Greening Your Home Before You Go Solar

April 13, 2022

Consider greening your home before you go solar for maximum savings! The average American spends $2,000 annually on energy expenses. Some of that expense goes to waste because of leaky faucets, air drafts, and outdated heating and cooling appliances. You can reduce these losses through energy efficiency upgrades.

If you plan to go solar eventually, there is an added benefit in completing energy efficiency upgrades before going solar.

When you reduce your electric consumption in your home, you reduce the amount of electricity your solar panels must generate to match your household usage.

Remember – every home is different. The suggestions, cost estimates, and impact estimates provided in this post are general. But they should get you started thinking about energy efficiency upgrades to make before you go solar.

In this greening your home before you go solar guide, you will find information about:

Hot Water Heater Blankets
Hot Water Temperature Cards
LED Lightbulbs
SMART Thermostats
Attic Insulation
Attic Staircase Covers
Energy Efficient Power Strips
Low Flow Faucet Aerators

Hot Water Temperature Card

Cost: $5 – $10
Impact: Lowering a hot water heater 10 degrees saves 3-5% in energy costs annually

A Hot Water Temperature Card is an educational device designed to inform you if your water tank’s temperature is set higher than necessary.

If your water heater’s temperature is set higher than is appropriate, the opportunity exists to reduce energy costs by lowering the temperature. If the temperature is higher than 120°F, the water heater is set too high.

A bonus of a hot water temperature card? Keeping your hot water in a lower range can prevent tap water scalding.

LED Lightbulbs

Cost: ~ $20
Impact: Changing out 5 of your most frequently used bulbs for LEDs could save you up to $75 annually

You’ve probably heard from your utility company that you need to make the switch to LED lightbulbs. They’ve been a hot topic for several years, with good reason.

Get this: LED bulbs use about 75%–80% less energy than traditional bulbs.

Additionally, LED bulbs have a longer life expectancy than most other lighting, saving you energy and lasting longer.

SMART Thermostat

Cost: $50 – $200
Impact: You can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling by simply turning your thermostat back 7°-10°F for 8 hours a day from its typical setting

SMART Thermostats take the work out of the equation for you – ensuring that the thermostat gets changed. Like clockwork, a SMART thermostat turns the heat or AC down when you leave — depending on the season.

Although you can adjust thermostats manually, SMART thermostats will avoid any discomfort by returning temperatures to normal before you wake or return home.

The lower the interior temperature, the slower the heat loss. So, the longer your house remains at the lower temperature, the more energy you save because your home has lost less energy than it would have at the higher temperature.

The same concept applies to raising your thermostat setting in the summer — a higher interior temperature will slow the flow of heat into your house, saving energy on air conditioning.

Attic Insulation

Cost: $1 – $1.50 per square foot, $1,000 – $1,500 total for an average home
Impact: The “EPA estimates that homeowners can save an average of 15% on heating and cooling costs (or an average of 11% on total energy costs) by air sealing their homes and adding insulation in attics, floors over crawl spaces, and accessible basement rim joists.” According to Energy Star

Resources:

Attic staircase cover

Cost: $100 – $150
In many homes, leaky attic access stairs provide an opportunity to improve comfort and save energy and money.

You can seal and insulate the attic stairs opening by building your insulated cover box or purchasing a kit or pre-built package.

Approach the attic stairs access as you would an opening to the outdoors. Regardless of the type of insulation you use for your attic access, it is important to thoroughly air seal the gap.

Energy Efficient Power Strips

Cost: $20 – $50 per unit
Impact: up to $200 for an average home

The purpose of energy-efficient power strips is to reduce phantom loads.

Phantom loads continue to consume energy even when your devices are not in use.

For instance, your TV, computer, and cable box all use energy even when they’re turned off.

Smart power strips actually cut the power off and save energy since they can detect when a device is in off mode.

Low Flow Faucet Aerators & Shower Heads

Cost: $5 – $40
Impact: A 1.0-gallon per minute aerator can save more than 50 percent of the water you use. You can save anywhere from 2 to 16 gallons of water per day based on your average daily water use and the aerator you choose to install

The easiest way to begin saving water is to change the faucet aerator on your kitchen and bathroom faucets and showerheads to a water-saving low-flow faucet aerator.

A water aerator is a disc-shaped screen placed at the end of the faucet that is removable by turning on or off the threaded end of the spout. It’s designed to break up the water flowing through the faucet into several small streams while introducing air into the water flow.

This process saves water with no noticeable reduction in water pressure. Saving water saves money, especially on the energy you use to heat it.