Dear Dave,
I have been reading your blog at utility bill busters for a long time now, and I wanted to ask you a question. I live in a small ranch style house in illinois in the south and as you may know the weather has been absolutely scorching! We have a window air conditioner in the bedroom and one in the living room, since those rooms are the most occupied. Recently I have noticed they seem to be running all the time but not making a difference! Should I replace …

Whether you have a Fedders, GE, Haier, Frigidaire or another Air Conditioner, the number one complaint so far this HOT summer season is why won’t my air conditioner work? It just seems to blow hot air…or doesn’t seem to cool very long at all.
Unfortunately there are a lot of different reasons for this. Some of them are easy to understand and fix. Others, well, they aren’t so much.
Filters. Air conditioners work on the heat exchange through air train of thought. Namely, they force air into a compressor, the air is …

Here around my house, the weather lately has really been cooling off. Which means that fall is on the way. With fall, of course, comes cooler temperatures. And in the interest of saving money and energy, I don’t need to be running my air conditioners – I’d rather just open the windows and let the cooler air keep the temperature inside my house more moderate and comfortable.
Here’s how to prepare when that time comes for your house
Central Air
You can’t remove central air conditioners, but luckily there’s really no need to. …

Its the end of the cooling season for most of us, and there might be some used air conditioners up for sale. They might be on ebay, craig’s list, the local swap sheets, in classifieds or pennysavers. And the price might be really good – many might not want to store their units and are planning on upgrading next year anyway.
So…should you jump at one?
My advice is no.
Many of us who have window ac units want to keep the units and will take the storage pain…if they are in good …

Its no secret that newer air conditioners are generally more efficient – even non energy star rated air conditioner units. Of course, you tend to pay for such “luxury”. The temptation is there to simply use your old air conditioner unit instead of perhaps upgrading it. It saves a lot of money in the short term – the cost of a new unit, in fact. But does it really save you money?
You might have already guessed the answer – no. You do save some cash in the short term, but …

I was recently called to consult on an energy problem in a home with a portable, oil-filled space heater in the master bedroom. The owner was complaining that the room was still cold even after running the unit all night. Plus, he was concerned the unit was costing too much money to run every night for 12 hours. So…how much energy does the unit use? Let’s find out.

Let’s be clear:
Even if you have a natural gas dryer, it still has an electrical cost. That is, it still uses some level of electricity to run. The heaviest electrical cost is the motor which rotates the cylinder and tumbles the clothes. Electricity in a gas powered dryer does not provide heat.
My natural gas dryer, rated at 6A @ 120VAC, in theory, consumes 720w of power.
This comes right from the label on the dryer.
Putting the electrical consumption to the test
Of course, I no longer believe labels. I want to see …

My recent experiment with how much energy it takes to run a microwave really had me thinking…if the label was a little off on the microwave, could the labels on other appliances be wrong as well?
No sooner than I turn around in my house from the microwave to find the coffee maker sitting right there. Of course! Coffee. I love coffee, like most other people. I run my coffee maker everyday because its far cheaper to make coffee at home than go out and buy a cup of coffee on …

Think your microwave just uses the 1200 watts it advertises on the little sticker? Think again. It uses more energy than you think, and in places you probably wouldn’t even think to look. Let’s take a look at the typical energy waste/usage of your microwave.

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 …