Can what’s good for the planet benefit your wallet? Absolutely. After all, healing oil costs money. The right strategies make your home more energy-efficient, helping you do your part to preserve the Earth’s health while keeping more green in your pocketbook.
Here’s a no-nonsense guide to what to do.
Contents
Start With a Home Energy Audit
You can hire a professional to conduct a home energy audit, but you can perform many of the same tests yourself if you don’t have it in the budget. Start by examining the three main sources of energy loss:
- Air leaks around your home’s perimeter
- Adequate insulation to prevent outdoor temperatures from creating indoor extremes
- Your HVAC system
Start by identifying air leaks around your home’s perimeter using a gauge or a simple candle. When using the latter method, place the candle at various places, like near windows, and observe the flame. If it continues waving and flickering wildly after you set it on a stationary surface, you have an air leak to address.
You can use a thermal imaging device to detect missing insulation. If that’s not available, remove the covers from your wall outlets and shine a flashlight inside your wall to detect the presence of insulation. Your attic is easier — you should have at least 3 inches of insulation coating the floor. Install it between roofing joists before adding drywall if you convert the space into a home office or secondary bedroom.
The next stop on your list is your HVAC system. Begin by checking your vents and filter. Ideally, you should change your filter every two to three months, but you may wish to do so more often if you have pets or smokers in the home. Vacuum out any visible dust bunnies or other debris. Swapping a clogged filter can improve your HVAC’s efficiency by 15%. However, if your unit still doesn’t function correctly, it’s time to call the pros.
Ingress and Egress
Air leaks often occur along entryways and windows. Usually, a bit of caulk is all you need to seal minor cracks. However, folks with older single-pane models might consider upgrading if it’s within their budget. Sit by your window — do you feel a chill? If so, start with the caulk gun and evaluate the results.
Weatherstripping is often all you need to seal cracks around your door. If you have a larger gap at the bottom, installing a door still doesn’t take much DIY savvy and only takes minutes to complete.
Once again, proceed to your garage — and pick a sunny day to clean it out if you see a mess. While it may seem like clutter makes excellent makeshift insulation, it also provides hiding spaces for pests. Squirrels and mice can chew through your new insulation, and termites can devour the very structure of your home. Clearing the clutter also enables you to see cracks you need to fill to seal your building’s envelope.
Window Dressing
A thick, heavy set of curtains with tiebacks helps you take advantage of passive solar heating. Tie them back when the sun shines through them, as the radiated warmth will make your interior toastier without running the HVAC. Close them at night as an added layer of insulation between you and the glass.
Insulation Improvements
Many homes could improve their energy efficiency by adding insulation. Even if yours meets minimum building standards, improving your game saves you money and reduces fossil fuel emissions — most of the nation’s power still comes from oil, coal and natural gas.
Start with easy fixes, like your attic. For example, if your home energy audit revealed missing insulation around pipes, vents and ducts, make adding it your first order of business. Insulating your pipes is a must in regions that see heavy freezes. Doing so could spare you a costly repair bill, as a burst pipe can cause water damage, measuring in the thousands of dollars.
Seek other uninsulated areas, such as your garage. Insulating your garage is a must that many homeowners overlook. Then, they wonder why the bedroom atop this space always feels cold. Addressing the problem down below will help. It also reduces heating costs in single-story homes. Think about how often you open the door between your garage and house to carry in groceries. When this space stays warmer, your whole residence does, too.
Adding insulation inside walls can seem challenging, and you may wish to hire a contractor. However, you can use blown-in insulation that doesn’t require removing huge patches of drywall. Installers drill a hole in an inconspicuous area to complete the application.
Be Thermostat Smart
Even if you don’t invest in a full smart home system, adding a smart thermostat can save you a bundle on your heating bills while reducing fossil fuel use. Smart devices connect to the internet, allowing you to operate them from your phone.
The nice thing about smart thermostats is that you can adjust them from anywhere, which matters because doing so improves energy efficiency. According to Energy Star, adjusting your thermostat by 7 to 10 degrees while you’re at work results in a roughly 10% savings. These devices let you set an automatic timer with the additional backup of changing the temperature from your phone if you forget.
Work That Oven
Winter is perfect for baking, and guess what? Your oven exudes heat. While it takes a bit of planning, doing the bulk of your food prep during the coldest hours of the day might save you a bit on your heating bill. Fire that baby up first thing in the morning when your house tends to be coldest to take advantage of this auxiliary source.
Light It Up
A trip down the lighting aisle of your local big box hardware store reveals a world of LED lights you can use to replace incandescent bulbs as they go bad. They’re even more efficient than fluorescents, saving roughly 44% over each tube.
Thanks to the winter holidays, you’ll find festive LEDs at other stores, too, so take advantage of sales to illuminate your home with creative colors and styles that don’t run up your energy bill.
Close the Barn Door
While this tip may seem obvious, the winter holidays are the time for visiting friends and family. How often do they leave the main door open, closing only the screen, when bringing packages in and out of your home?
Assigning someone — perhaps one of the youngest family members — to door duty can keep your warm air from escaping when people must make multiple trips to and from their cars.
Creating an Energy-Efficient Winter Home
Creating an energy-efficient home this winter begins with an audit. Once you identify potential problems, you can go to work DIY-style or hire the right contractor to improve your house’s envelope.
Addressing air leaks, adding insulation and maintaining your HVAC system work in tandem with smart habits to reduce fossil fuel use and save money, all while you stay as snug as the proverbial bug in a rug.