With colder weather on the way, there is no better time than now to learn how to seal up your home and save money on your utility bills.
Larry Oswald of Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. in Bismarck, N.D., said the biggest heat loss is through the building envelope, the separation between the interior and the exterior environments of a building.
“Infiltration: cold air coming in through your walls and around your windows and doors. Typically that’s where you are losing most of your energy,” he said.
Oswald handed out MDU conservation kits Oct. 2 as part of Energy Efficiency Awareness Month at Rushmore Mall.
The kits included tips on do-it-yourself projects, a caulking gun, a tube of silicone sealant, switch and outlet sealers, a filter change alert whistle for the heating/air-conditioning filter and two rolls of self-stick V-seal weather stripping to seal windows and doors.
Oswald said MDU offers rebates to residential natural gas customers on Energy Star-rated appliances, such as natural gas furnaces, water heaters and programmable thermostats. The company has a bundle for customers who are building their own homes, and there are also rebates for blown insulation.
“There are different methods for blown insulation people are doing now. They are insulating walls now that are less intrusive on our homes,” he said.
Don Martinez, energy services engineer with Black Hills Power, said one of the first things homeowners can do to save energy is to replace existing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps.
BHP team members handed out 13-watt CFLs at the mall, which Martinez said is equivalent to 60-watt incandescent light bulbs.
“They put out the same amount of light for about a fourth of the energy,” Martinez said.
He said the bulbs now come in sizes that will fit just about every type of fixture. Some are three-way light bulb equivalents and are even dimmable. Homeowners may be turned off by the initial cost of switching out their light bulbs, but Martinez said doing so would be worth it in the long run.
“They are more expensive, but there are so many deals out there now. I have seen good sales on them,” he said.
In addition to the dollar amount in the savings, there are maintenance savings to consider.
“These bulbs last anywhere between 10,000 and 14,000 hours, and the regular screw-in incandescent light bulb will last 500 to maybe 2,000 hours,” he said.
BHP employees also handed out conservation information and discussed some of the newer products, such as solar water heating systems and tips on home insulation, including window insulation kits and caulking.
“Just seal up your home as best as you can,” Martinez said.
The ultimate weatherizing for old windows and doors is to replace them with new, energy-efficient versions.
Jodi Bistodeau, who works in the residential department at Hagen Glass, Window & Siding in Rapid City, said new windows not only upgrade the glass, but also provide an air-tight window system that probably did not exist before in an older home. A new door, she said, would have an insulating core and a much tighter sealing system.
“Those would be total upgrades in energy-efficiency,” she said, which are positive investments for the consumer.
If homeowners install high-energy windows, prime entry doors, storm doors or patio doors between now and Dec. 31, they can qualify for a tax credit from the federal government for up to $1,500 per household.
“It is for qualifying products only that have to meet certain standards,” Bistodeau said. Certain types of insulation also qualify for the tax credit, she said.
Jim Galbraith and Rick Birnbaum, water production operators for the Rapid City Water Division, shared water conservation and money-saving ideas such as installing faucet aerators for the kitchen and bathroom sinks ($151 annual savings), using low-flow shower heads ($97 annual savings) and installing low-flow toilets.
A regular toilet uses 5 to 7 gallons of water, Galbraith said, and a Niagara brand low-flush toilet uses just 1.6 gallons, which equates to an average of $55 savings a year on the water bill.
The men also handed out leak detectors for residents to place in their toilet tanks at night below the water line; if the water in the bowl is blue in the morning, that means they have a leak, which wastes a lot of water, Birnbaum said.
Home appliances and rebate programs can help with savings, too.
“Front-load washers use less than half the water regular top-load washers use,” Birnbaum said.
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