Derek Cole breaks down why your energy bills are so high and what actually works to lower them. HVAC accounts for nearly half your home's energy use, so maintenance matters. Switching to Energy Star appliances and understanding heat transfer can save money without overhauling your whole house.
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Imagine receiving your energy bill from this past season and feeling like you've been hit with a supernatural shock. It's enough to make anyone want to shout Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Did your energy bills make you do a Beetlejuice scene where stuff comes out of his face and like, ah, did you do that when you got your indie bills? Well, why Energy Efficiency Matters it's not just about saving money. It's about sustainability and being mindful of our planet's resources. Energy efficiency can significantly decrease your carbon footprint, making it a win win for both you, your wallet, their environment. For homeowners, understanding how to optimize energy use is critical. Your energy bill is a complex document. I mean you see graphs, you see charts, I mean all kind of details about your consumption and charges. But bringing it down can help you identify areas where you can start to cut costs a little bit. Typically, the bill includes meterings, usage breakdowns and rates. Knowing how to read it is the first step in managing your energy expense. Switching to energy efficient appliances can drastically cut down your energy use. Look for the Energy Star label which indicates the products meet energy efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. environmental Protection Agency. Appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, heat pumps, all of them with this label consume less power, offering long term savings. Older appliances tend to be less efficient and can significantly add to your monthly energy costs. Replacing them with newer models can be a worthwhile investment. Consider this when you plan your next appliance purchase upgrade. While energy efficient appliances might be a higher upfront cost, the savings on your energy bills will offset this upfront cost over time. But conducting a cost based business benefit analysis can help you make an informed decision about which appliance to invest in Heating and cooling. What We Do H Vac accounts for nearly half of the average home's energy use. Upgrading to energy efficient H Vac system can lead to significant savings. Regular maintenance is also crucial for ensuring your system operates at peak efficiency. Now I get that comment quite a bit of folks asking I just replaced my unit, I got a new system, I don't need to do maintenance. That is a hundred percent not true. Units today are made to be energy efficient. The more efficient the better, right? But there is a give and take with them. The give and take is a lot of manufacturers got away from copper and are using aluminum. But even those that are still using copper to meet today's standards, which is in this area 13.4 seer 2 minimum air conditioner and a 14.3 seer 2 minimum heat pump. To meet those standards. These systems, aluminum, copper, whatever it is, they have to be very, very thin because it's all about heat transfer. So the more dust, dirt or debris you have on that system, the harder it's going to have to work because it's all about heat transfer. What do I mean by that? Well, like we learned in science class years ago, you don't have cold air, you have degrees of heat. Right. So the main goal in the summertime, when it's warm outside, is to extract the heat from inside the home. Right. And put it outside where no one's worrying about it. Well, in the wintertime, it's the opposite. You're bringing hot air into the home. So for this transfer to happen, you using the cooling coils, which are made of this copper or aluminum, very thin material. So what happens when things that are supposed to be transferring have roadblocks? If you had roadblocks on the interstate, would you be able to go 75? Probably not. It'll slow you down. You have to go around it and then go, go around it, stop, slow down, then go. Same thing. If dust or dirt accumulate on your coil, if it is hard to transfer heat, if it is blocked, if it has to go around it, if it has to work harder to transfer that same heat, it is not going to be efficient. Make sense? It's not going to be as efficient. So you want to make it as easy as possible for it to transfer heat. Remember, every small step towards energy efficiency contributes to a larger goal. Together, we can create a more sustainable and more energy efficient world for future generations. These energy bills do not have to be outrageous. They do not have to be unattainable. They do need to be manageable. And it can be manageable, but it breaks down to how we're using energy and how we can be more efficient and using that energy.
