The average yearly energy bill for a typical single-family home is $2,200. Where does it all go?
Source: Energy Star
Where Does Your Money Go?
TAGGED WITH cooling • energy efficiency • heating • home energy • home performance • lighting • water
Review: The Metlund Hot Water D’MAND System
Cold water that goes down the drain while your customers are waiting for hot water to reach sinks and showerheads is like money flowing through their fingers. Here’s a relatively simple and affordable fix that can help most American homeowners save thousands of gallons of water every year – and take a slice off their energy bills to boot:
The Metlund Hot Water D’MAND System
http://www.gothotwater.com
- A fast on-demand recirculation pump diverts ambient-temperature water in hot water pipes back to the water heater until hot water reaches the tap.
- Water moves more rapidly from the hot water heater to the point of use, so your customers won’t have to wait long for a hot shower.
- D’MAND pumps may be activated by wired-in buttons, motion sensors or wireless remotes.
- Can use the existing cold water line as a return line, so special plumbing is not required for retrofits.
- Less heat radiates from water pipes than with timed or continuous recirculation systems, potentially saving homeowners $50 to $300 a year in energy costs alone.
- Can extend water heater life by enabling lower thermostat settings and reducing sedimentation in the bottom of the hot water tank.
- Unlike timed or continuous recirculation systems, D’MAND does not void most tankless water heater warranties (check with the heater manufacturer to confirm)
- D’MAND pumps are available in retrofit and new construction models.
- Multiple pumps may be required in homes with complicated plumbing loops or additions.
According to Metlund’s own calculations, a typical household that saves 20 gallons of water a day by installing a D’MAND system would save anywhere from $151 to $242 a year in water, sewer and energy costs (depending on the type of hot water heater). For every year of its 15-year lifespan, the system would take a 7,300-gallon load off of local water and wastewater treatment systems, and prevent about a ton of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
Our take: On-demand recirculation pumps can be somewhat less convenient for homeowners than timed or continuous pumps, but Metlund’s system provides a highly effective and economical solution to water waste for homeowners who use it properly. Just be sure to educate your customers and set appropriate expectations before installing.
Note: Recurve does not endorse this or any other product. We encourage qualified Home Performance contractors to gain hands-on experience with products profiled in this newsletter before making their own assessments.
Tanks a Lot
In the average American home, the water heater is the second or third largest energy user.
As long as you can get a hot shower in the morning, you probably don’t think too much about your water heater. But this mysterious appliance has a huge impact on the environment. Based on the California Energy Commission’s estimate of energy use in a typical household, water heating consumes about 31% of the energy used.
Energy Facts
- Between 15%-30% of the energy your water heater uses goes to keeping a tank of water hot, just in case you need it.
- Hot water heaters have adjustable thermostats. For every 10° you lower the water temperature, you can save 3%-5% of your water heating energy.
- The heat that escapes through the sides of the tank is especially important if it’s in an unheated spot like a basement or back porch. A water heater blanket can save 5%-10% of the energy you’ve been using.
Simple Ways to Save Energy
- Adjust the temperature setting on the water heater to 120°F. If you have a dishwasher that cannot heat water with a built-in booster heater, set the water heater to 140°F. Electric water heaters have two thermostats that should be set the same. Use a thermometer at the faucet to gauge water temperature. Don’t rely on the dial on the heater; they’re generally inaccurate. With electric water heaters, turn off power to the tank before adjusting the themostat.
- Put your hand on your water heater. If it feels warm, install an insulating blanket around it. The colder the area the heater is in, the greater the heat loss. So if it’s in the garage in the winter, you’re going to lose a lot of heat.
- Insulate the hot and cold water pipes leaving the tank, wherever they are accessible. Cover at least the first five feet (preferably ten) and keep the insulation three inches away from gas flues. Foam sleeves or adhesive-backed foam tape are available at hardware stores.
- When replacing an old tank, make sure the new one is the correct size for your family and is energy efficient.
- Electric water heaters should be turned off if you leave home for more than a few nights. It takes about four hours to reheat the water when you turn it back on.
Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.
Home energy fixes for under $100
Here are some easy and effective home energy fixes you can do around the house for $2 to $90:
- Light switch and outlet sealers: under $5
Two of the most frequently overlooked sources of air leakage in a home are light switches and outlets. Dodge those drafts by sealing up any switches and outlets where you can feel a draft on your hand. - Hot water heater pipe insulation: $2 per foot
Use this cost-efficient fix as a quick way to reduce wasted energy on water heating. Insulating just the first 6 feet of pipe from your water heater will cost $12 and will save you over $5 a year on water heating while reducing CO2 emissions by more than 55 pounds. We typically recommend insulating the first 10 feet of pipe. - Monitor your meter: $20
Purchase a Kill A Watt electricity monitor and plug in your appliances and electronics to find out which ones are the biggest energy culprits. Use this to inform your future upgrade decisions or see how much energy you can save with easy adjustments like turning down your refrigerator’s temperature. - Smart powerstrips: $20-90
Cut back on phantom power by plugging electronics into smart powerstrips, such as the one by Wattstopper which turns devices on and off based on occupancy and uses a motion detector to manage energy use. Our recommended smart strip is Belkin’s Conserve. - Faucet aerator: $2
These handy products are one of the least expensive ways to increase your water efficiency by mixing air into the water stream. When installed, each aerator will save 500-2,000 gallons of water a year. - Chimney balloon damper: $35-50
The fireplace is a common area for heat loss in your home, as most dampers don’t work well and many older homes don’t have them. Inflatable balloon dampers fit in most chimneys to keep heated air in, and you can remove them whenever you want.
Review: The Vertex 100 – An Efficient, Hydronics-Ready Water Heater
President Obama has told us that insulation is sexy—but what about water heaters? If you’d like to add an efficient, hydronics-ready water heater to the mix of products your shop sells and supports, check out this hot performer:
The Vertex 100 from Tennessee-based A.O. Smith Water Products
http://www.hotwater.com/products/residential/rg-vertex100.html
- 96% thermal efficiency
- True sealed combustion for greater efficiency and safety
- Accurate, easy-to-use digital controls
- Higher output for combined hydronics
- Side taps for combined hydronics
- Significantly quieter than competing 90% efficient water heaters
- Significantly less expensive than competing 90%+ water heaters with stainless steel tanks
- Provides a nice mix of 50 gallons of hot water storage and 100,000 BTU/h of burner power, thereby reducing standby losses incurred with very large tanks and natural draft flues
- Accommodates high hot water demands without requiring a high-capacity gas line to supply 250,000 BTU/h as is typical of tankless water heaters
Our take: This is a great product for the price point, efficiency level and footprint.
Note: Recurve does not endorse this or any other product. We encourage qualified Home Performance contractors to gain hands-on experience with products profiled in this newsletter before making their own assessments.
Making a Splash
Eight percent of American homes now have pools, which waste more energy than all the nation’s ENERGY STAR homes are saving!
Swimming pools are typically the first- or second-largest single energy user in homes that have them. California’s 1.35 million residential pools use the entire electrical output of a medium-sized power plant.
Energy Facts
- Evaporation is the biggest source of heat loss from hot tubs and pools. When only 5 gallons of water evaporate from a hot tub, the remaining 500 gallons chill by 1°F., then must be re-heated.
- American swimming pools contain enough water to cover the city of San Francisco with a layer of water about seven feet deep. About 30% of that water is heated, requiring as much natural gas as a city of 6 million normally uses.
- For every hour it’s in use, an average pool heater consumes three times as much energy as a home furnace.
- Pool blankets (insulating sheets that float on the water surface) reduce the energy consumption of pool heaters by 40%-70%.
- Pool pumps use about the same amount of energy in an hour as window unit air conditioners.
Simple Ways to Save Energy
- Cover your spa or hot tub. Use a well-insulated cover with an R-value rating of 12 and foam insulation that is at least 2 inches thick. It’ll prevent heat loss and evaporation.
- Cover your pool with a floating pool blanket whenever you’re not swimming.
- Install a highly efficient two-speed or variable speed pool pump and use the low speed as much as possible. This can cut your pool-pumping energy consumption, and the related costs, in half.
- Resist buying a pool pump bigger than you need; it will cost more to buy and operate than a properly sized one.
- Put a timer on your pool pump – most run longer than needed to keep pools clean.
Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.
The Lawn Rangers
An acre of lawn needs 1.3 million gallons of water a year to stay green and healthy. Here are some tips on how be water-wise without sacrificing your grass.
Energy Facts:
- During the summer, the majority of household water is used for keeping yards green.
- Even in places where water doesn’t have to be moved long distances from source to tap, a significant amount of energy is required to treat and process it before it enters the water main.s
Simple Ways to Save Energy:
- Use a push mower instead of a power motor to save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80 pounds a year.
- Set your mower blades so they cut grass about 2-3 inches tall. Mowing it shorter dries out the soil faster and increases water use.
- Let grass clippings turn into mulch. During dry periods, cut the grass high and leave the clippings on the lawn to keep it from drying out – thus reducing the amount of water your lawn needs.
- Most lawns need about 1 inch of water a week once they’re established. Apply it slowly so the water doesn’t run off.
- Here’s how to tell how long it takes to apply an inch of water: Set two or three cans out on the lawn and turn on the sprinkler. Check every few minutes to see how long it takes to land an inch in each can. Average the times for the cans, and that’s the length of time to water.
Watering Smart
- Water early in the morning or very late afternoon to cut down on how much water evaporates before it reaches the roots.
- Try drip irrigation for shrubs and garden plants. It’s a way of putting the water in small, steady amounts right to the soil around the plant you’re watering.
- When you re-landscape, group together the plants that need similar amounts of water. That way, you can avoid overwatering one just to irrigate another.
Going Native
- Consider plants for your yard that are already adjusted to local conditions and don’t require extra water or attention. These are usually plants that are native to your area.
- Think about shrubs, succulents, and trees as a substitute for some of your lawn. Nothing requires more water than a lawn.
- When you’re ready to reseed or resod your lawn, look for grasses that require less water to thrive.
- Check your local government website for information about water conserving plants. These plants are also called “drought tolerant,” and the practice of landscaping to conserve water is called “xeriscaping.”
Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.
Bathroom Water Conservation Tips
It’s never been more important to be wise about water, as it’s quickly becoming a scarce resource. Bathrooms account for over 60% of the average household’s indoor water use and over 1,300 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from hot water heating. According to the EPA, if every U.S. household installed one low-flow sink faucet or aerator, it would save more than 60 billion gallons of water annually. Here are some easy tips on water conservation:
Install Faucet Aerators on Bathroom Sinks
When installed, each aerator will save 500-2,000 gallons of water a year.
Toilet Leak Detection
Use toilet dye strips to detect leaks that may be wasting over 200 gallons of water a day.
Toilet Water Flow
If you have an older toilet (built before 1980), you could be wasting up to 5 gallons of water every time you flush, compared to modern low-flow toilets. To check the date of your toilet, lift up the lid on the tank. The date is normally stamped on the underside of the lid.
You can reduce water usage on older toilets by adding a filled 1-liter bottle in the toilet tank. This will reduce typical water consumption by 500 gallons per toilet per year.
Brushing Teeth
Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth to save more than 1,200 gallons of water a year.
Shaving
Turn off the water while shaving. Fill the bottom of the sink with a few inches of water to rinse your razor, rather than running the tap and save about 1,000 gallons of water a year.
Shower Time
If you reduce your average shower time from 10 minutes to 5, you can save more than 4,200 gallons of water each year and cut your utility bills. You would also eliminate an extra 300 pounds of CO2 emissions just from the energy used to heat the water.
Low-Flow Showerhead
Standard showerheads made before 1994 use about twice the water used by newer, energy-efficient models. Maintaining ample water pressure, the most efficient showerheads use as little as 1.5 gallons of water per minute, saving 7,300 gallons of water and $30 to $100 a year, compared to 2.5 gpm models.
To check whether you can save money with a low-flow showerhead, check your current showerhead’s flow rate which may be written directly on it. Another way to check the flow is to hold an empty half-gallon milk carton under your showerhead, turn on the water and use a clock to time how long it takes to fill the carton. If it takes less than ten seconds to fill it, you should consider changing the showerhead to a more efficient model. Look for models with the EPA’s WaterSense label.
San Francisco Introduces Its Own Innovative Financing Plan for Energy Projects
In January, I mentioned how innovative financing is changing energy in America. San Francisco residents can now share bragging rights with other progressive counties such as Berkeley and Sonoma – GreenFinanceSF has officially been signed into law! This innovative program is the nation’s largest PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program to date, making $150 million in bonding capacity available to private property owners to finance water conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements starting in April. Learn more here: http://greenfinancesf.org/
In 2010, 200 local governments nationwide are expected to have administered programs based on the PACE model. Good ideas are worth spreading!