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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Think4Yourself who wrote (93351)	10/30/2007 2:48:09 PM
From: Tommaso	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

The house I live in had no insulation anywhere when I bought it. The previous owner was burning up 1,800 gallons of fuel oil per winter for heat. By adding attic insulation, blowing cellulose into the walls (myself, from the inside because of stone exterior), caulking, etc., I cut the consumption the first winter by 75%. By changing a setting on the mechanical thermostat so that the steam boiler ran in longer cycles (it was wasting heat by heating up pipes that ran through the exterior walls, in short bursts) I cut it another 5%. By putting a heat recovery unit on the stack, I cut it another 5%. The by converting to a gas burner I cut the basic energy bill. At that point I was paying 10% or less of what it would have cost to buy 1,800 gallons of oil. One winter I even cut most of that by burning slabs in a wood stove. By changing to efficient refrigerators and using flourescent bulbs, I cut the electric consumption in half. My electricity bill is now about like a cell phone bill. The air conditioners I now use for summer cooling have efficiency ratings of 9 or 10 and also run in energy-saving cycles, dropping that cost by 40%. One thing I do NOT recommend trying is these gadgets that are supposed to lower power consumption of refrigerators. I think they can destroy the motor. I am afraid that for most people the only way to achieve savings like this is to cut the thermostat down to 50 degrees F. and keep lights turned off.