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Latest Posts by energyces-blog - Page 3
Awesome Ceiling Fan Tricks to Save Money and Energy
Ceiling fans are no longer an affordable solution for summer, but if you carefully plan out the fan use, you can save massive energy and cut cost in winter too. Just note that a standard AC unit uses 3500 watts of energy when running whereas an average ceiling fan use only 60 watts even when running on high. It means that if you run your ceiling fan the entire day in summer, this allows you to eliminate AC usage and also save plenty of money with time. Whereas in winter, it poses a significant impact on heating costs as much as 15 percent.
Do Ceiling Fans Save Energy In Winter?
Ceiling fans enhance warmth in the room during winters. Besides this, due to the enhanced distribution of heat in the room, it makes you do less usage of the thermostat, and when you do this, your heater turns less often; thus you consume less energy. But if you want to ensure maximum comfort and great savings, it’s vital to pick an energy-efficient fan. It’s a great idea to choose Energy Star-Rated ceiling fan or contact one of the best energy consulting firms near you.
When Not to Use Ceiling Fans?
You should not run ceiling fans continuously even when you are not in the room. It is because the fan will not be able to distribute heat evenly throughout the home.
Exceptions to Use Ceiling Fans
The only exception is a fan installed at the top of a second-floor stairwell. It is because the heat increase to second floor and fan can push heat down to the first floor.
How to Avoid Cool Breeze in Winter?
To prevent the wind chill caused by the air movement, just set the fan on low-speed settings. Just note that even a moderate amount of air flow can make a huge difference to your heating bills. Also, if you have high vaulted ceilings, it may not be vital to reverse ceiling fan direction.
Best Energy Saving Hacks:
1. Adjust the Fan Direction so that Air Blows in Summer
Many fans usually have the clockwise setting and counterclockwise setting for different seasons. The direction that you can use depends on how fan blades are aligned, and this can differ by model. In summers, just stand beneath the fan and switch it on. If you instantly feel a breeze from the fan, then it means that it is set on summer setting (i.e., counterclockwise).
After that switch off the fan, grab a stool and identify the base carefully. Spot the switch that sets fan in the opposite direction. Just remember that at the time of scorching heat, make sure that your ceiling fan runs on high with air blowing down directly below the fan. This creates maximum air movement in the center of room and makes it cool.
2. Run Fan on Low in Clockwise Direction in Winter
In winter, your fan should run in the opposite direction to flow hot air throughout the room. The fan blades in this direction will pull air up in center of the room and drive it again near the edges. This forces cool and hot air to combine in room, thus keeping it a standard temperature. You will feel this when you stand closer to the wall in the room.
3. Set your Home Temperature High in Summer
If you think of operating ceiling fan all day during hot days, just elevate the temperature on your thermostat by few degrees.
4. Size Matters
Fans come in all sizes and shapes. Standard fans are typically 55 inches, and that is ideal for the average sized bedroom. So if you are thinking to install them in the kitchen or living room, you should pick 50 to 54 inches models or take the help of top utility consulting firms.
5. Use Ceiling Fan with AC
If your ceiling fan alone is not cutting energy, you can combine it with AC. For this trick, switch on thermostat up several degrees.
6. Angle
Make sure that the angle of the blade is at least 12 degrees. If it’s less, the fan will not give you breeze in any direction.
Home Wind Energy System: Perfect Way for Money and Energy Saving
The use of green energy not just save the earth, but also motivate people to switch towards top energy consulting firms for alternative energy sources to help lower utility bills. One such famous green energy option is wind energy mainly in off-grid regions. Installing wind energy systems can be the most affordable energy system for your home because it generates zero carbon emissions and is one of the cleanest energy sources.
Even a small wind system help you lower pollution, prevent spikes in electricity bills, and avoid the high cost of expanding utility power lines to your area. However, most of the people are concerned about price of installation and infrastructure maintenance. But before you make your move in the wind energy system, there are many necessary steps that you need to keep in mind.
Things to Know:
Step 1: Know whether you want to link your wind turbine to the grid or not
You can use small wind energy systems with both an electricity system linked to stand-alone applications or utility grid. Just note that:
a) Stand-alone Systems: It is best for farms, homes, and even whole communities which are far from the nearest utility lines. It needs an average wind speed of 9 miles per hour yearly. A stand-alone system may be good for you if a grid connection can be made only via extension or is not available, and you have only wind resources to cater your power needs.
b) Grid-connected System: It can minimize your energy consumption to a huge stent. The best part is that when you have surplus energy which you produce for your home via wind system, you can sell it back to utility and mint money. A grid-connected system usually needs an average wind speed of 10 miles per hour. It is ideal for you if electricity is costly in your region, but the need for utility's requirements for linking your system to the grid is not that high cost.
Step2: Evaluate Environmental and Legal Problems
Before putting your valuable time and money, research for environmental and legal problems for installing wind system because your location may have some restrictions. Also even if you decide to connect your wind generator to your local grid of utility agency, just contact them to find out requirements for interconnections by tiny independent power producers.
Steps 3: Evaluate Wind Resource in Your Location
If you want to make your wind energy system affordable, make sure that wind must blow at great speed in your location and that too frequently. You can use wind resource maps to know if there is sufficient wind on your region or not. Just note that real wind resource on your site is affected by local terrain and can differ hugely over a small area.
Step 4: Pick Your Wind System
Choose a wind system that has excellent reviews, suits you best, have products warranty and are available at affordable price. You can contact leading energy management consultancy or even ask people who had used them in the past to know their experiences. Just remember that all wind system features a tower, wind turbine, wiring, and other components like inverters, controllers, and batteries. The hybrid system usually uses extra equipment such as diesel generators and photovoltaic panels to make sure that power is available all time.
Step 5: Make a Long-term Investment Decision
To determine if your wind system is effective or not, conduct an in-depth analysis of power rates, tax credits, interest rates, buy-back prices of your local utility, and rebates. Also check with your public utility commission, department of revenue, local energy office, or local utility to know energy credits in your state.
6 Effective Tips to Save Energy in the Classroom
It is the primary duty of a teacher to tell the students about protecting the environment and saving energy in the classroom. Just note that the steps you take today will help you to lower the carbon footprint on the mother earth.
1. Teach Kids About Energy Conservation
Teaching your students about how to save energy is the best way to make them aware of how energy is vital in this modern world. Let the kids learn about the lights and electrical appliances. Tell them how excess consumption of energy is posing harm to everyone. Thus helps them to inculcate good habits to counter these major issues.
2. Ask Students to Use their Personal Devices
In this tech-savvy era, now it has become easy for anyone to gain knowledge instantly. If your school permits the use of personal devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets, ask students to use that in the class. It is because the devices use excess energy even when they are in the sleep mode in comparison to the ones that are completely shut down. Also, make sure that the electrical appliances are unplugged once fully charged as they such unnecessary energy. You can also hire professional energy efficiency consultancy and ask them about the useful ways to cut down your electrical electricity bills.
3. Switch Off Lights and Fans When Not in Use
It is a good habit to switch off electrical appliances like computers, smart boards, overhead projectors, etc. when you leave the classroom. Tell the same to your beloved students to save $5 to $10 a month on the energy consumption.
4. Use Timers for On and Off
If you usually tend to forget unplugging appliances, it’s best to use electric outlet timers. You can buy them from any retailer at the low rates. They cost you $3 to $25 per device depending on which model you prefer. Install the timer into the classroom wall, CD players, light fixtures, etc., and then set when to switch off and off it. Switch off the timers as the school gets dismissed, so that the students can watch out how they work and save energy.
5. Keep the Doors Shut
Just note that cooling and heating a classroom can be high cost mainly during summer and winter seasons. Thus, by keeping your room door closed while your heater or AC is on, you can reduce your HVAC energy usage. It is because when you keep the door open, it takes a long time to heat or cool.
6. Create an Energy Task Force
Prepare a task force of kids and allow them to patrol the classroom before lunch and at the end to check whether the energy is used as it should be.
If you are in need of cost-effective energy consulting services for your home, contact ‘Custom Energy Solutions’ today.
Is Energy Bars Better Than Real Food?
A human body is like a machine, and if you do no fuel them, the energy breaks down quickly and become susceptible to severe illness and weakness. The energy bars (also known as protein bars, snack bars, health bars, granola bars, or food bars) plays a vital role in boosting the energy instantly. It provides endurance and strength to the body. Nowadays, you will find many varieties of energy bars easily in the market. These versatile bars also come in many different flavors that including chocolate, vanilla, fruit-based flavors, strawberry, raw cacao with peanut butter, etc.
They are the most favorite snack for the most active persons like athletes, for those who aspire to eat healthily, and others who need the necessary nutrition because they have the sufficient calories to keep going through all the day. Mainly there are two different energy bars. The first one is that include fewer carbs, but a lot of protein and fats and another one are the energy bars that have fats, carbs, proteins. The active people prefer taking the ones that have a balanced blend of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. The energy bars that contain little carbs are best for the persons who want to trim a few inches from their belly.
Tips:
-Drink 375 to 500 ml (i.e., 1 and a ½ to two cups) of water with an energy bar to boost digestion.
-Read labels carefully: Avoid picking bars manufactured using palm kernel oil, hydrogenated oils, and coconut oil. Instead seek for the ones that are made using whole grains and best quality proteins like casein, whey, and soy.
-Pick a bar that contains 20 to 45 g carbs, not more than 2 grams of saturated fats, and at least 3 grams of fiber.
-When you are consuming a bar as a meal, select the one with 300 calories and pair it with soy milk, yogurt, and fruit.
Are Energy Bars a Healthy Choice?
When you take the energy bars to your home, they offer endless benefits. The best part of these bars is that they are small, portable, and handy. It means that you can easily fit them comfortably into your pocket or purse and take them anywhere. They contain a huge amount of proteins, high cholesterol, and less saturated fat. These bars are a healthy choice in comparison to fast food. These slim energy bars nourish you, offer physical energy, and give you a protein kick along with a blend of fats, minerals, vitamins, and carbohydrates.
You will quickly find them in the groceries, health-food stores, pharmacies, corner stores, sporting goods outlets, and even gas stations. In fact, few people skip their daily meals and prefer taking them. But it is best to avoid making them as the main staple of your diet because they do not contain the same amount of health benefits as you get from the fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole foods. Thus, it is clear that the energy bars can’t replace a balanced diet.
Leading energy management consulting firms offer reliable and transparent energy consultancy services to help the businesses cut their utility bills.
Geothermal Energy: Best Green Energy Source for Homes
Nowadays, the homeowners are taking the help of the best renewable energy consulting firms to save on their energy costs. They are also reaping the benefits of the abundant geothermal heat for efficient heating and cooling their homes by installing the advanced heating and cooling systems. This incredible technology helps them to reduce the utility bills near about 50 percent. It helps them to do 30 to 60% savings on the heating and 25 to 50% savings on cooling within three years. Although its cheap alternative for the cooling and heating homes, it needs the power to run. So if you install an inefficient geothermal heat pump, you may get an increase in your power bills.
What is Geothermal Energy?
The term geothermal originates from the Greek word ‘geo’ that means earth and ‘thermal’ means heat. Together it means the heat from the earth. It was formed by the decay of the forests, radioactive elements, and minerals a few years ago.
Benefits:
This green energy source does not emit any greenhouse gases that are deadly to the environmental and human health. In ancient times, it is used for heating and bathing purposes, but today it is also used for producing electricity. This energy is clean, sustainable, and produced without burning fossil fuel such as gas, coal, or oil. You can trap the earth energy almost anywhere with the help of direct use applications and geothermal heat pumps.
The resources of this energy range from the hot water to shallow ground to hot rock found few miles beneath the surface of the earth. As you know the crust of earth continually decays to recharge the heat, so it’s still a green energy source. You can install the geothermal energy systems to extract hot water from the hot water reservoir below the surface of the earth, and convert this warm water into steam to direct the turbine. The only downside of the geothermal energy is that it is expensive to build.
How Much Does Geothermal Heating and Cooling System Cost?
Geothermal heating and cooling system installation is more complicated and high cost in comparison to an air source heating system. But the benefits it offers are endless. Its cost depends on many different variables. However, when it comes to the initial cost, you need to consider the system size, type, drilling conditions, and labor cost. The ground loop is the most expensive and the rates are between $1,000 and $3,000 per installed ton for a ground loop. The total price of these systems for the small-scale commercial use and homes ranges $10,000 to $25,000.
Geothermal System Maintenance
As you know, geothermal systems have less movable parts sheltered inside the building, so the lifespan of the geothermal heat pump systems is exceptionally high. The heat pump pipes have warranties between 25 to 50 years. However, the pulp can typically last for a minimum of twenty years.
Conclusion:
Geothermal heat pumps have been with humans around for more than half a century. You can use this technology for heating or cooling purposes because it has high efficiency in comparison to the furnaces, electrical heating, or air source heat pumps. It also reduces your carbon footprint and helps you save money. The best part of these pumps is that you can install them anywhere. As you know that 40% of your home’s energy comes from the HVAC systems, so it’s the best time to use this green energy source. Alternatively, hire the leading green energy consultancy to cut down your power bills.
The requirement of different types of energy will always be there as nothing can work without energy. But the importance of different types of energy requirement varies according to type of business. So don’t wait and avail the services of best Energy saving consultants at Energyces. Visit www.energyces.com for all kind of information.
5 Effective Home Energy Conservation Tips
The energy-efficient home can make a massive difference to your energy bill cost. The little changes can help you save those from those expensive bills. Hiring the best renewable energy consulting firms is also a smart choice as it enables you to maximize the efficiency at every stage of the energy lifecycle, reduce risk, and minimize the power bills. Also, check out the few tips to conserve home energy and lower the power bills.
1. Freezers and Refrigerators
- Refrigerators and freezers run efficiently when they are full, so it’s better to make them full if possible. Also, avoid overfilling them as this will lower the airflow and make the appliance work harder.
-Check your refrigerator for a leaking gasket.
-You must defrost the freezer and refrigerator daily because frost buildup can boost the load of the compressor motor.
-Avoid frequently opening and closing the door of the fridge.
- To make sure that your appliances are running well, defrost your freezer and refrigerator before ice becomes 1/4-inch thick.
-Set the temperature of your refrigerator to the manufacturer's manual to avoid extra cooling and wastage of energy
2. AC and Heating
-Unused rooms must have sealed vents
-Instead of heaters, install ceiling fans that you can control remotely
- If you are not using the AC for a long time, make sure you switch off the air conditioner.
-When the fireplace is not in use, close the damper.
-When your room is busy, place the thermostat in a comfortable setting
3. Laundry
-Pre-soak dirty clothes for several hours to avoid running your washing machine twice
-Electric drier takes more energy in drying the wet clothes, so it's better to use the old way of drying.
-Ironing clothes only at one time and that too during off-peak hours
-Avoid washing the washing machine in partial loads
-If the clothes are not too much dirty, just put a little detergent and set the machine to the low wash.
- Washing clothes in cold water save $63 in a year.
- Use of dishwashers, dryers, or clothes washers at night time keep the house cool and even lower the strain on the electric grid during the peak usage hours, i.e., 4 to 6 PM.
4. Lighting
-Use low watt and energy efficient lamps.
-Turn off the unused lights and other electric appliances. A power strip will help you switch off multiple items at once.
-Replace the incandescent light bulbs with the fluorescent ones.
- Avoid charging our mobile phone overnight.
-Hire a professional renewable energy consulting firm to save big on your light bills.
- Avoid putting appliances that give off heat (like lamps or TVs) near a thermostat.
5. Kitchen Appliances
-Use a microwave rather than the stove while cooking.
-Avoid putting the small pots or pans in small burners or other heating equipment.
-Do not boil water in an open pan because the covered one will boil the water fast.
-When the food you’re cooking starts boiling, set it to a low mode.
-Keep your reflectors, burners, and range tops clean as it produces more heat and consumes minimal energy.
-Wrap the water storage tank in a specially-built blanket to retain the heat.
- Avoid peeking in the oven while you are baking something because every time you look, the temperature lower to 25° F, thus making your oven to use more energy.
- Switch off the oven a few minutes prior cooking time runs out. It will continue to cook the food without using the extra power.
The best energy management consulting firms encourage the home and business owners to use the renewable sources of energy so that you can save lots of money.
Read more: Importance of Energy Consulting Services for Businesses
