How can New Englanders keep their home warm, save money and reduce their pollution footprint, all at the same time?

Heating and cooling your home uses more energy and drains more energy dollars than any other system in your home. Typically, 44% of your utility bill consists of heating and cooling costs. What's more, heating and cooling systems in the United States together emit more than half a billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, adding to global warming. They also generate about 24% of the nation's sulfur dioxide and 12% of the nitrogen oxides, the chief ingredients in acid rain.

By combining proper equipment maintenance, insulation, weatherization, and thermostat settings, you can cut your energy bills and your pollution output in half.

Have Your Heating System Inspected

Have a professional inspect and clean your heating and cooling equipment annually. If you have a forced air furnace, check your filters and replace them as needed. Generally, they should be changed every month or two, especially during periods of high usage. If your furnace is more than 15 years old, you should consider replacing it with one of the newer, more energy-efficient model. This would reduce your energy consumption, especially if the existing equipment is in poor condition. Check your ductwork for dirt streaks, especially near seams. These indicate air leaks, and they should be sealed with duct tape. Insulate any ducts or pipes that travel through unheated spaces. An insulation R-Value of 6 is the recommended minimum.

You might also want to investigate the possibility of supplementing your energy needs with solar, wind, or geothermal.

Consider Purchasing a Programmable Thermostat

You can save as much as 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills by simply turning your thermostat back 10% to 15% for 8 hours. You can do this automatically without sacrificing comfort by installing a programmable thermostat.

Check Your Insulation

Checking your home's insulating system is one of the fastest and most cost-efficient ways to use a whole-house approach to reduce energy waste and maximize your energy dollars. A good insulating system includes a combination of products and construction techniques that provide a home with thermal performance, protect it against air infiltration, and control moisture. You can increase the comfort of your home while reducing your heating and cooling needs by up to 30% by investing just a few hundred dollars in proper insulation and weatherization products.

Inspect Your Windows

There are a number of simple steps you can take to reduce the amount of heat you are losing through your windows. Be sure to close your curtains and shades at night; open them during the day so that you can benefit from the free solar heat. Keep windows on the south side of your house clean to maximize solar gain.

If you don't have storm windows or double-pane windows consider purchasing them. Both of these types of windows can reduce your heat loss through the windows by 25% to 50%. Double-pane windows with low-e coating on the glass reflect heat back into the room during the winter months. If you already have storm windows be sure that the weatherstripping is still tight. An extra pane of glass or plastic added to a window will reduce air infiltration and boost the insulation value of the window. If you are considering adding storm windows, you should compare the costs to installing new energy-efficient windows. You can also install tight-fitting, insulating window shades on windows that feel still feel drafty after you have tried your best to seal them.

Using Your Fireplace

When we light a blazing fire on a cold winter day it looks and feels wonderful, but it can be an expensive endeavor. A fireplace is one of the most inefficient heat sources available because it sends most of the heat in your house straight up the chimney along with volumes of warm air from the rest of your house. A fireplace can exhaust as much as 24,000 cubic feet of air per hour to the outside, which must be replaced by cold air coming into the house from the outside. Your heating system must warm up this air, which is then exhausted through your chimney.

Having said that, there are ways you can limit the loss of heat when enjoying a quiet evening by the fire.

Reduce heat loss by opening dampers in the bottom of the firebox (if provided) or open the nearest window slightly - approximately 1 inch - and close doors leading into the room.
Lower the thermostat setting to between 50° and 55°F.
Install tempered glass doors and a heat-air exchange system that blows warmed air back into the room.
Check the seal on the flue damper and make it as snug as possible.
Add caulking around the fireplace hearth.
Use grates made of C-shaped metal tubes to draw cool room air into the fireplace and circulate warm air back into the room.
When you aren't using your fireplace keep its damper closed (keeping it open is like keeping a 48-inch window wide open during the winter).

Landscaping Tips

Wind chill impacts the temperature and your home's energy demand. For example, if the outside temperature is 10 degrees F and the wind speed is 20 miles per hour, the wind chill is -24 degrees F. If you have planted trees or erected fencing, or other geographical features that can be used as windbreaks to shield your house from the wind you can reduce energy bill. Trees can save anywhere from 25% - 40% of a typical household's energy for heating and cooling and you don't need to live next to a forest to benefit. As few as three properly placed trees can save an average household between $100 and $250 in heating and cooling energy costs annually. A study conducted in South Dakota found that windbreaks to the north, west, and east of houses cut fuel consumption by an average of 40%. Houses with windbreaks placed only on the windward side (the side from which the wind is coming) averaged 25% less fuel consumption than similar but unprotected homes.

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