Heating, cooling, water heating and lighting are the top four users of energy in the home. Here are tips to help you save energy.

• Set your thermostat at 68 degrees in the winter and 78 degrees in the summer. Program your thermostat for 5 degrees higher in the summer and 5 degrees lower in the winter when you’re away from the house.
• Use fans to help you feel 3 to 5 degrees cooler during the summer time at a fraction of the cost of lowering the thermostat.
• Consider a Programmable Thermostat if no one is home during the day typically as it will make thermostat adjustments for you faithfully so that you pay less for the heating and cooling portion of your bill.
• Change your air filter monthly and use pleated filters whenever possible.
• Caulk around window, doors, pipes or anywhere else where air can leak in or out. Use weather stripping around windows, doors and pipes.
• Use window tint/film on all East and West windows if they are not the low emissivity (Low-E) type.
• Make sure your air ducts are sealed. The pipes that carry heated or cooled air around your home can often leak, leading to lost energy and money.
• Improve your ceiling insulation to at least R30 and preferably R38.
• Set your water heater between 120 to 130 degrees
• Consider adding an insulation jacket to the hot water tank and insulating the water pipes to retain heat in the system.
• Install high efficiency showerheads and faucet aerators so you use less hot water.
• Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) throughout the home.  CFLs use 75% less electricity, produce 70% less heat and last up to 12 times longer than incandescent.
• Conduct an online or do it yourself energy audit for your home or office. JEA offers a free Home Energy and Check up video or DVD.

Be careful when considering the following measures:

• Radiant Barriers
  • Radiant barriers are installed to greatly reduce the amount of radiant heat coming through the attic.  Lowering the attic temperature lowers your cooling costs in the Summer time if your duct work runs through it. The barriers reflect the radiant heat instead of absorbing it. They don't, however, reduce heat conduction which is the job of your attic insulation.  (Source: www.energysavers.gov)
    
    
• Power or Solar Attic Ventilators/Fans
  • Attic ventilators or fans are designed to cool the attic temperature by pushing the hot air out of your attic while simultaneously bringing in cooler air from the outside.  Unfortunately, if you do not adequately air seal the ceiling plane the hot air being pushed out of the attic will be replaced with air conditioned air from inside your house through the cracks and crevices in the ceiling!  (Source: www.greenbuildingadvisor.com)
    
    
• Reversing Ceiling Fan Direction in the Winter
• Fans work so well at cooling us because of the wind chill effect.  However, don’t worry about using the ceiling fan in the reverse direction in the Winter if you don’t have tall ceilings (9’ or higher) as that same wind chill effect will outweigh the benefit of pushing the warmer air down into the room.(Source:  www.consumerreports.org)

For more energy saving tips, download our brochure, How to Save Energy and Water at Home .




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