Home Page > Publications and Reports > Consumer Brochures > 105 Causes High Electric Bills
105 Causes of High Utility Bills
Provided by the City of Tallahassee
Since 1981 the City of Tallahassee Utilities' energy auditors have been visiting
homes to investigate energy problems and recommend solutions. This booklet contains
actual findings that cause high utility bills.
Have questions? Call 891-4YOU (then follow prompts
or press 41.) Feel free to call Your Own Utilities to schedule
a home energy audit! There's no charge. Our energy
auditors have probably seen examples of everything
described in this booklet, and much more.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The air conditioner's thermostat is set too low...........Take
note: Your air conditioner cools no faster at a lower setting, it only cools
longer.
The recommended summer setting is 78 degrees. Set it 2 or 3 degrees higher
when you're away in the day. Recent research in Florida reveals that home cooling
costs increase 8% to 12% for each degree setting below 78 degrees.
Your
cooling costs can almost double if you set the thermostat
at 70 instead of 78 degrees!
2. The air conditioner's air filter is clogged..........Air flow
is restricted. When airflow is restricted your HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air
Conditioning) system runs less efficiently. A clogged filter increases costs, reduces
comfort and can lead to costly equipment failures. Ice may form on the air conditioner's
evaporator coils, a condition that can precede "slugging" the compressor with liquid
refrigerant. The resulting repair bill can exceed $1,000. Change the air filter
religiously! It should be replaced monthly during summer and winter periods of heavy
use.
3. The evaporator coils are clogged with accumulated dust.........Airflow
is restricted. Problems that result are much like those described above for dirty
filters. If you have central air conditioning, all the air in your house draws through
the air conditioner's filter, then through the cooling (evaporator) coils. Generally
the filter doesn't clean the air; its purpose is to protect the equipment, in particular
the cooling coils. In spite of the filter the downstream coils gather dust and grime
over time. Energy efficiency is degraded by about 5% each year, as the coils get
dirtier! Your costs go up while comfort goes down. Have a service technician check
the evaporator coils yearly and clean them if necessary.
4. The "FAN" setting is selected at the air conditioner thermostat..........It
should always be set on "AUTO". Set to cool on FAN, the blower pushes air through
the ductwork continuously while the compressor cycles on and off. Moisture removed
from the air while the compressor runs is reintroduced to the house when the fan
alone runs between compressor cycles. Don't let this happen! Don't set the system
on "FAN"! Set to cool on AUTO, humidity is kept lower, costs are much lower and
comfort is higher. If your ducts are leaky (and most are) the FAN setting is especially
costly to you.
5. The central heat pump is simultaneously cooling and heating
.............and the cooling cost triples! Overall this is
a rare condition, but memorable to all involved because the summer bills get so
stunningly high. A variety of thermostat and wiring problems can be the cause. For
example, we've found situations where 5,000 watts of supplemental heating strips
come on whenever the air distribution fan runs, winter or summer. The auditor detects
the problem by running the cooling system alone (other appliances off at the breaker
panel) and timing the meter spin to calculate power draw. A 5,000 watt overage is
readily detected by this method.
6. Teenagers...........are full-sized human beings who don't yet
pay the bills themselves but may use extraordinary amounts of electric energy per
capita. Small children, by contrast, are low to the floor and relatively comfortable
at levels of summer heat that stress many adults (see #84).
7. Central heat strips turn on, off, on, off.......even when the
hallway thermostat is set to OFF. With everything in the house off or unplugged
and the water heater switched off at the breaker panel, the meter races, stops,
races, stops. Because of a thermostat, control wiring or other wiring problem, the
central electric heating strips (10,000 to 20,000 watts) are coming on even though
the distribution fan is off and all is silent. Without the fan running, heat from
the strips is not distributed. Heat builds up around the strips until a high-temperature
safety switch is activated, turning them off. They cool. They come on again.........and
so on. Another rare problem like #5 above, but costly when it happens.
8. The thermostat is calibrated wrong........and so is the thermometer
on the thermostat faceplate. The system cools lower than the temperature selected
by the resident. For example, the thermostat might be set on 78 degrees, but an
accurate thermometer shows that it's actually cooling to 75 degrees.
This is an
extremely common situation - We've found thermostats as much as
10 degrees off. The simplest solution is to rest an accurate thermometer on top
of the thermostat, find out how much it's off, and compensate accordingly when you
select the desired indoor temperature.
(By the way, if you'd like to receive
a simple card-sized thermometer that's perfect for this kind of testing, call
Energy Services at 891-4YOU.)
9. The customer has a swimming pool........and the pool pump runs
24 hours a day. The high cost of pool pumping is a surprise. Most residential pool
pumps are 3/4 horsepower output. Operated all day every summer day, the monthly
energy cost is about $62; operated continuously year around, the annual energy cost
is about $745.
A timer for the pool pump is well worth the installation
cost, and usually pays for itself through energy cost savings within a
few months. The National Spa and Pool Institute recommends that the pool be "turned
over" (one complete circulation of water) once a day. Full turnover of a typical
20,000 gallon pool, then, requires 4 hours pumping at 85 gallons per minute, 6 hours
at 55 gallons per minute or 8 hours at 40 gallons per minute. Most pool pump systems
are sized to accomplish a full turnover in 4-6 hours. Pumping year around for 6
hours a day instead of 24 hours a day saves about $558 a year! Installed cost of
a timer is $100-$150.
10. The ceiling lacks adequate insulation..........Heat from the
attic is conducting through to the house below. Improving ceiling insulation is
one of the best investments you can make towards lowering your air conditioning
costs in summer.
If you're not sure what level of insulation you have in
your attic, call us for a free home energy audit. The older your
home, the more likely its original level of insulation would now be considered inadequate.
We still find older homes with no insulation at all.
11. Humid outdoor air is leaking into the house........through
cracks around doors and windows, electrical outlets, ducts, vents, recessed lights
in the ceiling, or fireplace dampers that don't seal tightly. In Florida homes about
38% of the air conditioner's work (and operating cost) goes to drying out this moist
air leaking in from out of doors. Leaks in the ducts that supply cooled air to rooms
will make this situation much worse, because the overall house air pressure becomes
"negative' with respect to the out of doors whenever the air conditioner is running.
In this condition the house sucks in warm, moist air whenever the air conditioning
system runs. The system runs longer to compensate. Even more warm air is drawn in,
which needs to be cooled......and so forth in a vicious cycle. Costs rise significantly.
(By the way, closing interior doors when the air conditioner runs likewise results
in a negativepressure house that draws in warm, moist outdoor air (see #66.)
12. Dogs have pulled air ducts apart beneath the house, cats
have bedded for years in the ceiling insulation, possums have tugged
open a crawl way where water pipes penetrate the floor and they're
living in the hollow wall of the bath tub.........and so forth.
Energy wise, the worst of these situations is where supply or return air ducts are
disconnected in the crawl space beneath the house. Every summer at least one of
our auditors reports finding the family dog comfortably housed in the return air
plenum under a customer's house. It costs a lot to cool the outdoors!
13. The refrigerator that served for twenty years in the kitchen
still works, and now it's in the garage.........And
it's a hot garage. Those old refrigerators are not very energy efficient, but they
sure last a long time! In a hot garage that ancient Coldspot may run almost continuously.
The new refrigerator in your kitchen is probably two or three times (or more) as
energy efficient, especially if it was manufactured after January 1, 1993. Energy
wise, you're much better off organizing all your stored foods into the newer refrigerator
and unplugging the old unit. How big a difference in cost can there be? A new, 25
cubic foot highefficiency refrigerator in the kitchen costs about $5 or $6 a month
to operate; an old, inefficient unit in a hot garage can cost $25 to $50 a month
in summer.
14. The house is equipped with awning or jalousie windows designed
for cross ventilation.........But the house is closed up for air conditioning.
Unfortunately, these window types are notoriously leaky. In summer, the air conditioner
must toil to dry as well as cool the air, and major air leaks cause major cost increases
(see #11).
15. Hot water leaks.......from a tub or sink faucet. Here's something
we occasionally find: The water heater is located at one end of the house and there's
a leaky tub faucet at the far end of the house. The leaking water feels cold. "Minor
problem", you think. But even though the water feels cool, if could be hot water
that cooled as it was piped the length of the house. An easy test: Tighten down
the hot side handle and watch to see if the leak diminishes. Another test: Put a
screwdriver tip to the hot water pipe where it exits the water heater, and press
the handle end against your ear; the sound of running (hot) water is magnified.
A third test: Feel the cold water supply pipe where it enters the water heater;
if no hot water has been used in the previous half hour, the cold pipe should feel
warm (heat from the water heater conducts to that pipe and warms it). If the cold
pipe near the water heater is cold, and no hot water has been used recently, there
may be a hot water leak; cold water is entering the tank (and cooling the inlet
pipe) to make up for hot water being lost to a leak.
16. Residents have waterbeds......but are not careful to make them
up each day. Make up the bed! The more blankets the better. A typical waterbed costs
about $10 a month to heat if it's made up each day with heavy covers that hold its
heat. If left uncovered the heating cost can double. Smaller water beds cost less
to heat than larger: A queen size bed's heating cost is about 22% less than a king
size. Whatever the size, it helps to insulate the bed's edges and bottom with polyethylene
foam, polystyrene foam or even layers of corrugated cardboard.
17. A rooftop power ventilating fan pulls hot air from the
attic on summer days.......However, a). The fan's thermostatic control
is set too low (maybe 95 degrees instead of 115 degrees), so the fan runs more than
it should; b). There's a lot of air leakage from the house across the ceiling to
the attic, or bathroom and dryer vents open into the attic instead of passing through
the roof, so that when the rooftop fan pulls air from the attic it also pulls air
(expensively cooled air) from the house; and c). The fan motor itself is costly
to run, and eats up any potential savings for having cooled the attic. In general,
well-insulated attics don't need power ventilation. Passive ventilation devices
such as high ridge, off-ridge, turtleback or gable vents, together with low soffit
vents, are adequate. The optimum design is usually a ridge vent (internally baffled
so that rain doesn't bounce in) and soffit vents at the eaves.
18. The air conditioning system is not getting enough air returned
from the house......for a variety of reasons. We've seen return air
grills set in the floor that are partly or entirely covered by a rug, for example.
In addition to increasing operating costs, inadequate volume of return air back
to the indoor HVAC coil is a major factor in shortening the life of central air
conditioners. Too little air across the indoor coil can potentially lower the coil
temperature to the point that ice forms on the indoor coil. An air conditioner with
its indoor coil iced over is in a "destruction mode" (see #2).
19. The HVAC filter is located in a return duct plenum under
the house.......Because it's so hard to get to, it's never changed.
And at some time in the past a plastic laundry bag was sucked into the return air
system and is plastered against the filter. Almost every energy auditor can tell
of finding situations like this.
20. The HVAC air handler, located in a hallway closet, is pulling
return air from the attic as well as the house........adding
considerably to costs. Sometimes this situation is discovered where the resident
previously had a gas or fuel oil furnace in a hallway closet. Originally, the furnace
pulled its combustion air from the attic through an opening in the closet ceiling.
When the resident later switched to a heat pump, the furnace was removed from the
closet and replaced with the heat pump's indoor "blower-coil" unit. But the ceiling
opening remained. The new closet unit was set up to pull return air through a grill
in the closet wall into the closet space, then through a filter mounted in the blower
coil unit. But it's pulling air from the attic as well as the house! Most auditors
have a story of first finding this problem when, with the air conditioner running,
they climbed a ladder, lifted the attic hatch and noticed house air rushing past
them into the attic.
21. The air-conditioning equipment and the air delivery system
are inefficient........for a variety of reasons. First, the equipment
may have been inefficient from the start. Central air conditioners fifteen years
old or older are likely to have an original efficiency rating of 7.5 SEER (Seasonal
Energy Efficiency Ratio) or less, and the efficiency drops even lower with aging.
Today, Federal law requires manufacturers to achieve SEER 10.0 or higher for all
split-system units, and SEER 9.7 for package units. What do these SEER ratings imply?
You've probably already guessed: If your cooling cost were $600 a summer with a
SEER 6.0 unit, your cost would be $300 a summer (for the same amount of cooling)
with a SEER 12.0 unit. What other factors affect air conditioning efficiency? The
big three are a) dirty coils, which at normal rates of dirt accumulation degrade
efficiency by about 5% each year; b) duct leaks, which in most Florida homes account
for about 20% of air conditioning energy consumption; and c) improper refrigerant
charge. How common are these types of problems? In 1988 a widely cited Arizona study
of residential air conditioners found the following: o 75% of the condenser coils
were dirty o 70% of the units had improper refrigerant charge o 55% of the evaporator
coils were dirty o 45% had dirty blower wheels o 35% had significant duct leakage
o 10% had a wrong motor or fan installed
22. The HVAC refrigerant charge is low.........or it's too high.
Either way degrades efficiency. In 1990 a field study of residential central air
conditioners found 27% undercharged and 27% overcharged. Overcharging is worse.
The unit's cooling ability goes down while the power draw goes up: The unit runs
longer to do the job, and costs more per minute to run. Overcharging also stresses
the compressor, with serious consequences for its lifespan. The compressor is the
most expensive system component to replace (see # 2).
23. The air conditioner's compressor runs all the time........whether
the indoor distribution fan runs or not. Rare.
24. The outdoor condenser is located beneath a wooden deck........and
airflow is restricted. Normally, whatever heat is removed from the house by an air
conditioning system is released to the outdoors from the condenser unit--that big
metal box in the back yard. Hold your hand in the hot breeze from the propeller
fan--it usually blows upward--and you'll get the idea. To work well it needs plenty
of clearance from decks, bushes and folded lawn chairs. By the way, that hot air
blowing from the outdoor condenser is not hot air from the house. It's outdoor air
heated by passage across the hot condenser coils -- it's releasing the heat from
inside the house, not the air from inside the house. The cleaner those outdoor coils
are, and the easier it is for the heated air to get away from that unit, the better
it works.
Cleanliness is critical. Air conditioners and heat pumps only
work well if kept clean!
25. A resident requires the use of oxygen........and unfortunately,
the energy cost to run these compressor systems is surprisingly high.
26. There's a whole lot of cooking going on..........Meanwhile
the air conditioning runs nonstop to cool the kitchen. To avoid this, a lot of folks
cook outside in the summer, eat more fruits and salads, eat later in the evening..........or
use a microwave oven! For the same cooking job, a microwave costs far less than
half as much to operate as a standard electric oven, and doesn't heat the kitchen.
Here's a comparison of costs to cook a meatloaf, from a study by Northeast Utilities
(adjusted to our utility rates):
|
Oven Type |
Cost
|
|
Electric oven |
19 cents
|
|
Electric convection oven |
14 cents
|
|
Gas oven |
12 cents
|
|
Electric frying pan |
8 cents
|
|
Electric toaster oven |
9 cents
|
|
Electric crock pot |
7 cents
|
|
Electric microwave oven |
3 or 4 cents
|
27. There's a dehumidifier running nonstop, draining through
a hose to the outdoors........and the basement area being "dried" is
itself wide open to the outdoors! Admittedly, this is a rare finding, but let's
look a little more closely at dehumidifiers. They remove water from the air. So
does your air conditioner. But a dehumidifier heats the room in which it sits, just
as your refrigerator does! Nevertheless, for some homes it's a very good weapon
in the battle against mildew. Have you noticed how dehumidifiers all seem to have
about the same size pan for water collection, but have widely different capacities
for water removal? The capacities are usually expressed as pints of water removed
in a 24-hour period at some standard temperature and humidity. A "bigger" dehumidifier,
with a larger compressor and higher operating cost per minute of run time, removes
water from the air faster, but generally less efficiently. If you're catching the
water in the pan underneath, you'll need to empty it more frequently to keep up.
If you're draining via a hose, there's no emptying necessary, but just be sure that
the area you're attempting to dry isn't like the one above, open to the outdoors!
That was a real finding by one of our auditors. The resident was using a high capacity
dehumidifier, the room air was as damp as ever and the monthly cost was extraordinary.
28. Someone's doing a lot of clothes drying every day.....during
the heat of the day, with a dryer located in an air conditioned utility room, and
the dryer is vented to the outdoors. A clothes dryer has a powerful fan that whips
air (house air in the case above) past the damp clothes at the rate of 150 to 200
cubic feet per minute (cfm). In a 1,500 square foot house with eight-foot ceilings,
a 200 cfm dryer can empty one household of air every 60 minutes of operation. In
summer, that's a lot of expensively cooled house air being heated by the dryer and
blown out. Just as bad, that's a lot of lost house air that must be replaced by
hot, damp outside air leaking in fast wherever it can: Through kitchen and bathroom
vents, fireplace vents and dampers, around windows and doors, through recessed ceiling
light fixtures, through electric plug and light switch plates, etc. For all the
above reasons, it's best to locate the dryer in an area outside the home, like a
utility room or garage.
29. The water heater's thermostat malfunctions, the tank overheats,
tank pressure builds, the pressure-and-temperature relief valve opens
to release a flood of scalding hot water.............under
the house, where no one sees it. An actual case. Yes, the bills were high! In another
similar case, in a student apartment we found the pressure/temperature relief pipe
sending hot water from the under-the-counter water heater to a connection with the
drainpipe beneath the kitchen sink. A steamy hot mist was rising from the sink drain
hole; the utility bill had recently doubled. In most single family detached homes,
the pressure/tem- perature relief line from the water heater emerges as a little
downspout low on the backside of the house or garage. If you find hot water plunging
from that spout, call a plumber.
30. We experience a dry period, maybe in May or June.......and
water bills rise, the result of desperate lawn watering. Home lawns are often over-watered.
At normal pressure, a 5/8" garden hose delivers about 10 gallons per minute. Thirty
minutes of unneeded watering wastes 300 gallons of water! Water waste costs you
money and does not improve the health of your lawn. A few tips: a). The best lawn
watering time is a windless, morning period. Avoid watering on windy days. b). Wait
longer times between watering. Grass roots will grow deeper, less watering will
be needed. c). Remove weeds before they get large. They steal precious water from
desirable plants. d). Mow regularly, removing only 1/3 of the grass length. Clippings
can remain on the lawn. They help retain moisture.
31. The resident's City Energy Loan payment on the utility
bill makes the total bill in summer higher than it was the previous
summer........when they still had their old, inefficient equipment.
Ouch. The truth is, new air conditioning equipment almost never pays for itself
through energy savings in less than five years. Since the term on our Energy Loans
is five years, and 95% of our loans are for HVAC equipment, almost all loan program
participants are, on average, saving less each month than the monthly loan payment
amount. (We never represent it otherwise.) On the other hand, from year six on out,
they're doing great. It's been debated that we might extend our term to seven or
ten years. Because the amount of money we have to work with is limited, it seems
best to turn it around in five years and let more people take advantage of the program.
If you'd like to register an opinion or comment one way or the other about this,
call Bob Seaton at 891-6130. We appreciate your feedback.
32. The resident is equipped with a so-called "combination
appliance" that uses a powerful gas water heater to heat the home or
apartment in winter, as well as heating the water .........but
in summer it keeps on sending heat to the house! Rare, but it happens as a result
of faulty or absent electronic controls. Summertime electric and gas costs both
increase; the electric air conditioning (cooling) cost typically doubles. For the
energy auditor, higher than expected summer gas cost is often the telling clue.
33. Leaky supply or return air plenums.......greatly increase the
cost of air conditioning. Using blower-door technology to test Florida homes for
duct leakage, almost all systems are found to be significantly leaky. The most common
sites of leakage are the supply air and return air plenums, which are the air collecting
boxes on the upstream and downstream sides of the blower-coil unit that distributes
air around the house. In the supply plenum, air pressure is greatest; in the return
plenum, air suction is greatest. Any leakage from these boxes is exaggerated by
the extremes of positive or negative air pressure close to the fan. In the distribution
system as a whole, if supply air leakage predominates, the air pressure in the rooms
of the house becomes negative with respect to the outdoors. If return air leakage
predominates, the air pressure in the rooms of the house becomes positive with respect
to the outdoors.
A negatively pressured house sucks in warm, moist outdoor
air, burdening the air conditioner; a positively pressured house pushes
out expensively cooled indoor air, losing it to the outdoors.
Usually mere duct tape is inadequate to repair these high-pressure plenum leaks--it
simply comes loose. Repairs that last a long time use a gluey paste called mastic,
typically having a high content of embedded fiberglass fabric and high tolerance
for variations in temperature.
34. Doors need weather-stripping........to prevent significant
air leakage. The crack around all four edges of a standard door is 20 feet long.
If the crack is 1/12" wide, the total "hole" size is 20 square inches, roughly the
equivalent of a softball-sized hole in the door! If the house is negatively pressured
whenever the air conditioner runs because of supply duct leakage (see # 33), that
size hole admits a lot of warm, moist air for the air conditioner to cool and dry.
A wide variety of weatherstripping materials are available at local hardware stores
and home supply centers. You'll often find good instructions there too, either from
staff or from how-to booklets.
35. Windows and doors need caulking........to prevent air leakage,
for the same reasons discussed above. This is do-it-yourself work. Caulk is cheap,
applying it is easy, but it takes time. Caulk cracks around window and doorframes;
cracks where masonry walls meet wood siding or trim; wall penetrations by pipes,
meter box, dryer vent or exhaust vents, etc. Some all-purpose caulks are silicon,
silicon-acrylic and siliconized acrylic latex.
36. Gardening and landscaping activities increase water use.......maybe
more than expected (see # 30).
37. Some of the worst water leaks we find are at toilets...........where
you can lose 100 gallons a day and never know it. Listen carefully for the faint,
high whine of a toilet leak. Find out if tightening the water supply shutoff beneath
the tank will stop the noise. Or, put some food coloring in the toilet tank. If
the color appears in the bowl without flushing, you have a leak. Have you ever seen
a "hung" toilet, where the mechanism catches in mid-flush and water rushes continuously
out the drain? If you ever discover a toilet in your home that occasionally hangs,
don't put off having it repaired. It can flush hundreds of dollars worth of water
in just a couple of months.
38. Windows on the southwest or west side are fully exposed
to the setting sun.......... In newer Florida homes sun entering the
windows accounts for about 20% of the air conditioning load. In older homes, it
can be as much as 30%. Use interior shades, drapes or blinds to reduce heat gain
across the windows by about 20%. External shade (trees, awnings, sun screens) works
even better. Some newer, high tech windows have special tints or films that reduce
the amount of heat transmitted across the window into the house. Most window manufacturers
now offer high-tech windows with low-E coatings. A low-E coating is a microscopically
thin, virtually invisible, metal or metallic oxide layer deposited on a window.
In a double paned window the coated surface may be either the outer side of the
inner glass or the inner side of the outer glass. In Florida the latter design works
better. The coating acts to suppress radiative heat movement across the window by
reflecting heat back into the home during cold weather and back to the outdoors
during warm weather.
39. The refrigerator door won't stay shut............ Take note:
Your refrigerator cools the food by removing heat from within and releasing that
heat to the kitchen. The longer it runs, the more it heats the kitchen. So make
sure the door shuts tight. And arrange items in the refrigerator for quick removal
and return.
40. In some older apartments and town homes, the air conditioner's
indoor component (the blower coil that distributes air to rooms) is
located in a small closet, right over the electric water
heater...............which in summer heats the passing air on its
way to the a.c. cooling coils and fan. It helps to lower the water heater's thermostats
to the lowest appropriate temperature (usually 115 degrees, or 125 degrees if the
resident uses a dishwasher) and insulate the water heater.
41. The refrigerator door won't seal when it's shut, the door
is askew or the gasket is damaged.......and cold air is being lost
to the kitchen. Years ago our standard advice was: Properly align the door on its
hinges and/or replace the gasket. Then we learned that replacement gaskets cost
$50 to $80, are hard to find for some older models and are not assured to fit well
as replacements. If your refrigerator is 10 or 15 years old and in poor condition,
you're probably best off to replace it with new one rather than undertake gasket
repairs. After January 1, 1993, new refrigerators are three times (or more) as energy
efficient as similar sized units 10 years older. A new, 25 cubic foot energy efficient
refrigerator costs $5 or $6 a month to operate. An old one costs three times as
much or more to operate, and may cost much more if it's located in a hot garage
(see # 13).
42. The HVAC system has moisture in the refrigerant........and
efficiency is reduced 5-15%.
43. The HVAC system draws warm, moist outside air through an
unsealed PVC chase.......that routes refrigerant lines through the
slab. Costs rise as the air conditioner works to cool and dry outdoor air admitted
to the system by this and other routes.
44. The electric meter was misread.......high or low. Yes, it happens
once in a while. Because the meter registers kilowatt-hour usage cumulatively, the
billing self-adjusts the next month, but not without some momentary alarm for those
concerned.
45. Relatives come to visit in sunny Florida.......and the bill
goes up.
46. Kids come home from college.........and the bill goes up.
47. College students living away from home for the first time
move into an off campus house or apartment in August.........and
their first utility bill has a way of getting high. It seems to relate to that whirlwind
of initial activity that happens to coincide with brutally hot weather: Moving in,
cleaning, parties, friends over, door open, thermostat set too low, etc (see #99).
48. Schoolchildren are home from school all summer.........and
the bill goes up.
49. The clothes dryer vents lint onto the air conditioner's
outdoor condenser coils........The system, hampered in its ability
to release heat, runs longer and longer.
50. The dryer vent itself is clogged with lint..........and
it takes longer and longer to dry a load of clothes. With the vent clogged, the
clothes get a hot, damp tumbling, but little moisture is removed.
51. The small pump on a water heating waste-heatrecovery unit
runs nonstop.........whether the air conditioner is running or not.
This can get pretty costly, especially if the water heater is a long way from the
air conditioner's outdoor condenser.
52. The water heater thermostats are set too high........and
each 10 degrees downward adjustment cuts water heating energy consumption by 13%.
We recommend setting the thermostat(s) at 115-120 degrees. If you use a dishwasher
that has no booster heater, set thermostats at 140 degrees; with a booster, set
them at 125 degrees.
53. The air conditioner's outdoor condenser sits baking in
the sun........increasing its operating cost. A north side location
for this unit is recommended. It's possible to shade it with trees, but remember
that the condenser needs plenty of "breathing room".
54. The resident has a hot tub.......and unless careful attention
is paid to a tub's cover, insulation and pumping, the added monthly cost can be
$20 to $40.
55. The pets have special requirements for cooling…
56. All the lights in the house are on..........or nearly all.
In most homes lighting only accounts for about 6% of the electric cost. But lighting
costs can mount; keep up the habit of turning off lights when you leave a room.
If you have ten 75 watt lights on for twelve hours a day, the cost (at $.09357 per
kilowatt hour) is $.84/day, $25.26/month, $303.17/year.
Over 99% of the energy
provided to those lights is converted to heat, less than 1% to light.
Remember that when you're trying to keep cool in summer!
57. Outdoor area lights are on all through the day...because
of a bad photocell.
58. There's hot water in the toilet! Six words that mean trouble.
For years we teased one of our energy auditors (the author of this booklet) who
insisted he had found this - no one believed him. Then two others discovered the
same thing.
59. Vines, bushes, tall grass, leaves, litter or lawn chairs
cover the air conditioner's outdoor condenser unit.........so
it can't release heat. Cooling costs rise.
60. The house is very large.........and so is the cost to cool
it. There's more volume to heat and cool. Larger homes generally have higher utility
costs, all things considered.
61. The garage was converted to a family room...without
insulating the walls or ceiling. Now it's the hottest room in the house, and that's
where the TV is located and the family spends the most time. To make it comfortable,
the family turns down the thermostat setting for the whole house. Cooling costs
rise (see #93).
62. The family has a refrigerator in the kitchen, an older
refrigerator in the pantry, a freezer in the pantry..........and
so forth. Costs rise. If the newest refrigerator was manufactured after January
1, 1993 it's far, far more energy efficient than older refrigerators or freezers.
Consolidate stored foods into the newest unit if possible (see # 13 and #41)!
63. The air conditioner is oversized for the house..........so
that it cools powerfully but doesn't run long enough to dry the air.
The result is a cool, damp interior that doesn't feel right. To improve comfort,
the resident lowers the thermostat setting a few degrees and the system runs longer.
This dries the air but overcools it. Costs rise. Everyone should know this about
air conditioning:
Bigger isn't better. An oversized air conditioner cycles
on-and-off frequently, removes less moisture and wastes energy.
A system correctly sized for your house will run
longer for less cost,
dry the air better and give greater comfort than the next bigger size. Correct sizing
is a particular concern in Tallahassee where we experience a very, very, very damp
climate.
64. The fireplace damper is open, or there's no damper at all.........admitting
outdoor air or losing indoor air. Costs rise in either case, especially if there
are HVAC duct leaks, and there usually are (see #33). One of our energy auditors
took an informal survey of his customers last spring, asking those with fireplaces
whether their dampers are closed. Among those who thought it was closed, about 50%
were wrong: It's open.
65. Air conditioning supply registers around the house are
closed off...........Take note:
If you have a central air conditioner
or heat pump, don't close off vents. The house becomes negatively pressured
with respect to the out of doors, so that warm, moist outdoor air is pulled in (see
#33). Additionally, airflow across the HVAC evaporator coil is reduced, which lowers
system's energy efficiency and cooling capacity. That is, for a given amount of
cooling work to be accomplished, the system's running cost per minute and the number
of minutes required both increase. Don't close off room vents. Twenty years ago
a lot of energy efficiency brochures and booklets advised closing off room vents
but now we know better. Leave 'em all open.
66. Bedroom doors are closed, with no way for air supplied
to the rooms to circulate back to the air conditioner ........Each
closed-off room becomes positively pressured while the remainder of the house areas
become negatively pressured with respect to the outdoors. The result is exaggerated
leakage to the outdoors from positively pressured closed rooms, and from the outdoors
into the negatively pressured house areas. Leakage occurs through bathroom vents,
fireplace vents and dampers, around windows and doors, through recessed ceiling
light fixtures, through electric plug and light switch plates, etc.
67. An air conditioning supply duct leads to the garage..........where
it simply wastes cool air to the "outdoors".
68. The air conditioning system's return air grill is set low
on a wall and blocked by a chair, or its set in the floor where it's
covered by a rug...........results in restricted return air flow
and all the attendant problems (see #2 and #18).
69. A small pool or spa is situated literally inside the house........Rare,
but unforgettable. Why not do this? Because of the phenomenal moisture problems
that result, not to mention high air conditioning costs. Remember, the air conditioner
works to remove moisture as well as remove heat. Even in normal circumstances about
38% of the air conditioner's work (and operating cost) is devoted to moisture removal.
70. The customer is attempting to cool the entire house with
a variety of old, inefficient window air conditioners........Here's
a topic that deserves a closer look. Our energy auditors have all observed that
customers with window air conditioners usually have significantly lower bills than
those with central cooling systems. Yes,
lower. Why? Because only one or
two rooms are being cooled some of the time, not the whole house all of the time.
However, if four or five old window units are operating all summer to cool the whole
house, then costs get high. Older window units often have energy efficiency ratings
down around 5 EER; newer central systems are at least twice as energy efficient
as that.
71. In the hallway ceiling there's a large wholehouse fan with
incompletely closed louvers.............It provides a major path for
air leakage to or from the attic. If you have one of these big fans and never use
it, you'd do well to seal it to reduce air leakage and cover it from above with
blankets of insulation. And make sure it can't be turned on!
72. The air conditioner's thermostat is near some source of
heat........like a floor lamp. The thermostat gets fooled, it senses
heat and calls for the air conditioner to run.....and run, and run.......Remember,
small thermostat adjustments make a big difference to your cost. If your system
cools to 73 degrees instead of 78, your cooling cost can increase by 60%.
73. The hallway wall behind the thermostat is hot.......because
hot air is being drawn down from the attic through that wall cavity whenever the
air conditioner runs. This tricks the thermostat into calling for more and more
cooling (compare # 72). Finding the pathway of air leakage and sealing it cures
the problem.
74. The area where residents sit down to eat is heated by morning
or afternoon sun streaming through a sliding glass door........and
the entire house is cooled to a lower temperature in order to achieve acceptable
comfort levels at that spot. Common.
75. Old casement or awning style windows are deformed out of
alignment and will not seal shut............allowing
warm moist air to leak in, or expensively cooled air to leak out.
76. The house lacks shade on the east or west sides, or a mobile
home sits fully exposed to the sun...........Shade
trees can reduce air conditioning costs by up to 30%, and higher if it's a mobile
home.
77. Summer maternity............usually brings with it a heightened
concern for thermal comfort. Just ask any woman who's been pregnant through a Tallahassee
summer. Somewhat lower-than-normal thermostat settings are generally needed.
78. Lots of hot water diaper washing..........increases costs for
a period of two or three years.
79. A shade tree was removed........and air conditioning costs
increased by up to 30% compared to last year. Shade is important!
80. Air conditioning ductwork in a hot attic is poorly insulated.......Attic
heat conducts through to warm the cool stream of duct air.
81. The return air plenum box constructed of sheetrock is uninsulated
and leaky and sits in a hot garage.........A fairly
common finding.
82. All the components of the air conditioning distribution
system, including the air handler, supply ducts and a long return duct,
are located in a hot attic.........Lots of older
homes have their air conditioning systems configured this way.
83. Windows lack inside shading devices (shades, drapes or
blinds), or the devices are not consistently operated............These
shading devices are tremendously important. Use them to block heat entry during
summer days.
84. The resident doesn't pay the utility bill..............Someone
else does, for example a parent. Unfortunately the relationship between this situation
and high bills is consistent.
85. A room or wing or extension was added to the house, or
a garage or porch was enclosed.........and the overall cooling costs
go up (see #60).
86. The air conditioner's thermostat mounted on the hallway
wall is not level.........Behind the thermostat's cover plate its operation
usually involves one or two mercury-containing glass bulbs that tip left or right
as the temperature adjustment lever is moved. When you adjust the lever "downward",
calling for cooling, the bulb tilts and a small blob of mercury rolls over to make
an electrical connection.
If the thermostat is off level the mercury rollover
is affected, and the thermostat's calibration can be thrown off.
For example, maybe you've set the lever to 78 degrees, but because the thermostat
isn't level the system cools to 75 degrees. Cooling costs rise by 24% to 36% (see
#1). (
Leveling the thermostat is fairly easy using adjustment screws behind
the faceplate, but if you're at all uncertain about it, have it leveled when
your unit is next serviced.) and connected to the "boot" above the register,
but was never connected into the main system. By an installation oversight, no air
is delivered to the new room. Surprisingly, most of our energy auditors have found
unconnected air ducts like this at one time or another.
87. Bad meter........This is often the first thing a customer suspects
to be the cause of high bills, but it's about the last thing an experienced energy
auditor expects to find. Electric meters usually run very slightly slower as they
get older, if they change at all. When an electric meter fails, it doesn't speed
up, it stops.
88. Bathroom power vents are left running...sending expensively
cooled air to the out of doors. Run these vents only as long as needed to clear
that one room of its moisture. If the bathroom is 10 feet by 12 feet with an 8 foot
ceiling, it holds 960 cubic feet of air. Most bathroom fans remove about 50 cubic
feet of air per minute. In the above example, nineteen minutes of fan operation
sends out one roomful of air.
89. The residents left town for a summer vacation and were
expecting the next utility bill to be low........but
they left the air conditioner at its normal thermostat setting during their absence
and the weather was hot. For many folks, the best practice is to set the air conditioner's
thermostat up to 83 or 84 degrees when away. The system runs once in a while, controlling
humidity.
90. Windows and doors are left open while the air conditioner
runs........
91. While the family is away during weekdays, a laundry maid
or housekeeper is at work around the house.........and
she (or he) drops the thermostat below 75 degrees.
92. The housecats always nap on a particular spot in the middle
of the kitchen floor..........because a hot water leak beneath the
slab is warming that spot just right. You'll hate it if this happens. Repairs involve
major excavation.
93. House type #93 has a package-unit central air conditioner
at one end, supply and return ductwork beneath the house and a garage
converted to an uninsulated TV/family room at the farthest
distance from the air conditioner. A couple of ducts are added to the
air distribution system to supply cool air to the family room.......This
is a recipe for high bills in summer, but even higher in winter. The ductwork has
the longest possible run--both ways, to cool the room that gets the most evening
use. The walls and ceiling need insulation. The air conditioner's delivery fan is
probably not powerful enough to handle the additional area, and the add-on ducts
result in an imbalanced system that no longer delivers the requisite 400 cubic feet
per minute of air (per ton of cooling capacity) across the air conditioner's evaporator
coils. It all adds up to high cooling and even higher heating costs.
94. The air conditioning components are mismatched........
For example, a new "high efficiency" outdoor unit (the condenser) is linked
with the original 15-year-old indoor unit (the fan coil, i.e. the fan-andevaporator-
coil.) And the original copper refrigerant lines connect the outdoor and indoor
units. The result: Low efficiency, high operating costs.
A new outdoor condenser
matched with an old indoor fan/coil may cool the house, but it does not
likely achieve anywhere near the rated efficiency stickered on the new condenser's
cabinet.
95. A newly added room is hot, so the thermostat setting for
the whole house is lowered.....meanwhile, in the attic, the air supply
duct to the new room is laid out
96. The ductwork "boots" behind the registers are loose, or
ducts under the house have fallen away from the register boots............and
the system is cooling the crawlspace under the house. When you shine a flashlight
down into a floor register, you shouldn't see the ground.
97. Flex duct in the attic is kinked or flattened, restricting
air supply to particular rooms............and the thermostat setting
for the whole house is lowered to compensate. This kind of problem is especially
significant if the rooms having insufficient air supply are the kitchen or family
room.
This is a common problem!
98. The air delivery system includes some length of panned
floor joists which are leaky.......... The spaces between floor joists
are sometimes modified for use as return ducts. This cavity is made into a duct
by attaching sheet metal over the bottom of the joists and by capping the ends of
the joist cavity. A leaky panned floor joist draws in air from the crawl space or
basement. To remedy, seal using mastic.
99. The ceiling fans run backwards, breezing upwards.
They should breeze downward, so you feel the breeze.
Another common finding!
100. Office in the home......Here's the power draw of some selected
home office accessories:
Equipment Type Power Draw (Watts)
|
Idle |
Active
|
|
Copier |
6 |
400
|
|
Personal computer |
62 |
62
|
|
Video Monitor |
62 |
62
|
|
Laser printer |
80 |
200
|
|
Fax machine |
14 |
30
|
|
Totals |
222 |
752
|
How much this "costs" depends on activity levels. Suppose the copier,
printer and fax machine are idle 23 hours and active 1 hour each day:
Together with computer and monitor (let's say they are active 24
hours/day), monthly cost is about $15.
101. "The roommate effect"........Happens to college students in
off-campus housing. Each roommate has a different level of thermal comfort and a
different level of concern for energy conservation in general. The energy practices
of the least concerned and least conserving individual often become the norm for
all residents.
102. Southeast/Southwest sun exposure floods the home with
radiant heat early and late in the air conditioning season..........Some
homes have southern windows that are well shaded by overhangs through the middle
of the summer, when the sun passes overhead, but sunlight (radiant heat) pours in
early and late in the summer when the sun passes lower in the sky. Air conditioning
costs may soar unexpectedly in late September or October, for example. Typical expression:
"It's hotter in here in October than it was in August".
103. A floor register was closed by accident, and the cooling
temperature for the entire house was lowered in order to feel comfortable
in that one room……Floor registers are easily kicked
shut. If you're not cool in a room that was ok last year, check to make sure the
air registers are still open.
104. Ceiling fans run all day when no one's around…Only
run fans when you're there to feel the breeze. Fans assist "evaporative cooling"
from your skin. They don't cool the house. They don't cool a room. They don't even
cool the furniture. They only cool your skin.
105. "The Takeback Effect"…..Also known in certain public service
agencies as the "Conservation Effect". There's an occasional but well-documented
human tendency to follow-up home energy efficiency improvements with lowered summer
thermostat settings that "take back" the potential energy savings. An example: The
homeowner who upgrades his windows, then cools in summer to iceberg levels and experiences
his highest-ever electric bills.
Revised 6/08/04
Also see:
Twenty Summer Energy Tips That Really Work