you can
16. In each room look at each wall outlet and decide which items to unplug
17. Leave the telephone adapter plugged in only if you have an answering machine that you want to work while you are gone
18. Turning off electronic devices is good to save energy, but remember digital displays, instant-on features, and remote controls use energy while not in use. Unplug most electronic devices while you are away. I do not unplug anything that requires extensive reprogramming like TV’s or cable boxes.
19. Do unplug other stuff like the stereo
20. In the laundry room make sure machines and lights are off
21. Shut off laundry tub faucets
22. If it will be above freezing, during the heating season shut the heat off.
23. If it will be below freezing, turn your thermostat down to the lowest setting plus two degrees. Some older thermostats would turn down to 55 so I’d set them at 57 to keep it off the low limit stop. Some digital thermostats will turn down to 45. Forty-five is the bare minimum for water pipe freeze protection. I suggest 47.
24. During hot weather turn your air conditioner off or set the thermostat to 85 degrees or higher.
25. If you have electric water heater with a tank, switch off the circuit breaker that sends power to your water heater.
26. If you have a natural gas water heater, I recommend that you dial down the temperature setting. First, use a permanent marker to mark where it is normally set. If you have an on demand tank-less water heater, you do not need to do anything.
27. If you have, “city” water shut the main supply valve off where it enters the house.
28. If you have your own water well, shut off the electric power to the pump. If you don’t, the pump will cycle on and off while you are gone just to keep the pressure up.
29. Turn off all lights in your home before you leave.
30. You may wish to maintain an outdoor or indoor light for nighttime security. Consider installing a lighting timer. That way the lights will only be on a few hours a day. Lights do help to make it appear as if someone is at home. The timer minimizes the energy used.

Build Your Own Checklist

This list is for our current home. It is not exactly right for your home. You need to start with this list and add to it or scratch out items to make your own list.

You save money when you use an energy shutdown checklist for your home. That way items are not forgotten during the last minute rush to get underway.

Use your checklist again when you return home. It will help you remember what needs to be turned back on.

 

Click this link for a SPECIAL REPORT: HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON AIR CONDITIONING

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Air Leaks Waste Money on Your Home Energy Bills

Cracks and air leaks can lead to energy loss and waste money on your heating and cooling bills. Air sealing is one of the best energy efficiency improvements you can make to your home.

Air sealing will not just reduce energy costs; it will also improve your home's comfort and keep its value. Keeping moist air out helps to

prevent mold, corrosion and wood rot problems.

Finding Air Leaks

Look at areas where different materials meet, such as between brick and wood siding, between the foundation and walls, and between the chimney and siding.

Here is a list of places to look for air leaks:

• Door frames
• Window frames
• Mail chutes
• Electrical service entrances
• Natural gas or propane pipes
• Cable TV and phone lines
• Outdoor water faucets
• Places where dryer vents pass through walls
• Bricks, siding, stucco, and foundation
• Air conditioners
• Vents and fans

For a thorough and accurate measurement of air leakage in your home, hire a qualified technician to conduct an energy audit. Be sure they use a blower door test. A blower door test, which depressurizes a home, can reveal the location of many leaks.

A good way of finding leaks yourself is to follow these steps:

1. Close all doors and windows
2. Shut off your furnace or air conditioner
3. Turn on your clothes dryer in the tumble dry mode so it pushes air out the vent
4. Turn on kitchen and bathroom vent fans
5. Now go around inside the house hunting for air sneaking in

You can use smoke from a cigarette or incense stick to see the airflow. Another trick is to use a candle and watch how the flame moves as you move it around windows and doors. Please be careful with fire.

If there is a big temperature difference between indoor air and outdoor air, an infrared thermometer can be used to scan for air leaks. INSERT ADVERT

In industrial situations, I have used spray foam shaving cream to find small air and vacuum leaks. But, the mess makes this a poor idea at home.

Air Sealing Techniques

Once you have located air leaks, you can then apply air-sealing materials as needed. Two common materials include caulking and weather stripping. Most experts agree that caulking and weather stripping will pay for themselves in energy savings within one year.

Caulking

Caulk forms a flexible seal for cracks, gaps, or joints less than ¼" wide. You can use a caulking compound to seal air leaks in a variety of places throughout your home, including around windows and door frames.

Most caulking compounds come in disposable cartridges. When deciding how much caulking to purchase, consider that you will probably need a half-cartridge per window or door. You may need as many as four cartridges for the foundation sill.

Before applying caulk remove any old caulking and clean the area that you are working on. For best performance, follow all manufacturers' instructions. For more information on caulking HOW TO CAULK AROUND THE HOUSE

Weather stripping

Weather stripping can be applied to seal air leaks around movable objects, such as doors and windows. To determine how much weather stripping you will need, add up the perimeter lengths of all windows and doors to be weather stripped, and then add 5% to 10% to accommodate any waste.

Weather stripping comes in varying depths and widths, and there is a variety of weather stripping materials available: foam, felt, vinyl, aluminum, and bronze. You need to choose a type of weather stripping that will withstand the friction, weather, temperature changes, and wear and tear associated with its location. IN LINK

For example, when applied to a door bottom or threshold, weather stripping could drag on carpet or erode because of foot traffic. Here is a link about door sweeps and thresholds HOW TO SAVE ENERGY WITH A DOOR SWEEP

When applying, consult the instructions on the weather stripping package. In general, weather stripping should be applied to clean, dry surfaces at temperatures above 20°F.

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10 Fuel Economy Hints to Save You Money at the Gas Pump

1. Have your car tuned regularly. An engine tune-up can improve fuel economy by an average of 1 mile per gallon.
2. Keep your tires properly inflated. Under-inflated tires can decrease fuel economy by up to 1 mile per gallon.
3. Slow down. The faster you drive the more gasoline your car uses. Driving at 65 miles per hour rather than 55 miles per hour cuts your fuel economy by about 2 miles per gallon.
4. Avoid jackrabbit starts. Abrupt starts require about twice as much gasoline as gradual starts.
5. Pace your driving, unnecessary speedups, slowdowns and stops can decrease fuel economy by up to 2 miles per gallon.
6. Use your air conditioner sparingly. The use of air conditioning can reduce fuel economy by as much as 2 miles per gallon. (If you are traveling at highway speeds closing the windows can improve the aerodynamics enough to pay for the air conditioning.)
7. Avoid lengthy engine idling. Turn your engine off when you are delayed for more than a couple of minutes.
8. Plan your trips carefully. Combine short hops into one trip to do all your errands.
9. Avoid traveling during rush hours if possible, to reduce fuel wasting patterns such as starting and stopping and numerous idling periods.
10. Clean out your ride to remove the extra weight.

by Birney Summers – 2009 All Rights Reserved

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Are Blocked Lights Wasting Your Money?

Blocked or, as “the professionals” say, obstructed lights waste money on electric bills. Obstructed lights are most often a commercial or industrial problem but they can occur at home too.

Obstructed lights are lights that have all or some of the light that they put out blocked before it can get to where it is useful. If a light fixture is located where and object makes a shadow in the area you are trying to illuminate you are not getting full value for the energy used.

Blocking of light fixtures usually occurs over time because no one would intentionally put up a light in a location where the light can’t shine where needed.

However, mistakes do happen. Lights can be put up in the wrong place and floor plan layouts can get changed even in new construction.

Examples of Obstructed Lights

An at home example would be an outdoor light that now has a tree or tall shrub blocking it. All the light used to shine on the front walk. But, now that the tree has grown taller, the homeowner is not getting the full benefit of the light.

An industrial example would be a light that was hung from a factory ceiling years ago. Since then new equipment has been installed. Now ventilation ductwork passes right under the fixture, blocking the light.

A commercial example could be in a store where the floor plan has been changed. A ceiling mounted light that used to illuminate a display area is now located above a tall storage unit.

In these cases, the light gave full value when it was installed. But, now the blocked light still uses electrical power and the owner gets no or very little benefit from the light it produces.

Trim the tree or move the light fixture

The quick fix for the problem is to turn the light off. The next step is to determine if the light is truly needed in that area. If light is a need then action needs to be taken to fix the waste of energy.

You have three choices:

1. Eliminate the light fixture

2. Un-block the light

3. Move the light fixture to a better location

If you are going to spend, the time and money to move it consider upgrading it to a newer more efficient lighting product.

Fixing one or two blocked lights won’t cut your energy budget very much. But, the bigger the facility is the more blocked lights you are likely to have.

In some situations, you can remove the blocked light and get the job done by upgrading a neighboring light to cover the area.

Correcting blocked lights usually means taking several out of service. The more lights you take out the lower your energy and maintenance bills will be. In the long run, the reduction in your maintenance labor and materials cost will be greater than the energy savings, but it all helps the bottom line.

by Birney Summers – 2009 All Rights Reserved

Click this link for a SPECIAL REPORT: HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON AIR CONDITIONING

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WIND CAN BE A FICKLE POWER SOURCE

Sometimes I wonder about the focus on wind power. Wind can be a very fickle power source. Based on my experience of sailing on the Great Lakes, sometimes you can get where you want to go using just the wind.

However, other times there is no wind to move the boat at all. A back up source of energy is needed for power when the wind doesn’t blow.

You can make the “white ash breeze” as the Vikings said, by using wooden oars. On the other hand, you can start up the noisy petroleum-fueled engine and be just another stink boater.

Wind is easy enough to harness that some folks use it at their farms or homes. It is often combined with power from the grid. Or, storage batteries are used to hold the windy day surplus until it is needed.

The old farmer’s idea of using windmills to pump water is still good today. Wind can be used to pump water uphill into a tank or reservoir for future use by gravity when needed.

If the reservoir is big enough and high enough it can serve as a battery to store the energy. The stored water can be released to make electricity in a hydroelectric plant when needed.

Not practical for home use but still a good idea. I know of one place along the shore of Lake Michigan where the Consumers Energy utility company does this.

If I lived along the ocean shore, I would combine tidal or wave power, along with wind and solar to supply electricity a larger percentage of the time. I wish we all could live at the beach. It is the dreamer in me.

by Birney Summers – 2009 All Rights Reserved

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How to Wreck Your Miles per Gallon

Here is a, just for fun, story of some tried and true ways to get the lowest possible miles for each gallon of gasoline that you buy with your hard-earned money.

Run out to your car and start it up on a hot day. Then run back into your house to cool off with a cold drink, while your car’s air conditioner does its thing. Turn your television on and watch the latest news about global warming while you wait for the car to cool off.

Before starting out go around the car and let about 5 psi of air pressure out of each tire. You gotta to do it in hot weather so the pressure doesn’t build up too high.

It is a scientific fact that air expands, as it gets hotter. Lowering the tire pressure will give you more traction and make for a softer ride too.

Jump in your car and turn on the headlamps. It is safer to have them on, even in the daytime.

Scoot out your driveway. See how fast you can accelerate to the end of the block before slamming on the brakes at the stop sign.

Crank your windows down so you can yell at the children to clear the street. Leave the windows down.

Race downtown to the library, you got no time to waste. Park in the sunshine, so the car can warm up again.  Check out twenty or so of the heaviest books that they have about the environment.

Stash the books in the trunk. You will have to shove that old car battery; you were going to recycle, off to the side to fit the books in there.

Speed to the south-side party store, for ice for your cooler. They are having a two for one sale. Save your money by getting two bags of ice. Better yet, save even more money by buying a second cooler and two more bags of ice. Load it all in the car.

Then zoom to the Super Store in the northern suburbs to use your coupon for bottled water to fill the cooler. Buy as much as you can carry because they are on sale, “today only.”

Then try to beat the red lights back downtown to pick up your clothes at the dry cleaners.

You friend Fred rings your cell phone for help. He damaged his bicycle and he needs your help to take it to the repair shop, two towns away. No problem we just tie the wrecked bicycle on the roof rack and off we go. Fred brings his sister Freda and her pal Albert along for the ride. Fill all the seats to make the trip more fun. (They say car-pooling saves money.)

Your cell phone batteries are low so plug it into the car, to charge up. Crank up the DVD player to get your music on. Keep the windows down to share the music.

Hit the highway to get to the repair shop fast. We don’t want to waste the whole day right. If we drive over 80, we will get there faster. Double check to make sure the headlights are on for safety.

Keep the automatic transmission in drive, not that OD thing. Using “DRIVE” will give you better control and quicker response to the gas pedal.

Put your foot to the floor to clear that hill as quickly as you can. Then brake hard to keep from driving under the truck ahead of you on the downhill side.

At lunchtime, skid into the fast food place a few miles off the highway. Inch ahead as the long line of cars moves slowly through the drive in window. Keep the music on, the windows down and the air conditioner pumping out cold air while you wait your turn.

Albert needs to go inside so park over there in the sunshine. Keep cool with the AC on while we wait.

I am leaving the story unfinished in the hope that your comments will add to it.

by Birney Summers – 2009 All Rights Reserved

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Review: 7 Watt ZetaLux LED Light Bulb

The sample ZetaLux LED light bulb that I received from EarthLedlooks good. It is solidly made to last for the ten years or longer that it would take to wear it out.

It is shaped like an ice cream cone. It has an aluminum cone that has a sparkling white ice cream dome on top. The inside of the translucent plastic dome is frosted with something that sparkles. I guess the sparkles are to spread out the light coming from the LED itself.

The LED that makes the light is located down inside the top of the cone a little ways so it cannot shine directly out to the sides. The light intensity readings that I took confirmed the low level of light going out sideways.

In the direction up away from the base, the light intensity is similar to readings for a 60-Watt incandescent and the 7-watt GeoBulb brand LED. The upward light readings were actually better than for a 13-watt CFL bulb. Take a look at this chart for the foot-candle readings.

 

Where to Use a ZetaLux LED Bulb

Because of the highly directional light from LED bulb, the best place to use them is where the base is up and the globe is down. Ceiling mounted lights in home entryways and hallways come to mind.

Reading lamps, where the light can be focused right where you need it is another good application. If you used them as closet lights, they would never burn out with the low number of hours of use.

You might consider them for bathroom lighting too.

These bulbs are not weather proof so you don’t want to use them as porch lights. A little water inside the base will short out the electronics package hidden in there. They would work in a garage or shed, but might not be bright enough to do the job.

I sent the ZetaLux bulb to my friend Mike to try out. Mike has very acute hearing and catches things that I don’t. Here is what he had to say about it.

I like this bulb for the applications you mention, particularly task lighting and possibly hallway lights or in the shop.  I have a light over the kitchen table with a large downward bell shaped shade/reflector and it worked well there. 

I didn't hear any noise from this one, hurray!  I also thought the warm light was the best of the ones tested.  It is still not quite as warm as an incandescent yet.

I did notice that the bulb is a bit longer than the usual incandescent, so some of my ceiling fixtures that have a reflective focusing element did not work well.  However, another ceiling fixture with the reflective element was acceptable.  The light was not completely even because the light doesn't come out of the sides; however, the combination of the reflector and the white glass cover on my fixture made this acceptable for me.  Unfortunately, my wife likes 100-Watt equivalent in the hallways, so until they put out more light, I won't be putting it in the hallway.  Also, I usually don't have my hallway lights on for 4 hours a day either, so the payback would be very very long.

I too liked the look of the design.  It also fit in all the fixtures that I tried it.  It also comes on instantly like all the LED bulbs so that's an advantage over some of the CFLs.

Low Price Makes ZetaLux an Economical Choice

The ZetaLux bulb costs about $50 as compared to the GeoBulb at $120 each. $50 each still sounds like an awful lot to pay for one light bulb that gives you about the same amount of light as an old 60 cent Edison bulb. But, when you graph out what happens to the total cost over time the old style Edison bulb costs the most.

 

 

For the first 500 hours, the 60-Watt Edison bulb is the least costly. Beyond 500 hours, the 13-Watt CFL is the low cost choice, up to 17,500 hours. Beyond 17,500 hours, the ZetaLux is the low cost choice. Given enough time, the ZetaLux bulb will pay for itself with the savings on your electric bill. If the increasing cost of electricity is factored in, they are an even better investment.

Recommendations

For cost savings, I strongly recommend the ZetaLux LED light bulbs, if you don’t plan to move soon and have places that you can use them to shine down from the ceiling or in reading lamps.

For applications, like table lamps, where a lot of light shining out the side of the bulb is needed, I recommend a Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL).

In applications where color fussy folks work, go with what every light bulb gives you the color rendering you need. My wife likes real day light from a window or reveal GE Revel light bulbs or Daylight CFL bulbs. She also needs enough light to see to thread her quilting needles. That rules out the smaller light bulbs.

Maybe someday soon someone will make a LED efficient lamp that gives as much good color light as an old 150-Watt incandescent. All at an economical price. 

by Birney Summers – 2009 All Rights Reserved

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Information Sources for Saving Energy

This is a quick review of internet information resources for saving money on energy bills that I recommend. There are a lot of blogs sites out there that are promoting energy savings for environmental reasons. But, there are not very many blogs that are focused on helping folks saving their money on utility bills.

My friend, Jan Pavis writes the Reduce Utility Bills blog. She writes about home energy saving topics from her own experience.

Another friend John Westenhaver writes the Energy Watcher blog. He provides an interesting mixture of energy saving tips, energy related news and tracks the cost of energy that impacts his life in the Southern USA

My biggest competition in on-line energy information use the Federal and State governments, major utility companies and a few large companies.

I recommend that your look up web sites for your local utility companies. Your electricity supplier may have valuable information about the way your electric bill is calculated.

The same thing goes for natural gas and water suppliers where you live.

Some state governments have web pages that provide useful information on how to save money on your energy bills.

Both the US Department of Energy and EPA have several sites that give good information for home use. I use their Energy Information Administration web site to research information for my day job.

The Energy Hog web site for children is a fun way to teach your children about saving energy.

Another one for children is the Energy Star for Kids page.

Here is the link to the best page of the EPA’s Energy Star sites for home energy savings.

There are some good corporate web site that are also good sources of information. One of the best is the Owens Coring Company’s site.