In October, Money magazine had a special energy insert that featured five ways to save on your energy bills. They not only highlighted the ideas, but the annual savings and up-front costs you'd expect from each of them. They also listed a "quick fix" -- a step you could take in case you didn't want to take the "full-on" advice. Today we'll look at their #4 suggestion, add insulation. Their thoughts:
Idea: Insulation wasn't standard for newly built houses until the mid-70s oil crisis. So if your home is older than that, check out your attic floor - it's the place you'd be most likely to find the stuff. None? Consider adding it to the attic and the basement. Even if there's some insulation there already, you may benefit from adding more.
Annual savings: About 5% on your fuel bills (if you have some insulation already) to 25% (if you have none).
Up-front cost: About $1,000 to insulate the attic and foundation yourself; about $2,000 to $4,000 for a handyman to do it.
The credit: 10% of the cost of materials (credit cannot exceed $500).
Quick Fix: A Smart Power Strip (costing about $30) could save you $30 per strip a year. Most electrical devices gobble energy even when they're shut off and unplugging them is a hassle.
My take:
We probably should have added some more insulation a few years ago. We have some in both the attic and basement, but I'm sure it's not enough and not as good as today's materials our house is about 20 years old. But since we're moving soon (hopefully), it's probably not worth it to add any extra insulation at this point.
Not sure how the power strip relates to the insulation idea, but I use one for my home computer. We should probably get one for the TV/DVD player/video game part of the house too as that's the other area where we have a concentration of electronic appliances.
I don't get the insulation/power strip connection either, but by "smart power strip" I think (or hope) they are referring to the kind that detect power consumption on the primary outlet to kill/enable the power on the secondary outlets.
So, if you only use your monitor/speakers/printer/usb drive when your computer is on, it will automatically kill the power to these peripherals when the computer is powered off, eliminating the "energy vampires". Same holds true for your TV vcr/stereo/dvd player/cable-satellite receiver.
These types of peripherals consume power to light LED's and detect remote commands even when you are not using them.
Posted by: Joey | November 15, 2007 at 08:47 AM
I insulated my attic the first winter that I owned my house. It was a lot of work, cost about $500, and was worth every penny. I doubled the insulation that was in the attic, as well as extending soffit extenders (the previous insulation when right up to the soffits and there were only a few that weren't blocked.
Posted by: Blaine Moore | November 15, 2007 at 10:52 AM