Energy Saver Guy

Hello Everyone,

Autumn is in the air! Warm days cool nights. We have had a beautiful stretch of weather here in upstate N.Y. in the last couple of weeks.

Just a reminder from last week, it’s time to take the window A/C units out, which will cut down on air leakage as the heating season starts. This week we are going to talk about base load ( benchmark)  energy usages, in this area (upstate N.Y.) in late September, early October we do not use energy for heating or cooling. If you use natural gas for heating and electricity for cooling, your May and September  utility bills are usually the lowest.

Here’s an example, last May we used 350 kilowatts of electricity, last October we used 310 kilowatts . In August we used 550 kilowatts so 550 minus 330 equals 220 kilowatts for A/C in August.  220 x  15 cents per kilowatt equals  $30 for cooling during August. In December we used 480 kilowatts, the higher usage is because it get’s dark earlier in winter ( more lights) , the furnace fan is electric and  you also spend more time indoors using electricity  in winter. As a note, we do have an electric dryer (my bad)

Talking about natural gas, we use  8 or 9 therms in the benchmark months. We heat hot water and cook with natural gas. During February we used 150 therms of natural gas, so it took 140 therms to heat the house during February.

It is inexpensive to lower your ” baseload” usages because it’s mostly lifestyle changes. It is more expensive to lower your heating and A/C usages because you have to tighten up the house (reinforce the thermal barrier) by insulating, weatherstripping and air sealing.

Our baseload electric usage is very low because we worked at it a little bit, here are some of the things we’ve done.

-CFL lightbulbs (Watch video)

-Motion sensors on outside lights

- No exra  fridge or old  freezers

-Reduced phantom load (electronics either unplugged or surge protectors off)

-EnergyStar fridge (vaccuum coils in the back to keep them clean)

-Clean the dryer vent and hard pipe it to increase airflow and reduce energy use

-Shut off lights when not in the room

-Our base load natural gas is very low because we worked on it a little bit;

-We keep our hot water setting VERY low in summer and low in the winter

-We use the “vacation setting ” on the heater when away for more than a day

-We wash clothes in cold water

-We use our propane grill a lot, (outside living)

-Members please take a look at our energy savings calculator

- http://www.energysaverguy.com/members/156.cfm

I hope these few pointers help you and talk to you next week!

Any questions? E-mail me at answers@energysaverguy.com

Have a fun week,  Pat

High energy bills go away, today!