Even with a constant flow of information about energy efficiency, homeowners make major heating mistakes that end in higher electric bills and larger environmental footprints. Here are 10 of those errors, with the cause and effect of each decision.
http://bit.ly/WaQTfH 1. Maintaining a constant temperature
Cause: A persistent myth suggests that you can save energy by leaving the house at a comfortable 68 degrees (a widely recommended winter setting), even when you are sleeping or away at work.
Effect: You could miss out on significant potential energy savings by not using a programmable thermostat and adjusting the temperature overnight and during the workday.
2. Closing off vents in unused rooms Cause: You don't want to waste energy heating rooms you aren't using. Effect: Again, this just wastes energy and makes your furnace run inefficiently because it changes the air pressure in the whole system. Experts recommend never
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shutting off more than 10 percent of vents. Sealing your ducts is a more efficient way to save energy.
Separate The Myth From Fact! Read More: http://bit.ly/WaQTfH
Terri cool drafts coming out of closets are caused by the fact there is no heat in them. The rest of the room is warmed up but the closet gets no heat because the door is left closed. In addition, it is very difficult to properly insulate a corner where two walls meet. New framing methods have made it easier, however, the fact is that there is a lot of heat loss in corners or where interior walls butt up to outside walls thus lowering the wall temps which also cause the closets to feel colder.
As far as skylights, There are insulated blind kits that can be installed in the well of the skylight that can be closed when it gets dark out.
The best thing you can do is have an energy audit performed by an independent BPI contractor who has no interest in selling you any special equipment other then home energy saving ideas. They can using a blower door, identify exactly where and how large an area of heat loss is. Then they can provide you with all sorts of ideas on how to make the home more energy efficient.
What the envelope cert is that they understand how the house works. The Envelope being the complete outside shell of the house. This includes roof, walls floors, basement. Sort of like putting the whole house in an envelope. What ever it would touch would be the envelope. ...»
They should do a few things. One. A blower door test. This is where they put a fan in the front or rear door of the house. Turn it on. This creates a simulated 20 MPH wind hitting the house on all sides. They can compute how much energy loss you have and identify where all the energy leaks are occurring in the house. If you have a fireplace, it needs to be free of ashes. They will also do a CAZ test. This evaluation determines the combustion safety of all your gas appliances in the home.
They will use a smoke pencil to find air leaks at all your windows, doors, outlets floor to wall joints and plumbing openings under sinks etc. All of this should be documented as they move around.
Once done they should be able to help you decide on what items you should do to increase your energy savings while increasing your homes comfort.
The smaller the unit, the more efficient they become. So if you had a single system it's size would be twice as large it would need to be just to heat or cool one half of the house. So your not only using double the amount of energy, your using a lower performing unit every time it runs. ...»
With two zone system, the unit is smaller and more closely matched to the area it is designed to heat and cool, The duct system is better matched as well. This combined will save you more money then running the larger unit designed to do the entire house.
Many people try to save money by turning off a few ducts or grills in rooms that they do not or rarely use. This is a mistake. First off, the heating system will still be using the same amount of heat regardless of it heating one room or ten rooms. The next thing is if the heat is not allowed to be sent to the rooms that are turned off, the heat exchanger within the furnace runs hotter. This in turn causes waste heat to go up the chimney rather then into the room. This also reduces the life span of the heating equipment as it runs hotter then it normally would.
The third thing to remember is when a house is sized for heating and or cooling, all rooms are looked at. What walls are located outside, what way are they facing, What room walls are located inside next to another zone, perhaps a garage? When you turn off a room that normally would be heated and cooled at the same time as an adjoining room, your in effect making that dividing wall an outside wall that becomes cold or in the case of summer hot. This then makes the heating and or cooling load higher to compensate for the heat and or cooling losses or gains making it harder for the room in which the air was not shut off to warm up or cool down.
So keep all the ducts open and balanced. If you want zoning ideally use two three or more units to do this. You can use zone dampers, but ideally the duct system needs to be sized properly in order for zone damper systems to work properly. In addition when you zone a older system that was originally designed as a single zone house. You risk over heating the furnace in the winter and over cooling in the summer.
People often use things like large magnets over the vents in an attempt to save money by not heating specific rooms, like Woodbridge mentioned, and that is where you actually end up doing more harm than good.
Thank you for reading & posting!!