More You Can Do

There are many easy ways to save energy while reducing your impact on the environment!

Saving Energy by Conserving Heat

•Get to know your house. An easy and effective way to understand the ins and outs of energy efficiency in the house is to schedule a home energy audit. An energy audit is an analysis of the different components that comprise the house’s efficiency, including insulation an air leakage, and will be followed by recommendations of cost-effective measures that can be taken to improve efficiency. Xcel customers receive up to a 60% rebate for having an audit, and if you are a Holy Cross Energy or City of Aspen utilities customer, you will get your audit for free!
•Keep the heat in! Make sure that the house is well insulated and add extra insulation. Don’t let all your effort to keep the house heated go to waste. The most important place to insulate is the attic so that all the rising heat doesn’t flow through the roof. Get in touch with an insulation contractor and schedule an inspection.
•Eliminate drafts. Use caulk and weather stripping to seal the gaps around windows, doors, electrical outlets, and lighting fixtures. If you want to get really serious about the drafts, hire a contractor to perform a blower door test, which will allow you to really hone in on where the air leaks are. Also, make sure that the fireplace damper is closed when not in use.
•Get the most out of your windows. Install storm windows over your current windows to block drafts or apply window film to seal the windows and block UV radiation. Better yet, replace old windows with high-efficiency windows.
•Use the sun. During the winter, open window blinds to allow sunshine in and close them at night to serve as insulation. In the summer, close the blinds to block sunlight and open them at night to allow heat to escape. Further, if you have radiant floor heating—or would like to install radiant floor heating—you can use a solar water heating system or geothermal heat exchange system to heat it.
•Keep your furnace and air ducts at peak performance. Have your furnace maintained by a professional to ensure maximal performance and efficiency. Furnace air filters should be replaced monthly during the cold season to increase performance. Also, make sure that your air ducts are not leaky—if they are, then you can seal with up with mastic, metal-backed tape or aerosol sealant.
•Heat only when you need to. Installing and using a programmable thermostat to automatically turn on and off the heat can save you as much as 20 percent on heating costs. Program the thermostat so that the heat is on only when people are home to enjoy it. If residents are regularly gone during the day or another time, then program the thermostat to be 60° while they are away, as well as at nighttime when the residents are sleeping.
•Don’t overheat the house. Set the thermostat to 68° F.
•Use kitchen and bathroom ventilation fans only when needed. They suck the hot air right out.

Saving Energy by Conserving Water Heat

•Turn the temperature of the water heater down. Try turning the temperature down to 120° F. If after turning the temperature down, the hot water runs out, turn the heat up incrementally by 5 degrees until you have all the hot water you need.
•Insulate the water heater and pipes. If your water heater and pipes are warm to the touch, that means they are releasing that heat into the air. To keep that hard-earned heat where you want it, purchase a water heater blanket to cover the water heater and foam or fiberglass wrap to cover the pipes. This will help hold in the heat in the system, rather than it being released into the air. Note that a water heater blanket is a unique item, specially designed for water heaters, not just a regular blanket wrapped around the water heater!
•Only use the water heater when someone is there to use it! If your family is not at home for a while, and if no one else is living in the home, turn the water heater off. During the cold months, though, leave the heater on just high enough to prevent freezing.
•Use a timer switch. Install a timer switch on the water heater so that it automatically turns on and off at the regular times you need hot water.
•Wash clothes with cold or warm water, rather than hot.
•Make sure there are no faucet or pipe leaks letting out hot water.
•Schedule maintenance for the water heater. Make sure it is adjusted for high-altitude and that the sediment gets drained every six months.
•Let the sun do the work…invest in renewables!

oInstall a solar water heating system. Our sunny location in the Roaring Fork Valley is prime for solar water heating systems. Solar water heaters harvest heat directly from the sun’s energy and heats your domestic hot water! If you want to get fancy, you could even install radiant floor heating and use your solar hot water system to heat it. In addition, the solar market is in its best shape ever. Federal tax credits will finance 30 percent of the system cost and CORE will provide a rebate of up to $2,000.

oInstall a geothermal heat exchange system. This type of system is good for heating either air or water to be pumped into the house. The basic idea is that tubing is coiled through shallow earth (the top-most 10 feet), which holds a constant temperature of between 50° and 61°. This temperature will preheat the air or water before going to your water heater, furnace, or boiler. And again, federal tax credits will cover up to $2,000 of the system and City of Aspen utilities customers will be covered for up to $4,000. Moreover, CORE will pay $250 for you to have a feasibility study performed at your home or business.

oInstall a high-efficiency water heater. Depending on how efficient your current water heater is, you may be able to make a big improvement in efficiency by buying a new one. And again, the market is right—up to a $300 federal tax credit and, if you are an Xcel customer, up to a $100 rebate, or if you are a Holy Cross Energy customer using an electric water heater, up to a $75 rebate.

•Installations to help conserve hot water: low-flow shower heads, low-flow faucet aerators.
•Go tankless. As opposed to conventional water heaters that maintain a constant heating element to heat a whole tank of water, tankless, or on-demand, water heaters only heat as much water as you will be using. That saves a lot of energy! These may not be effective in all situations, depending on the size and layout of the house, and individual water use needs. It would be best to consult with a plumber to figure out if this would be a good option for you.

Saving Energy by Conserving Electricity

•Use the sun.

oFor lighting. Not only is sunlight free, it is also the most pleasant lighting source for interior space. Focus activity in the house around places with the most natural light. Install skylights and use windows.

oFor electricity. Use the sun to generate your own electricity with a PV system. Because of our abundant sunlight, we in the Roaring Fork Valley are in an incredible position to take advantage of the opportunity of PV. And the rebates and incentives for installing solar systems is phenomenal—30% of the system’s cost is returned in federal tax credits, $1,500 in rebate from CORE, and an additional rebate from your utility (up to $9,000 for City of Aspen Municipal Electric customers, $10,000 for Holy Cross Energy customers, or $20,000 for Xcel customers).

•Use the air to dry. Cut out the unnecessary energy use of using a drying machine or dishwasher to dry your freshly cleaned clothes and dishes. Instead, use a clothesline and change your dishwasher’s settings to not dry. Another benefit of using a clothesline over a drying machine is that the sun is a natural germ-killer, so you get extra clean clothes. If you can’t totally stop using the clothes dryer, ensure that you are using an energy-efficient machine—if yours is not particularly efficient, it may be well worth it to invest in a new, efficient machine.
•Don’t be overcome by phantom load. Even though your appliances and other electrical devices are not turned on doesn’t mean they aren’t using energy. Phantom load is the energy used by such devices that are plugged in to the wall even though they are switched off or in standby mode. Sometimes this hidden energy usage can be up to 10 percent of total residential energy usage. To combat this problem, plug your electrical devices into power strips with on/off switches and switch the strip off when not in use. Also, a very large and simple way to stop phantom load is to unplug everything when no one will be at home for an extended period of time.
•Use efficient lighting. Replacing standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs or LED bulbs will reduce lighting costs by 50% to 80%. Installing and using dimmers helps to create pleasant ambient lighting and also allows residents to use the proper amount of light—and electricity—rather than flooding the room with too much light. Also, motion sensors can greatly reduce the amount of electricity needed to light a residence. Motion sensors take all the work out of turning on and off unnecessary lights, so in addition to saving energy, they are convenient! Don’t forget to replace outdoor lighting, as well, and consider motion sensors for the yard and driveway.
•Properly maintain your appliances. Clean the coils on the back of the refrigerator and freezer every year, clean your clothes dryer’s filter and exhaust fan
•Turn off lights when you leave the room.

Saving Water

•Repair leaky faucets.
•Choose low-flow. Installing low-flow faucets, shower heads, and toilets can reduce water usage by 10 percent while not affecting water pressure. Further reductions in water usage are easily obtained, however, they may reduce your water pressure.
•Xeriscape your yard. Xeriscaping is the one of the hottest things to do now in the West. It is a landscape design system that maximizes the use of drought-resistant plants and gives the yard a real Western feel. In a typical Western home, half or more of residential water used goes toward the yard. Xeriscaping can cut down this usage by up to 60 percent! In addition to using much less water than traditional landscaping, xeric garden maintenance is often much less labor-intensive and makes the garden look like it really belongs in the arid West. For more information, see the reference below to xeriscaping.

Saving Other Resources

•Recycle. Be sure to separate your waste into recyclable and non-recyclable materials.
•Grow your own. Did you know that the ingredients of the average American meal travel about 1,500 miles from farm to fork? That is a lot of energy used in transportation. In addition, large-scale farms that are the primary players in the global food trade are intrinsically very energy-inefficient. Start a vegetable garden to save loads of energy, as well as to provide a wonderful hobby. If you want to go even farther, consider building a greenhouse for year-round production.
•Compost. Keep organic matter in the ground where it will nourish the soil ecosystem, rather than the landfill, where it will sit useless. Be careful, though, if you are in Aspen--compost piles may attract bears!

Miscellaneous

•Buy wind credits. Call your electrical provider to see if you can purchase wind power. If you are a Holy Cross Energy customer, call Steve Casey at 970-945-5491 and sign up to become a Wind Power Pioneer.
•Drive the most fuel-efficient vehicle that fits your transportation needs. Here is simple maintenance tip for that vehicle...did you know that about 70% of cars and light trucks have at least one tire that is over or under inflated? Maintaining the correct tire pressure is far safer, saves money on premature tire wear and reduces your GHG emissions by at least 1/8 of a ton per year while saving about one tankful worth of gas.

What can businesses do? Visit the Energy Efficiency Guide for Colorado Businesses!

-More You Can Do