Until recently these have been two 80 watt fluorescent shop lights that we left on all of the time and one more that was left on about half the time.  At my current electrical rates that costs $203 a year!

The Solution: replace the shop lights with six 20 watt compact fluorescent bulbs in bare bulb fixtures with aluminum foil reflectors.  The vertical orientation of the bulbs and the reflectivity of the aluminum foil do a better job of distributing the light than the shop light fixtures do.

The Result:  Perceived light is about the same.  Projected savings is over $110 a year!  That’s 10% of our 2009 electricity bill!

I should have done this a long time ago.

Dan Bossenbroek

A fluctuating stock market, depressed economy, and a myriad of investment options available make it difficult to determine the best financial investment strategy these days.  Even the tried and true investment strategy of purchasing a new house is not a guarantee anymore.  However, there is a way to invest in your current property that can ensure you a great return and help raise your position in the home resale market.

As energy prices continue to trend upwards, it makes more and more sense to do what you can to reduce your energy costs.  A typical family in the United States spends between $2,000 and $3,000 on utilities each and every year and this does not include phone, cable or internet service.  Energy costs in the United States have risen an average of about 5% per year over the past 8 years, and the rate was even higher until the recent sharp drop in prices.  Furthermore, this trend is only expected to get worse.  Thus, in ten years an average family can expect to pay somewhere in the range of $3,000 to $6,000 a year on utilities.

There is something that you can do to help minimize the impact of increasing energy costs, however, and that is to invest in energy conservation home improvement projects.  Remember that the least expensive energy is the energy that you never use.  For example, one strategy might be to take $2,000 and instead of investing it in mutual funds or the stock market, invest it in making your house more energy efficient.  Some of the most cost effective steps that you can take like switching to LED nightlights, LED and CFL light bulbs and using watering timers and low flow showerheads don’t seem like investments, but they very quickly pay for themselves and continue to save you money year after year. This energy conservation investment could easily reduce your energy costs 15% to 25% or approximately $400 a year.  You can even recapture your original investment by taking the money that you save each year and investing it just as you planned to invest the original $2000.  In just five to eight years this investment strategy will likely out perform a typical mutual fund, and in just nine to fourteen years it should be worth twice as much.

An added benefit of this strategy is the increase in value or increased salability of your home.  Some of the steps that you might take such as adding insulation, a whole house fan or even installing a solar air heater will add value to your home.  Most home improvement projects immediately add 70% to 90% of the cost of the improvement to the value of your home.  Furthermore, with these green home improvements your house will be much more attractive to a potential buyer, especially when you can show that your utility bills are significantly lower than those of other comparable houses.

Which ever way you look at it; increased investment value, reduced utility bills, increased comfort level, greater home value, or ease of resale, they all indicate that the wise investment is in energy conservation.  You probably knew that saving energy saves you money but you may not have imagined that to GO GREEN that you have so many ways to GROW GREEN.

Dan Bossenbroek

www.JustGreenHomes.com