Simple Steps: Cutting energy costs.

5-day series on cutting energy costs starts Sunday
Kennebec Journal

On Sunday, we start a five-day series called "Simple Steps: Cutting energy costs."

The series is useful, straight-ahead consumer journalism, offering practical and affordable tips to save on energy use this winter.

Staff writers Amy Calder, Larry Grard, Keith Edwards, Craig Crosby, Matt DiFilippo and Mechele Cooper talked to dozens of energy experts and local business owners about how to reduce heating-oil, electricity and gasoline consumption.

Most of the tips can be done for $1,000 or less and on short notice.

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5473557.html

Insulation is just one way to beat the cost of fuel
BY AMY CALDER
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal

First in a five-part series.

It can be a dirty, dusty job, but insulating the attic space over your house and tightening up in other ways can be done for under $1,000.

Stores such as Ware-Butler, The Home Depot and others sell cellulose insulation by the bag and offer use of do-it-yourself machines for blowing it into your attic. Contractors can be hired to do the labor, but you pay more.

For those wanting to do it themselves, two people are needed: One to feed the bags of cellulose into a hopper and another to blow the insulation into the attic with a hose.

"They both should be wearing masks so as to not breathe in the dust," says Bill Veilleux, who works in contractor sales at Ware-Butler's North Street store in Waterville. "Make sure there is proper ventilation in the attic, so there's no condensation."

Green-fiber celulose is 85 percent recycled paper fiber; the other 15 percent is made up of additives to help make it fire-resistant, Veilleux says.

If an attic already has about six inches of insulation, one can blow in another six or so inches to get the R value, or resistance value, up to about 38, which is the standard for the state of Maine, he said.

The R-factor is used to describe differences in insulation effectiveness, according to the Maine Oil Dealer's Association. The "R" stands for resistance to the flow of heat through air or solids. The higher the R factor, the more slowly heat travels through it.

To cover 1,000-square-feet of space, you can spend around $250 to $600, depending on how much insulation is used and where it's purchased. Some stores have deals for use of the machine. For instance, Ware-Butler sells bags of insulation for $11 each and allows use of the machine for a weekend for $30 -- and the store has free delivery for reasonable distances.

If you buy 20 bags of cellulose insulation at The Home Depot in Waterville, the store will allow free use of the machine for up to two days. A bag of 40-square-feet of insulation costs $9.50 at that store. About 25 bags are needed to cover 1,000 square feet.

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5477881.html


Staff photo by Thomas Michael Corcoran

Monitoring usage, checking temperature of heaters can make a big difference
BY KEITH EDWARDS
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal

Second in a five-part series.

There are some relatively easy ways to help try to make sure the cost of heating your water doesn't get you into a different kind of "hot water" -- in debt with the bill collector.

Some of them don't even involve a trip to the basement.

Something as simple as not turning on the hot water faucet unless you really need -- and are prepared to wait for -- actual hot water, can save hot water and, in turn, the money it'd otherwise cost to heat that water.

"A lot of people, when they go to rinse out a glass, turn on the hot water and rinse it very quickly," said Richard Bacon, program manager for Efficiency Maine. "If you really think about it, the hot water isn't on long enough to even get warm. Then, you shut it back off because the glass is clean.

"So just remember to use cold water when you're rinsing out a glass, if you're not leaving the hot water on long enough to warm up anyway. You save energy that way, because you're not heating water you're not using."

Experts also recommend homeowners check the temperature of their water heaters, and make sure they aren't set above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. That's hot enough to do dishes and, in addition to saving money, has other benefits.

"Water heaters should be maintained at 120 degrees. Anything over that and you can be burned," said Richard Doe, service manager for Augusta Fuel, which sells and services a variety of hot-water heaters and boilers.

Doe said Augusta Fuel is getting more calls this year from customers wanting to know how they can make their systems more efficient.

The average New England homeowner, according to a federal Department of Energy study of 2001 U.S. Census data, spent $250 per year to heat water when their main heating fuel was electricity, and $273 per year to heat water when their main heating fuel was oil.

Homeowners with older water heaters can wrap the heaters, and pipes coming off of them, with insulation.

Bacon said wrapping water heaters slows down the loss of heat in the water in the tank.

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5420661.html


Staff photo by David Leaming

Phantom load power loss adds up
BY CRAIG CROSBY
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal

Third in a five-part series

Next time life is going too well and you're looking for a little frustration, try making your home's electricity meter come to a halt by shutting off everything in your house that draws power.

Be warned, it's not easy.

Some household appliances sneakily draw power even when they are shut off. The source of that drain has been given any number of derogatory names, from vampire power to wall wart. It's perhaps best known as phantom load. And like all phantoms, it works without notice -- at least until the electricity bill arrives at the end of the month.

Phantom load is created by any appliance that continues to draw power when not in use, which, in the typical home, includes dozens of appliances ranging from the clock radio on your night stand to the computer in your home office.

"It's the forgotten little loads that add up," said Richard Bacon of Efficiency Maine, the energy division of the Maine Public Utilities Commission. "You have a couple watts here, you have a couple watts there. After a while, you're talking about a reasonably good load."

Phantom loads can best be spotted at night. Turn off all the lights and look around your home. Every appliance marked by an LED light, or anything else that glows, is drawing electricity.

"Even the ground fault interrupter in your bathroom, a lot of them have a glowing LED that shows they are working," Bacon said.

Not everything that leads to phantom load can be seen in the dark, however. Some must be felt. Cell phone chargers, for example, draw electricity when they are plugged in, whether they are connected to the phone or not.

If you're uncertain whether an appliance is drawing electricity, try laying your hands on it.

"If it's an electrical item that's warm to the touch, it's consuming electricity," Bacon said.

Anything that has to be reset after a power failure, or anything that operates by remote control, like your television and VCR, are drawing electricity even when they are turned off. An average cable box, for example, uses about 14.5 kilowatt-hours per month -- an extra $2.

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5483552.html


Staff photo by Joe Phelan

Drivers do have choices
BY MATT DIFILIPPO
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal

Fourth in a five-part series

You're driving down the road and you see two gas stations up ahead. One is selling gas for $3.55 per gallon. The other, 5 cents cheaper. Which one do you pick?

It's not a trick question. Of course, you'll pick the cheaper one. If you add 10 gallons to your tank, you'll save 50 cents.

Fifty cents a tank can add up, but it's still a savings of 1.4 percent -- and there are many other things you can do while driving to save much more.

For example, if you drive 60 mph rather than 65, you use 7 percent less gas. If you drive with a "soft foot," that is, avoid quick starts and stops and accelerate and slow down smoothly, you potentially can cut your fuel use in half.

Those figures come from the Maine Office of Energy Independence & Security and the Maine Department of Transportation. They provide a list of 21 tips for getting the most out of your gas. They seem like obvious tips, but many people don't know about them or don't want make the effort to change how they drive.

Melissa Morrill, an environmental specialist with the mobile sources section of the Bureau of Air Quality, admits that it's hard for people to begin driving slower after driving a certain way for many years.

"Let's face it, when you want to get from point A to point B, you go over the speed limit by a few miles per hour," Morrill said. "Then you have someone who's in a bigger hurry than you are, two feet off your bumper. It's a decision that you have to make: I'm going to slow down."

Idling also wastes gas -- up to a gallon an hour. If you're idling at the drive-thru for five minutes, that can cost 30 cents, which wastes most of what you saved by getting cheaper gas when you filled up. Morrill recommends parking your car and going inside to order your fast food.

"If you feel like you have to go through the drive-thru, turn off your vehicle when you stop," Morrill said. "A lot of people think it uses more gas to turn off your vehicle and turn it on again, but it doesn't."

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5486423.html

It all starts at home
BY MECHELE COOPER
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal

Final in a five-part series

WHITEFIELD -- Homeowners can save dramatically on their energy bills and cut down on pollution this winter with the right home improvements.

Curry Caputo and his wife, Andrea Lani, took the "whole-house approach" -- making changes from the roof to the basement -- to increase the energy efficiency of their Whitefield home.

"It's really habitual stuff you need to think about when you use electricity," Caputo said. "One thing people can do is buy a Kill-a-watt monitor that you plug into the receptacle and then plug in the appliance to give you an indication of what appliances are inefficient."

Kill-a-watt P4400 isn't available at local stores, but it can be bought on Amazon.com for $37.99.

Caputo said few people realize that most equipment today has stand-by power -- energy used by equipment even when it's supposedly turned off. That energy doesn't contribute to the products' main function.

"You're using 10 watts of electricity every second with remote-control-ready equipment," he said. "You need to get power strips, ones with breakers. And I've installed switches where I have outlets so I can turn things off."

Hot water pipes should be insulated, he said, and oil-fired boilers or hot air furnaces need to be serviced every 12 to 18 months.

"You can easily gain 5 to 10 percent efficiency, and that would result in 5 to 10 percent less use of oil," he said. "And in the winter, make sure that all your shades are open on the south side to collect sun and leave them closed all the time on the north side.

"We don't have a dryer. We dry all our clothes out on the line, even in the winter. And we had to get a frontload washer and dishwasher that uses substantially lower electricity."

Compact fluorescent light bulbs have been screwed into all the fixtures in Caputo's home. He hopes mercury-free LED bulbs will become more affordable in the future so he can switch over.

His refrigerator is energy-efficient. But to increase the savings, he sunk the back of the refrigerator into a mud room separated by a wall in the kitchen.

"The idea is that we don't have heat out there, so it's already a cool space, and the refrigerator will heat that room," he said. "It decreases the energy the refrigerator uses and it's flush in the wall so it saves space. It's one of those things you can do to increase performance.

"I also took window screen panes and fitted them with foil face bubble wrap that is able to create an insulated screen panel that fits exactly into the window. What it does is turn the window R (resistance to heat flow) value of 2 to an R value of 12."

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5390146.html


Staff photo by Joe Phelan