Energy Tip- Recessed Can Lights

Have you ever been to a seminar or meeting and when you leave you are so pumped up to make a change in your life that you feel like someone has just refueled your engine?

Well I got my energy tank re-fueled last week when I got a visit from my good friend Dave Robinson. I have known Dave for several years now and see him as one of the sharpest guys I know.  He is definitely one of the most energy conscious guys I know, and has been a real cheerleader for me in my energy audit ventures. Dave sits on the California Energy Commission and is a local and national speaker in the "Green World". His latest business is purchasing old homes and making them energy efficient and them reselling them. His mission is to "Save the Planet, One Foreclosure at a Time". You can check his work out and follow his travels at www.greenearthequities.com

Dave and I were up into the late hours looking at energy blogs, websites and sharing our recent energy or lack of energy experiences. I got some great ideas and was put in contact with some items and tools that I have not been able to get my hands on in the past.

One item in particular is a recessed or can light cover. In the past, when performing energy audits I have suggested replacing old leaky can lights with airtight versions. Well I now have found a source for an airtight light cap that is placed over your recessed light in your attic. You can then insulate around and over the top of the light and eliminate the huge air leak that you get with the old style recessed lights. I have ordered a dozen of these covers and will be happy to share my experience with the product after they are installed next week.

Just a side note, when I perform an energy audit the biggest source of air leaks in a home are usually attic fans, can lights, fireplaces, cracks around doors and exterior wall electrical boxes. 

Thanks for the help Dave, and for putting up with the three crazy Gallet kids. We all look forward to breaking bread with you again soon.

Green Tip- School Lunches

So the kids are now back in school and the summer is winding down. That doesn't mean that our lives get any less hectic though, it just means we have a new set of task and obstacles ahead of us. I don't know why but the other day I was thinking about school lunches. I try to visit the kids at school and eat with them a few times a year and I recall alot of waste and trash that gets accumulated during lunch time. I am not just talking about food waste, which there is alot of, but also the trash that cold lunch or lunch from home can accumulate.

So I have came up with a few tips on how you can help reduce waste when you are packing your kids school lunch. So here are my recommended ideas: Eliminate plastic bags, plastic utensils, disposable containers, paper napkins and those brown bags. Instead use a reusable lunchbox, pack your kids a thermos or some type of reusable drink container, and try to send cloth napkins and silverware (I know they may no make it back home and this idea is pushing it).

From what I have seen and researched, by using reusable items you could save as much as $250 per year and over 80lbs in waste. WOW!!!!

Let me know if you have any "Green" ideas that you would like to share, I would love to post them on the blog.

James Gallet

Energy Tip-Ceiling Fans

Do you know which direction your ceiling fan should turn in order for it to do its job and be economically efficient?

Just the other day I had a friend of mine ask me this question, she was wanting to know for her house about the direction of her ceiling fan. I thought I knew the answer, but did some research to verify.

My short answer was this: During the summer, you should run the fan so that the breeze blows downward. This will create a wind chill effect, just like you get when you roll down your car windows while driving to cool you off. During the winter you should leave the fan off.

Durning my research I did however find some ceiling fan manufacturers websites suggesting that you run the ceiling fan so it blows downward in the winter. This idea is based on the fan mixing the warm air collecting at the ceiling and moving it back down to the perimeter of room in the winter, which would make the room warmer and need less heat from your furnace. But not trusting this advice, (remember ceiling fan manufacturers want the fans running continuously so they will eventually fail), I dug on and found some information on consumer reports that suggest that the draft caused by the fan can have a chilling effect on people in a room, in the winter. This leads to them turning up the thermostat and using more energy. So they too recommend that you not bother to reverse the motion of your fan—just leave it off during heating season. Note that there might be some situations where reverse operation would be beneficial, such as in a room with a wood stove running or a very high vaulted ceiling.

If you’re looking to lower your energy bills during the cooling season, use ceiling fans in rooms you are occupying and turn up the temperature on your A/C a few degrees and let the fan go to work. Remember that ceiling fans cool you and not the space you’re in, so turn them off when you leave the room for an extended time so as to not waste electricity.

Here is a ceiling fan shopping tip I ran across: Consumer Reports found that while the pricier fans did have fancier finishes, they didn’t necessarily provide better performance. What’s more, most fans performed similarly in their air-movement tests. I will tell you though that my kids' rooms have cheaper fans and very rarely get used due to the noise factor, where as my living room and bedroom fan gets used quite often and are very quiet in comparison.

Thanks Marsha for making me do some research; I hope this is helpful.

James Gallet
Envirotech Heating, Cooling and Energy Solutions

Green Tip- Beverage Packing

Well summer is here and a lot of times nothing sounds better to me than a nice cold drink. This is also a Holiday weekend so I thought I would share some interesting information that I found out about beverage packaging.

Did you know that the energy required to produce a single twelve-ounce aluminum can from virgin ore (new aluminum) is enough to produce nearly two new twelve-ounce glass bottles. That's right it takes twice as much energy to make a can versus a bottle. So the next time you buy a six pack of your favorite frosty beverage, opt for glass bottles over aluminum cans. The manufacturing energy conserved could power my Brother-in-Laws television setup through two Sunday, NFL game days. If 10% of beer drinkers replaced a six-pack of cans with six glass bottles, the energy saved could fly thirty thousand US Soccer fans to South Africa to watch the USA take on Ghana. Maybe then with all those extra fans the US would have came out with a victory.

So if you are planning on stopping by my house this weekend and want to treat me to a drink, Coors Light (bottles) will do.

Have a safe and happy 4th.

James

Energy Tip- Clean Your A/C

OK so the past two weeks have been crazy busy for us at Envirotech Heating and Cooling. We had a nice stretch of warm weather that caused everyone to finally turn on their air conditioning systems. Well guess what, alot of the air conditioners decided that they were not ready to run yet, so that meant hot houses and lots of business for us. Well my tip this week is pretty simple you need to change the air filter in your furnace and wash out your air conditioner with a hose if you have not already done so. This is one of the most important things that a homeowner can do to not only save on their home utility bills but also prevent future service calls to us.

Here is a fact for you, over 80% of all the service calls that my company runs could have been prevented with a little routine preventative maintenance.  So please change your filter and wash the outdoor unit or better yet have us come out and do it for you. We (Envirotech Heating & Cooling) has several maintenance options available. From a simple and affordable one time cleaning on your air conditioning system or if you would like we can set you up on a full yearly maintenance plan which would include us returning in the fall to clean and check the furnace. The full yearly plan is our "Energy Savings Agreement" and it gives you some additional benefits such as, 20% discount on repairs if they are needed, no overtime charges, priority scheduling and even replacement equipment discounts.

So weather you do some minor maintenance yourself or have us professionally clean your system either way is a great way to assure that your home comfort system is running as efficiently as it can and also will help avoid future breakdowns.

If you would like to schedule an appointment you can do so by calling our office at 913-268-6700 or schedule online at www.envirotechks.com

Thanks

James Gallet

Green Tip- Lawn Irrigation

OK this post may be a bit strange since we are in the middle of our monsoon season. Last week I attended a meeting where a business friend of mine, Karl Schottler with Paramount Landscaping, spoke about lawn irrigation systems. His company installs and designs irrigation systems and after listening to his presentation I now have a greater understanding of what is entailed in the design and make up of the systems. Paramount looks at each project separately "no two jobs are alike", they take soil samples, shading considerations and type of vegetation and or grass that the system will be serving. All of this makes sense when you sit down and think about it.

I have a personal tale of how shade will affect plants, tree's and such. Just about 12 years ago my wife and I planted four Bradford pear tree's in our yard. There is one tree that has fully shaded roots (due to a privacy fence) another one who's roots are partially shaded and then there are two that get no shade at all. Well the biggest and fullest of them all is the one with full shade, and the two that get full sun (no shade) are drastically smaller. Just goes to show that the way the sun hit the tree roots did affect their growth.

So what does a tree have to do with lawn irrigation, well Karl brought up a great point, lawn irrigation is really more than just throwing a sprinkler and a few hundred feet of hose around your yard. In addition to Paramount taking the above steps that I mentioned, they also use this device called a "Solar Sync." The Solar Sync measures the sun's rays (hence the tree story), air temperature, rain and also the amount of water you are using. The device then can determine if you need the irrigation system to run or not.

This device is definitely something that I would suggest, it seems very affordable and will save some of our earths water from being wasted. I cant tell you how many times I have seen a sprinkler system running while it is raining outside, that sounds a little wasteful to me. Too bad Paramount didn't design those systems!

To find out more about Paramount Landscaping visit their website at www.paramountkc.com  or to check out more on the Solar Sync go to www.hunterindustries.com/Products/Sensors/solarsync.html

James Gallet
www.envirotechks.com

Energy Tip- Laptop vs Desktop

Sometimes you make environmentally wise decisions without even knowing it. This was the case with me about a month ago when I had to replace my wife's work computer. She works a couple days a week at my office and when her work computer died we opted to replace it with a laptop instead of a desktop unit. We did this mainly for convenience on our part; she can now take her laptop with her anywhere she goes, she is also able to get some work done at home and not necessarily come into the office in case an issue would arise. I personally tote a laptop with me everywhere I go and use it daily in my line of work, so I know the benefits of being able to work on a laptop anywhere. I also like the fact that I can still do some work at home, if needed, and still be in the presence of my family and not off in a corner or office by myself while I work.

So why is this "Green" you ask? Well according to a recent article that I ran across, here are some key benefits to replacing your new computer with a laptop or notebook instead of a desktop: Laptops require fewer materials and less energy to produce than desktops and use a fraction of the electricity to run. If you choose a laptop over a desktop, you'll save an average of 220 kilowatts-hours per year and about $20 on your annual electric bill.

If one in twenty-three households made its next computer purchase a laptop instead of a desktop, the energy saved could keep the lights on for every household in the entire State of Rhode Island.

Please share my blog with others and share your energy tips with me.

James Gallet