In the age of ever increasing electric rates and global warming, more people are finding it important to seek out green and energy saving solutions. I know my family recently received a notice of increase - starting October my electric is going to cost 5 cents more per kilowatt! Coupled with the constantly rising cost of gasoline, like any frugal family - we have been searching for ways to decrease that ever increasing electic bill.
Knowing that your air conditioning and heating usage acounts for 75-80% of your electric bill, here are a few things we have done in order to increase our energy pennies.
1. Start using that programmable thermostat.
Like any good AC girl, my home has a programmable thermostat. However it never seemed to feel comfortable at the set temperature so… we took to setting it on manual and adjusting as needed. My electric bill did not thank me. In an effort to be comfortable AND save those dollars, my husband and I tracked the temperatures we were manually setting the stat at for a week. Afterwards we adjusted the program to reflect what we were doing manually. Now our program keeps us comfortable and I don’t have to worry about forgetting to lower the thermostate before we head off to work. Remember a good rule of thumb is to keep your thermostat set at about 78 degrees when you are not at home. Those without indoor pets can adjust it higher for additional savings.
2. Maintain, Maintain, Maintain.
No a good inspection won’t lower your energy outlays, however a good cleaning will. Regular maintenance (the tuning, adjustment, and cleaning) of your system not only elimates those preventable repairs, it also cuts valuable dollars off that monthly bill. Being busy year around keeping this place running smoothly, I often forget to maintain my own equipment. Last year that cost me two very inconvienant break downs (Oops!). This year I learned and enrolled in our ComfortClub program. After my first maintenance appointment we saw an immeadiate $35 decrease in my first spring electric bill! Of course savings vary from home to home, however its proven that annual maintenance saves a total of around 5,000 Kwh annually. At my new rate that is $74.46 a month back in my pocket!
3. Upgrade.
Now of course this is the most expensive option, but it also is the option that pays off the most. In order to upgrade to a high efficiency system, you must replace your exsisting system. The payout? Depending on usage and to what level you upgrade, you can regain upto 75% of your electric bill back.
Now this is not recommended for every one. If you meet any of the following, you can see some serious savings.
- Your electric bill is higher than $400
- Your system is 5-20 years old (well even older too if its still running)
- You like to keep the thermostat set to below 75 degrees to cool your home
Of course if energy savings is important, but you want a system that provides more than a box of cold air - an advanced system may be just what you are looking for. You will still see energy savings (though rarely in the 50-75% range) and drastic improvement in household comfort.
For any family you must consider how much energy savings you are looking for, how much you are willing to spend, the realistic ability to acheive it, and the value you place on household comfort.
My husband and I had this discussion and came to the following conclusions:
- Our system is only 3 years old
- With this summer’s bills at $125-150 (We are comfortable at 76 and do get those money saving tune ups), We wanted at least 50% summer savings ($50-75 per month)
- Being a Comfort Consultant, I know that its going to be very difficult to get 50% savings with a three year old system set at 76.
- We rated our household comfort very high, willing to spend up to about $5000 for a more comfortable home. Our bedroom is 1-2 degrees warmer than the rest of the home and when the Houston humidity hits it stays, plus we like to entertain so our open concept kitchen/dining/living rooms get really hot when I cook up a storm
Reality: Being a young system we don’t see a lot of repairs needed now that we are on a regular maintenance schedule and realistically we are looking at closer to a 35-45% max savings of our already low electric bills, it seemed wise for us to wait to upgrade.
So no we are not getting a new high efficiency system … yet. But we did want to work on that comfort issue. We did do some system design modifications and came in well under our $5000 budget. It’s now much more comfortable. We aren’t cranking the thermostat down as much a night since the bedroom is cooler, and we have much better control over the living area temperature. Coupled with the Comfort Club and using that programmable thermostat we always had, I would estimate we have acheived an annual energy savings of aprox $1,000 after the cost of the maintenance program plus an additional decrease of $200-400 off our annual A/C & heating repair bills.
In the end, we found there are many things you can do of all price ranges to save those energy pennies.