Cutting Utility Bills

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Using less electricity, heating fuel and water is good for the planet as well as for your budget. So our topic for our next blog posts will be ideas that are easy to adapt to your home. Remember that not all energy-saving projects are equally cost effective. Some are expensive and take years to recoup the savings. You can make your utility dollars go the furthest by evaluating all your options before committing to any major expenditures.

Check out your house. There are so many improvements, large and small that can make a house more energy efficient that it’s often difficult to know where to start. A professional energy audit can help you determine priorities by pinpointing the most cost-effective fixes. Local utility companies often offer free or low-cost audits. Or you can also hire a home inspector or engineer to spell out more detailed advice. The more money you expect to spend on cutting energy costs, the more you will benefit from an audit by a qualified professional.

Measuring Drafts
Unless you are particularly sensitive to drafts then you may not realize how much extra fuel your heating system consumes to warm the cold air seeping into your house through nonthermal panes, loose window and door frames, shriveled caulking and uninsulated walls. Use an indoor-outdoor thermometer to check how drafty your house is. On a cold day, set the thermometer on the floor of an oft-used room to check the temperature at floor level. Then check the temperature on the ceiling in the same room. A difference of less than 10 degrees between the two readings indicate that the room is fairly tight. But if you find the difference is much higher – 15 to 20 degrees for example, then you probably have cold-air infiltration. Check other rooms in the house the same way. When you find the sources of drafts in problem areas and begin to seal them, you should notice an improvement in your comfort as well as your fuel bill.