Heating and cooling is the number one consumer of energy in your home, with appliances being a close second.  So here are a few useful tips on how to reduce your bills and energy consumption in both of these areas.

Get a Home Energy Audit

This is a useful way to put your energy usage in perspective. An energy audit takes into account all heat loss factors in your home; insulation, windows, doors, walls, efficiency of your heating and cooling systems, etc. With most home energy audits, you will receive a detailed report which can help you decide in what areas you can improve your home’s efficiency.

Weatherize Your Home

You will be surprised by how much energy you can save by sealing up your home. Caulk joints and other drafty areas, insulate your plumbing, water heater, basement, and attic, and replace leaky/inefficient windows or doors. These are just a few ways to improve your energy usage. These may seem like simple steps, and they are, but they can and will save you money in the long run.

Program Your Thermostats

If you have a programmable thermostat, take the extra time to program it wisely. You can set specific temperatures for certain times of the day, and some even have the ability to set it for different days in the week! This will make it easy to keep you comfortable when and where you need it, and also save your energy when you don’t.

If you don’t have a programmable thermostat, be proactive about manually setting temperatures down during times you don’t need heating. We have all heard the standard 65° in the day, 55° at night, and it still proves to be a useful standard to go by, but feel free to experiment.

Tip: You may not physically feel a 2° decrease in temperature, but your heating bill will notice. You could save about 5% annually, by just setting the thermostat a bit lower.

Natural Ventilation

During those not-so-hot times in the cooling season, try shutting down the air conditioner in favor of some fresh air. Screened windows and doors combined with a nice box or ceiling fan should be able to keep you cool enough. This can also save you wear and tear on your air conditioning system for when you may really need it.

Replace Your Light Bulbs

Get rid of those standard light bulbs and replace them all with compact fluorescent bulbs or LED bulbs. They are a bit more expensive, but they pay for themselves in savings, when compared to incandescent bulbs. They use a fraction of the energy and last at least 10 times as long.

Natural light is always better than artificial. Try to find more ways to let that light in during the day! For those intrepid homeowners looking for renovations, you may want to try researching Solar Tubes/Solar Pipes for your home.

Shut Off Appliances at Their Source

Most modern appliances and especially electronics draw electricity even when they are turned off! This is known as a “phantom load”, which basically allows the device to be constantly ready for you to use at any time with the push of a button. To cut down on this bit of electricity usage, get some nice quality power strips or surge protectors and switch them off when you are not using the devices plugged in to it.

Why?

One explanation is that early geothermal technology and methods were not as sophisticated as they are today. A combination of inexperienced contractors and DIY’ers presented a number of stumbling blocks for the new technology, including: over-sizing of units, failing to properly analyze heat load of the home, miscalculating well depths, so on and so forth. As a result, the experiences had by early adopters of geothermal systems, perpetuated many misconceptions about geothermal heating and cooling as a whole.

We would like to address a few of these common geothermal myths and bring them to light.

You Will Need a “Backup” Heat Source for Your Geothermal System

This is a common misconception about geothermal, which is a result of geothermal installations not being sized and configured properly in the past. The truth is, that when operating properly, a geothermal heating and cooling system will keep your home at a constant 72°F more efficiently than any other heating system on the market. This is why it is very important to have an experienced and knowledgeable contractor to properly design and install your geothermal system. A heat load calculation needs to be performed on your home. A heat load calculation takes into account many heat loss factors; square footage, type and size of windows, quality of insulation, orientation of the home, etc. Only then can a geothermal system be designed and installed to run at optimal performance.

Geothermal Efficiency Will Drop During Days of Extreme Cold

While outside temperatures most certainly have an effect on all heating systems, geothermal systems are affected the least. This is because the heat source for a geothermal system comes from under the ground which remains at a constant average temperature of 50°F year round. In order to heat your home, a geothermal system only needs to increase the ground source temperature by 20° and transfer it to your home. Common air-source heat pumps rely on harvesting and boosting the temperature from the outside air which, in fact are the true source of the myths about geothermal heat pump efficiency. Fossil fuel heaters need to create their own heat using combustion, starting essentially from 0°. Fuel combustion also has the negative effect of creating carbon monoxide in your home, a problem which is non-existent with a geothermal system.

Geothermal is Too Expensive

Is geothermal too expensive? The operating cost of a geothermal system is so low, there is almost no comparison to fossil fuel or electric systems. The better question to ask is not how much geothermal will cost you, but how much it will save you? The money you save on heating your home with a geothermal heat pump will pay back the cost of installation. Whereas, going with a fossil fuel system, you will always be at the mercy of continuously rising fuel costs with little hope of saving any money- let alone paying itself back in the long run.

The installation cost of a geothermal system is more expensive than your average heating/cooling system. The main reason for this is the drilling of the wells or trenching that is required for the underground loop system used to gather and dissipate heat to and from the system. This expense alone is what makes the installation more expensive. The flip-side is that the loops system is permanent, with a 55 year warranty, and a life span of about 200 years.

There are also many great benefits you can receive with a geothermal heating and cooling system. Thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, you can now receive a federal tax credit worth 30% of the entire geothermal installation cost. Additionally, the state of Connecticut is currently offering rebates of up to $2,000 per heating ton for a geothermal system. CT Light and Power also has a $1,500 energy efficiency rebate. When you add all of these benefits up, along with very low annual operating cost, the geothermal option just looks better and better.

Our Conclusion

Our business at Custom Mechanical Services is heating and cooling. Our specialty is in geothermal heating and cooling. It is our mission to uphold the good name of geo-exchange technology for everybody. It is our belief that the geothermal heating and cooling solution deserves to grow beyond just the “go green” market and become accessible and affordable to the general public, not only to help save our planet, but also to save your hard earned cash. If you are interested in a high efficiency geothermal heating and cooling system, or have any other questions, please give us a call toll free at 1-88-TO GET GEO (1-888-643-8436) or fill out our contact form.

Custom Mechanical Services has undergone the training necessary to become the first, and currently, only certified dealer of the Daikin Altherma heat pump system in Connecticut.

The Daikin Altherma system represents a new generation in heat pump technology. It operates like any other heat pump, extracting ambient heat from the air outside (even in extreme cold situations) What sets the Daikin Altherma apart from the average heat pump system is that, on its own, can operate in extreme cold (-4°F or -20°C) while still running more efficiently than any fossil fuel heating system.

Altherma systems have been widely distributed throughout Europe and are now ready to move on to a North American market.

This is an exciting time for us and we are glad we are able to offer our customers a high efficiency, high performance heating system, able to handle the extremes of a New England winter, and save you money.

Visit our new Daikin Altherma page for more information about this unique system. We will be adding more information as time goes on.

• Jeff Raymond & Linda Lee – Plymouth, CT