There is this new concept called a home energy efficiency report which is a report of the sum total of energy that is spent in your household annually in terms of air conditioning, the quality of electrical installations that use the most energy, the kind of doors and windows you have in your house and so on.
This report has a dual function of letting you know how much money is spent annually on energy as well as letting you know where you can save energy and thereby cut cost as well as help the environment. Getting a home energy efficiency report as you start your house construction can be of great help to you.
If you already have a house that is great in every way, you could still get this report and then go about finding ways to save energy as well as money. These estimates will get you know whether all the fixtures are “go or no-go” or rather they are viable or not.
Household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, ACs, dish washers, ovens and so on consume a lot of energy. Sometimes, just by upgrading your refrigerator which may still be in working condition may help you save electricity to the tune of about two hundred dollars.
If you upgrade your washing machine, you may be able to save around fifty dollars by way of electricity, not to mention a great deal of water. Is your dryer consuming too much electricity?
You will never know any of this unless you get a home energy efficiency report. Contrary to what you think, you may save more money by buying new gadgets than by trying to manage with your old ones.
Once you get the home energy efficiency report, you will know which equipment to retain and which ones to let go for savings in the long run. Of course, while buying new equipment, you must also look into their energy efficiency before going ahead and investing in them.
Sometimes it makes sense to get a second opinion so that you are clear about what you really have to do in terms of retaining old equipment or buying new ones and if the effort will bring in some real gains. There are often plenty of errors in calculations about energy saving.
So don’t just blindly believe the report and rush around replacing all your old gadgets without checking them out carefully. Sometimes, the personnel in an auditing agency may have a bias and their report may not necessarily be right.
It is therefore best to get a second opinion and if both of them concur on certain issues and the gains are really worthwhile, you should take the necessary steps to make your home more energy efficient. In fact, to get the best results, you yourself could do some research by consulting experts, browsing the net on this subject or even talking to people who have done this before you and getting their perspective on this issue.
Being ‘green’ and environment friendly is very important but you will have to balance that with what it costs you. So even after getting your home energy efficiency report, you will have to go by your own judgement.