Free House Repair Tutorials - Lower Electric Bills / Save Energy

There are many features about a home that make a difference in the amount of energy needed for heating, cooling and lighting. Thus, these features can have a major impact on the amount of money you devote to maintaining the winter and summer comfort of occupants. This checklist will help you evaluate the energy-saving potential of various housing features.

Housing features to consider include: Site; House Design; Construction and Insulation; Heating and Cooling System; Color and Lighting.

House Design

Main roof ridge runs east and west (for better summer cooling and to provide a more desirable location for a solar heat collector in the future).

Shape of house is a slight rectangle (long rectangles L-shapes H-shapes T-shapes and U-shapes provide more outside wall surface for heatloss). Entry halls for front and back doors can be closed off to form "vestibules" (thus reducing flow of cold air to inside and warm air to outside).

Main living area, where the living room, family room, dining room and kitchen are located, has as few partitions as possible (for best heat distribution). Bedroom wing can be closed off (so heating and air- conditioning can be reduced when not needed during the day).

South windows have an overhang or awning deciduous trees or vines (to shade from summer sun but allow winter sun into the house). East and especially west windows are kept to a minimum and/or provided with shade trees and tall shrubs, fences, awnings, tinted glass or other shading devices (to keep out early morning and late afternoon sun in the summer).

Amount of window area is no more than 10 to 15 percent of floor area (there is more heat loss through glass, even double or triple glazing, than through an insulated wall). Note: Before you decide to eliminate certain openings, keep in mind that local building codes may require that certain rooms of the house have windows or doors to the outside. This is for safety's sake, especially fire safety. Check with the building inspector in your local area or county to be certain of requirements.

Operable windows are placed so that cooling air can travel through the house in summer and escape at a high point of interior space (example: an operable window in an upstairs hallway will draw off warm air from the inside).

Attic ventilators are placed so air is drawn from cooler, shady parts of house (under eaves for inlet of cool air) and exhausted as high as possible (along ridge of roof or at attic gable ends).

Vents allow the escape of unwanted moisture from attic in winter and lessen attic heat build-up in summer (be sure ventilation is adequate; at least one square foot of eave inlet and one square foot of gable outlet for EACH 150 feet of ceiling area is recommended. Periodically check vents, especially eave vents, to see they are not obstructed by insulation or other building materials.) Chimney for fireplace is placed on an inside rather than an outside wall (so heat is lost to inside of house).

Fireplace is designed to heat the room (such as a circulating type with a glass fire screen door to prevent heat from the room being lost up the chimney) and has an outside air intake for combustion of wood to prevent furnace heated air from being used for combustion (newer fireplace systems can be designed so duct-work connected to the system provides outside air for combustion; check with fireplace dealers in your area).

Plumbing fixtures are located close to water heater(s) (to reduce heat loss from water as it moves from tank to point of use). Water heater is located in a heated space (even a well-insulated heater loses more heat when placed in an unheated area).

Stair wells to second floor or basement have tightly sealed doors either at top or bottom of the stairs (to prevent "chimney" effect and loss of heat to upper area).

Multi-family housing has "extra" energy saving potential In this type of housing, each dwelling shares one or more walls with other dwelling units (in townhouses, duplexes, or apartments in mid- or high-rise buildings, less wall space in each unit is exposed to the outside, thus greatly reducing the amount of heat loss from each unit through its walls, or ceiling and floor in some cases).

Next Page: Construction and Insulation

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