Why Home Energy Efficiency Makes Sense

By Max Rohr

Start here. Select one of the following options.

• If you think the world will be a better place if everyone does his or her part to green up their lives and is passionate about being seen as a savvy, green person, skip to Part 1.
• If you think all this green stuff is just a bunch of hype and don’t want to live your life like a Woodstock attendee, skip to Part 2.
• If you like burning tires because you find the smell delightful and if you open containers of CFCs just to feel a breeze, skip to Part 3.
• If you like to wear hemp clothing exclusively and haven’t taken a shower in a month, skip to Part 3.

Part 1

In 2009, The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that Americans used 94,578 trillion Btu of energy. Of that energy, 22% was consumed in the residential sector. While eating organic food and bringing your own bags to the grocery story are great ways to live a green lifestyle, these measures alone don’t address one of the key contributors to climate change, your home.
The United States produced 7.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2009. About a quarter of those emissions were produced by our houses. (For reference, burning 120 gallons of gasoline produces about one metric ton of CO2.) Many of us sleep in the pollution equivalent of a fleet of rusty old pickup trucks idling blue smoke. Improving the energy efficiency of your house is a great way to be more environmentally conscious.

The ultimate way to be green is to install on-site renewable energy at your home. Chances are that, in some manner, you are currently getting your electricity from coal and your heat from gas. Not only do these energy sources produce a lot of CO2 compared to their green alternatives but they also have to be transported all over the country. Trains full of coal may come from Wyoming, burn in a power plant nearby and be sent to your house through the grid. Even relatively clean sources such as hydropower lose a lot of energy when being transported through our outdated electricity distribution systems. What makes things worse is that your region ties you to whatever power source is provided by the local utility, limiting your opportunities to reduce your carbon footprint. The best way to do this is to reduce the amount of energy that is sent to your house.

The idea of eating organic, local food is a common lifestyle choice in the green community. The same formula can be applied to your house. The sun, wind and ground are all local, organic fuel sources for providing energy. No energy is wasted in transporting that energy and less CO2 goes out of smokestacks. You may not get 100% of your power from green energy but even 20% is a start. A heat pump, solar array, geo exchange system or even just a high efficiency boiler is a great way to improve the odds that your great grandchildren will have any idea what a glacier is.

On-site renewable energy lets you take control of an enormous portion of your carbon footprint. Plus, the longer you benefit from green energy at home, the more money will be left over to buy that Prius you have been thinking about.

Part 2

In 2008, The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that the U.S. spent 1.2 trillion dollars on energy. Do you love spending money on your energy bills? Paying attention to your finances and being fiscally conservative are important ways to keep your hard-earned money, but this alone won’t address one of the most financially wasteful things in your life, your home.

Outdated home energy systems and big government are the same type of animal. They are big, inefficient organizations that can never get enough of your cash. The difference is that, while you can’t choose how much cash the government requires, you can choose your level of financial participation in maintaining your home. You don’t need to wait for certain politicians to get into power and slowly enact policies that you like. Effective immediately, you can distance yourself from your electricity or gas company bills by utilizing green technologies and energy efficient appliances. You can take control of your money and not just sit by and watch your bills go up and up.

What if you could buy a device that would put you in a lower tax bracket? Would you do it? A heat pump, solar panel, geo exchange or high efficiency boiler will do that, not for the IRS, but for your utility bill. That old boiler, electric water heater or oversized pump you have is not unlike Congress. It takes all of your money and gives you a smaller percentage of actual work. I wouldn’t mind modulating and condensing my tax contribution to 95%.

The government has already used your tax money to fund federal and state energy efficiency tax credits and incentive programs. Go get some of your money back. In some cases, you can reduce your payback to five years or less for new equipment. Unless you particularly like sending money to the Middle East for oil, you should be using more of our American resources — the sun, wind and ground — to power your home.

Limited energy resources such as oil, coal and natural gas do not increase in supply as our demand for them increases. We may not run out of these sources of energy in our lifetimes, but how much will this energy cost us in 10 years? Annual energy prices graphs have spikes and valleys over the years, but they always trend up. Stay ahead of the game and buy some energy price insurance by making your house energy efficient and using on-site renewable energy. Plus, when energy prices go up, you will have more money left over to buy that Corvette you have been thinking about.

Part 3

Please stop doing that. It is disgusting.

Max Rohr is the training coordinator at Able Distributors in Chicago. A graduate of the University of Utah, he has worked in the hydronics and solar industry for the last 10 years in the installation, wholesale and manufacturing sectors. Max is a USGBC member. Let us know what you think of this article. Please send comments to editor@plumbingengineer.com.

Sources

Emissions: http://www.eia.gov/aer/pdf/pages/sec12_5.pdf
Expenditures: http://www.eia.gov/aer/pdf/pages/sec1_15.pdf
Consumption: http://www.eia.gov/aer/pdf/pages/sec2_6.pdf