In order to increase energy savings around your home, you have to know what areas are contributing to higher energy bills and decreased comfort. One tool that provides comprehensive, detailed, customized information is Energy Star’s Home Energy Yardstick, which will help you find out how your home scores in efficiency. The results will help you prioritize projects that boost energy savings.

To begin the Energy Star program, you need to enter your ZIP code, home’s square footage and utility records for energy use for the past year, along with the type of fuel your home equipment uses. This information helps the Home Energy Yardstick program to customize your home’s energy consumption recommendations, according to the overall performance of homes in your area and the local climate.

For an average four-person 1,800-square=foot home, Energy Star recommends the following actions to upgrade home efficiency:

• Take care of air leaks, as a significant amount of conditioned air can escape through cracks and leaks — all year. Important areas to seal include the attic, crawl space, basement, and around window and door frames.
• Improve ductwork leaks and see efficiency rise by up to 20 percent. Leaks in the ductwork lead to energy losses, because conditioned air escapes before it ever reaches your home. You’re essentially paying for 100 percent of the energy it takes to produce all of that conditioned air, but you don’t get to enjoy the full comfort of that investment.
• Add insulation to your home’s exterior, one of the single, most important steps you can take to upgrade efficiency. Because insulation acts a barrier to the movement of heat, having effective amounts and efficiency of insulation will keep more heated air inside your home during winter, and more heated air outside your home during summer. Add R-30 insulation to attics, R-13 to outside walls and R-13 for crawl spaces.
• Consider other enhancements, including upgrading water heating, heating and cooling equipment, as well as installing a programmable thermostat.

For help in Fayette & Coweta County, contact the friendly pros at Powers Heating & Air.  And ask about the SOLAR advantage.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about energy star and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Powers Heating & Air serves Peachtree, GA and the surrounding areas.  Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

Energy Star image via Shutterstock