Make Your House More Energy Efficient

Making Your House More Energy Efficient 

By Camille Webber 

On Monday May 17th experts Andy Duncan and Ted Stiles, energy auditors, hosted a virtual Button Up workshop for citizens around the Exeter area. In this presentation they had many great ideas on how citizens can, and should, make their house more energy efficient. 

They brought up a few things you can do to see the trends of your energy usage and understand how much energy you are using. First of all, there is an item you can purchase called the whole house electricity monitor that can track your energy usage. This can give you a better idea of where you need to cut down your usage. 

Another thing you can do is to look at your energy bill more closely. Instead of just automatically paying the bill you can look at the trends of your usage one month compared to other months. In the next few months or year, there may be even more data that you can look at on your bill so keep an eye out. 

Duncan and Stiles also brought up some very small and simple changes that anyone can implement in their own home:

1. Turn down your water heater. 

2. Clean clothes in cold water.

3. Use a smart strip for plugging in electronics. 

4. Use a low flow shower head. 

5. Change your light bulbs to LEDs. 

6. Simple air sealing.

They also talked about ways you can look at where your hot and cold air is leaking out of your house. They said that it is not always the best solution to add insulation. Instead, you have to seal up the places where there is leakage. Leakage most often occurs in the attic or the basement. 

Before you consider more expensive sealing options, you should get an energy audit done. These are helpful for homeowners because they can tell you what steps you need to take, and they will give you a report with estimated savings as well as a cost estimate of doing the improvements. 

Homeowners can also receive rebates for making energy efficient switches in their home. For example, if you switch your heating and cooling system to an energy efficient heat pump, you can receive money while at the same time reducing your energy usage. You can also receive rebates for very simple things like switching to LED lightbulbs. If you would like to learn more about the rebates you can receive you can visit the NHSaves webpage. 

Cutting down your energy usage is a great idea because there are a lot of benefits. You can receive money just for making switches, reduce your energy bill, and help the environment!

If you would like to watch the recorded video from the NH Button Up from September 2020 please click here.