Save money by managing energy use in your home

A generation ago, few homeowners would have expected that energy-efficient choices could save families about a third on their energy bill without sacrificing features, style or comfort.

However, today’s consumers can choose to incorporate a variety of energy-efficiency options into their homes, resulting in houses that are 100 percent more energy efficient than the homes of the 1970s.

By selecting the energy-efficient insulation, windows, heating and cooling equipment, appliances and lighting described below, you can reduce your home’s energy use, resulting in a significant savings on your monthly utility bills.

Use Energy-Efficient Equipment

Nearly 50 percent of a typical home’s utility bill goes toward heating and cooling. Installing the appropriate amount of insulation, properly sealing your home, and installing the correctly sized heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment, will create a comfortable and energy-efficient home.

•Look for furnaces with an Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating of between 80 percent for conventional furnaces to 94 percent for high-efficiency or condensing furnaces, and a Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) rating of at least 12.

•Heat pumps, which perform both heating and cooling functions, offer another option for HVAC equipment. Select a heat pump with a Heating Season Performance Factor (HSPF) greater than 7 and SEER rating of at least 12. Units with SEER ratings up to 18 are available.

•Regardless of the type of HVAC system used, programmable thermostats (and adaptable recovery thermostats for heat pumps) help homeowners automatically turn their equipment on and off to create a comfortable and energy-efficient living environment.

Insulation Matters

•Check for the proper amount of insulation for your climate in the walls, roof assembly, and floor. Builders can increase standard wall R-values, which measure the density of the insulation used, by adding a layer of foam sheathing and using higher density insulation between the wall studs.

Use Energy-Efficient Windows

•Using energy-efficient windows minimizes heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer. Low-energy, gas-filled windows are the most energy efficient, and are suitable for any climate. Generally, for most climates, windows should have a “U-value” (which indicates how much heat is transferred through the glass) of 0.35 or less. In climates that require a great deal of cooling, the solar heat gain coefficient of the windows should be at 0.40 or less.

Choose Energy-Efficient Appliances, Lighting

•Appliances and lighting can account for 20 to 40 percent of home energy use, and reduced utility bills and water savings can result from the use of more efficient appliances. Manufacturers have made great strides in the past 15 years in improving the energy performance of refrigerators, dishwashers, and clothes washers and dryers, and an appliance’s EnergyGuide label displays the range of available efficiencies and the estimated annual cost and/or energy use for that particular model.

•All else being equal, smaller refrigerators use less energy than larger ones, and side-by-side models are less energy-efficient than top/bottom models.

•Look for dishwashers with an air-dry option and short- or light-wash functions, and check the information on water consumption. (Hot water accounts for approximately 80 percent of the energy used by dishwashers.) Consider models with a water temperature booster — this allows you to set the water heater temperature lower.

•Lighting accounts for 5 to 10 percent of total energy use in U.S. homes, so lighting choices also can affect the amount of energy used to heat and cool the home. Ninety percent of the energy used in the incandescent lights commonly used in homes is converted to heat, adding to the air conditioning load. If recessed lights are not airtight, increased air leakage can raise heating and cooling costs.

•Light fixtures used over two hours per day are good candidates for compact fluorescent lamps — look for bulbs with high color rendition index (CRI) and efficiency (efficacy). The savings on your energy bill will more than pay for the extra cost of the lamps over their lifetime, and you will have to replace fewer bulbs because fluorescent lamps last 10 times longer than incandescent light bulbs.

•Where possible, design for maximum natural lighting, while giving proper consideration to heat loss or gain that might result from using windows or skylights. Light tubes, essentially a cross between a skylight and recessed light, provide natural light without the large energy penalty typical of skylights. Installing motion sensors or timers on outside lights can help reduce the electricity bill for these high-use lamps.

•Consider using energy from the sun to help reduce utility bills. Photovoltaic (PV) systems used in some parts of the United States convert sunlight into energy.