Managing Home Maintenance Costs

This post may be interesting to people living in colder climates and are trying to save money on their heating bill without being cold all of the time in their homes. If your home is heated by natural gas or oil and you have a central furnace, then your entire house is kept at the same temperature throughout. Why heat the entire house when you need to only heat the rooms you spend the most time in?

This year we are trying to keep the house cooler during the day and the evening and using a combination of a gas fireplace and small electric ceramic space heaters to keep the rooms warm were we spend a lot of time. For example our furnace temperature is set to 19C or 66F, which is pretty cool for many people.

Our family room and kitchen is an open concept and we use the gas fireplace in the family room to heat this are of the home and bring the temperature of this area up to 22C or 71F!  The rest of the house stays cool and we save on the natural gas consumption since we are not heating the rest of the home. At night we turn off the gas fireplace and we allow the temperature in our home go down to 16C or 61F! Pretty cool!

Now some people might consider this to be really cold, however we have a space heater in our bedroom which brings the temperature up to a comfortable level. It has a time and automatically heats the room for us before we go to bed. We can set the temperature at whatever we wish so that we are comfortable through the night.

In my office, I also have a small ceramic heater, which heats the room to a comfortable temperature while the rest of the home is kept cool. This seems to work well for us and we save on our natural gas usage, as well as electricity since the furnace is running less and not consuming electricity when the fan is running. Of course we are consuming electricity by using these small heaters, however this is much less than what would be used normally.

In theory this should all work and we should save money on our overall consumption of natural gas and electricity. However it really does depend on the rates you pay for electricity and natural gas.  It is really tough to figure out unless you have all of the facts.

You will definitely save energy and probably money as well by following this approach and enduring the cold in your home and the complaints from your family, however is it all worth it  from a dollars and cents perspective?

The facts I have are as follows:

• Furnace is 85% efficient
• DC motor which uses less electricity
• Our home is 2500 square feet
• Gas costs about .09 per CCF
• Electricity costs about .06 per KW at night and .11 during the day
• The ceramic heaters use 1.5kw’s per hour

Approximate your Savings

Now it is pretty hard to figure out what you are going to save based on consumption etc, so we will make  some approximations which will get us close to the number.  For example if you annual heating bill was $1800 and you kept the temperature at 72F all of the time and then reduce the average temp in all of the house to 64, the percentage decrease is  18%. Apply this against your annual cost and you should save around $330 per year.

Now as we mentioned your family might disown you if this was the temperature throughout the house all of the time, so adding electric space heaters in the most used rooms can make it more comfortable. We have seen oil filled heaters for around $80 and they take about 1.5kw per hour to run. Using our rates for the day time, this is going to cost you approximately $50 over the year to heat one room. Same thing with heating your bedroom at night. So you are probably looking at a cost $160 for two heaters and increased electricity cost of $100 for both heaters or a total of $260.

Of course your furnace will be running less, however we have not factored this into the equation. Based on this crude approximation you are going to be saving roughly $70 the first year and then $230 every year after that based on current rates.

Not a huge savings, however every dollar counts and it is better in your pocket than someone else’s. It does get better over time. You can use this approach to figure out what the savings might be for you depending on your homes size and current energy usage.

Sources of Electrical Power

If you are concerned about the environment, you also have to take into account how your energy is produced. When you burn natural gas, you are burning a fossil fuel and depleting the earth’s resources.  The same goes for electricity generated by coal or oil  fired plants . However if your electricity is produced by nuclear power plants that brings up an entire other issue in terms of the overall safety of these plants. You may not want to encourage investment in more of these plants by using this type of electricity. Electricity produced by dams is far better and does not pollute the environment, although there are 1000′s of acres that are now under water . You have to decide which one you are going to support.

With all of the emphasis on reducing energy costs, it would seem that using programmable thermostats should save you money.  It turns out that programmable thermostats are just like anything else used by consumers. If used correctly they will save you some money in terms of heating or cooling. But in the wrong hands, a programmable thermostat can actually cost you more!

The Right Way to Program a Thermostat

Turns out that the rule of thumb is to set the temperature for a period of 8 hours and leave it there. If you do this every day then you probably will save money. For example, when you go to bed, there is an 8 hour stretch were you can turn the heat down for heating purposes and reduce your energy costs. The same thing when you go to work. However if someone is constantly fiddling with the thermostat, and adjusting it every few hours either manually or by programming, you can end up using more energy than necessary.

A 1978 research paper (“Energy Savings through Thermostat Setbacks” by Nelson and MacArthur) confirmed basic physics. On average, if you turn the thermostat down by one degree Fahrenheit for eight hours every night, you’ll use about 1% less energy. (So, if you turn the temperature down by 10 degrees every night, you’ll use about 10% less energy.) But note that you’ll see less savings in milder climates (the bigger the difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures, the more you save by adjusting the thermostat) and with electric heat.

The Real Answer About Programmable Thermostats

If you are motivated to reduce your heating and cooling costs then you are going to be setting your thermostat lower to be gin with when heating and higher when cooling and you are going to leave the setting alone. You do not need a programmable thermostat to do this. Rather it is all about what you as an individual and your family want the temperature in your home to be.

A programmable thermostat will help you manage the temperature better, but it alone will not save you money. If people in your family are constantly adjusting the temperature then you are going to pay more for energy. It is just that simple and no thermostat is going to change this unless you put it under lock and key. You might end up with a revolt in your family if you actually try this.

There were a number of studies that have been conducted that proved this point and we included an excerpt here for readers . See below.

If your motivation is to reduce your energy costs and save money, consider a programmable thermostat as a tool to help you accomplish your goals. By itself they will not save money. You need to program these thermostats to adjust the temperature in the same manner that you would have manually adjust the temperature on a manual thermostat. Set the temperature once for an 8 hour period and leave it there.

Turning down the temperature for 8 hour periods will definitely save you money , only if you leave it and do not play with it.

Where’s the savings?

In 2007, RLW Analytics prepared a report for GasNetworks, a New England-based energy company. “Validating the Impact of Programmable Thermostats” found that using an Energy Star-certified programmable thermostat produced an average savings of about “6.2% of total household annual natural gas consumption”. Those who installed programmable thermostats into older heating systems (in other words, those who didn’t install a new heating system at the same time) saved an average of 6.8%.

Note: The New England study also found that people who micromanage their manual thermostats use more energy than those who just leave them at predefined points for longer periods of time.

The location and number of cold air return vents is so important to the comfort of the homes occupants, yet the design and the installation of these vents seems to be haphazard at best in many homes. My own home has two cold air return vents upstairs and two vents on the main level for a 2500 square foot home  with 4 bedrooms. These cold air return vents play a crucial role all year round for heating the home in the winter time and for cooling the home in the summer time when you are running the air conditioning.

Having sufficient cold air return vents and managing them properly can both make your home more comfortable as well as save you money on heating and cooling costs. Here is more information about them to help you manage your heating and cooling system with cold air return vents.

How They Work

Cold air return vents work on a forced air system. In other words you have a fan on your furnace which forces air through enclosed piping to hot air vents located in every room. It draws air through a enclosed system from every room in your home that has a cold air return vent. As a result the air circulates throughout your home cooling it in the summer time and heating it in the winter time.

If there is not a cold air return vent in a bedroom, the door should be left open so that the air can circulate. Three of our bedrooms do not have cold air return vents. These doors must be left open or the rooms will not heat properly and they certainly will not cool off either in the summer. The cold air return vent located in the hallway is the main return for the three bedrooms that do not have have cold air return vents. The same applies on our main level.

Cold air return vents at the Ceiling

There are actually two cold air return vents in tandem at each location. One is located at floor level and the other is located at the ceiling level. In the summer time hot air rises and and is sucked through the ceiling vent, while in the winter time cold air falls and is sucked in through the floor vent. It is important to shut off the cold air return vent that is not being used. For example, shutting off the vent at the floor level during summer time will ensure that all of the hot air is drawn off the ceiling to cool the room quickly.

What If you Do Not Have Enough Cold air vents

If you can’t easily install a true cold air duct back to the furnace from each room, you can sometimes fake it. You can install a cold air return register above the door from each room that connects to the hallway. The air flows through these openings from each room. The air flows across the ceiling in the hallway towards a larger cold air return that does extend to the basement furnace. This will work well for rooms that do not have a cold air return vent were you want to keep the door closed.

Homes with basements often find that they are very cold in the winter time. Usually this is because there is no cold air return vents installed in these rooms. Add cold air return vents at the floor level to draw off the cold air and you will see a significant difference in the temperature of the room.

Why Builders do not Install Enough Vents

There never seems to be enough vents in new homes. Basically they cut back on the number of vents to reduce costs. However if air is forced into a room it must have somewhere to go and if a cold air return vent was in every room, you would find that these rooms would all be heated properly in the winter and cooled properly in the summer.

Air also meets resistance and will take the easiest route. Many people find that rooms close to the furnace with a short distance of piping for the air to travel will be the hottest and coolest. Shutting off the return registers in these rooms will force the air to go to other rooms and provide a more even heat around the home.

We appreciate comments on this post and also added ideas about saving money as well as how to manage cold air return vents. Feel free to leave a comment to assist our readers.

One of our big concerns about using energy and in particular wasting energy is when we see people sitting in their cars waiting for someone with the car idling. This is such a huge waste of energy and with the price of gasoline going up so much we thought it was time to write a post about this very common occurrence. perhaps a few people will read this post and think twice about idling their car again.

There is a time and a place for idling your car. For example, if you live in a cold climate, you need to have your car warmed up so that the windshield is not covered with frost and so that you can see. If you are pulling a heavy trailer, you want to give your car’s engine a chance to warm up before placing it under a heavy load. Starting from a cold start and flooring the gas peddle on a cold engine is never a good thing to do, since not all of the engine parts are up to operating temperature.

We decided to list some of the issues and reasons why you need to warm up an engine, but not let an engine idle for any length of time. If you agree or disagree or have other ideas about engine idling, please leave your comments at the end of this post.

New electric cars and the Toyota Prius solve this problem of idling since the engine is shut off while stopped at stop signs and at the curb.  Traditional powered vehicles still have this issue and we could all reduce our cost as well as pollution by allowing our vehicles to idle less.

Driving Warms the Car Faster than Idling.

If your concern is not the health of the car, but simply your own creature comforts, it warms up faster if you just drive it since the engine is under load and working harder than it would while idling.

Ten Seconds Is All You Need.

After about ten seconds, you waste more money running the engine than restarting it. Switch the car off at the curb and you’ll be leaving money in your wallet and protecting the air in your community. If you live in a cold climate, obviously it will take longer for the car to warm up and clear the windshield of frost, however once it is warmed up there is no need to keep it running while waiting at the curb.

Idling Hurts the Car.

Idling forces an engine to operate in a very inefficient and gasoline-rich mode that, over time, can degrade the engine’s performance and reduce mileage. Engines that idle a lot and are only driven in city traffic tend to build up more carbon deposits and sludge. You should change your oil more often to keep engine performance up.

Idling Costs Money.

Over a year of five minutes of daily idling (which causes incomplete combustion of fuel), it is  estimated that the operator of a V-8-engined car will waste 20 gallons of gasoline, which not only produces 440 pounds of carbon dioxide but costs at least $60. Many people allow their cars to idle much longer than 5 minutes sitting at the curb waiting to pick someone up or even in line at take out fast food restaurants.

Idling in the Garage Can Kill You.

Idling a car in a garage, even with the door open, is dangerous and exposes the driver to carbon monoxide and other noxious gases. If the garage is attached, those fumes can also enter the house.

Block Heaters Beat Remote Starters.

Remote starters can too easily cause people to warm up their cars for five to 15 minutes, which is generally unnecessary. A block heater, which is designed to heat the engine and can cost under $30, on a timer set to start one to two hours before driving does the trick in very cold climates.

Quick Errands Aren’t Quick Enough.

We have all seen those people who leave their car running while they run into a store to quickly pick something up or drop off. Leaving your engine running is hard on your pocketbook, produces greenhouse gas emissions and is an invitation to car thieves.

Idling is Bad for Your Health (and Your Neighbor’s Health)

One of the problems is that cars idle close to the curb, where pedestrians are walking. And when you have a child in a stroller, they are particularly close to the tailpipe. Studies show that children’s IQ levels are lower when they live near major roads with lots of traffic.

Most people these days will run their air conditioning at some point or another during the summer season. Your season will start early if you live in the southern US and that is one of the reasons we are writing this post today. But even if you live in northern Canada and only run your AC for two weeks during the year, you may still want to read this post, since you can always save some money.

This web site is all about saving money and with the cost of electricity going up so much in many states and provinces, it is becoming more important to control consumption. AC uses a lot of electricity when it is running, so controlling it and maintaining it well can save you lots of money or at least reduce your monthly electrical bill.

The following list include the standard approach to reducing your AC electrical bill and some others you may not have thought of. Let us know if we have missed any by leaving us with your comments. We will be happy to add them so our readers can benefit. Here we go:

• Obviously, turn up the thermostat
• Don’t use AC until you absolutely cannot stand it any more
• Let evening breezes cool your home
• Keep window shades drawn on the side the sun shines in the windows
• Use ceiling fans to keep the air moving
• Use regular fans to keep the air moving
• Use fans in your bedroom at night
• Cook outside on the barbecue
• Go for a swim, private or public
• Clear any debris away from the outside unit
• Keep plants and shrubs from crowding the outside unit
• Clean the inside of your furnace once per year
• Change your filter at the beginning of the season
• Change your filter once per month
• Turn off any humidifier on the furnace or otherwise
• Have your AC checked to make sure it is working efficiently
• Adjust all vents to ensure proper distribution of air through the house
• Close bottom cold air returns
• Open ceiling level cold air returns
• Cool only rooms that you use
• Avoid using your AC during high rate hours during the mid day
• Make sure there are no open drafts from outdoors

Following all of these items mentioned above, will help to keep your AC as low as it can possibly be.

Let us know if we missed any. Both us and our readers want to know all possible ways of keeping our AC bill to the lowest level possible.

Winter time is a great time to take a vacation, get away from the cold weather and snow to somewhere sunny and warm.  Most people are really excited about their vacation and forget to think about their homes while they are away. One person I know left for two months without considering what would happen if the furnace stopped working and the heat turned off and the pipes froze while he was away. $95,000 later is what the bill cost him to have the repairs completed for water damage from cracked pipes from the frozen water in the pipes.

For the record you should never turn your furnace off While on Vacation. You may want to turn the thermostat down while you are away to save money and reduce your heating costs.

Most people will turn down the thermostat in their homes when they are away for an extended period.  With the cost of heating fuel these days it is becoming more important to do this to save money and reduce your heating and electrical bills. The question is what temperature should you set the thermostat to while you are away? The answer really depends on a number of things.

• Do you have plants
• How long are you going
• Do you have pets that will be at home
• How cold does it get outside
• Are there water pipes along exterior walls that might freeze
• What does your insurance company require

If you have pets, you probably want to maintain the temperature at a level they are used to. Otherwise they will suffer needlessly during cold evenings and nights. Some plants may also not do well if the home is too cold.

If you are planning to leave for more than a few days on vacation or a business trip there are a number of items to think about before you go so that you will not have to deal with a catastrophe when you return. We all want to save money, but there are some things that we just cannot avoid, otherwise the cost could be much greater than what we are saving. Here is a partial list of items to consider. For a more complete list click here.

We put together a brief checklist of items that you may want to consider before leaving your home empty while on vacation.

• Call your insurance company to confirm what they require to maintain your insurance. Many will not approve your claim unless you are following their guidelines.
• Turn the water off before you go. Even if the furnace  is off and your pipes do freeze there will be far less damage to your home.
• Turn down the thermostat to a reasonable level. We turn ours down to 60F or 17C, while other people are even more aggressive turning the heat down even lower.
• Unplug all TV’s , radios, etc so that your electricity bill is minimized while you are away
• Set lights on timers so that passersby will think someone is at home
• Arrange for someone to clear the snow off the driveway while you are away
• Arrange for someone to pick up the mail and look after pets if you have pets
• Arrange for someone to check on the house on a regular basis following the guidelines of your insurance company

More and more people are also installing smart meters which allow them to control the temperature of their home remotely. For some this is a great invention which allows them to monitor the temperature and remotely set it to correspond with colder or warmer outdoor temperatures.

You can also check out a more comprehensive web site by clicking here to review a full list of do’s and don’ts. Our travel web site as well has a list of steps to consider if you are moving to another country or going on a longer vacation.

We appreciate comments and suggestions about this topic. You can save money by reducing the heat while you are gone on vacation, however it pays to be smart about it and avoid larger expenses by not going overboard!

Draft proofing a door can have almost as much of an impact as installing a new energy efficient front door.In fact if your new energy efficient door is not well installed, you may have little improvement on drafts with your new door. Before you spend the money on a new door it may be worth it to try to draft proof the existing door first!  New doors can cost up words of $1000 to $2000! Why not spend $10 and try draft proofing your door first with either caulk or weather strips that will seal your door and avoid letting in cold air into your home. Even if you have to also spend $50 on a can of paint to give your door that new fresh look it is well worth it compared to spending over $1000 on a brand new door that may still have some of the same problems!

Check for Drafts

The first step is to check for drafts around all windows and doors.  You should even check for drafts around electrical outlets and electrical switches that are on outside walls.  If you can feel a lot of cold coming through your front door, windows or outlets  in winter, a few simple steps can cut both your heating costs in winter and your cooling costs in summer.

A snug fit is key

The first step in draft roofing a door is to make sure the main door fits relatively smugly against the door frame. If there are gaps at the sides or top or bottom, you’ll likely get drafts there.

Check the molding around the interior when draft proofing a door. You may have a good seal in the doorway itself but air may be sneaking through the walls and out the edges of the molding.

On a cold day, or even on a windy day, try turning on any indoor exhaust fans you have to draw warm air out of the house and cold air in.Use your fingers or a piece of paper held to the area you are checking to feel for any strong drafts in the molding and around the door; seal them as well.  This should make a big difference not only to the drafts. If you do not have insulation in the wall around the door you may want to reconsider how you will seal the doorway and how you can inject insulation around the door.

Seal up Mail Slots – Remove the Mail Slot!

If you have a mail slot in your door, or even one of those pet doors as many older homes do in climates that are only moderately cold, one of the best ways of draft proofing a door is to seal the mail slot opening off all together. Place a small block of insulating material in the mail slot and seal it off so no air can pass. You will want to place an outdoor mailbox on your outside wall instead. Homes in very cold climates do not seem to have these mail slots which is a good thing.

Windows inside doors

If you have a window in the door itself you’re likely losing quite a bit of heat through the frame for the window, or, if the glass is leaded, through the gaps in the lead. Draft proofing a door with an old window in it really starts with the window.

For leaded glass, the first thing you should do is look for places in the lead came where it’s not snug against the glass. You can often just push the came back in place by rubbing back and forth with the end of a wooden spoon. Even placing a little transparent caulking in gaps can help. If there’s room in the window frame within the door, consider adding a piece of glass cut to the size of the opening, and use 3/8″ molding to hold the glass in place (and use clear caulk around the molding). You now have an insulating pocket of air between the two pieces of glass.

The door latch

Make sure your door closes tightly.This is an absolute must do. No matter how much weather stripping you add, if the door does not close tightly, you are going to have drafts. Correct any loose fitting latches prior to adding any weather stripping around the door. In some cases this might be the main reason for allowing cold air into your home.

Weatherstripping and a threshold

Draft proofing a door can make a big difference to your front door energy efficiency if you include installing a door threshold (sometimes called a bumper threshold) at the base of the doorway, and a weatherproofing door kit for the sides and top. The threshold screws into the bottom of the door frame, and provides a strip of rubber or other flexible weatherstripping across the base of the door. You install it so that when the door is closed the weatherstripping presses against the door and seals the bottom off.

The weatherproofing door kit does the same thing for the top and sides. The bumper threshold is almost always sold separately from the weatherstripping. You can also get a door sweep instead of a bumper threshold – it attaches to the underside of the door instead of to the base of the door frame. The only problem with door sweeps is that because they are rubbing against the floor every time the door opens or closes, they are more quickly worn out (on the other hand, people don’t step on them every time they walk through the door!)

Payback in as little as two months!

With the price of heating fuel continuing to go up in many parts of the country, draft proofing a door can have a very quick payback. In general, draft proofing a door and giving it a face lift with some new paint is a much better approach and lower cost solution than buying a new ENERGY STAR door. If  your door has major structural problems, or you want to replace it for aesthetic or security reasons then you may have no choice but to replace it. For $50 or less in materials and a half hour or so of your own time draft proofing a door, you can wipe out most of this air leakage, leading to a big difference in your home comfort and home heating bills.

And you’ll have $1,000 or more  left over to spend on something you really need.

This is the time of year when the weather is cold and the furnace is running more often that consumers begin to pay attention once again to were they set their thermostat. There is often a discussion between spouses regarding what temperature to set the thermostat at. Now as utilities introduce time of day billing, charging higher rates for peak times and lower rates for off peak, those with electric heating may want to pay even more attention to the temperature they maintain their homes at.

Even if you use central heating systems such as gas or oil, you still want to give this some consideration. Not only do you reduce the amount of gas or oil that you use, you also reduce the amount of electricity you use running the fan.

Should you turn down the thermostat when you are not at home or at night when everyone is sleeping? Does it matter how you heat your home – gas, oil or electricity?

The answer is that it depends!

When you heat your home, regardless of the type of heating system you have, heat will escape from your home, at the same rate, regardless of the heating system you use. The rate depends two things:

• The insulation you have in your home in the walls and the ceiling or attic and how well sealed your home is will determine how much heat is lost and how fast it escapes.
• Secondly the greater the difference in temperature between the outside and the inside of the home, the greater the rate of heat loss as well.

Maintaining your home at a lower temperature overall will mean there  is less difference in temperature differential and therefore less heat escaping. In other words you are spending less energy to heat your home. Keep your thermostat at the lowest required temperature at all times. For example many people use a programmable or setback thermostat, where you can set the temperature to rise to comfort level (e.g. 68F / 20C) just before you get up, back down to economy level (e.g. 62F / 17C) just before you leave for work/school, back up to comfort level around the time you get home from work or school, and back down to economy level around bedtime.

Cost of Energy

The cost of energy is also an important issue. If you pay the same price for energy regardless of the time of day, then you probably will not need to give this point much consideration.

On the other hand if you are heating your home using electricity for example and you are on a system that charges more per kilo watt at peak times, then you will not want to heat your home with expensive electricity. There are several choices you have given this situation.

• Set your thermostat to the lowest temperature that you can stand during the peak time for electrical rates. You will still use electricity, but at least you will keep it to a minimum.
• Another approach is to warm up your home prior to peak rates, perhaps warmer than you normally would, and then allow the home to cool during the day while rates are at peak levels.
• The success of this latter approach really depends on well insulated your home is. If it is not well insulated, or has many drafty areas, then you will have limited success with this approach.

Even if you heat with gas or oil which is the same price regardless of the time of day, there is still a small electrical component that you may want to take into consideration. The fan must run to distribute the heat through the home. When it does it uses electricity. Keeping the temperature low during peak electrical rate times, will help to minimize your overall heating bill.

Lastly, many people will set their furnace fans to being on all of the time. There are some advantages to this approach. It helps to maintain humidity levels at better levels in the dry winter months. It also helps to maintain a more constant temperature level throughout the home. On the other hand, when the fan is running even at low speeds it is consuming energy in the form of electricity and this contributes to your overall energy bill.

If you have comments on this post or have suggestions please feel free to leave your comments on our post for our readers to help them save money and operating costs for their home.

The previous post referred to a significant increase in the cost of electricity for people living in the province of Ontario, Canada and specifically in Ottawa. Although we have not confirmed, we suspect that most jurisdictions across North America will experience the same kind of increases over the next few years. We are talking about increases of 200% or more over the next 5 years. These numbers are significant and if nothing else it means that we all should think about how much electricity usage we can reduce in order to save costs. This is the main focus of this web site and posts, however we encourage our readers to become active on political sites as well to put pressure on the government to manage and reduce costs for the generation of electricity across the province. Enough about why we need to think about reducing electrical costs and political overtones. How can we reduce our costs?

We have composed a long list of things that the average homeowner can consider. Some will apply directly while others will only apply to consumers in specific situations so pick and choose those that make sense for your situation. You may have seen many of these previously on other posts, however hopefully there are some that are new that will help you manage your energy and electrical usage.

Here we go, in no particular order.

Electricity reduction with an Immediate Payback

• Turn your lights off in rooms not being used
• Cook foods with a microwave
• Turn the furnace down (saves electricity and fuel needed for heating)
• Unplug charging units when not in use
• Unplug TV sets if not being used
• Keep the coils clean and free of dust under your fridge
• Do not use the dishwasher dry cycle
• Run appliances etc in off peak hours
• Dry your clothes during off peak hours
• thaw frozen food in the fridge
• Unplug computers when not in use
• Program computers to go into sleep mode
• Wash full loads in the laundry
• Use the oven window instead of opening the door
• Use the microwave or toaster oven instead of a full size oven

Electricity reduction with a Delayed Short Term Payback

• Lights on timers
• Outdoor Lights using photo sensors
• Use a programmable thermostat to take advantage of off peak rates
• Use a ceiling fan to move air around to avoid air conditioning
• Switch to Compact Fluorescent bulbs
• Consider a hot water jacket for your hot water heater
• Use LED lights for Christmas decoration
• Sign up for Energy reduction programs to avoid brownouts

Electricity reduction with a Longer  Term Payback

• Upgrade older appliances (fridge, stove, washing M/C, Dryer) with new energy efficient M/C’s
• Insulate windows to reduce heating costs
• Insulate attics to reduce heating costs
• Insulate wall receptacles on outside walls
• Arrange for an energy audit to be completed
• Use blinds on windows to reduce air conditioning costs

Some of these ideas will also help to reduce your heating and cooling costs as well, particularly if you heat your home by using natural gas. We will soon add a similar blog post about how to reduce your heating costs as well since this is a great time of year to consider how large your heating bills will be during the winter.

I am sure there are a lot more ideas about how to reduce electricity costs. We would love to hear about them, so please comments on our blog.

The following article came from an online post by the Ottawa Citizen. We included it here so that more readers would see this information and maybe it would also be the trigger for more people to think about reducing their electrical usage and reduce their electrical costs.

With these increases that are planned, because of mismanagement at Ontario Hydro, there is no doubt in our minds that rates are going up. Unfortunately the only thing that the average Ontario resident can do is to vote the liberals out of office and reduce the amount of electricity they use. Please refer to our next post for ideas on how to reduce your electrical costs.

OTTAWA — Ottawa residents can expect their electricity bills to soar by more than 40 per cent by 2015, according to an analysis filed with the Ontario Energy Board.

The report, done for Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) by Aegent Energy Advisors, tallies up anticipated hydro cost increases from a dozen different sources between now and early 2015.

It concludes that Ontario residents and businesses will pay a total of $7.7 billion more for electricity over the next five years.

The Citizen used the CME analysis to calculate how much Ottawa residents could be paying for electricity by 2015.

The average residential customer in Ottawa now pays about $117 a month, including HST, for 800 kilowatt hours of electricity.

If the CME’s calculations are correct, that will rise by nearly $49 to about $166 a month by 2015. That’s an additional $587 a year — an increase of 41.8 per cent over current costs.

Residential customers in Ottawa are already paying 17.7 per cent more for electricity than they were just this spring, thanks to rate hikes approved May 1 by the OEB and the imposition of the HST July 1.

The CME isn’t the only body raising the alarm over soaring electricity costs.

In an analysis posted to his blog Tuesday, Energy consultant Tom Adams predicts that by October 2011, Ontario’s residential power price “will blow past the 200-per-cent mark” relative to the price consumers paid when Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals took office in 2003.

In an interview with the Citizen last month, Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid acknowledged that electricity rates will continue to rise to pay for the province’s “critical investments” in clean and reliable power.

However, Duguid wouldn’t estimate how large the increases will be because the Ontario Power Authority is still working on a long-term energy plan, expected this fall.

The CME analysis contains even worse news for businesses, institutions and other non-residential customers. It projects their electricity costs could jump by between 47.1 and 63.7 per cent by 2015.

That could have dire consequences for Ontario manufacturers that use a lot of electricity, CME officials warn.

While energy represents just two to three per cent of manufacturing costs overall, that can rise to as much as 30 per cent for the steel, chemical and refinery industries, said Paul Clipsham, CME’s director of policy and business intelligence.

“For some, it could potentially be unmanageable,” he said.

For many manufacturers, said Ian Howcroft, CME’s Ontario vice-president, the projected increases would have “a significant impact on their ability to compete in North America and globally.”

Some will likely look for opportunities to shift operations to other jurisdictions where energy is cheaper, Howcroft said. “That’s a major concern and a major consideration that I think we have to look at.”

The CME filed its analysis with the energy board in response to an application by Hydro One, which operates Ontario’s high-voltage transmission lines, for rate increases of 15.7 per cent in 2011 and 9.8 per cent in 2012.

It argues the OEB should consider the application in conjunction with all the other factors that are jacking up electricity bills.

Foremost among them, it says, is the government’s Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program, which offers generous 20-year contracts to producers of solar, wind and other forms of green energy.

The CME report assumes 10,500 megawatts of pricey FIT generation will be on line by July 2015.

Based on that, it says the FIT program will be responsible for about half its predicted $54.15 per megawatt hour increase in electricity costs by early 2015. One megawatt hour is equal to 1,000 kilowatt hours.

Increases in transmission and distribution rates will account for further one quarter of the projected increase, the CME report says. A medley of other factors — everything from the cost of power from restarted units at the Bruce nuclear generating station to rate increases for Ontario Power Generation — makes up the balance.

Including HST, these various elements will drive up residential rates by $61.19 per megawatt hour by 2015, CME’s analysis concludes.

Clipsham said CME asked Aegent to do the analysis so the OEB, which deals with numerous requests for incremental rate increases, could see Hydro One’s latest submission in full context.

“You have all these individual filings, but nobody, at least publicly, is looking at the big picture,” Clipsham said. Once you do that, “it really adds up to some significant costs over the five-year period.”

He said CME hopes the energy board will take steps to mitigate the impact of the rate increases it foresees.

“Our grand vision would be that the government would also acknowledge these findings and use them for their own purposes,” he said.

Canadians living in Ontario, and probably other provinces as well, are experiencing almost 20% increases in their hydro rates this fall! What a shock we will all get this winter when the full impact of these increases are going to be felt! If you ran your air conditioner this summer, you already received one shock, you do not need another. It is time to think about how we can reduce our utility bills , including  both electricity and heating costs.

We are at the beginning of October and if you have not thought about taking some steps to prepare your home for the winter season, now is the time to do so.

Here is a quick list of energy saving steps you can take to control your utility costs during the winter:

• Invest in a programmable thermostat
• Lower the temperature
• Add storm windows
• Add plastic coverings over your windows
• Invest in a heat detector
• Add insulation to your attic
• Caulk all of your windows and doors
• Add weather stripping around doors and windows
• Take advantage of lower electricity rates at night
• Close off rooms, be careful of frozen water pipes
• Keep your furnace clean with an annual maintenance checkup
• Replace the filter
• Upgrade to an energy star furnace and convert to a DC motor
• Switch to cold water clothes washing
• Only wash when you have a full load
• Keep cold air return vents clean and unobstructed by furniture
• Check basement windows to make sure the are good seals around the windows
• Add insulation to basement walls
• Open drapes on sunny days
• Close drapes at night to hold the heat in
• Plug gaps around pipes that go through walls
• Install low flow shower heads
• Always fill your dishwasher to run at a full load
• Program your dishwasher to run at night when rates are low
• Program your clothes  dryer to run at night as well
• Clean the filter prior to every use
• Turn your heat off in the garage
• Close the damper on wood fire places
• Convert a wood fireplace to gas
• Fans will push heated air from the fireplace to the rest of the room
• Switch to high energy water heaters
• Cook with a microwave oven, electric frying pans, and toaster ovens
• Use a slow cooker to cook your food
• Use photocell timers or even better motion sensor timers to turn lights on
• Invest in high efficiency appliances
• Run your winter car heater during lower rate time frames
• Convert your lights to low energy florescent bulbs
• Use timers and dimmers to reduce energy
• Freezers can be large users of energy, keep them full or downsize
• Replace large volume toilets with more efficient devices

In the US, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that home heating oil, natural gas, and electricity will cost 2% to 11% more this winter than last. Getting your home prepped for the season is crucial. Canadian homeowners are being hit with a 20 % increase this fall.

Many new devices  link to the Internet that let you adjust the temperature remotely on your thermostat if your are going to be late getting home.

Say you’re stuck late at work. Go online with your iPhone or smart phone and tell the system to stay at 60° F  of 18C for a few hours longer, thus saving even more. Use your iPad, IPhone or iPod to reset your temperature of your home, start your meal cooking etc.

Many people do not pay attention to their energy costs, however with gas prices going up, hydro rates increasing and heating oil increasing, it is time for all of us to take note. Money you save on energy can be used for something else. On a $2000 annual bill for electricity, saving 10% means you have $200 to spend on something else. If you follow the list we mentioned above, you can easily save 10% on your annual energy costs!

Turning down the thermostat saves heating fuel usage and also electricity because your furnace is not running as often. You save twice in this example! The same goes for plugging gaps around windows and doors.

One of the big complaints around our family is the drafts that we feel during the winter, especially just before the furnace comes on. Cooler air is sinking to the lowest point and if you are in the middle of one of these places, you are going to feel cold. Consider running you fan on low to force a continuous circulation of air that stays at a constant temperature.

Another consideration is to invest in a heating blanket for your bed or for even lounging around the house watching TV. Some people would never consider this approach, however you can leave the rest of the home cool and still be toasty warm under the blanket.

Hopefully this post will help you save some money as we try to do on every post on this site. Let us know of your personal ideas about reducing your energy costs for this winter and next summer as well. Note we will delete spam comments.