If you’re looking for a way to reduce your home’s energy consumption, one of the first things you might want to consider is your home’s heating and cooling efficiencies. Heating and cooling efficiencies are an important element of your energy consumption; some estimates indicate that you may spend up to 55% of your home energy on heating and air conditioning. If you want more efficient heating and cooling, consider these elements of maintaining your home’s energy consumption.
Energy Vulnerabilities for Your Home
There are a number of different places where you may experience so-called “energy vulnerabilities.” These energy vulnerabilities tend to be different for every home, which is why there’s no such thing as a one size fits all fix for energy vulnerabilities. However, these are the most common places where you may experience energy vulnerabilities.
• Duct Register
• Top Plate
• Sill Plate
• Crawl Space Insulation
• Plumbing Vent Stack
• Vent Fan
• Dryer Vent
• Doors
• Windows
You might not even know where all of these energy vulnerabilities are, which is why it’s so important to get a home renovation expert to give you more information about your home’s energy vulnerabilities. That way, you’ll be able to tackle your energy vulnerabilities in whatever way works best for your home’s unique needs.
Improving Energy Efficiency for Your Home
There are many different ways you can improve energy efficiency in your home. Some of these elements are useful for just about all homes, including things like crawl space encapsulation. In contrast, some elements may be most beneficial only for homes already having issues with energy efficiency in these specific ways.
• 5-30%: Sealing air leaks using caulk, spray foam, and weather stripping
• 10%: Using a programmable thermostat to turn down energy usage as you sleep
• 12-33%: Installing storm windows
• 15%: Installing an EnergyStar gas furnace
• 20%: Crawl space insulation and encapsulation
As you can see, many different methods of improving energy efficiency for your home might run the gamut. For example, sealing air leaks can improve your energy efficiency by between 5% and 30%. That’s because it all depends on what problems your energy efficiency is already facing. If you have a lot of issues in these areas, you will receive more benefits than if you didn’t have a lot of issues.
The Value of Energy Efficiency
Why is it so important to use energy-efficient elements to maintain your home? If you want to keep an energy-efficient house, you should do it for a number of reasons. Energy efficiency can benefit your home as a whole, your electric bill, and the environment. These are the top reasons to switch to energy-efficient things instead of the ones you currently have.
• Updates may pay for themselves over time in lower utility bills.
• You may be able to claim a tax credit for a specific amount of the money you spent on your home insulation upgrades.
• Energy efficient elements are good for the environment, as you’ll use less energy overall.
Your living spaces are likely to be more comfortable, even if you use the thermostat much less.
In general, energy efficiency can put money back in your pocket while benefiting the environment and improving your living conditions. With all that in mind, why wouldn’t you pursue energy efficiency? Talking to a home improvement specialist can help you understand what you can do for energy efficiency.
Conclusion
As you can see, energy efficiency is an important element of your home overall. As a homeowner, you want to make sure you’re making the right choices for the long run, not making the right choices for the next month or two. While it might take some additional funds early on, you must consider long-term benefits. Energy efficiency will always give you those long-term benefits.
