4 Energy-Saving Tips to Illuminate Your Lighting Habits

Saving money and energy by only changing your lighting? Sounds like a bright idea to me! Energy efficient lighting is one of the easiest ways to save money on your energy bills. Here are some ideas to save money more than just changing out incandescent  bulbs to CFL or LED bulbs.

You might think that something so small in your home, which uses so much less energy than, say, your AC unit, might not make a difference. If that’s your thought, let me illuminate you: lighting is one of the easiest ways to save energy, with the most immediate results. Even if you’re not paying much just to light your home, waste is waste, so let me bring a few ideas out of the shadows and into the light:

Firstly, keep your lamps (and even your other appliances!) away from the thermostat. Every thermostat has a sensor so that it can tell how warm the room is, and whether it needs to be running the air conditioning. If the sensor is too close to a warm lamp, the sensor will pick up on its warmth and run the AC longer than necessary. 

Lamp placement can help save energy in other ways, too. For instance, try putting a lamp in the corner of the room. A lamp placed against a single wall only has one surface to reflect light off of, but placed against two walls, your lamp reflects twice the amount of light. This makes your lamp appear even brighter than normal, and offers an opportunity to use a lower wattage bulb for the same amount of light.

Speaking of lower wattage bulbs, another idea is to replace your lesser-used light bulbs with a lower wattage. While you do this, you can also upgrade your most used lights with an energy efficient bulb. 

Keeping your lights on a timer helps you keep your energy use on a regular schedule, while a motion sensor attached to your lights allows you to make sure you are only keeping lights on when you need them, instead of when you forget about them.

Who would've thought you could do so many different things to save energy from just your lights? At Green ID, we can help your energy efficiency shine bright with a home energy audit. Don't be in the dark about your home's energy waste, call us at (602) 926-1650 today! 

Homes On The Market Should Be Getting Energy Audits

For $99, you can add an energy audit to the inspection of your possible new home or to the home that you’re selling. Whether you’re buying or selling, having an energy audit done on the home can save buyers thousands of dollars in future operating costs or identify just how efficient the home is. Energy audits do this by pinpointing features of the house that need corrections that would improve the energy efficiency of the home. By finding these features, it can let you know that the home is either and energy guzzler or a sustainable home.

Energy audits have been around for quite some time now but they are still not utilized in the real estate field. According to HERS, almost all energy audits are done on new homes instead of existing/resold homes. This is unfortunate because knowing the energy status of a home can affect the overall pricing of the home. After having an audit completed many buyers say: lower the price, fix the problems or I’m not buying. But as a seller, showing that you have an efficient home can be a selling point.

So, in a world where energy efficiency is a growing concern, where energy costs are high on the list of ongoing expenses, and where energy upgrades pay for themselves in bill savings, why aren’t more energy audits performed on houses being sold? Neither buyers nor sellers ask! Sellers want to avoid giving purchasers a reason to make lower offers or demand repairs before closing and buyers may simply not know that there’s another option. It isn’t recommended to most buyers.

On the contrary to what most think though, having an energy audit done on the home, or making energy upgrades to the home, can help sell houses. If a home is proven to be more energy efficient it’s more desirable and if it isn’t, buyers feel comfortable in knowing what exactly they’re going to get.

Green ID is one of the top energy auditors in Arizona. We offer competent, experienced, certified auditors and a comprehensive report once the audit is completed. You can find Green ID at YourGreenID.com or by contacting us at (602) 926-1650.

Air Seal: The "Flu Shot" For Your Home

http://www.greenintegrateddesign.com/blog/air-seal-the-flu-shot-for-your-home

Do you have problems with sickness, allergies, and asthma in your home?

Are you looking for a way to breathe easy and feel better without medication?

We have the solution:

Air seal your home!

We liken air sealing to getting a flu shot – it protects your health and saves you money in the long run.

Air that leaks through your home’s envelope not only wastes energy and increases costs, but creates an unhealthy (and potentially unsafe) environment for you and your family.

Air leakage occurs when outside air enters and conditioned air leaves uncontrollably through cracks and openings. This results in poor indoor air quality and moisture problems, both of which can affect the health of the occupants. In addition, sealing air leaks reduces outside noise; causes less pollen, dust, insects, and pests to enter the house; and controls humidity – all of which will improve your health in your home.         

                                                                         

Fumes from household and garden chemicals, insulation particles, and dust can enter your duct system, aggravating asthma and allergy problems. Sealing ducts can help improve indoor air quality by reducing the amount of pollutants entering ducts and circulating through your home.

During normal operation, gas appliances such as water heaters, clothes dryers, and furnaces release combustion gases (like carbon monoxide) through their ventilation systems. Leaky ductwork in your heating and cooling system may cause “backdrafting,” where these gases are drawn back into the living space, rather than expelled to the outdoors. Sealing leaks can minimize this risk.

In addition to the health aspect, leaky ducts can reduce heating and cooling system efficiency by as much as 20 percent. Sealing and insulating ducts increases efficiency, lowers your energy bills, and can often pay for itself in energy savings. Plus, if you’re planning to install new heating and cooling equipment, a well-designed and sealed duct system may allow you to downsize to a smaller, less costly heating and cooling system that will provide better dehumidification.

For more information about how you can live healthier in your home, be more comfortable, and save money, contact Green ID at (602) 926-1650 today. Ask us how you can get started with air sealing – the flu shot for your home. Protect yourself and your family!

What is an Energy Audit?

Energy audits in Arizona are done to identify energy saving opportunities for home owners who want to lower their monthly bills, who are unsure what energy saving upgrades would be best for their home, who want to improve their health by cutting down on allergens and pollutants coming from the outdoors, and home owners who want an unbiased energy analysis and recommendations.

​An auditor will analyze your energy consumption and home performance by inspecting the layout of the home, its thermal envelope, air flow, and air leakage. This 41-point home energy audit will take into consideration any large appliances in the home as well as lifestyle factors when putting together your final report. This report put together by Green ID’s home-as-a-system inspection is a unique comprehensive action plan for how you can reduce the energy action in your home. This report will outline beneficial upgrades for your home, estimated costs, and payback periods.

Having a home energy audit can help with a variety of problems that you may be experiencing in your home whether it be hot/cold rooms, abnormally high energy bills, low air flow, noise control issues, and drafty rooms. Getting an energy audit can improve almost any home’s energy consumption unless it was designed specifically for energy efficiency.

Can I Use Spray Foam Insulation In My Cement Block Home?

So you’ve heard about spray foam insulation, but you live in a block home. This makes you wonder, is it even possible to have spray foam in a cement block home? What about in an older home?
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The answer is YES!

The ideal way to install spray foam insulation in a cement block home is during construction. This allows our professional installers direct access to the empty concrete block cells that will be filled with the spray foam product.

However, even after construction is finished, or during a remodel or retrofit of an older home, we can get foam insulation into a block wall by drilling a series of holes near the top of the wall and filling the wall one vertical cell at a time.

Working from the inside face (or the surface most likely to be covered with a finish), contractors drill 5/8-inch or 7/8-inch holes into the face of the blocks about 4 feet up from the floor to fit an injection tube running from a “mixer” that combines a non-toxic liquid resin, a foaming agent, and air.

Once the foam starts to seep through the injection holes (indicating a full cavity encompassing several blocks), the process is repeated along the length of the wall every 4 feet, and then again along the top of the wall about a foot short of its full height.
Here is how that works: as one cell fills up, the foam will start to exit from the hole in the adjoining cell, signaling the installer to move the hose to the next cell and seal the hole that was just filled. One vertical cell is filled at a time, until the entire block wall is full of foam insulation.

Another option would be to fur out an interior wall with wood or steel studs and spray the foam directly into place over the face of the block wall and in between the studs. Be advised, this option would imply added material costs in the form of studs, sheetrock, etc…and it would result in a slight – although measurable – loss of interior square footage.

These are only two examples of how spray foam insulation can be retro-fitted to existing concrete structures. Spray foam is a highly adaptable material, and it can be used on nearly any project.

Here at Green ID, we have the needed experience and expertise to assist you with all of your insulation needs!

If you have any questions or concerns about whether our spray foam products can be used at your home, call us at (602) 926-1650.