PennyPinchingHome.com

A fan is a great investement to cut down on energy costs for both heating and cooling! Use it to move the air around.

Not much more to explain that you can’t figure out from the photo.

Room To Room Doorway Fan [Improvements via Gizmodo]

Smart Strip SCG3/049418906 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology

Here’s a fantastic item that will help reduce your power usage for your computer or home entertainment system easily! You simply plug one controlling item into the control outlet (blue in the photo) and turn it off. After adjusting the settings dial with a screwdriver it’ll turn all of the non-red colored outlets off when the control device turns off!

For example – plug your TV into the control with your DVD/VCR, speakers, game system(s), etc into the controlled outlets. When you turn off the TV all the others are turned off at the power strip as well. No more phantom loads for any of them.

A computer is another great item to consider. Turn the PC off and you can automatically power off your monitor, printer, powered USB hubs, speakers, desk lamp, etc.
When was the last time you unplugged that powered USB hub?

At a current price of $28.45 it’s not exactly cheap – but the unit will pay for itself over time.
Get the
Smart Strip SCG3/049418906 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology from amazon

The small gaps surrounding windows, doors and other areas in the American house, taken together, are like a nine-square-foot hole in the wall, according to EarthWorks Group’s “30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do to Save the Earth.” Plugging them can save you up to 10% on that heating bill, and the materials will pay for themselves within a year, ACEEE says.

Air that you’ve paid money to either heat or cool is escaping from your home. The more air that escapes the more expensive it is for you. Cut down on both heating and cooling costs by plugging those holes and sealing those gaps!

Note: it is easier to find these leaks in the winter, as cold air is coming in. In the summer cold air is going out – so it’s harder to find the leaks.
Doors
Run your hand, or better yet a candle, along and near the door frame. If you can feel the cold air coming it you’re wasting a lot of heat here. if only the candle flickers isn’t not as bad – but air is still escaping.
To solve that get some weather stripping. It’s very cheap and a single roll should be more than enough for a single door – maybe even 2. It’s self adhesive on one side and will plug the gap where air is escaping with foam. Make sure to clean the surface before you apply the adhesive.

Use a door sweep to help seal the bottom of the door.

Attic
Hot air rises – so hot air is escaping into your attic. if you have poor insulation you should add more. Use blown in insulation to fill gap.
Any holes in any ceiling (basement on up actually) should be sealed as well. Use expanding foam to seal the larger gaps, look around in the basement for large holes used to get pluming and electrical up to the floors above. You’ll want to push some foam insulation into those gaps or plug them with expanding foam. Remember, the goal here is to prevent air from going from one floor to the floor above.

Also – insulate the door into your attic as well. Use some of the weather stripping mentioned under doors to help seal the entrance.

Windows
Generally the same ideas as we had for doors above, weather stripping works great. Caulk the outsides of them as well.
Finally open the blinds/drapes/etc during the day to let sunlight in and close them at night to keep the heat in.

We all know that our windows look better with window treatments, but did you ever think about the possibility to using them to help heat or cool your home?
If you have newer windows with great thermal properties then this really dosen’t help all that much, but for the rest of you – read on!

Looking to stay cool – us a window treatment that is a light color (white is great) or reflective. This will help to reflect the sunlight – and the heat – back out the window. Remember the side note about though, if you have a nice double pane window then this isn’t going to be the greatest help!

If you’re looking for some extra heat you can simply leave the window uncovered! I’m sure you’ve alreay noticed that you’ll get warm sitting in the sunlight.

When choosing your next washing machine, pick one with a front-loader. Front-loader models use 25% less energy than a standard model.

Also, simply switching from a hot/warm cycle to a warm/cold cycle when washing laundry can save you 10 cents a load. That adds up when you think about how many loads of laundry you do a year!

About a month ago I had 4 new windows installed.
U-factor: 0.32 (lower is better)
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient: 0.33 (lower is better)
These are great windows.

I knew when I bought this house that a few windows were in need of replacement. I just didn’t know how bad they needed to be replaced! After getting some quotes my wife and I decided on 4 windows to replace – 3 windows upstairs which looked really old and one that leaked in the kitchen.
The local window rep for Anderson windows had never seen windows like the ones I had upstairs, and he’d be replacing windows for 3o years. Thankfully we were able to get windows that fit the current openings in our brick house.

Once the old ones were pulled out it became painfully obvious how poor the windows truly were. One of them wasn’t even nailed into the frame – it was being held in by caulking! The Anderson window representative estimated they were original to the house after they were removed – which puts them in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 years old.

The difference with the new windows is amazing. Since they were installed I haven’t had to turn on the air conditioning at all (just open the windows up at night), the upstairs stays about the same temperature all day instead of getting hot, and one item we never thought of before – it’s astonishing quite when the windows are closed.
Before if our neighbors were outside next door it was easy to hear them while the windows were closed. Now we can’t hear them at all!

I’m looking forward to seeing how this improvement impacts my gas bill this winter!
We’ve already figured out what 2 windows (at least) are next on the replacement list…