1.       Turn off the lights when you leave a room.

2.       Install a motion / occupancy sensor in a room that you go in and out of frequently at night.

3.       Switch to LED night lights, they use a fraction of the energy that standard night lights do.

4.       Unplug your alarm clock and keep your cell phone next to your bed at night.

5.       Turn off the, lights and go to bed early, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

6.       Turn off the TV and read a book instead.

7.       Use a clothes dryer heat saver in the winter.

8.       Line dry your laundry.

9.       Plug all of your electronics: TV, VCR, DVD, stereo, computer, printer, cable router, network router into a power strip and turn the power strip off at night.

10.    Replace incandescent bulbs with CFL’s (compact fluorescent lamps.)

11.     Turn down your thermostat in the winter.

12.     Turn up your thermostat in the summer.

13.     Clean the condensing coil of your refrigerator.

14.     Buy an Energy Star refrigerator.

15.     Use a laptop instead of a desktop computer.

16.     Turn off your computer when you are not using it.

17.     Turn off your printer except when you are using it.

18.     Turn off your monitor too.

19.     Same goes for your speakers.

20.     Buy a new computer since they use a lot less electricity than older ones.

21.     Same goes for flat screen monitors vs. CRT monitors.

22.     Upgrade to Windows Vista or 7, they have a “Sleep” function.  Oh, yeah – Use it.

23.     Allow food to cool to room temperature before you put them in the refrigerator.

24.     Keep a pitcher of your favorite beverage in the refrigerator instead of using ice.  It takes more energy to freeze water than to just keep it cool.

25.     Insulate your attic and walls to the proper level.

26.     Insulate the extra refrigerator or freezer in your garage or basement.

27.     Crank the thermostat down another 2 to 4 degrees at night and turn on an electric blanket.  Turn it on just long enough to warm up your bed or at least keep it on the low setting.

28.     Move your kids into one bedroom in the winter and close off the registers in the empty ones.

29.     Let your furry friends sleep on your bed in the winter.  They can sure help to keep you nice and toasty warm.

30.     Get rid of grandma’s refrigerator or freezer that you have in the basement or garage.

31.     Install a programmable thermostat – lower heating bills = lower electrical bills.

32.     Buy and use a space heater or two and heat up only rooms that you use while keeping the rest of the house at a lower temperature.

33.     Bundle up and turn down the thermostat.

34.     Snuggle under a blanket with a friend while you watch TV.

35.     Use timers to turn lights on and off when you are not at home.

36.     Use task lighting instead of lighting up the entire room.

37.     Watch your favorite programs on your laptop instead of the TV.

38.     Go solar to heat your water.

39.     Listen to your MP3 player instead of cranking up the stereo.

40.     Use window fans on cool nights instead of your air conditioner.

41.     When you remodel, avoid carpeting, you can vacuum less often with hard floors.

42.     Replace your air conditioner with one that is Energy Star rated.

43.     Move to a smaller house or apartment.

44.     Seal up your windows with insulating window film.

45.     Install a radiant barrier in your attic.

46.     Replace furnace filters when needed, this will help your furnace run more efficiently.

47.     Upgrade your furnace with one with a higher efficiency.

48.     Eat it raw or cold: veggies, bread (instead of toast), sandwiches (cheese vs. grilled cheese), and milk for example.

49.     Cook with a sun oven.

50.     Dine by candle light.

51.     Get a four poster bed and hang blankets over the top and sides – then you can turn the thermostat down even more at night.

52.     Weatherize your house, seal all of those cracks, gaps and holes

53.      Customize your refrigerator and wrap it with 1 ½” of rigid insulation and any number of finishes: painted or stained wood veneer, chalk board, galvanized steel, vinyl tile, or cork tile.

54.     Teach your kids not to stand with the refrigerator door open.

55.     Practice what you preach.

56.     Wash your hands in cold water.

57.     Install energy saving heat reflective film on all your windows.

58.     Move your refrigerator to an unheated porch, garage or breezeway in the cooler months.

59.     Use an unheated vestibule, garage or enclosed porch to enter and exit your house.  This will prevent cold blasts of air from invading your house every time you go in or out.

60.     Add a dog door in above mentioned vestibule, this too will reduce the cold blasts.

61.     Install solar powered lights at your patio, deck and/or garden.

62.     Open up the curtains in the winter and on the north side of your house to let the sun in.

63.     Install a solar tube type skylight and turn off the lights in that room even at night.

64.     Set solar powered lanterns outside during the day and bring them inside at night for a taste of living off the grid.

65.     Install LED lamps in your recessed cans.  They use even less energy than CFL’s.

66.     Don’t leave the television on for your dog during the day.  Let them read the paper if they need to catch up on the news.

67.     Install a whole house fan and use it instead of your air conditioner.

68.     Use an antique sewing machine with a foot pedal.

69.     Plug power strips into timers so you don’t need to remember to turn them off.

70.     Can the jam, instead of freezing it.  This goes for the extra produce from your garden too.

71.     Generate your own electricity with a wind turbine.

72.     Install a solar air heater, or two.

73.     Install SolarChoice Blinds: a passive solar heater in the guise of vertical blinds.

74.     Buy an Energy Star front loading washing machine.

75.     Wear your clothes more than once between washes.

76.     Only do full loads of laundry.

77.     Wash your clothes in cold water, or at least warm instead of hot.

78.     Fill up your dishwasher before you run it.

79.     Use the energy saver setting on your dishwasher.

80.     Switch to an Energy Star dishwasher.

81.     Use a small plate instead of a large one whenever possible, to cut down on dishwasher loads.

82.     Use one glass all day for your drinking water and it will take longer to fill up your dishwasher.

83.     Try to use only one plate or bowl per person for each meal, this will lead to fewer dishwasher loads.

84.     Serve food in the pots that you cooked the food in and it will take longer to fill the dishwasher.

85.     Skip taking a shower once in a while.

86.      Install an instant hot water heater – hot water will be at the tap sooner.

87.     Insulate your hot water pipes.

88.      Skip shaving once in a while.

89.     Switch to low flow showerheads.

90.     Put the scraps from your plates in to a worm bin instead of down the disposal.

91.     Take shorter showers – keep them to five minutes or less.

92.     Plant a tree or more to shade your house.

93.     When you take a shower turn off the water while you lather and wash.

94.     Two young kids in the same tub = ten to twenty gallons of water saved.

95.     Get your kids involved and teach them to turn the lights off when they leave the room (for instance).

96.     Adjust your water softener so that it regenerates only as necessary.

97.     Lightly steam your vegetables instead of boiling them to death.

98.     Take tandem showers: as soon as one person is done the next hops in.

99.     Give your dog a bath in the water your kids just bathed in.

100.   Jump in the shower before the water gets warm and enjoy a refreshing start to your day.

101.   Trade your furnace in for a small fire breathing dragon.  This may be difficult as they are uncommonly rare.

Have fun and start saving (more)!

First you need to determine which window that you want to build your solar air heater for. This type of heater will work in a double hung window, should face south to south west, and should be in direct sun for the greater part of the day. Raise or remove the screen and measure the minimum clear opening width.

If you are using an old window sash, you will need to scrape off any old paint, repair the glazing putty, prime and paint the sash, and clean the glass.

Build the wood frame: make it 1 ½” wider than the minimum clear opening and 36” to 48” tall. Or build it to fit the old window that you are using. Other designs use insulation for the frame, but treated wood decking is much more durable so your air heater will last for years and years. Marine grade plywood or primes and painted 1×6’s may be substituted for the decking.

Add the arms that extend through the window making sure that they extend far enough so that the air heater can be secured on the inside of the window. Follow this up with the remaining decking pieces and the 1×4 trim. Seal all joints with sealant.

Cut the rigid insulation back to fit into the frame, leaving a 5 ½” gap at the top. Use a chalk line to mark the line or a drywall square with a new blade in your knife in order to make clean straight cuts. Secure this into the frame with a continuous bead of construction adhesive. Add 2” spacers along the edges and in the middle.

Add the horizontal rigid insulation between the arms at the bottom, and then one in the middle of the arms. Again, secure both pieces with a continuous bead of construction adhesive on all four sides.

Cut the front insulation panel and secure with a continuous bead of construction adhesive. Cut the corner bead and secure with roofing nails to the insulation with the fins pointing out. This is a slight modification to the photos shown here.

Paint the entire interior of the solar air heater with flat black spray paint.

Apply the compressible foam weatherstripping along the face of the entire frame. You may elect to use silicone sealant, but this will prevent you from removing the glass in the future.

Secure the old window sash or glass to the frame. Screw directly through the sash to the frame or use 1” long pieces of aluminum angle to hold the glass in place. Insert a piece of the weatherstripping between the aluminum angle and the glass.

Now you are ready to install your solar air heater and weatherize it so that you don’t loose more heat than you gain. Open the window and set the heater in place. Lower the sash and install foam weatherstripping along the line where the sash will meet the heater. Cut the “air conditioner” foam weatherstipping the width of the sash and insert between the sashes at the bottom of the exterior sash. Next, tuck a piece of plastic wrap between the air heater arm and the window jamb, making sure to secure it in place and cover all surrounding surfaces. Fill the

gap between the air heater and the window jamb with expandable foam. Finally, install insulating window film over the window, securing the bottom of it to the horizontal piece of decking.

Finally, cut a piece of rigid insulation to fit in the top opening of the heater to prevent any nighttime heat loss, or roll up an old bath towel and set it into the gap just below the sash.  Adding a piece of aluminum flashing on the top of the solar air heater will help to keep the water out, and in the spring you might want to prime and paint the treated wood frame.

Last, but not least, enjoy the free warm heat from the sun and watch your heating bills take a dip.  Feel free to contact us if you would like additional plans and details.

Dan Bossenbroek

Materials list: 1 – 4’x8’ sheet of rigid insulation, old window sash or glass, 3 – 5/4×6x8’ treated decking, 1 – 1×4x8’, construction adhesive, exterior sealant, compressible foam weatherstripping or silicone sealant, flat black spray paint, foam sealant (Great Stuff), 3” screws, 1 ½” roofing nails, metal corner bead (for drywall), “air conditioner” foam weatherstipping, 1”x1” aluminum angle, plastic wrap, and insulating window film.  Optional materials: aluminum flashing, glazing putty, primer and paint.

Tools list: Utility knife, saw, drill, screwdriver, clamps, caulk gun, tape measure, tin snips, chalk line or drywall square.  Optional tools: putty knife, paint brush.

Now you are considering entering the world of alternative energy, but you don’t live on a windy five acre lot, nor do you have the funds to invest in a photovoltaic array or a solar hot water system.

The answer to your dilemma is SolarChoice Heaters.

They are solar air heaters that masquerade as traditional vertical blinds, and they could save you 35% on your heating bills.  Its unique and ingenious design takes the cool air at the sill of your windows and heats it up as it passes up and through the hollow blind slat.  So, 68° air enters at the bottom and 120° to 140° air exits at the top.

Each heater is custom made to fit your window to maximize its efficiency.  Take advantage of Federal, State and/or Local energy tax credits and/or rebates to help reduce your investment cost and allow the SolarChoice Heaters to pay for themselves even faster.  In many cases this will take less than two years.  To maximize the heat that they can provide they should be installed in south facing windows, however, installing them in select west facing windows could also be very beneficial.

These solar air heaters are easy to measure, order and install, they have no mechanical parts, require no maintenance and are easy to clean.  In the warmer months, simply pull the blinds to the side or turn them perpendicular to the window to turn off their heating mode.

Make the move to alternative energy, start using the sun to warm your home and enjoy free heat for years to come.

Dan Bossenbroek

 

   

   

Pelpro Bay Window Insert for Fireplace, Model# IPPBW2GD

A great way to lower your heating bills is to install a Corn, Pellet or Multi-Fuel Stove.  They are clean burning, burn waste material, easy to use, usually controlled by a thermostat, , produce less ash, and require less storage space for fuel than traditional wood stoves.  They are also more efficient and don’t require you to split or haul firewood.  However, Corn, Pellet and Multi-Fuel Stoves have mechanical components so there is more maintenance and risk of down-time, they need electricity to run fans and motors, make noise, and are more expensive than wood stoves.  Corn, Pellet and Multi-Fuel Stoves are available in a vraiety of sizes that can heat spaces as small as a one bedroom apartment to a large multi-family buiilding, and can save you hundreds of dollars a year on your heating bills.

Before you pick up your tape measure and camera and head outside, you may want to search a little for some “official” information that may already be available.  Many times mortgage documents will contain a legal survey of your property.  This legal survey will indicate the specific size and orientation of your property and any improvements, also know as houses, porches, garages, drives, walks, patios, decks, pools, etc that are on the property.  If you can’t find a legal survey of your property, you may have luck at your county auditor’s website or map room. Many auditor websites have maps which show your property lines and have a rough dimensioned sketch of your house.  If you strike out with your auditor, then it’s time to start from scratch, take out a pad of paper and pencil and draw a rough sketch of your property.

Auditor's Site Plan

Auditor's House Sketch

This rough sketch should show the property lines and the outline of any improvements.  Next you should add a number of other items such as: play structures, fences, walls, trees, gardens, site lighting, utilities, water features, slopes and any other significant features.  Finally, you may also want to sketch the location of these types of items that are on your neighbor’s property, especially if they might impact your property.  For instance there might be a 100’ tall oak tree 10’ from your property line that casts a shadow on your front yard for most of the day.

Now it is time to grab a friend or two and a tape measure and measure everything.  That being said, you don’t need to be that accurate: take your measurements to the nearest foot.  Make sure that you measure the distance from you house to the property lines and the location of any large trees.

Once you have measured everything it is time to transform this into a site plan.  First get out a sheet of graph paper and then figure out what scale drawing of your site will fit on the page.  One square may equal three feet or maybe even four or five.  Take your time and sketch your new site plan according to the measurements that you took.  Finally, if you started your site plan from scratch you should verify how your house is oriented to the compass, in other words figure out which way your front door faces.  You might think that it faces directly north, but if you are off by 20 or 30 degrees it could have a significant impact on some of the energy saving and alternative energy strategies that you might employ.  The one easy way to verify this is to enter your address on Google Earth, or you could just get out your handy Boy Scout compass.

Once you have finished sketching your site plan it is time to photograph the outside of your house so that you have a better idea of how it relates to the site.  The goal here is to get a straight on shot of each side of your house.  Stand far enough away in order to get the entire house in the photograph if possible.  If this is not possible stand as far back as possible and take several photos that can be spliced together to form one larger image.  Along with this you will also want to photograph the various windows, doors and other openings or penetrations in the walls. 

This site plan in combination with the photographs of your house will help you understand the resources and limitations that you have on your property.  They will help to illustrate where you might want to plant a shade tree, wind screen or vegetable garden, and where you might place solar panels, rain barrels or sun shades.

The third article in this series, coming soon, will help you collect information on the building envelope that you will need for your personal home energy audit.

Dan Bossenbroek

 

   

Your Solar Home SolarSheat 1500G/S Two-Pack Solar Collectors, Model# SH1500G-BL-2Pak	Your Solar Home Solarsheat 1500G/GS Duct Kit, Model# 1017

The sun bathes the earth with energy every day, but only a fraction of this energy is ever harnessed to heat our houses.  Installing a solar air heater can dramatically reduce your heating costs by supplementing your current system regardless of the type and pay for itself in a little as three to six years.  This payback period can be significantly reduced if you take advantage of the Federal Tax Credits that are now available.  During the day the solar air heater will pull air from in your house, heat it up by as much as 30° and then return it back indoors.  This hot air in turn warms up the walls, ceiling, floor and other items in the room.  This sun warmed air will keep your conventional heating system from coming on as often during the day and even into the evening as the heat stored in the room slowly warms the air in the room. A single collector can heat up to 750 square feet and will last for many years.  Thus over the life of your solar air heater it will pay for itself multiple times.