Hal's Energy Tips© 2009 Hal Zucker All Rights Reserved.
Posted 4/25/09
For now each weeks tip will appear on the same webpage as the previous weeks tip. I will keep putting the new tips on top of the old so if you scroll down you can see last weeks tip. I don't know how long or how successful this will be but hopefully as I acquire more readers I will change the format of the page. To make this as valuable as possible to my readers I plan on creating an indexed resources page as well as an subject index page. Until then and as long as the page doesn't get too long I will simply put this weeks page on top of last weeks page. For those new readers this is the second week of tips. Additionally I have already gotten some feedback on the tone of the writing. When I teach a class or work with a new client or consumer the first thing I do connect on language. I ask a simple question; If you were to describe your current knowledge of the subject matter, how would describe yourself? Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced? About 30% describe themselves as Beginners, 60% Intermediates and about 10% as Advanced in the subject matter. I need to communicate with as many people as possible but tend to teach advanced technical subjects. The compromise is that I try and communicate on an High Intermediate level. If you get it- great. If you don't, at the end of this weeks subject I have some additional options for help. As this weeks tip is more of technical, math related subject I'm sure some will want to scroll down to those suggestions soon. For the others, let's get going.
Last week I gave you homework. Lets review: 1.) Get your utility bills for the last year. All of them. Electric, Gas, LP and Oil. 2.) Set up a chart to break up the usage and cost per month for each. Some utilities like electric may be billed only every other month. In those cases you should simply divide the bill by two and use each number for each month. 3.) Measure the exterior of your house. It's not important that its exact.
Lets start with #3- measuring your house. All we need is the approximate square footage. Below is a copy of a very simple ranch floor plan.
The total square footage in this floor plan is 1100 square feet. PLEASE NOTE: As the garage is not heated, it not is included in the square footage. If the house had a basement, that basement would not be included unless it was "conditioned' space and heated. Now that we have our floor plan we can begin to determine what the average utility costs are for this size house. You need to understand that when I use the word "average", I am using data for the average home built in 1999 but updated energy costs from 2008. If you home is older, it is likely your house will have higher bills and more energy waste. If newer, lower bills. Clearly I'm being very general. Additionally, I believe we have a below average housing stock in Greene county. That means less well built and less insulated. An example, when I bought my home it. It was 100 years old. It had no wall insulation in at all in half the house and in testing the air infiltration it had 20 times the average air infiltration. The good new, if you can call it that, is that the worse your home measures up, the more energy tips will save you money.
Below is a chart that shows the average household energy costs (as of US Department of Energy in 2008). 
Based on this chart, our sample house of 1100 square feet will cost a little more than $1.70 per square foot or $1870 per year. We could get very complicated and factor in the difference between 2008 and 2009 energy costs, but that's really not worth it. We may get into that kind of calculation at some later time. One of the most interesting things about this chart is noticing that he larger the house the lower the per foot energy costs (example; a 2000 square foot house would cost $2400 per year or $.50 a square foot less than our sample 1100 square foot house.) You would not expect this and this is where understanding the data is important. It is my belief that this saving really represents that fact that newer houses have been getting bigger over the last few decades and even though they are getting bigger, they are also getting more insulated.
OK. Now we know how our house stacks up with the "average", let's separate our heating costs from our basic gas or oil costs. If we have gas heat, this process is easier, with oil heat a bit harder. Why? Because if we get gas our deliveries are more frequent and our bills give therms used or (if LP) pounds used. If we use oil, we may not get deliveries at set times (once a month). We may have to extrapolate to set up our charts. Lets look at a typical natural gas chart, as that is the easiest to understand and then discuss how to adjust your chart.
The above chart shows monthly therms used. This may be a good time to explain energy units. Energy units ultimately describe heat. Heat is measured in Btu's. (British Thermal Units). A Btu is the amount of heat required to raise a pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit. Below is a chart to show the Btu content for most of the fuels used here in Greene county.
As you can see, different fuels have different Btu content. A gallon of #2 heating oil has 40% more energy than natural gas and 66% more energy than LP (Propane). I explain this because in much later energy tip we will revisit some of these concepts. Some of my most frequently asked questions have to do with transferring to bio-fuels, like wood. (By the way, the answer is not so simple.) OK- Lets get back to our chart. If we look at this homeowners gas usage we see that in the non-heating months on July, August and September the average gas usage is approximately $32 per month. This is most likely represents a combination of hot water and cooking gas. (Typically this would break up as $25/month for hot water and $7/month in cooking gas. If we look at last weeks energy reduction tip of lowering our hot water heater from 140 degrees to $120 degrees this would represent a savings of $60 per year.)
When we look back at the monthly chart, we can see that if we have a baseline of $32/month gas usage, everything above that baseline represents heating usage. The heating usage represents a yearly bill of $1140., slightly more than the $963/year for a house of the sample size.
Try constructing a model of your usage. Here is a recent view of one of my clients home which uses oil heat. First, let me explain the property. It is a 2400 square foot building over 50 years old with no wall insulation and moderate attic insulation. Last years total utilities were $4000 for #2 oil and $900 for electricity for a total of $4900 for total utilities. (That comes to $1.96 a square foot, almost twice the "average".) Using the baseline, the non-heating oil costs (for hot water) comes to $40/month with means the average heating represents $3600/year. Now we know what we can save. Hopefully this was not to technical. Remember, part of this weekly column is to educate. If you "get it" great. Our hope is to get your energy usage down 20%-50% in the next year. As Realtors we know that its not just what you pay for your house but what it costs to operate. If you're planning on staying in that house we want to save you money. If you plan on selling your home, making your home more energy efficient will make it more saleable. We hope that if we help, you will think of Living Structures when the time comes to assist in that sale.
The last part of this weeks column is what to do if my tips are just to technical or you need help. I understand. I won't go over it this week, but I have also had some suggestions that I tell my readers a bit more of who I am and what my educational and business background is. To this goal, I have posted a short version of my personal resume. Click HERE to open that document. If you do so, and you scroll down to my educational credentials you will see my Building Analyst certification from the Building Performance Institute. While I have this certification and can consult with clients and consumers on building analysis, Living Structures is still going through its company certification and expects that certification in June or July of this year. In you feel that you would like to work with another BPI certified company, click Here to find one.
That's it for this week. We hope to hear from you. I always tell my students and clients "I'm married. You can be any more honest then my wife and kids". At the same time, if you are enjoying this information, please pass the link to a friend. I want to remind you that you Don't want to just save money-Help Save the Planet. Click HERE to learn about 350.org You're either part of the problem or part of the solution.
Week of April 15, 2009
Welcome to Hals Energy Tips
Each week I will give my readers a tip on how to save energy. At least that is my hope. I'm sure I will take a week or two off, but lets use one week as my goal. as this column is new, I would like to start by telling you a little about me and my family, as well as my background in energy conservation.
I am 57 years old and one of the owners of Living Structures Real Estate. Most of you know my wife Claudia, as she is the social half of the marriage and the company. We have been living in Greene County since 1985. I was a developer and Realtor in Manhattan for 10 years prior to moving my family to East Durham. I was one of those guys who developed loft apartments in the Chelsea area and the west 20's and 30's. My last two projects prior to moving full time upstate was 126 West 26th St and 11 West 30th Street. I loved Manhattan real estate but with two small children it just became too much.
We moved up to East Durham and put both our kids through the CD schools. For a time I participated as a school board member and later its President. Today my daughter is a doctor in Brooklyn and my son, a graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh works as a cabinet maker in Tupper lake, NY. I am very proud of both of them and many of their high school friends are now calling us for their first homes. Makes me feel really old.
My family and I have been living "green" for over 20 years. When we first moved up here we replaced all our incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents, which at the time were very crude: Weird colors, flickering lights. Still, 80% less energy usage and long lasting. I should say that there are generally two reasons to save energy; saving money and saving the planet. I fell into the first category. I teach and always tell my students that "I am the cheapest guy in the world". I'm sure my wife and kids would agree. I prefer to think of myself as frugal. Either way I point this out because part of my goal is to convert you if you haven't been converted already. I am very realistic though. I don't care your reason. Cheap is an acceptable reason to me.
To keep it short, this cheapness eventually led me to total greenness, if that's really possible. We now eat green, heat green, drive green, buy green and dress green. Since Claudia told me this column is supposed to be about energy savings, I will not get into it all (unless the reading public wants tips on that stuff too). So here we go.
In the beginning.... There is no way to give you my first tip without first explaining some basic concepts. The first is that there is no end to saving energy. I will be giving too many tips to count and you can (as my mother said) take what you want and leave the rest. The second is that when we talk about saving energy in our homes we must understand that your home is much more then a place. It's a system. This system includes many systems. When the systems are working together your house will be safe, energy efficient and healthy. When one or more of the systems are not working properly the house my be either unsafe, energy inefficient, unhealthy or all three. The goal here is to help you make your house, as a system safe, efficient and healthy.
Seems like a lot to tackle. It is. I've been working on it for over 20 years. Hopefully we can create a interactive dialog that will make the process both fun and practical. When I start working with a new client, the first thing I do is to try and understand their energy costs. (I start with energy, and not health and safety for a reason that I will not explain right now.)
Here is a graphic that shows the general breakdown of energy cost for this area.
Now we need to explain a few more things. I believe in what I call the "bang for the buck" concept of energy savings. That means I believe we work on the cheapest things that pay off the greatest first. (My wife is cringing, she wants me to use words like "least expensive", sorry, gotta be me.) If we look at the graph we see that heating is first, appliances & lights second, water heating third, etc. Get it! That's the way we are going to do this.
Now I wanted to start this column a few weeks ago but just couldn't find the time. It would have been great because I do have many great heating tips, but the spring does appear to be here and I think that we can always get back to heating tips in preparation for next years season so for now I'm going to give you a tip on the third biggest area- hot water heating. (I'm also going to give you "Homework" for my next column.)
Hal's heating tip of the week:
STEP 1. Determine your competence. This first tip is going to involve opening up the control unit for your hot water heater. This should only be done by a person familiar with plumbing and electrical systems. Living Structures takes no responsibility for non professionals. Do not do this yourself. Please contact a licensed plumber or electrician to complete this task.
STEP 2. If you are not a professional, have your licensed plumber or electrician set back your hot water thermostat to 120 degrees. (It is most likely set to 140 degrees). If you have a service contract on this appliance, your service contractor will do this work for you for free. If you are competent, move on to step 3.
STEP 3. Turn off the electricity to your hot water heater. This does not matter whether its electric, gas or oil fired.
STEP 4. Locate your hot water thermostat control. It should look like the one here. 
STEP 5. Remove the two screws holding on the cover. This is what the inside should look like. 
Notice the blue arrow. That is the temperature control. Most have either the temperatures listed, usually 120 to 160 degrees, or may just have a notch mark indicating a normal point with the words "less" or "more" on either side of the mark. Most heaters are set to the mid mark (140 degrees). This set mark is not necessary. You will not need it set above 120 degrees. This should take care of all of your hot water requirements (unless you have an exceptionally large family that takes many showers and does laundry at the same time.)
OK- What should you save? Generally 10% of your hot water usage. Typical family usage is $200 to $500 a year so you should save $20-$50 a year. Not enough, OK but we will go over at least two more tips over the next few weeks to get your total savings down 50% or $100 to $250 a year.
That's it for now. Ready for your home work?
1. Get your utility bills for the last year. All of them. Electric, Gas, LP and Oil.
2. Set up a chart to break up the usage and cost per month for each. Some utilities like electric may be billed only every other month. In those cases you should simply divide the bill by two and use each number for each month.
3. Measure the exterior of your house. It's not important that its exact.
Next week we will look at the average energy usage for a house of your size. It's important to know how your house does compared to the "average" house.
That's it for this week. Any questions, just write me at: hal@livingstructures.com . A few rules; don't put anything in the "Subject" line. If you're not email capable, you can call me at 518-622-0840 ext.13. Please leave a clear message and please let me know that you are calling about my energy tip and not other business. Thanks, Hal
