Renewable Clean Energy Info

Archive for September, 2008

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the overall energy consumption in the U.S. is 17,891 trillion British Thermal Units (Btu) more than the past years. This showed an standard increase of 1.0% every year.

Despite recent economic challenges to help save, energy consumption is still on the rise. Sad to say, some consumers aren’t doing their part to save energy, which can eventually lead to saving money.

Why is this so? It is simply because many people still aren’t aware of the available solutions to help them save energy and money.

Consumers have to be aware that saving money and energy comes down to the basics of using items that will help conserve energy. For one thing, the use of compact fluorescent bulbs has been proven time and again how they can solve energy consumption problems and save more money.

Why Fluorescent Bulbs?

The reason is simple: Compact fluorescent bulbs conserve energy 2/3 less than the typical incandescent bulbs. The great thing is that even if it consumes less energy, the performance is still the same, maybe even better.

Another great thing about compact fluorescent bulbs is that they last longer (10 times compared to incandescent bulbs). Hence, studies show that with this item, you can save as much as $30, even more, for every fluorescent bulb you buy. With incandescent bulbs, you need to buy often, spending more than what your budget will allow.

Moreover, compact fluorescent bulbs are cooler. They produce 70% less heat as compared to incandescent bulbs. With this, your home cooling system is maximized, reducing the power needed to generate a cooler environment. The bottom line, you’ll get smaller electricity bills.

By simply using fluorescent bulbs in areas where lighting is mostly needed or required, you are saving more money for a rainy day. You save more money in your electricity bill as well as in your budget because you don’t have to replace the compact fluorescent bulbs more often as compared to incandescent bulbs.

So if you really want to cutback on your electricity bills and save more money for the future, use compact fluorescent bulbs. You may never know what the future holds so you need to save more. And with compact fluorescent bulbs, there will always be light ahead.

Your total monthly energy bill is estimated to be composed of 90 percent from appliances power consumption. This gives us an important reason to conserve energy when using appliances.

And the most used of these appliances are those utilized in our home’s kitchens. So it is just logical that we concentrate on how to save energy when using kitchen appliances. Here are some simple but helpful tips on how to save money when using our appliances through energy conservation.

- Make sure the home kitchen appliances you buy have the Energy Star label. This is to ensure that the appliance you purchase is energy efficient, meaning the appliance will give more power and will emit less heat using the least amount of energy with which it is supplied.

- Keep kitchen appliances that emit too much heat away from each other such as refrigerators and electric stoves. Appliances tend to utilize more power when exposed to high temperatures, which leads to more electricity consumption. To be on the safe side a distance of approximately eight to ten feet should be kept between heat emitting kitchen appliances. Now if you can’t maintain this distance between appliances, installing an air conditioning unit will help keep ambient temperatures low and that will help save money in the long run.

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when using an oven, make sure that you don’t consume energy when you don’t really have to. Checking the instructions whether preheating is required or not is one way to avoid wasting energy. Casseroles and broiled dishes don’t necessarily require preheating.

- If you are to cook smaller meals or when you have to heat them, use less energy-consuming kitchen appliances such as toaster ovens, electric skillets, and broilers in stead of electric stoves. This can help save half the energy that full-size appliances can consume. Also, a microwave oven can be more efficient in such a way that it can cook food faster compared to an electric oven.

- Be very choosy when it comes to buying pots and pans. Pans that have bigger bottoms than the size of the burner won’t cook food evenly. Make sure you cover pots and pans when cooking to allow the food to cook faster with the help of the trapped steam.

- Have regular maintenance checkups and cleanings scheduled for your kitchen appliances to keep them working efficiently.

Summer’s a very expensive season, especially for those living in tropical countries. Why? It requires people to often turn on their appliances thats keeps them cool.

Among all these appliances, AC units are the most electricity consuming devices. And this is the very reason you need to learn how to save money through conserving energy in using air conditioning units. Although you don’t want to buy one, you just have to or else you might be a victim of heat stroke or more expenses due to the computer overheating and other damages to your home appliances due to overheating.

Here are some tips on how you can save electricity while keeping yourself sane and safe from the heat of the summer:

- In buying an AC unit, check if it has the Energy Star label. This label assures that the AC unit is energy efficient. And an energy efficient air conditioning unit translates to saving you more money.

- Avoid installing your air conditioner where there’s direct sunlight. Your AC unit will use more energy if it’s placed where direct sunlight is. Use tall plants or an awning at least, to avoid exposing your AC unit to sunlight.

- Don’t install your AC unit near appliances that emits heat such as irons, TV, computer and refrigerator.

- Keep the AC unit to fan setting first for about 10 to 15 minutes before using it’s cooling setting to get rid of the hot air from the vicinity of the AC unit.

- Keep all the windows and doors close while the air condition unit is operating. This is to avoid the AC unit from overworking. Make sure that you get all your things that you need inside before you start working. This is so you don’t have to keep on opening and closing the door letting the cool air out every so often.

- If you can, make sure that the AC unit isn’t used during the hottest times of the day, usually from 11 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. Run it full blast when it’s not too hot and lower it’s cooling setting or switch it off during the aforementioned times of the day.

- Get a cleaning service and get it checked by a professional AC maintenance guy at least every 6 months to keep the air conditioning unit in its best form.

It helps to be practical nowadays. Household don’t need additional costs in their expenses. Therefore, more and more households are opting for insulation to reduce their energy bills.

Heating and cooling your household takes up 50 to 70 percent of the total energy that is allocated for the usage of the entire home. By adding insulation, utility bills will be reduced. Also, if insulation has been installed properly, you will notice the dramatic reduction of energy costs.

Insulate various areas in your home. The priority in insulation is the attic. Include the access door which is located under the floor and above the heater. Then you should also double check the crawl spaces, as well as the edge of slabs.

Insulating walls that are already there may be limited but you have the option of remodeling these areas to make it accessible. Just make sure that the amount of insulation you apply here is recommended for the area that has been reconstructed.

As a guide, you can check out insulation books or go online for a visual manual of where to insulate and the recommended R-values of a particular area in the household. Know that these changes in each household. In order for you to get the recommended R-value in the area you are residing, it is best that you call your electric company or your gas company. They will gladly recommend which R-value is appropriate with your zip code and your area.

Did you know that the greatest savings of energy are results of insulation installations? You can add more to your savings by adding insulation to your household. Some homeowners have theirs installed in a comfortable manner for their convenience. This is because too much insulation in a particular area can reduce the insulation’s effectiveness. If this happens, the whole point of it all will just be wasted.

Many households confirm that insulation increases their energy savings as much as 10 percent. This can be done by plugging air leaks to the insulation leaks. These are also found in outlets, electrical switches, pipes and bathtub and shower stalls. These are greater than the obvious insulations but by taking care of these, you are sure to have better insulation and more savings.

So why spend when you can save money in the first place? Just be sure that you are insulating those areas the right way though.

Water is a precious resource. For just a few hours without water, people can actually die. Water is also a paid utility – if you use a lot, you pay more. Because of this, it is important to save water. Here are some ways to save water.

1. Switch the faucet or shower off when you aren’t actually using it. You don’t need the water running after you wet your toothbrush, or while you are soaping your body or shampooing your hair. During these moments when you’re not using the water, turn the tap off, it can save you a lot since showering and brushing are things you do everyday.

2. Install low-water flushing toilets that use only one to two gallons of water per flush. If you have an existing high-gallon toilet, you can put a plastic bottle filled with sand into the tank. This will help the tank fill up faster, and use up less water than it would when it is empty.

3. Rinse your shaver in a small basin instead of running water. Fill a small basin with water and dip your razor in it to rinse. It might not be advisable to rinse the razor in the sink itself since sinks are full of germs and take more time to fill.

4. Wash your clothes or dishes in big loads. Washing several small loads uses up so much water than washing in just one big load. This also helps you save time and electricity.

5. Instead of using a hose to clean your driveway and sidewalks, use a broom. Water may not be efficient to remove dust and dirt from your pavement. A broom will directly sweep away trash and you can easily dispose of it afterwards.

6. Check all your pipes, faucets, and toilets for leaks to prevent water being wasted. Even small drips of water from leaking pipes can amount to gallons of water being wasted in a year. Check your water system at least twice a year to prevent any leaks from happening or to quickly repair existing ones.

7. Instead of using the waste disposal system on your sink, make compost from your scrap foods. Sink disposals use a lot of water. Composts can help you save the environment as well.

Knowing how to save water can help you protect both the Earth and your wallet. Keep these things in mind to conserve this precious resource.

Gas prices have soared to nearly all time highs and it isn’t exactly the fault of the consumer. When tracing why pump prices have escalated, you could determine that everything changed during the World Trade Center attacks and when the United States invaded Iraq. However, the thought of plunging oil prices has remained a thought despite the fact that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. Oil markets have remained volatile largely due to the supposed volatility in supplies and oil-producing nations.

However, there are many ways to become slightly shielded on the effects of rising gas prices and help maintain a budget for the household. Here are some tips to save money on gas.

Minimize use of the car

As much as possible use the car only during long trips and travel by bus or foot if your destination is nearby. Not only will this method help save on money and gas but will also be beneficial for your health. Taking long walks helps develop your cardiovascular condition, while taking the bus is definitely cheaper compared to the amount of gas you’ll consume and the parking fees. In addition, teach your kids to commute in order to make them more familiar when going around the different places in your area and not rely too much on your presence if they need to go somewhere. Times have changed and people need a lot of streetsmarts in order to survive.

Regular maintenance of the car

While a car is a machine, it is also like a human that needs to be checked every few months. A car’s efficiency sharply drops when it running at optimum performance. Basic maintenance that could be done by the driver includes checking the tire pressure, oil level and water for the cooling system. You can easily determine if a car is in poor condition if it struggles in accelerating especially during the straights or easily overheats.

Use fuel-efficient cars

Nowadays speed has become a secondary or even tertiary consideration in purchasing a car, and now efficiency is the name of the game given the challenging times.

Ideally, a car that will be used as a daily should offer outstanding mileage in terms of miles per gallon. You have an option to use hybrids, but this technology still remains in the developmental stage and are considerably more expensive that gas-powered vehicles. There are gas-powered powered that run as much as 22-24 miles per gallon from notable car makers including Honda Motor Co, Toyota Motors Corp and General Motors.

Maintaining a household has never been as difficult as before considering the escalating costs of many utilities. Not only do you have to worry about the food you need to serve everyday but you also have to plan a strategy to pay for the many costs generated by your family. Among them is the key cost of generating sources are utilities, which include, electricity and water.

Here are some ideas to get kids involved in lowering utility bills.

LIMIT USE OF ELECTRONIC GAMES IN THE HOUSE

It is no secret that kids love electronic games, as this is a great way to pass the time and is surely fun. If your house has a video game console or computer try to assign a time when the kids can play with it. As much as possible don’t let your kids play with their video games around the clock, as this will result in soaring electric bills. Remember that when playing video game consoles the kids will also use the television. That in itself shows that more than one electronic appliance is running at full tilt.

Assign a time for video games and never allow the kids to exceed. It is advisable to keep a limit of one to two hours of gameplay during weekdays and four hours during the weekend. Also make sure that your kids study first before they plug in their consoles or even computers. Another key method is asking your kids to unplug their electric gadgets when not in use, as these devices eat up electricity even when in stand-by mode. This practice also teaches them to be neat, as they would be forced to properly store their electronic toys.

PRESERVE USE OF WATER

Advise your kids to preserve their use of water. This can done by limiting the use of the shower or the bathtub. Try to use a medium-sized container for kiddie baths instead of the shower to help control consumption. Tell them to close the faucet in the middle of brushing and just fill up a small cup when gargling. While it is also fun to splash around in the bathtub, remember you need at list 25 gallons of water to fill up a stardard-sized tub. Limit use of the tub during weekends.

In order to help control you utility bills, the kids need to be involved is working towards efficiency. It is always helpful when a child becomes responsible at an early age, as he or she will carry this up to adulthood. Parents should also realize that maintaining a household is basically a team effort and all of the family members should do their part.

As summer nears, many gardeners face the challenge of proper watering due to restrictions imposed by many municipalities. If you’re one of these gardeners, don’t fret. Cutting down on watering time doesn’t mean allowing your plants to wilt and dry up. It really is just a matter of creating a watering schedule that will not only work but also save you money. Here are some ways you can use:

Water sparingly.
When using a water can or hose, aim the water to the roots and not the leaves. Plants absorb water through their root system and many gardeners waste too much time and a lot of water allowing the moisture to fall someplace else.

Catch excess water.
If you have hanging plants or pots placed in elevated areas, it might be a good idea to place other plants directly underneath. Each time you water the plants above, those below can catch the excess water and use it instead, cutting down your watering time by at least half.

Choose plants to water.
Not every plant in your garden requires watering everyday. Cacti and other succulents, for example, can survive well with infrequent waterings. There is also no need for deep-watering well-established plants. In fact, plants with established roots will do well with just one inch of water. Infrequent watering will also encourage deeper rooting, producing plants that are healthier and stronger.

Avoid shallow watering.
Despite appearances, shallow watering actually wastes more water than deep watering. A light sprinkle of water, for example, will only last for a few hours, requiring you to water the plant all over again.

Another problem is that if the atmosphere is too hot, the water will evaporate before it has the time to reach the roots so you’ll have to water more frequently than you should. It’s not only ineffective, it is also wasteful. Go for deep waterings once or twice a week instead.

Schedule watering.
The best watering times for plants are early mornings, just before the sun reaches its peak and late afternoons when the sun isn’t too hot. The reason is simple: if you water during the hottest time of the day, water evaporates faster. That means you might have to water again late in the afternoon on the same day.

Use watering devices effectively.
Other than the sprinkler, there are also other watering devices that will help you cut down on watering time and save money. Soaker hoses, for example, ‘weep’ moisture during a specified length of time and are very effective with flowerbeds and vegetable plots. Root feeders, which are buried several inches below the ground surface, are great for shrubs and trees.

Even the best and toughest appliances can’t last forever but by simply following a regular maintenance and repair schedule, you can extend the life of your appliances and even save money on utility bills. Here’s how:

Clean up.
It’s amazing how much money you can save by simply cleaning things around the house. Lamps, for example, gather dust and dirt over time. This makes them burn less bright and heat up unnecessarily, using too much energy. Ventilating fans also work twice as hard if they become too heavy with dirt and grime.

You might also want to maintain certain arrangements in your home. Appliances that produce heat, for example, shouldn’t be placed near airconditioners. When the thermostat senses the temperature increase, the airconditioner will work harder and consume more energy.

Get rid of frost.
If you have a manual-defrost refrigerator or freezer, regularly defrost your appliances. When frost builds up, the insulating effect causes the motor to work harder, consuming more energy.

You might also want to maintain the freezer temperature at 5 degrees and the rest of the compartments between 37 to 40 degrees. A refrigerator that is too cold is consuming unnecessary energy.

Check your windows.
You may not know it, but much of the hot or cool air inside your home may be lost due to small leaks in your windows. That means your heater or air conditioner will have to work harder and use more energy. To prevent this, ensure proper insulation by caulking or weather-stripping your windows. If you can, you might even want to replace old windows with the more energy-efficient ones. You’ll be much more comfortable and even lower your utility bill.

Take note of the temperature.
Schedule maintenance work on your water heater and air conditioning units on a regular basis. A twice-yearly check up on your water heater and a quarterly clean-up of your air conditioning units will save hundreds of dollars in repairs later. You might also want to use an insulating blanket on your old water heater to prevent heat from escaping.

Flush your water heater tank.
Your water heater tank collects sediment and prevents it from using energy efficiently. Not only that, accumulated sediment is a place where bacteria can thrive, causing odor and other possible problems. Schedule a cleanup for the tank at least once a year or call a professional serviceman to do the job for you.

How Can Brick Stone Make Your Home Energy Efficient

A home that’s energy-efficient is actually healthier and cost effective. Energy efficiency modifications in your home can eliminate or at least lessen the poor quality of air that’s brought in by various weather conditions. One way to make your home energy efficient is to pay attention to the building materials and to the house design.

In Australia, bricks have long been recognized as commonly chosen building materials. In fact, nearly 90% of the built houses in the said place are constructed using bricks. Because of the campaign to decrease energy consumption in its entire forms, there are building regulations these days that require the newly built houses to be more energy efficient. Well there are some things you need to know in order to come up with an informed choice.

Think about the amount of energy that’s usually consumed in your home. Maybe, you’ll be surprised to find out that a large part of the home energy is used up in cooling and heating. Cooking and lighting, even when put together, comprise only a few percent. Hence, anything which can help lessen the cooling and heating bills of your home will be a good investment, right? But the question is, do you think it is possible to cut down cooling and heating energy consumption while keeping up a practical thermal comfort inside your home? It is in this case that passive design comes into play.

Passive design handles the energy coming from the sun to improve the house’s cooling and heating in a natural way. There are actually four major principles in passive design. These are orientation, insulation and thermal mass.

· Orientation. The huge glass portion in the north part allows the low winter sun in. And to block the high summer sun, simple shading like eaves is applied.

· Ventilation. When the crest of summer time has already passed, air is permitted to get in and go out of the house in order to make it cool in a natural manner. To optimize cross ventilation, the either side of the building or the house have generous openings with almost negligible internal obstructions.

· Insulation. The insulation in the wall and ceiling serves as the obstacle to heat transportation. Insulation efficiency can be calculated by means of its R-value but it doesn’t present the whole issue. Various walls may have the same R-value but may not work the same.

· Thermal Mass. Wall materials that are dense and heavy, like bricks, suck up heat and hamper its conveyance through the walls. Through these, temperature changes become moderate and the heat absorption during summer is significantly hampered. Compared to brick walls, the lightweight materials have very low thermal mass. And because of this thermal mass, brick walls turn out to be more capable of moderating home temperature even if they have similar R-values.

Now come to think of thermal mass and consider brick stone. The first two techniques in the passive design, which are orientation and ventilation, need to be set up into the house. And your home material preference has a major effect on the quantity of thermal mass in a house or a building. One of the simplest and most economical ways to put up thermal mass is through bricks. Those bricks that are made from clay contain very high thermal mass. They are available to make your home well ventilated, comfortable and more energy efficient.

There is a research proving the idea that Brick stone homes are energy efficient. The said research has revealed that a large part of the heat is bounced back to the outside environment via the brick’s exterior panel. Another conclusion that came out is that in summertime, the temperature inside a home that’s constructed from bricks remained favorable and comfortable in spite of the changing temperature outside.

The US Department of Energy stated that thermal mass stores up heat by means of converting its temperature. It can be achieved by storing heat coming from a warm room or by means or transforming direct solar radiation into heat. And since brick stone has more thermal mass than other building lightweight materials, it is a very useful element that can be used up in making your home more energy efficient.

To sum up, brick is a very simple and inexpensive technique in putting up thermal mass in your next home. Therefore a brick stone home is more energy efficient than those that are made from other materials.