Energy Savers

A Ghoulish End to Energy Awareness Month

Happy Halloween! As many of you celebrate ghosts and ghouls and other creepiness today, we Energy Savers bloggers are marking the end of Energy Awareness Month.

We hope October's entries on saving energy in the winter have been useful and provided some food (Halloween candy?) for thought as the weather gets colder and you prepare to save energy and money.

But don't worry if you're still working on your winter energy saving plan; we still have more winter topics to cover and you still have time before winter officially starts. Be sure to visit the Stay Warm, Save Money site at EnergySavers.gov for more winter energy saving tips.

We will continue to blog regularly here about energy topics of interest to consumers; starting next week, you can expect to see 1-2 blog posts per week. So stick with us—don't stop increasing your energy awareness just because Energy Awareness Month is over!

Do You Plan to Take Advantage of the Energy Tax Credits?

Yesterday, we wrote about the energy tax credits that were included in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

Do you plan to take advantage of the energy tax credits?

Each Thursday, you have the chance to share your thoughts on a question about energy efficiency or renewable energy for consumers. Please comment with your answers, and also feel free to respond to other comments.

Energy Tax Credits: Stay Warm and Save MORE Money!

With all of the news this month about the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, you may have heard about the energy tax incentives that were included for both consumers and for business, utilities, and governments.

If you are already preparing for winter and working to make your home more efficient, this is good news. The federal tax credits can help you save energy, stay warm, and save money this winter and beyond. Combined with other sources of financial help that we've already discussed on this blog, you may be able to save significantly on your improvements.

Winter Warmth Tips for Senior Citizens

O, wind, if winter comes,
can spring be far behind?
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet

A cooling draft of air across your cheek can be a pleasant experience on a warm day in August, but that same cooling draft is less enjoyable when experienced inside your home during winter months. Our rural home was built 40 years ago, and like many old homes has its share of old inefficient windows. Old Man Winter sneaks through those windows on windy days, so when Mom comes to visit in the winter, she invariably heads straight for the warmth of the comfy recliner next to our propane fireplace. Nor is she alone.

Seniors can be especially susceptible to even moderately colder temperatures even while indoors. To help reduce the potential for hypothermia (PDF 919 KB, Download Adobe Reader), the National Institutes of Health recommends that seniors set their thermostats for at least 68 to 70 degrees in the winter. For seniors on fixed incomes, however, the energy costs associated with maintaining a home at this temperature may be unrealistic. Low-income seniors may benefit from the Weatherization Assistance Program or the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Too, many of the weatherization tips discussed this month as part of the Energy Savers Blog would be worth considering for seniors.

Additionally there are a wide range of no-cost or low-cost strategies that can increase a senior's comfort in the home and supplement other heating measures:

Chimneys: Keep 'em Clean… and Closed

Growing up in Wisconsin and New Jersey, my family homes always had a fireplace.  They were perfect for cold winter nights, for "indoors camping" or just for sitting near and watching TV. There's very little like the crackle and heat of an open fire.

That said, while your fireplace may be decorative, enjoyable, even functional, it's also one other thing: a great big hole going to the outdoors.

Many families have glass doors across their fireplaces. That's a good start, but there's something else you should remember to do, and that is keep the chimney closed. It's more than just a good idea; hot air rises, after all, and the money you spend heating your home could literally be going up the chute. You don't want Santa's doorway being a money-Grinch, do you?

Here's what you do. Clean out your chimney early. Burning wood leaves deposits of soot and creosote in the chimney flue; these deposits, accumulating over time, can catch and result in a household fire. For safety, a chimney should be inspected and even cleaned annually.

Once you do that, keep the flue lever turned so that the chimney is closed when it is not in use. A glass door may help prevent some heated air escaping, but it can't do the job by itself.

So enjoy your fireplace as we head into the winter months, but be safe and efficient while you do. You can find other no-cost and low-cost tips to save money this winter (and keep your fireplace efficient) at EnergySavers.gov.

Drew Bittner is a former Presidential Management Intern (PMI) and the Web content manager for EERE's corporate Web pages.

2009 Fuel Economy Guide and FuelEconomy.gov

With energy costs looming as winter approaches, saving money is on everyone's minds these days. Fortunately, improving your vehicle's fuel economy is both economically and environmentally smart.  In the winter, one of the easiest ways to decrease gasoline consumption is to warm up your engine for no more than 30 seconds, as Elizabeth pointed out last week. Driving conservatively and buying a fuel efficient car can make even more of an impact.

The 2009 Fuel Economy Guide, released on October 15, can help you choose the most fuel efficient car for your needs, both new and used.  Whether you are in the market for a compact car or minivan, the Guide provides the miles per gallon and annual fuel cost for every passenger vehicle available this year. The Guide’s Web site, FuelEconomy.gov, and its companion mobile site FuelEconomy.gov/m, provide a number of special features in addition to the basic statistics.

To talk about the new DOE / EPA Fuel Economy Guide and how drivers can decrease the amount they pay at the pump, I interviewed Dr. David Greene, a national expert on fuel economy at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Question of the Week: What Kind of Energy Calculators Would Be Most Useful to You?

Yesterday, Elizabeth wrote about some of the energy calculators currently offered on the EERE Web site. We know that many visitors would like to see other kinds of calculators, and we would like to create more in the future. So tell us:

What kind of energy calculators would be most useful to you?

Each Thursday, you have the chance to share your thoughts on a question about energy efficiency or renewable energy for consumers. Please comment with your answers, and also feel free to respond to other comments.

EERE's Energy Calculators

Do you have a few minutes? Feel like seeing how energy efficient your home is? Go grab a bunch of your old utility bills and sit down with EERE's Energy Calculators & Software for Homes. There's a lot to search through, but some of these calculators are pretty fun to play around with.

This page has calculators for just about everything a homeowner would be interested in. There are tools here for home-wide energy efficiency, insulation, appliances, and water usage. There are also whole sections on renewable energy systems, space heating and cooling, and water heating. If you want to know how much you're spending on something and how much you should be spending, you can pull out a lot of useful information from these.

There are also a few calculators for vehicles that let you see how much money you'd save with a more fuel-efficient vehicle. I particularly like the one that compares your car's performance with a hybrid vehicle. Which is fun, if not a bit tragic, because there is something horrifying about seeing how my poor little one-year-old car will use $3,000 more in gasoline during its lifetime than its hybrid equivalent. Oh! And it'll also spew 400 more pounds of "Carbon Monoxide (Poisonous Gas)" into the air. Isn't that charming!

In any case, the EERE Calculators are a fun project for a rainy (or, considering the season, snowy) day. Some of the calculators are more technical than others, so don't be afraid to hunt around. And unless you're an energy professional or a home builder, you can probably steer clear of the software.

Elizabeth Spencer is a communicator at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which assists EERE in providing technical content for many of its Web sites.

Purchasing a New Energy-Efficient Central Heating System

Energy prices are skyrocketing. According to the Energy Information Administration's October 7, 2008 forecast, heating fuel expenditures for the average household using oil as its primary heating fuel are expected to increase by $449 over last winter. Households using natural gas to heat their homes can expect to pay $155 more this winter, on average, than last year, and those using propane can expect to pay $188 more. Households heating primarily with electricity can expect to pay an average of $89 more. That’s a lot of money resulting solely from rising heating expenses.

You may long for the "good old days," but when it comes to heating systems, think again. Most heating systems produced today are far more efficient than those of a couple of decades ago. If your furnace, boiler, or heat pump is 20 years or older, even if it works properly, it may make economic sense to replace it with a modern high efficiency one. The higher efficiency models available today could save you a lot. The nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy offers advice on replacing your existing heating system.

Most U.S. homes with central heating use either a furnace, a boiler, or a heat pump. This blog will focus on these systems.

Status Check - How Are You Doing With Your Checklist?

As of this weekend, it's getting chilly in Washington, D.C. Which leads me to an important question: how are you doing with your checklist?

If you decided, a few weeks ago, to get started on your home improvement projects, getting the house ready for winter, you probably checked out the EnergySavers.gov Web site to find out what to do. That's a great start, but it's like buying a gym membership; you only get in shape by using it.

Go over the list today. See what you've done already and what you need to do. If you need building materials, stop off on the way home and pick them up. (One of my favorite excuses is that I don't have what I need to do the job--but my wife is catching on to that, so she asks first if I have the stuff I need.)

Really, the only thing that could keep you from making your home energy efficient... is you.

So finish that checklist. Once it's all done, you won't have it hanging over your head and you can enjoy some beautiful autumn weather.

Drew Bittner is a former Presidential Management Intern (PMI) and the Web content manager for EERE's corporate Web pages.