How can I use less energy in my house?

KelliLynee · December 2010

My bill is out of this world, and we need to get it under control. We have forced hot air/natural gas heat. We use the "program" option so that the temp goes down during the work day & at night. We have a gas fireplace that we use in the evening & it heats up our downstairs very well & very quickly. It has a fan blower that we keep on pretty high when we are using the fire, would the intensity of that affect our energy use at all?

What else can we do around the house besides keeping the lights off that we arent using, etc. I hate to plug & unplug appliances & stuff like that, and I'm not sure how big of a difference this makes.

I know some people turn their water heater down- what do you have yours set at? Oh & regarding water, we wash everything except cloth diapers in cold water.

Any help would be appreciated. I am really desperate. We pay on average 328 dollars a month for heat & electric for an 1800 square foot house. This is nuts.

pixy_stix · December 2010

How old are your windows? How many inches of insulation do you have in your attic?

If you bring both of these up to code you can save up to 40% off your heating bill. We finally added the insulation we needed to our attic and noticed an immediate difference.

Genevieved · December 2010

How far do you drop the heat when you are gone or at night? You may want to drop it more. Also if you use the fireplace I would be dropping the forced air heat. You may also want to drop it a few degrees when you are home and put on a sweater.

Do you have a water pump? I'm not sure if ppl on town water have one. I do know that in my parents house that when the air would get low in it the pump it would run more often causing the bill to go up. So they would have to add more air.

Do you have low energy light bulbs?

I rent so I cannot tell you about the hot water heater.

pixy_stix · December 2010

As far as the fireplace goes, I wouldn't be using it, period. As far as I can remember those suckers use a lot of gas for not a lot of heat output (relatively). Plus, they can throw off the heating of your house.

Dropping the heat a lot when your out and then turning it back up isn't cost effective. It costs more to raise the temperature than to keep it even throughout the day. If you do drop it, you should only be doing it 2-3 degrees.

Mystery2B · December 2010

A lot of utility companies will come out and do a free inspection to help you pinpoint some measures you can take to improve your usage.

Since you're in a cold place, if you don't have newer windows, putting plastic over the windows can help reduce drafts/heat loss. Make sure you have weather stripping in good condition around all the doors. Close the heat vents in rooms that you aren't actively using (like a guestroom).

Putting some appliances on plug strips makes it easier than unplugging - you just flip the plug strip off. Make sure you're turning off the computers when not in use, desktops are supposed to be a reasonably power suck.

Genevieved · December 2010

pixy_stix:
As far as the fireplace goes, I wouldn't be using it, period. As far as I can remember those suckers use a lot of gas for not a lot of heat output (relatively). Plus, they can throw off the heating of your house.
Dropping the heat a lot when your out and then turning it back up isn't cost effective. It costs more to raise the temperature than to keep it even throughout the day. If you do drop it, you should only be doing it 2-3 degrees.

This I did not know. Even if you live in a really cold place and are gone for like 8 hours of the day. We always dropped the heat a lot when we were gone and at night growing up. I however have know idea that the bill looked like.

KelliLynee · December 2010

pixy_stix:

How old are your windows? How many inches of insulation do you have in your attic?

If you bring both of these up to code you can save up to 40% off your heating bill. We finally added the insulation we needed to our attic and noticed an immediate difference.

Our windows are <5 years old, and we put plastic over the windows in all the bedrooms (its the end of the house that feels chilly). We dont have an attic,just a crawl space, and I have no idea how much insulation there is..

KelliLynee · December 2010

Genevieved:

How far do you drop the heat when you are gone or at night? You may want to drop it more. Also if you use the fireplace I would be dropping the forced air heat. You may also want to drop it a few degrees when you are home and put on a sweater. Our high is 71 and low is 62 or something close.

Do you have a water pump? I'm not sure if ppl on town water have one. I do know that in my parents house that when the air would get low in it the pump it would run more often causing the bill to go up. So they would have to add more air. I dont believe we have a water pump.

Do you have low energy light bulbs? Yes we do.

I rent so I cannot tell you about the hot water heater.

Thanks!

KelliLynee · December 2010

pixy_stix:

As far as the fireplace goes, I wouldn't be using it, period. As far as I can remember those suckers use a lot of gas for not a lot of heat output (relatively). Plus, they can throw off the heating of your house.

Dropping the heat a lot when your out and then turning it back up isn't cost effective. It costs more to raise the temperature than to keep it even throughout the day. If you do drop it, you should only be doing it 2-3 degrees.

Are you positive about these things? I have heard that gas fireplaces dont use much energy, and it heats our big living room downstairs very quickly. And Ive always been told to use the program for our heat (and a/c). I've never heard the 2-3 degree thing. I'm not debating- I just really want the right information. DH always insisted that its less effective to re-heat the house too... (makes sense, its just not what Ive always heard).

KelliLynee · December 2010

Mystery2B:

A lot of utility companies will come out and do a free inspection to help you pinpoint some measures you can take to improve your usage.

Since you're in a cold place, if you don't have newer windows, putting plastic over the windows can help reduce drafts/heat loss. Make sure you have weather stripping in good condition around all the doors. Close the heat vents in rooms that you aren't actively using (like a guestroom).

Putting some appliances on plug strips makes it easier than unplugging - you just flip the plug strip off. Make sure you're turning off the computers when not in use, desktops are supposed to be a reasonably power suck.

Thank you... these are all great tips. Stupid question (in fact, most of my quesitons in this post are!), if we shut the vent in the guest room should I also be keeping the door shut? Cause thats the room we have our cat's window tower in & they love looking out that window, and I would prefer not to shut the door.

We should start shutting off our power strips... Good call. Now if I can convince my DH that it really is worth the wait to restart his computer every day...

Mystery2B · December 2010

KelliLynee:
Mystery2B:

A lot of utility companies will come out and do a free inspection to help you pinpoint some measures you can take to improve your usage.

Since you're in a cold place, if you don't have newer windows, putting plastic over the windows can help reduce drafts/heat loss. Make sure you have weather stripping in good condition around all the doors. Close the heat vents in rooms that you aren't actively using (like a guestroom).

Putting some appliances on plug strips makes it easier than unplugging - you just flip the plug strip off. Make sure you're turning off the computers when not in use, desktops are supposed to be a reasonably power suck.

Thank you... these are all great tips. Stupid question (in fact, most of my quesitons in this post are!), if we shut the vent in the guest room should I also be keeping the door shut? Cause thats the room we have our cat's window tower in & they love looking out that window, and I would prefer not to shut the door.

We should start shutting off our power strips... Good call. Now if I can convince my DH that it really is worth the wait to restart his computer every day...

I think ideally you close the door, but even if it's open part way I think it would be better to not fully heat the room.

Based on your responses I'd really suggest getting the free utility audit - there have to be things you can do for your specific house and they can give you the lowdown on your actual heat usage/fireplace usage based on the type you have.

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