Energy Savings

Being green is easy and important. And fall’s a great time to tackle home improvement projects that will have an impact on the environment. People everywhere are taking small steps that make a difference in the fight against global warming. From buying energy-efficient appliances, to reusing grocery bags, to properly inflating tires, millions of Americans are clamoring to do their part for the earth.

So what are some GIY projects you can tackle now that will help save energy, money and the planet? 

1. Insulating -- One of the easiest GIY projects that delivers the biggest green payoff is upgrading your home’s insulation. By doing so, you can decreases your carbon footprint, increase your home’s energy efficiency and save up to 20 percent on your heating and cooling energy bills.1 Yet, nearly 80 million U.S. homes are estimated to be under insulated to the Department of Energy (DOE) standards.

The Department of Energy recommends attics -- where 30 to 40 percent of a home’s total energy loss occurs -- have up to an R-value of 60. To meet these standards, your attic should have at least 19 inches of fiberglass batt (roll) insulation or 22 inches of blown insulation. A good rule of thumb -- if you can see the wood beams (joists) in your attic, you definitely don’t have enough insulation. Even if you can’t see the joists, you still may not have enough and with nearly 80 million American homes under insulated it’s likely we or our neighbors could use more. Owens Corning, makers of recognizable PINK insulation, offers a step-by-step guide to adding insulation to your attic at www.InsulateAndSave.com.

2. Heating & Sealing -- Reap the most benefit from the insulation upgrade you just finished by ensuring that your furnace, ductwork and weather stripping around doors and windows are in good shape.

While it’s a good practice to have your furnace serviced by a professional each year before winter, you can improve your furnace’s operation and efficiency. Change the air filters throughout your house every 30 days and regularly vacuum dust from air return vents. Lubricate the blower motor following the instructions in the furnace’s owner’s guide.

Check weather stripping around doors and windows and repair or replace any cracked or faulty stripping. Don’t forget stripping around garage doors and the door from the garage into your house, as these areas can be major heat drains for your home.

3. Lighting – Once you’re done with the two projects above, replace those incandescent light bulbs with ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs -- like compact fluorescent light bulbs – to decrease the amount of electricity you use for lighting as much as 75 percent. It’s a simple task to go through your home and replace light bulbs.

Although energy efficient styles may cost more, they last longer than incandescent bulbs and conserve so much energy that they quickly pay for themselves. Each bulb will save you about $30 over its lifetime and produce 75 percent less heat than incandescent bulbs. If changing all bulbs at once seems daunting, ENERGY STAR recommends replacing the most-used bulbs in your home, such as overhead lights in the kitchen, table and floor lamps in the living or family room, and outdoor porch or post lamps.

For more energy-saving, GIY home improvement ideas, visit www.energystar.gov. 

                               

Tips for Finding a Contractor

• Ask neighbors and friends for recommendations
• Look in the Yellow Pages
• Focus on local companies
• Look for licensed, insured contractors
• Get three bids with details in writing
• Ask about previous experience
• Check references
• Check with the Better Business Bureau

Checking your home’s insulation is one of the fastest and most cost- effective ways to use a whole-house approach to reduce energy waste and make the most of your energy dollars. A good insulating system includes a combination of products and construction techniques that protect a home from outside hot or cold temperatures, protect it against air leaks, and control moisture. You can increase the comfort of your home while reducing your heating and cooling needs by investing in proper insulation and sealing air leaks.

Rolls and batts—or blankets—are flexible products made from mineral fibers, such as fiberglass and rock wool.
They are available in widths suited to standard spacings of wall studs and attic or floor joists: 2x4 walls can hold R-13 or R-15 batts; 2x6 walls can have R-19 or R-21 products.
Loose-fill insulation—usually made of fiberglass, rock wool, or cellulose in the form of loose fibers or fiber pellets, it should be blown into spaces using special pneumatic equipment. The blown-in material conforms readily to building cavities and attics. Therefore, loose-fill insulation is well suited for places where it is difficult to install other types of insulation.
Rigid foam insulation—foam insulation typically is more expensive than fiber insulation. But it’s very effective in buildings with space limitations and where higher R-values are needed. Foam insulation R-values range from R-4 to R-6.5 per inch of thickness, which is up to 2 times greater than most other insulating materials of the same thickness.
Foam-in-place insulation—this type can be blown into walls and reduces air leakage, if blown into cracks, such as around window and door frames.

Insulation Tips

• Consider factors such as your climate, building design, and budget when selecting insulation R-values for your home.
• Use higher density insulation on exterior walls, such as rigid foam boards, in cathedral ceilings and on exterior walls.
• Ventilation helps with moisture control and reducing summer cooling bills. Attic vents can be installed along the entire ceiling cavity to help ensure proper airflow from the soffit to the attic to make a home more comfortable and energy efficient. Do not ventilate your attic if you have insulation on the underside of the roof. Check with a qualified contractor.
• Recessed light fixtures can be a major source of heat loss, but you need to be careful how close you place insulation next to a fixture unless it is marked IC—designed for direct insulation contact. Check your local building codes for recommendations. See Lighting
for more about recessed cans.

Should I Insulate My Home?

Insulate your home when:
• You have an older home and haven’t added insulation. Only 20% of homes built before 1980 are well insulated.
• You are uncomfortably cold in the winter or hot in the summer—adding insulation creates a more uniform temperature and increases comfort.
• You build a new home, addition, or install new siding or roofing.
• You pay high energy bills.
• You are bothered by noise from outside—insulation muffles sound.

Sources of Air Leaks in Your Home:

Areas that leak air into and out of your home cost you lots of money. Check the areas listed below.

Dropped ceiling..........Water and furnace flues..........Window frames..........Recessed light..........All ducts..........Electrical outlets and switches..........Attic entrance..........Door frames..........Plumbing and utility access..........Sill plates..........Chimney flashing

Sealing Air Leaks
Warm air leaking into your home during the summer and out of your home during the winter can waste a lot of your energy dollars. One of the quickest dollar-saving tasks you can do is caulk, seal, and weatherstrip all seams, cracks, and openings to the outside. You can save on your heating and cooling bill by reducing the air leaks in your home.

Tips for Sealing Air Leaks
• First, test your home for air tightness. On a windy day, carefully hold a lit incense stick or a smoke pen next to your windows, doors, electrical boxes, plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets, ceiling fixtures, attic hatches, and other locations where there is a possible air path to the outside. If the smoke stream travels horizontally, you have located an air leak that may need caulking, sealing, or weatherstripping.

• Caulk and weatherstrip doors and windows that leak air.
• Caulk and seal air leaks where plumbing, ducting, or electrical wiring penetrates through walls, floors, ceilings, and soffits over cabinets.
• Install foam gaskets behind outlet and switch plates on walls.
• Look for dirty spots in your insulation, which often indicate holes where air leaks into and out of your house. You can seal the holes with low-expansion spray foam made for this purpose.
• Look for dirty spots on your ceiling paint and carpet, which may indicate air leaks at interior wall/ceiling joints and wall/floor joists. These joints can be caulked.
• Install storm windows over single-pane windows or replace them with more efficient windows, such as double-pane. See Windows on page 18 for more information.
• When the fireplace is not in use, keep the flue damper tightly closed. A chimney is designed specifically for smoke to escape, so until you close it, warm air escapes—24 hours a day!
• For new construction, reduce exterior wall leaks by installing house wrap, taping the joints of exterior sheathing, and comprehensively caulking and sealing the exterior walls.
• Use foam sealant around larger gaps around windows, baseboards, and other places where warm air may be leaking out.
• Kitchen exhaust fan covers can keep air from leaking in when the exhaust fan is not in use. The covers typically attach via magnets for ease of replacement.
• Replacing existing door bottoms and thresholds with ones that have pliable sealing gaskets is a great way to eliminate conditioned air leaking out from underneath the doors.
• Fireplace flues are made from metal, and over time repeated heating and cooling can cause the metal to warp or break, creating a channel for hot or cold air loss. Inflatable chimney balloons are designed to fit beneath your fireplace flue during periods of non-use. They are made from several layers of durable plastic and can be removed easily and reused hundreds of times. Should you forget to remove the balloon before making a fire, the balloon will automatically deflate within seconds of coming into contact with heat.

How Does the Air Escape?

Air infiltrates into and out of your home through every hole and crack. About one-third of this air infiltrates through openings in your ceilings, walls, and floors.
 

              

 
Justo M. Rivera
496 Boxwood Drive
Shirley, New York 11967

Servicing the Mastics, Hamptons, Moriches, Riverhead, Shirley