Right now your home could be losing a lot of energy. We’re not just talking about a few pennies either.
We could be talking hundreds of dollars per year. And that’s really just the average home.
The first step is to find where your home uses energy. That is where an energy audit comes in. An energy audit is really the examination of your home’s energy usage and loss. It could be loss from waste, inefficiencies, bad conservation, aging appliances, faulty insulation or building materials, wear/age of the home, etc.
When done correctly, …

The easiest way to save money on your energy bills is to do a simple energy audit. And the best way to do a complete, professional energy audit is with one of the energy audit kits available from http://www.energyaudits.net. There are two kits available, the professional kit and the starter kit – both of which are priced within any homeowners budget

Are your energy bills too high? Did you know the most common causes for high energy bills are poor insulation, outdated equipment or fixtures, and poor energy conservation habits?
Unless you have experience with building or major home repairs (i.e. you are a contractor, or know one personally), there isn’t a whole lot you can do about the first one.
You can certainly update your appliances or “fixtures” which in this case includes lighting fixtures, small appliances and electronics, windows and doors…although this approach can be rather expensive and time consuming. Plus …

Which is better or most effective? Vote at the Solar Power vs Wind Power throwdown, then come back here and give me your opinion!

If you’re in the market for a new home, you might want to consider looking for one that uses energy more efficiently than your current home.
In order to do this, you need to know how much energy your home currently uses. (If I could make a recommendation, check out the Energy Audit kit at http://www.energyaudits.net…shameless plug.) This kit will tell you how much energy you use currently.
Anyway, the kit also contains a “home buyer’s checklist” which outlines what you should look for in your next home (or apartment). But here’s …

There is this almost fanatical belief amongst homeowners that their home must be energy efficient so they can reduce their energy bills. Unfortunately,this is the wrong approach to take. You improve your home, you increase energy efficiency so that you can live comfortably. Then the energy saving comes naturally afterwards. Think of it as comfortable living = energy saving.
The two paths two sometimes cross. For example, in the winter or colder months, if the weather is particularly cold outside one day, you may not be comfortable in your house with …

Interesting report and approach. Basically, a group of scientists set forth some interesting criteria for wind power generation, included the average wind speeds, avoiding forested areas or “endangered”, ice caps, etc., and hand selected several land based and “off shore” sites within 50 nautical miles of a coastline. These areas are not urban or “developed”. Then, if a 2.5 MW turbine was placed in ideal conditions (they measured windspeeds in 6 hour blocks) and 3.6 MW turbines was placed in offshore locations, the calculations show that the new power “grid” …

So the last experiment was disappointing, because it appeared that plastic did very little to prevent heat loss for your leaky hallway window. Things aren’t looking so good for the thin plastic as insulation.
Luckily, we have another scenario. Plastic over part of a window has come “undone” giving us the perfect side by side comparison of surface temperatures over a window with and without plastic – without interfering sunshine and the heat from solar convection.

This question is important to many homeowners and renters because we believe that placing plastic over our windows will halep us save energy on cold winter days and nights. Some plastic makers claim that plastic adds at least 1R value to the window.
I doubt this to be true. But using the information presented in the home energy audit kit, we can easily see heat loss with and without the plastic to see how much of a difference it makes.

Apartments can pose a unique challenge to people.
Since most people who rent property do not own the property or aren’t under a rent-to-own contract, renters often times ignore energy saving tips.
Their point of view, which is certainly understandable, is why pay for improvements that will reduce bill when I will not reap the rewards or benefits of my effort? Why pay for improvements on property that isn’t owned by me?
For renters, there are a couple of things to consider before deciding whether to balk and ignore the whole …