BY ROD MACKENZIE
Green Building Expert
Green Building Resources
Home Energy and Indoor Comfort Experts
www.greenmyatlantahome.com

Before you pull the trigger on a major investment to make your home more comfortable or more energy efficient, make sure you have attended to the smaller things that can undermine your investment. I’ve heard from too many homeowners that have made 1 big energy improvement investment hoping to fix the cause of their high energy bills or uncomfortable rooms. With an unseasonably cold winter and so much advertising and energy saving marketing going on, it’s easy to get sucked into the hype and plunk down big money in an effort to reduce your energy bills or warm up your home.

But there is NO silver bullet that will cure chilly rooms and/or high energy bills. There are almost always multiple reasons why a home is underperforming. There is, however, a logical progression of activities that you can follow to incrementally improve the performance of your home and set the stage for significantly better payback from more expensive energy upgrades.

Before you spend gobs of money trying to solve your high energy bills or uncomfortable rooms, make sure you’ve solved the simple yet critical problems that plaque a home’s performance and delay the payback on large energy saving investments.

Steps to Energy Saving Success

Job 1 – Air sealing: Ensure all voids, cracks and openings are covered, weatherstripped or otherwise sealed to ensure you keep conditioned air inside in your living space.

Job 2 – Insulate, insulate, insulate: Make sure attics, vented crawl spaces, kneewalls and other spaces where unconditioned air enters your home are well insulated. Don’t forget to install a hot water tank blanket and insulation for the hot water pipes.

Job 3 – Seal leaks in HVAC and duct system: Leaks in your HVAC/duct system, especially when the HVAC unit and/or ducts are in unconditioned spaces (like attics) reduce the performance of this equipment.

Job 4 – Monitor and reduce your energy use: This is a behavioral change that can save you lots depending on how vigilant you are.

Job 5 – Switch out lighting: Replace incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs or LEDs

Come back to learn about Job 6 – 9

---

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.