HEATING AND COOLING

Heating and Cooling accounts for about 45 percent of your energy bill.

There are ways to cut these energy costs.

Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans can help make your home more comfortable during both summer and winter. Using about the same electricity as a 100-watt light bulb you can run one for just pennies a day.

By themselves in mild weather, ceiling fans offer a low-cost alternative to air conditioning.

Used in conjunction with air conditioning in hot weather, ceiling fans combine old and new technology to keep your family comfortable.

That's why those twirling paddles that date from pre-air conditioning days are experiencing new popularity in today's homes.

Thermostats

Turn it down.

As a homeowner, leaving the temperature inside your home constant day and night will most likely cost you money.

It's more economical to turn the heat down when no one is home, or at night when you're asleep. And if your home has a setback thermostat, you've got a simple way to do just that. Used properly, that little box hanging on your wall will save you energy -- and energy dollars.

Radiant Heating

Radiant heating systems involve supplying heat directly to the floor or to panels in the wall or ceiling of a house.

The systems depend largely on radiant heat transfer: the delivery of heat directly from the hot surface to the people and objects in the room via the radiation of heat, which is also called infrared radiation.

Radiant heating is the effect you feel when you can feel the warmth of a hot stovetop element from across the room. When radiant heating is located in the floor, it is often called radiant floor heating or simply floor heating.

Radiant heating has a number of advantages: it is more efficient than baseboard heating and usually more efficient than forced-air heating because no energy is lost through ducts.

 The lack of moving air can also be advantageous to people with severe allergies.

Hydronic (liquid-based) systems use little electricity, a benefit for homes off the power grid or in areas with high electricity prices.

The hydronic systems can also be heated with a wide variety of energy sources, including standard gas- or oil-fired boilers, wood-fired boilers, solar water heaters, or some combination of these heat sources.

Whole-house Fans

Even if your home has air conditioning, consider installing a whole house fan.

Whole house fans use far less energy than air conditioners and they cut cooling costs.

In fact, whole house fans typically use about one-tenth of the electricity of comparably sized air conditioners, and they are relatively inexpensive to install.

Used correctly, they can help you cut your air conditioning bills substantially.

Window Air Conditioners

If you have a small area to cool in the summer - say, one or two rooms a room air conditioner may be a more economical choice than a central air conditioning unit. It will cost less initially and it will cost less to operate in the long run.

Most room air conditioners sit in a window where they can exhaust warm air to the outside.

Window installations can be drafty, however, so at the end of the warm weather season some people remove the unit from the window and store it for the winter. Room air conditioners can also be built into the wall for a more permanent installation.