Yes, go ahead and make your diet and exercise resolutions for the year ahead but in addition, take a moment to make energy efficiency resolutions as well. These are easy to keep, will save you energy and money, and will pay off for years to come.   

 

1. Insulate your pipes 

Insulation’s job is to slow down the flow of heat to keep it in or out. Do you know if your water pipes are insulated?  

Insulated pipes can help deliver 2-4 degrees hotter water than uninsulated pipes. This can mean a lower water heater tank setting. 

If your exposed pipes aren’t insulated, here are some tips for how and where to insulate them. 

• Use a minimum rating of R-4 for your pipe insulation. The most common type of pipe insulation is the tubular foam insulation. This can be cut to length and mitered for corners. Be sure the inside diameter of the foam insulation matches the diameter of the pipe you are insulating. When the foam is closed over the pipe, you should not be able to see the pipe at all. 

• Any water supply pipe (coming from the water heater) can be insulated. Many water pipes run through unconditioned spaces (utility rooms, unfinished basements, etc.), and these should be insulated. 

• Insulate your hot water pipes from the water heater to the fixtures that use hot water (bathroom, kitchen, etc.). Do not worry about any lines you cannot reach or get to. Insulate what you can within reason. 

• Cold water pipes should be insulated for the first 5 feet of the cold-water line starting at the water heater. You lose some heat in this area when in standby mode (when no one is home), since hot water circulates by convection up into the lines near the water heater on both your hot and cold sides. 

• Safety tip: If the pipes are close to a flue, fiberglass pipe-wrap without a facing and wired into place is the safest choice. The thickness of the wrap should be at least 1 inch. 
   

2. Get your ductwork in order 

Your ductwork is a series of segments of duct (circular or rectangular) connected to one another. These connections, or joints, are prone to leaking air. And it isn’t just the supply ducts that need sealing; the return ducts should be sealed, too. 

If you would like to see how you can do this, please check out this Sealing Ductwork DIY Video. 

Sealing your ductwork 

• Seal any ductwork that is exposed in an unconditioned space like a utility room, crawl space or attic. 

• Seal both the return and supply ducts 

• Supply ducts being sealed prevents a loss of conditioned air into unconditioned spaces 

• Sealed return ducts prevent unconditioned air from being pulled back into the system from unconditioned spaces and prevent potentially dirty air from being pulled back into the system and put through the supply ducts. 

• Some return ducts will be as little as some sheet metal or special duct board adhered to a wall cavity. Make sure you seal those edges, too. 

• Use special aluminum duct tape or duct mastic paste to seal the joints. 

• NEVER use regular (cloth) duct tape to seal your duct work. Despite the name, it is not meant to seal ductwork. 

• The aluminum duct tape is specially rated to seal duct work and works well on all duct types.  

• Mastic paste works very well with “elbows” or circular pipe turns where tape is too rigid. 

 

3. Help out your windows. 

Windows are always a hot topic when it comes to energy efficiency. They are also one of the biggest culprits when it comes to heat loss in a home. Insulation is measured by R-value: the higher the value, the better the insulation is at preventing the flow of heat. The R-value of windows ranges from a 6 to a 9, whereas a wall can have an R-value two to three time as high. 

But replacing windows for the sole purpose of saving energy is difficult to justify when it comes to the expense versus the savings (i.e., payback period). 

Unless there is structural damage to your windows – where you can feel air coming through or water when it rains – replacing your windows can be a costly measure with a long payback period – up to 20 years before you start actually saving money from the cost of replacement. 

Low-cost options 

So before replacing your windows, consider some energy-efficient measures you can take: 

• Weather stripping: There are different kinds of weather stripping – rope caulk, foam stripping, etc. They reduce the flow of air across areas of the window that are prone to leakage, such as the bottom of a window sash where it meets the frame. 

• Window kits: Covering particularly drafty windows with a window kit can reduce cold drafts, increase the already low R-value of a window and reduce heat loss during the winter. 

In the winter, curtains and blinds are a great way to prevent heat loss. 

• Windows that do not receive direct sunlight in the winter are best kept covered with blinds and curtains. Insulating curtains are especially helpful. 

• The tighter the curtains are to the window frame itself on the inside, the less heat transfer will occur. This works for both cooling and heating months. 

• It can still be helpful to open blinds/curtains to direct sunlight in the winter. However, if the windows are drafty or the temperature is below zero, you are better off staving off the heat loss from inside the home by keeping the windows covered. 

 

4. Give your furnace a facelift. 

Have your furnace checked before you need it most. There are various aspects to the inspection process, all of which are important for your furnace’s safety and efficiency. Inspections often include a visual inspection along with checking the heat exchanger, safety switches, burners, flame sensors, combustion blower, and other components. 

These inspections yield results, including: 

• SAFETY: For furnaces that rely on natural gas, oil or propane, having them inspected annually is a critical step to maintain the health and safety of your home. Should any part of the combustion process be out of order or have issues, gas leakage can occur. This exposes your home to high levels of carbon monoxide, which can lead to serious health issues or even death. The HVAC technician will also inspect your heat exchanger for any cracks or wear that could lead to carbon monoxide leakage. As a tip: place a plug-in carbon monoxide detector somewhere near your furnace, as well as in various areas of your home, to be alerted if any issues arise. 

• COST-SAVINGS: Technicians will also clean your system. This annual cleaning can go a long way in reducing the need for repairs due to a lack of regular maintenance on your system. This also helps keep your system running efficiently. The more efficient your system runs, the less money you need to spend unnecessarily to operate the system and repair it. This cleaning and maintaining of your system can also help keep the manufacturer’s warranty eligible. Some manufacturer’s warranties will become nullified if the system is not maintained. 

Choose the best furnace filter for your home. Not all furnaces are created equally. The primary job of a furnace filter is to protect the internal components of your HVAC system. But its ability to help clean the air in your home can become just as important to your health and safety. 

Here are some facts about furnace filters: 

• Furnace filters have ratings that tell you a filter’s ability to capture and hold particles and pollutants. Most furnace filters have a MERV rating (3M has MPR and The Home Depot has FPR, but have equivalents to the MERV rating). 

• The higher the MERV Rating, the smaller the particles that can be trapped when the system is running. 

• The ratings you will see: 

• MERV 6, 8, 11 and 13 

• MPR 300, 600, 1000-12000, 1500-1900 

• FPR N/A (to MERV 6), 5, 7, 10 respectively 

• The recommended MERV rating for most homes is between 8 and 11. In some cases, a high MERV Rating can affect your HVAC system’s ability to move air throughout the home making it work harder than necessary, costing you extra money and wear on your system. 
   

5. Introduce your home to automation. 

There are a variety of smart devices that can help with energy efficiency, conservation, and comfort, such as smart plugs, smart light bulbs, smart thermostats and smart power strips. 

Smart technology is also a great way to add comfort to your home. Here are a few recommended products. 

• Hubs like Google Home (or Mini) and Amazon’s Alexa help centralize the control of all your smart devices by voice command, cell phone (via the app), or through customizable programming. 

• Don’t like coming home to a dark house? You can program your lights to turn on shortly before you get home. You can also program them to turn off when you leave, saving you the trip around the house to turn them off manually. 

• Want to turn off certain appliances that aren’t in use (phantom load)? You can plug those appliances into a smart plug and control them from your phone or hub. 

• Through smart-home routines or programming, lights or devices can even turn on or off automatically based on a schedule, sunrise or sunset, weather conditions and more. 

Speaking of phantom load, do smart plugs and lights draw power? It’s a bit complicated. While the short answer is yes, the more detailed answer is that it draws next to nothing in usage. Generally speaking, a smart plug or light, when not in use, will use about one watt of power when in stand-by mode, or not turned on. That amounts to roughly nine kilowatt-hours per year. 

Smart thermostats are a fantastic way to get comfortable in your home in a convenient way – and save a little energy along the way. 

• Smart thermostats allow your system to learn what is best for your comfort. They are fully programmable thermostats that can also be accessed, adjusted and customized through an app on your phone. 

• Not all homes are capable of having their regular thermostat swapped for a smart one. To check for compatibility: whether the central air/heating system and a “C-wire” provide continuous power to the thermostat. Most HVAC contractors can assess your situation to determine if it is compatible. 

• If you’re interested in adding a smart thermostat, LPEA offers rebates for a variety of thermostat types. 
   

6. Clean out your home’s air return registers.  

These registers, usually those without an open/close lever without air moving through them, often collect dust, pet hair and other things in the air of a home. 

There are a few ways to clean them: 

• Use the brush attachment of your vacuum and move it against the grate of the register to remove any lingering dust on the surface or just inside the register. 

• Remove the register from the wall (it is usually attached by two screws) and clean it, again, using the brush attachment of your vacuum. Even give the area around the opening a good cleaning, too. 

Other tips to reduce buildup: 

• If you have pets, it is recommended that you clean out the registers every two months, otherwise a few times a year can also do the trick. 

• Keeping the return registers clean helps maintain good air flow within your home and helps prolong the life of your furnace filter. 

 

7. Use LED lightbulbs as much as possible.  

It’s an up-front investment with long-term savings. We have all heard “replace your lights with LED”, but how much can you save by switching? Below, we compare LEDs with CFLs and incandescent bulbs. 

• Light on for 10 hours per day (cost is per bulb) 

• 60w Incandescent: $1.72/month 

• 15w CFL equivalent: 0.43¢/month 

• 6w LED equivalent: 0.17¢/month 

• Cost per bulb – Life 

• Incandescent: $1.00 – 12-18 months 

• CFL: $2-3.00/bulb – 4-7 years 

• LED: $4-6/bulb – 10-15 years 

The payback period for an LED is about 3 months. Meaning, you will pay off the cost of the LED from the savings (vs. an incandescent bulb) in 3 months. In turn, it could cost you more than 10 incandescent bulbs during the life of one LED light, on average, not including the increased cost of an incandescent bulb. Check out the rebates we offer for LEDs. 

 

We hope these resolutions will kick start your 2022 and if you have any questions, contact us! We offer many rebates to ease the up-front cost of upgrading your home to be more energy efficient.