Contents
Energy Efficiency Basics
Get Started Being Energy Efficient
How to Heat Your Home Efficiently
How to Cool Your Home Efficiently
How to Light Your Home Efficiently
Windows and Home Sealing
Energy-Efficient Appliances
Outdoor Energy Efficiency
Energy Efficiency and Your Car
Advancements in Energy Efficiency
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- Short- and long-term strategies for reducing energy use in your daily life
- Ways to bring energy efficiency to an exisiting or yet-to-be-built home
- Techniques for practicing energy efficiency even when you’re on the road
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Energy Efficiency Basics
Energy efficiency means conserving energy in two different ways: using less energy and using existing energy more effectively. Like time and money, energy can be stretched or wasted, depending on your choices. By keeping energy
efficiency in mind, you can cut back on your use of electricity, oil, natural gas, coal, and other resources without altering your quality of life substantially.
Why Be Energy Efficient?
If you’re like most Americans, you’re paying hundreds of dollars a year more than you should to heat and cool your home, drive your car, and maintain your lawn and garden. But you don’t necessarily have to give up your personal comforts and preferences to practice energy efficiency in your home and car. All you have to do is make a few smart changes to cut back on unnecessary energy use.
Practical Benefits of Energy Efficiency
By reducing the amount of energy you use, you can:
- Save money
- Help the environment
- Contribute to public health
Save Money
The most immediate way you’ll benefit from implementing an energy efficiency plan in your home is by saving money. You’ll save some money right away, and some over a period of months or years.
According to a University of Michigan study, the average American homeowner can reduce his or her bills by up to 65% by becoming energy efficient. Depending on how much your home utility bills are costing you now, that could mean hundreds or even thousands of dollars of savings in just a few years.
- Reduce up-front costs for utility bills: After you initiate energy-saving tips around your house, you should notice a difference on your first energy bill. Larger-scale changes cost money up front—but over longer periods of time, these changes will pay for themselves, and the additional savings will go right in your pocket. You can also save additional money through rebates and tax credits when you make energy-saving home improvements.
- Tax incentives: The Energy Policy Act of 2005 entitles you to a tax credit (not a tax deduction, but money credited directly to your tax return) for energy-efficient improvements to your home. You can take a tax credit of up to 10% of the cost of eligible windows, skylights, exterior doors, insulation, furnaces, water heaters, and ductwork.
- Rebates: Depending on where you live, your state may offer rebates for purchases of energy-efficient appliances, certain kinds of home improvements, or the replacement of inefficient heating or cooling units. Contact your state’s tax office to learn more.
Help the Environment
As the population of the United States continues to grow, so does our energy use. Fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, are burned to produce electricity as well as to heat and cool our homes. These resources are nonrenewable (meaning they will run out one day) and contribute to serious environmental problems, such as air and water pollution, global warming, and toxin distribution.
The average household in the United States produces about 60 tons of carbon dioxide, a major global warming gas, every year—almost twice what a similar European family produces. About 52% of electricity in the United States is generated by burning coal, which produces sulfur dioxide (which causes acid rain), arsenic (which poisons drinking water), and ozone (which causes haze). Burning natural gas and oil also contributes to global warming, local air pollution, and toxins in lakes, streams, and rivers. By using alternative forms of energy and curbing your power usage in even the smallest ways, you can contribute to a healthier planet for yourself and generations to come.
Contribute to Public Health
According to the World Health Organization, more than 100,000 people die from diseases associated with emissions produced during the creation of electricity. Smog, which is created from the emissions of power plants and from the tailpipes of cars, leads to lung inflammation, higher rates of asthma, and other respiratory illnesses. It affects the lungs of children more significantly than those of adults. Mercury from coal-burning power plants, which contributes to neurological and other health problems, has been found in fish, birds, and mammals, including humans (and in human breast milk).
By using less energy, you contribute directly to cleaner air and water in both your local community and, because air travels long distances, other parts of the world.
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