Energy Efficient Remodeling: Part 1 - Kitchen

Are you using this beautiful weather to fix up or remodel some areas of your home? Are you looking to update the cosmetics or perhaps lower your energy bills? There are a number of ways you can make your house work harder for you and spend less on your monthly bills.

The geeks at IDT Energy are always looking for ways to improve their own homes and as total energy geeks we look for ways to lower our energy bills. For the first part of this series we are looking at the kitchen - the heart and hub of many homes.

1. The first and the most obvious way to improve the efficiency in the kitchen is to replace and upgrade the appliances.  Older appliances tend to use a lot of energy, by upgrading to energy star rated appliances you will reduce energy usage and save money.
2. Lighting can account for 15% of your home's energy usage and because your kitchen is one of the busiest rooms in the house, it uses the majority of that 15%. If you are not replacing the lighting fixtures, simply change your light bulbs from the old style to CFL (compact florescent lights). If you are replacing the light fixtures themselves, upgrade to Energy Star light fixtures. These light fixtures can use 75% less energy, generate 75% less heat and last up to 10 times longer.
3. Increase the natural lighting in the room. By removing any unneeded walls, increasing the window or door size and even adding a light tube you can increase the natural light in the room.
4. Add insulation to both the walls and the pipes. Additional insulation around the pipes will prevent the heat escaping from the water. For the outside walls add blown-in insulation if you are not opening the walls and spray foam if you are. Spray foam can be expensive so if you are looking save money, batt and roll works as well. Make sure you have an R value of at least R-30 for outside walls, but the higher the R value the better. 
5. Change out your faucet for a low flow faucet that can reduce water usage by 60%.
6. Check for any air leaks around electrical outlets, windows, doors and recessed lighting An easy way to look for leaks - use a stick of incense, use it around any possible leaks, if the smoke moves or shift there is a leak. Seal or insulate any leaks that you find. 

Stay tuned as we explore different areas of the house!

UNC Chapel Hill Dorm in First Place In ENERGY STAR Competion

With about three months left to the national building completion sponsored by the EPA and ENERGY STAR, the Morrison Residence hall in Chapel Hill, North Carolina is in the lead with over 19% reduction in energy usage. The dormitory building is part of the University of North Carolina, and houses 800 students. It was the leader on its campus in using solar panels, and it is the home of UNC’s Sustainability Living Learning Community.

Morrison Hall was built in 1965 and is a 10 story building housing 800 students and 50 support staff. In 2007 it was renovated with energy savings in mind, installing central air and heating to all rooms and solar panels for the production of hot water.

Companies like IDT Energy and many others are certainly interested in the creative ideas put forward by students like those at Chapel Hill.

Buildings Reducing Energy Consumption in Energy Star Contest

Different types of buildings have different energy needs and can therefore have radically different EUI numbers. For instance, a hospital which is full of equipment which is energy intensive will have a much higher EUI than an elementary school which only uses lights, heat, and other simple types of power for the people inside. So it is not surprising that a normal EUI for a hospital might be 470, while that for a school is only 169.

The ENERGY STAR competition will judge each building according to the percentage it reduces energy consumption over the course of the contest, and not the total amount of energy usage actually reduced.

ENERGY STAR Building Competion Brings Down the EUI

The Environmental Protection Agency and ENERGY STAR are sponsoring a nationwide building competition to see how efficient a building can become over the course of one year in its use of power and its creation of waste. The 14 buildings in the contest will be measured for their EUI, energy use intensity, which describes in an easy to understand number how much energy a building consumes relative to the size of that building.

How is EUI measured and calculated?

The EUI is arrived at by finding the total energy consumed in one year, which is measured in kBtu’s, and dividing that figure by the building’s total floor space. As an example, if a school with 50,000 square feet of floor space used 7, 500,000 kBtu of energy, then its EUI is calculated to be 150. Usually the lower the EUI is the more energy efficient the building.