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Green at Home

Be Energy-Efficient at Home

Most of the 25 tons of CO₂ emissions each American is responsible for each year comes from the home. Here are some easy ways to get that number down in a hurry without rebuilding.

• Open a window instead of turning on the air-conditioning.
• Adjust the thermostat a couple of degrees higher in the summer and lower in the winter.
• Caulk and weatherstrip all your doors and windows.
• Insulate your walls and ceilings.
• Use the dishwasher only when it's full.
• Install low-flow showerheads.
• Wash your clothes in warm or cold water.
• Turn down the thermostat on the water heater.

At the end of the year, don't be surprised if your house feels lighter: it just lost 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide!

Carry Out a Home Energy Audit

How green is your castle? A home energy audit will tell you and most utility providers will provide one free of charge. The average family can find ways to shave 450kg of CO₂ emissions each year! Energy auditors use special equipment like blower doors and infrared cameras to help you pinpoint exactly how your house is losing energy.

If you'd rather just do a quick questionnaire, try this home energy check and get feedback that will save you money!

Buy energy-efficient appliances

You wouldn't buy a car without knowing its gas mileage. Why not do the same when choosing energy-efficient ovens or even supermarkets and hotels? Energy Star, a rating system by the Environmental Protection Agency, will help you find them. Approved products can be pricier, but they cost less to power. Commercial buildings account for nearly 18% of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, but those with the Energy Star label consume 35% less energy than the average.

By using Energy Star appliances at home, consumers can reduce their utility bill as much as 30%.

The UK watchdog, Energy Saving Trust, also provides comprehensive product guides and more.

Don't run on Standby

A screen saver is not an energy saver. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75% of all the electricity consumed in the home is standby power used to keep electronics running when those TVs, DVRs, computers, monitors and stereos are "off." The average desktop computer, not including the monitor, consumes from 60 to 250 watts a day.

Compared with a machine left on all the time, a computer that is in use four hours a day and turned off the rest of the time would save you about $70 a year. The carbon impact would be even greater. Shutting it off would reduce the machine's CO₂ emissions 83%, to just 63 kg a year.

Change your Lightbulbs

Article courtesy of Time Magazine, April 2007

The hottest thing in household energy savings is the compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL), a funny-looking swirl that fits into standard sockets. CFLs cost three to five times as much as conventional incandescent bulbs yet use one-quarter the electricity and last several years longer. They are available virtually everywhere lightbulbs are sold. Most labels don't say "CFL" (GE calls its bulbs Energy Savers), and in some cases the telltale twist is enclosed in frosted glass. The wattage gives them away: many 7-watt CFLs are comparable to a regular 40-watt bulb, 26 watts is the typical CFL equivalent of 100 watts and so on. Or just look for the Energy Star label. CFLs have come a long way since they were first introduced in the mid-'90s (they don't flicker as much when you turn them on, for one thing), but because each bulb still contains 5 mg of mercury, you're not supposed to toss them out with the regular trash, where they could end up in a landfill. So the bulbs are one more thing for you to sort in the recycling bin. Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs (see item 4), don't have this problem, but they can require a bit of DIY rewiring. LEDs work great as accents and task lights, and you can also buy LED desk and floor lamps. But if you're just looking to put a green bulb in your favorite table lamp, CFL is the way to go.

New developments at the University of California using gallium nitride are resulting in LEDs using as little as a seventh the energy of an incandescent bulb and can last about 100 times as long (up to 100,000 hours). Today LEDs still lose some energy to heat, but as the new research approaches zero energy loss, the future is looking brighter.

• Develop a plan to use less electricity.
• Call in the Energy Auditors.
• Support clean renewable energy.
• Replace regular incandesent light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs.
• Install a programmable thermostat.
• Move your thermostat down two degrees in the winter and up to degrees in the summer.
• Clean or replace your filters on your furnace and air conditioner.
• Chose energy efficent appliances when making new purchases.
• Turn off electronic devices that you aren't using.
• Don't leave electrical equipment on standby.
• Unplug electronics from the wall when you're not using them.
• Only run your dishwasher when there's a full load.
• Dust off the vent grills at the back of computers, refrigerators, TVs and cookers.

• Beat draughts. They can be fixed easily with draught-proofing, secondary glazing or double glazing – the UK’s most popular energy saving measure (although you’ll save more money by installing cavity wall insulation, which is cheaper). Specify ‘Low-e’ glazing, which has a special heat-reflective coating that reduces heat loss through the window by nearly half. Find out more at National Energy Foundation.
• Shut that Cooker Door! Don’t keep opening the cooker door. Switch your cooker off a few minutes before your food is ready and it’ll stay hot enough to finish cooking the food.
• Shut that Fridge Door! Don’t keep opening the fridge door, letting out all the cold air. Keep the fridge full too. It takes less energy to keep a full freezer cool than it does an empty one. Fill it up with water bottles, or other things from your pantry.
• Use a clothes line instead of a dryer whenever possible.
• Insulate and weatherize you home.
• Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket.
• Make sure buildings are energy efficient.
• Switch to green power. More...
• Use less hot water.
• Become a smart water consumer.
• Avoid heavily packaged products.
• Farmers, turn food into fuel.

For RBIA architect tips on making your home greener, click here.

Links for Saving Energy can be found at our renewables page.