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! 

How To Save Energy In Your Kitchen!

Whether you spend every night in the kitchen making dinner or its main use is warming up left overs, these tips can help you cut down your spending and energy use in the kitchen.

Pots, Pans, and dishes
Using a warped pan to cook can be an energy sucker. Using a warped pot to boil water can take longer and use 50% more energy! Not only does the state of the cookware matter but the material matters as well. Using a copper bottomed pan will cut the time of cooking down; they heat up much faster than some of the other options. Also, when using the oven it’s better to use glass or ceramic dishes rather than metal. If you use a metal dish you’ll need to turn your oven at least 25 degrees up to be finished cooking in the same about of time as you would with a glass dish.

Make leftovers
If you can, make double portions! You can freeze the extras and save them for later. It takes a lot less energy to reheat than it does to cook a meal twice.



Appliances
Trust me, when it comes to energy use, not all appliances are equal. Upgrading your appliances would be a great first step to lower your long term spending in the kitchen. Although the initial cost may be high, this change will make the biggest impact on your energy bills and has the potential to slash your spending. Aim for investing in energy star appliances because you’re guaranteed that they are the most energy efficient.

A convention is always preferred over a standard oven. Because the heated air is constantly circulating the temperature and cook time can both decrease. Making the switch to a convention oven, on average, will lower your ovens energy use by 20%.

Self-cleaning ovens are ideal because they’re built with better insulation.

Your burner pans
You know the metal bowl underneath the coil stove burners that catch water and crumbs while you’re cooking? Those are burner pans. Keeping your burner pans is crucial and so easy. Those pans are not meant just to catch whatever is overflowing your pots; they’re supposed to be a reflective surface!  That surface reflects heat up to the cookware and helps your stove work more efficiently.

Fix that leaky faucet
A leaky faucet, though it seems only small and annoying, can really add up! A faucet that drips once a second can waste up to 1,661 gallons of water each year! Not only is that a complete waste of water, it can cost you up to $35 in electricity and gas. 

Common Insulation Mistakes

The most common insulation mistakes that are easily avoided…

http://www.greenintegrateddesign.com/blog/insulation-mistakes

As a homeowner your goal is to make your home comfortable, no matter what the season, at a reasonable price. Insulating your home is a great way of achieving that, if it’s done right. Here are a few common mistakes that will prevent you from experiencing the perks that come with an insulated home…

Using duct tapes without any insulation

Using duct tapes through an attic space that is unconditioned is one of the biggest mistakes that can be made during the insulation process. Duct tapes should only be used in conditioned spaces. If the room is conditioned then cover the duct tapes with Energy Star’s recommended home insulation R-value thickness (you can find that here).

Neglecting the role of natural light

Understanding and taking advantage of the natural light in your home is vital. Using natural light allows for natural heating in the winter months. Things like south facing windows, skylights, and tubular skylights will allow warmth into your home naturally and will also illuminate dark rooms.

Ignoring air leakage in your home

Insulation can only do so much to sustain a comfortable temperature in your home. If there are issues like air leakage you’ll be using more energy to keep a steady temperature. Leaks can cause energy loss up to 40%. Going through the home one time to seal these can save you a significant amount of money on energy bills.

Rushing through the insulation process

There are many steps and aspects that go into the process of insulating a home so it’s important to take your time to insure that all your bases are being covered and that all your options are being considered. It may be better to spend a little extra money and time if it means doing things right and saving energy as well as money long term.

The Most Common Home Efficiency Recommendations That Energy Auditors Give in Phoenix

All houses are different, but throughout the valley there are similar construction techniques and practices that are used on the majority of homes. These locally frequent practices could be the cause of your high energy bills, temperature differences within rooms, and poor indoor air quality.  Through many years of experience, the energy auditors at Green ID have found that fixing these construction flaws can improve your quality of life through lower utility bills, better air quality, and consistent air temperature from room to room.

We will go into detail about what our auditors have found to be the most common home efficiency recommendations around Phoenix.

1. Seal the ducts. SRP estimates that the typical Phoenix home loses 20% of its air-conditioned air through faulty ducts. Some installers will take shortcuts when it comes the dealing duct leaks but ENERGY STAR tells us that a duct system that is properly sealed can save up to 25% of heating and air conditioning costs.

2. Air-seal the house. Chances are, when your house was built, the builder ran wires and plumbing plates through holes in the wall that are much bigger than the wires themselves. That extra space around the wires can let your expensive, air-conditioned indoor air leak outside—and invite hot, summer air inside. This leads to heat gain quickly.

3. Add insulation or fix improperly placed insulation. In hot climates, having a well-insulated attic is crucial. This means insulation should have an “R” value (efficiency rating) of at least 30 or higher. Some homes in Arizona don’t have any attic insulation at all or have attics with insulation where it’s improperly installed.

4. Shade your windows. Windows are one of the things that are most to blame for heat entering your home. Help keep this heat out by closing curtains on the sunny side of your home or adding shade screens to your windows. According to the Electric League of Arizona, shade screens can reduce heat from the sun by about 50%.

5. Upgrade lights and appliances. Incandescent light bulbs add heat to your home and use far more electricity. Swapping them out for CFLs or LEDs can significantly reduce your energy use and has one of the fastest payback times of any energy improvement you can make.

​Get a home energy audit to get an in depth view of how your home is using energy. Homeowners won’t know which energy improvement projects are the most cost-effective if they don’t know how well or poorly their home uses energy. Home energy audits help pinpoint energy leaks and malfunctioning systems, and provide cost-benefit analyses for various energy-saving fixes. This service can find up to 35% in energy bill savings.

Going Somewhere this Summer? Save Energy While You're Gone.

It's that time of year again. Beaches, barbecues, road trips, and more! If you're going on vacation this summer (or you're a snowbird), make sure you follow these 5 tips to save on energy while you're gone.

TIP 1: Turn up the thermostat! You've likely heard this one before, but it's still an important tip. Keep it at around 90 degrees. Warm enough to save energy on your AC, but cool enough to be able to come home to a livable house.

TIP 2: Turn off the water heater. It's not like you'll be using it! You can choose to either completely shut it off, or if there's a vacation setting, feel free to use it.

TIP 3: Get rid of your energy vampires. It's not Halloween yet, but there are still vampires lurking around in the shadows of your house. Your electronics! Again, you're not going to use them, so keeping them plugged in is just a waste.

TIP 4: Keep water around. Bottle up some gallons of water and place them around the house for when it gets too dry.

TIP 5: Cover up those windows. Your windows are a major source of heat gain in your house, so just by covering them up, you'll be saving a ton of energy. A window shade screen works best, but any kind of shading will do.

​Safe travels, everyone!

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.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful... But my Cool House Feels Delightful!

Well, it's certainly not snowing here in Phoenix around this time of summer. With our infamous heat and unrelenting sunlight, our air conditioners are working overtime just to keep our homes at a livable temperature. That also means it's that time of year when you're probably spending a ton of money on your energy bills. If only there was anything that could be done...

Oh, wait! There is. A huge reason for heat gain in your home is the windows, which are always the least insulated part of any home. Think about all the houses you pass by every day with windows directly in the sun's rays, and no or minimal shading and covering. What a terrible fate! These people must be spending a small fortune to cool their house! 

Or maybe you see your neighbors with all kinds of window treatments! Some neighbors might have awnings. Some might have sun shades. Some might just have some shady trees or vines! Great! But how do you know where to go with all these options?

Well, luckily, here's a list of some window treatments that will help curb your heat gain... And, by extension, lower those bills, and make it easier on your AC unit, too! Feels a bit like Christmas in July, right?