Latest / Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast / What Are Some Energy Saving Tips?

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What Are Some Energy Saving Tips? · Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast

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  Something that comes up all the time even during presidential
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  debates might be the cost of energy right so how how
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  can we all save uh some more money and i
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  think it's very important for all of us because wasting things is just not smart
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  sounds anti-american actually um i have Nathan Shafer joining me from Shafer
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  heating and cooling and i want to ask him a question about lowering energy costs
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  Nathan how are you good Jim how are you today i am living the dream thank you so much.
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  You're the guy to ask about lowering my energy costs, saving money,
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  because when people have you come out to the home, you're either helping them
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  heat it in the winter or cool it in the summer.
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  And we know that heating and cooling is expensive, right?
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  It is. Yeah, it is. You know, uh, about 60 to 80% of the utility bill for the
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  home comes from heating, cooling, and hot water.
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  And so, uh, very important factor to talk about is, Hey, we want to drop our
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  utility bills and save money.
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  Uh, I think we're talking about the right topic right now when it comes to heating
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  and air, uh, you know, being a big portion of that utility bill, three-fourths of it.
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  So, uh, yeah, there's definitely many ways that we can, can start helping save
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  money on that utility bill.
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  What are the top three things that come to mind?
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  Yeah. I mean, I think number one, um, you know, obviously is gonna be making
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  sure the system is sized properly, uh, because size does matter tremendously.
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  We don't want a system that's oversized and short cycling and kicking on and
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  off. We don't want a system that's undersized and it just runs 24-7 and can never keep up.
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  And so the only way you can properly size a system from day one and starting
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  is doing what we call a proper load calculation or engineering analysis on the
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  home. So everything has to be taken into consideration.
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  I mean, people live in the home, the type of flooring, the insulation values,
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  the windows, which way is north facing, right?
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  Attic insulation. So all these things come into place, not just the old rule
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  of thumb and how many square feet is it? Oh, okay. It must be a three ton.
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  And unfortunately in the industry, that's most commonly what happens.
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  Consumer reports show that seven out of 10 homes are missized, which is scary.
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  If you look around your neighborhood right now and 10 of your neighbors just
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  got new ACs or new furnaces, seven of them are improperly sized according to studies.
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  And so sizing is definitely a number one. Now, maybe you have an existing system.
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  Okay, how do I help reduce my utility bill, my heating and cooling costs?
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  The next one is going to be how clean is that system? Is it running efficiently and properly?
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  So having regular maintenance down the system, keeping the coils clean,
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  the blower wheels clean, and overall inside the system, the ductwork,
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  everything clean and running properly and efficiently.
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  Start devices and refrigerant pressures, all these different things is really
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  going to drastically help keep that utility bill reduced.
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  A third one, you know, is oftentimes...
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  We hear things, maybe it's on the news or things on social media or wherever,
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  is, hey, if you're not home, two things really that come to mind on this one,
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  is if you're not home, set it back.
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  You go to work during the day, and let's say it's a 90-degree summer day.
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  You're not home. Maybe you want to keep it at 70 degrees. Hey,
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  turn that up to 75 or 80. You're not home. Why cool it?
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  Well, in reality, and vice versa in the wintertime, turn it down.
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  Uh, the reality is it's so much harder for that system to try to catch back up later.
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  Now, if we're talking to a degree or two, right, maybe it is going to be 95
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  and, you know, here in Ohio, you know, in Southern Ohio, where we're at,
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  you know, um, you know, 90 degrees is the design temperature that the systems
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  are designed to operate at.
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  You know, we might get a few days in a year, you know, that's 95 and 98 or a hundred.
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  Okay. Maybe running the system at night or a couple of degrees warmer all day,
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  every day. Yes, that's going to help that system because it's maxed out.
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  But to take and do setbacks daily, right, is what we're talking about here and
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  trying to catch back up. It's really hard on that system.
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  Imagine your car starting and stopping in town or going from zero to 60 just constantly, right?
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  It's going to be really bad fuel mileage versus just getting out on the highway
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  and setting the cruise at 60 mile an hour and just cruising right along.
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  Your car is going to get much better fuel mileage. You have much less wear and
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  tear, much less maintenance.
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  It's just going to be much better for the system. So your system operates just like that.
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  So it's much easier to maintain than do setbacks and try to catch back up.
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  Another one, too, that ties right in with that is they say, well,
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  if you're not using that part of the house, you know, close those registers.
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  Don't heat and cool those extra rooms that you're not using.
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  And in fact, once again, that really hurts the performance of the system,
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  which is going to hurt your utility bill, because those are not insulated walls
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  inside your home. They're all inside what we call the envelope.
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  The way that that system is sized for the BTUs needed for that house,
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  that's all inside those outside walls.
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  And so if I've got a hot and cold room over here, that's infiltrating right
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  into the main part of the house that we're trying to heat or to cool.
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  And also too, by closing off those registers, that system can't now properly
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  deliver the airflow that it needs to get rid of throughout the entire duct system,
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  which means we're going to cause that system to fall behind and really restrict
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  it and labor harder, kind of like trying to run a marathon with a mask on, right?
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  You just can't breathe. That's what the effect that your system is going to have.
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  And so once again, we don't know what we don't know, but those are some key
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  tips to really helping maybe false beliefs that are out there that a lot of
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  us try to do. And we think that we're doing the right thing in helping reduce our utility costs.
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  And instead, we're actually doing actually quite the opposite and making it harder on our system.
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  Yeah, no, those are some great tips. I like what you say about when you're out of the house all day,
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  don't necessarily change the thermostat because you're going to have to make
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  your system where there's heating or cooling work that much harder when you come back home.
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  The analogy of being on the freeway, maintaining that speed.
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  They say using cruise controls better even when you're driving four hours from
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  point A to point B at 70 miles an hour, it's best actually to put on cruise
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  control because it will just be even, right?
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  And that's pretty much what we want in our homes. How about upstairs,
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  downstairs really quick?
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  Let's say it's summertime, it's 95
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  degrees outside, and we're spending the majority of our time downstairs.
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  Do we have to keep the upstairs as cool as the downstairs or can it be a little
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  higher um so i guess to clarify on that example this would be like if you had two systems,
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  okay yeah so if you if you've got two systems um not necessarily but once again
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  you're not going to want a big temperature difference um because yeah i've had
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  that question come up before too that i'll just turn that one off or turn it
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  way you know way up or way down you know depending on the season uh but once
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  again it's in the same home right and so if you had a.
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  A sealed doorway, like an exterior door separating the two, which would be odd.
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  Most of us know in our home, right?
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  It's probably an open stairwell or if anything, an interior door at the top.
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  That air is going to infiltrate throughout. The ceiling in your downstairs is
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  not insulated from the upstairs.
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  And so we're going to create more load on the other one that you're still trying to heat or cool.
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  And so yes, you could change it a little bit, have a few degrees difference,
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  but I would not suggest making a big difference.
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  If you get that downstairs set of sevens where you're living keeping you spend
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  your time i wouldn't have the upstairs set you know 80 and 85 you are going
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  to have infiltration and cause that downstairs system to still work harder,
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  yeah that makes sense as always Nathan thank you so much for joining me today
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  on the program hey you bet anytime thank you Jim.