Energy Conscious Consultant

Electricity: How To Get Free Electricity

Electricity you use is produced by burning coal which releases carbon gasses into out atmosphere.  Your utility company purchases electricity and passes it on to you.  You pay a monthly bill to your local utility company to provide you with power to your home or business.  How can you get free of that monthly electric bill?  Is it possible to reduce it or eliminate it completely? Yes, it is.  If you are building, it is easy to start from scratch by implementing energy efficiency.  But if you has an existing home and would like to become energy efficient, it is a little more work involved.

Adding A Circuit For Window Units

Summer is here and so is the heat.  If you buy window units to supplement your central air conditioning, there are certain facts your local sales person may not tell you.  Before you buy a window air conditioning unit, consider these facts.  Where will you be placing it?  Is that circuit already to its maximum capacity?  People think they can plug in a window unit anywhere but that’s not true. The maximum capacity of a circuit should be 80% of its load.   A window air conditioning unit could be pulling 8 to 10 amps.  If you plug in a unit on an already overloaded circuit, you may burn up the receptacle or burn the wiring in your home.

Energy Audit: Energy Saving Devices

Energy efficiency can be achieved through several means.  One way would be to cut back on energy usage.  But how do you know how much energy you are using?  As an electrician, I’ve come to depend upon multiple meters to see the amount of energy it takes to run different appliances.  There are other ways to test energy usage in your home.

Another device to judge the amount of energy you use would be to purchase devices to plug in between your appliance and the receptacle called a watt meter.  Some appliances use energy for memory.  If an appliance uses a transformer, it will need power continuously to keep voltage low.  Therefore, some appliances plugged in still need electricity.  A watt meter will measure how much that specific appliance is using whether it is on or off.  Just because a device is switched off doesn’t mean it is not pulling power and burning energy.

Blackouts and Brownouts: Are You Ready?

Energy efficiency is hard to achieve during summer months because of the heat.  To make your family more comfortable, you turn down the thermostat during the summer months to keep you cool inside your home.  But when everyone does it at the same time and no body is conserving energy, there is a possibility of drawing an overload on the power company. There are many reasons for a blackout such as damage to power lines, short circuit, or an overload due to high demands. According to Wikipedia, it is common to have a blackout due to “large scale disruption in electrical power supply.”  A black out is a total loss of power that can last hours or weeks depending upon how the network is set up.

Energy Efficiency: Block The Summer Heat From Entering Your Home

Energy efficiency begins at home.  The lifestyle you live has a direct impact on your electricity bill.  The idea of keeping cool during summer months causes your electric bill to rise.  The summer idea is to keep the cool air in and the heat or hot air out. That heat can come in through your roof, your walls, and your windows.  It is great to open the shades and curtains to let the sun shine in during the day.  But if your windows face west, you are letting the afternoon heat enter your home while you are trying to cool it off running your central air conditioner.  It is best to keep those curtains closed to keep the heat out.

Energy Efficiency With Weatherization

Have you wanted to seal those cracks but didn’t have the money or the know-how to do it?  The U.S. Department of Energy, or the DOE, has now released more funds to help cover the costs in some states.  The money is coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  All states are required to submit comprehensive weatherization plans. This is the next step for President Obama in his plan toward energy efficiency.  By increasing your efficiency in your home, you can reduce your electric bill.  According to the DOE, the average weatherization can reduce your heating bills by 32%. 

Prevent Faulty House Wiring

Faulty electrical wiring can cause major damage to your home such as a fire and put your loved ones in danger.  Wiring a home is not for a do-it-yourself-er. There are many codes established, called the National Electric Code, that covers everything from wiring a receptacle to installing solar power.  This code was established to minimize damage by homeowners who insist on doing everything themselves.  If there is existing wiring and you need to replace a receptacle, a homeowner can do that.  But what if you smell smoke coming from behind a wall?  Would you replace that receptacle yourself?

Electrical Emergency: What Do You Do?

Emergencies in the home can range from fires, personal injury, or an electrical problem.  If your switch sparked when you turned it on, what would you do?  Nothing since that is the way it works.  It always arcs.  But what if your stove started smoking and you wanted to turn it off?  Sliding it out won’t do any good since you know your electrician hard wired it in place.  You want to turn off the breaker and run outside to find your electrical main panel.  When you open it, the labels have worn off and you don’t know which breaker to flip. Or maybe you know which breaker it is but you can’t flip it.  What do you do?

Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Floods: Are You Prepared

June 1st is the official start of hurricane season. Even though NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) is predicting a 50% near normal season in 2009, you shouldn’t let your guard down.  An average season is 11 storms: 6 of them will become hurricanes, and 2 of them will be major.  Now is the time to prepare before there is a storm.  Do you have your family disaster plan in place?