January

Trash your halogen floor lamp ("torchiere"). These cheap fire hazards are more trouble than they’re worth. Let’s do the math: A halogen floor lamp costs about $15 to purchase. They use 300-watt light bulbs that get extremely hot and can cause fires if cloth or paper comes in contact with them. These 300-watt lamps bulbs, if used for just 4 hours a day, cost $35 a year in electricity - more than twice as much as it cost to buy the lamp! Many colleges have banned these lamps from dormitories because of fires they have caused. Some stores now sell floor lamps that use regular incandescent bulbs up to 250 watts. These $20 lamps are only slightly safer than halogen floor lamps, and no more efficient.

If you like the style of these indirect floor lamps, get a compact fluorescent torchiere. These high-quality products cost more to purchase, but they only cost pennies to operate. This year, resolve to eliminate these hazardous, energy-wasting products from your home. Your insurance company will appreciate it. Find out more about compact fluorescent torchieres.

February

Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) use only 1/4 to 1/3 as much electricity as regular bulbs, while producing the same amount of light. CFLs cost more to purchase than old-style bulbs, but CFL prices are falling (under $5 at a major home improvement store) and they are available in a great variety of shapes and sizes.

Compact fluorescents pay for themselves quickest in light fixtures that you usually keep on the longest, such as porch lights, security lights, etc. This does not mean you should keep a CFL "on" longer than you would usually keep the light on if it were an old-style bulb! It simply means you should first put CFLs in lamps that are usually left on the longest.

March

Be thoughtful with your use of water. Look for energy- and water-efficient clothes washers and dishwashers, as well as water-efficient faucets and showerheads. All the water that goes down your drains finds its way to the Arlington County Water Pollution Control Plant. The water treatment plant itself requires a large amount of energy to clean that water. We are working to improve the plant’s energy efficiency too, but every gallon that is saved in at home or at work is one less gallon that needs to be treated at the end. Find out more about energy efficient clothes washers.

April

Understand your energy bills. What is a kWh? What is a ccf of gas, and how is it different from a therm? What does it cost? How much do you use? One of the first steps to lowering your energy costs is understanding your energy bills . Check out this handy Home Energy Yardstick.

May

Keep cool, efficiently. The efficiency of room air conditioners, central air conditioners, and even ceiling fans have improved dramatically over the past decade, so the cost of keeping cool is falling for many people. The first step to being comfortable indoors in August is to keep the hot summer afternoon sun out of the indoor space. Good insulation and ventilation in the attic, and curtains or blinds on windows will help keep the heat out. Naturally, high humidity is a major reason we feel so uncomfortable here in summer, and removing that moisture and heat from the air is a major reason for air conditioners.

If you are in the market for a new window (room) air conditioner, find one with an energy efficiency ratio (EER) of 10 or higher. Many older window units have EERs below 8, so you may save 25% or more in operating costs. If you are getting a new central air condtioner, look for a seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) of 13 or higher. The more efficient units may cost a little more to buy than the ‘builder models’ that just meet minimum efficiency standards (SEER=10), but the extra cost will pay for itself in lower electric bills.

Read more information and lists of high efficiency room air conditioners.

Read more information and lists of high efficiency central air conditioner information

Ceiling fans are a legitimate way to stay cool without running your air conditioning, and they can make a space more comfortable at a higher temperature. For example, instead of operating your central air conditioner to maintain a temperature of 75 degrees, you may find that a setting of 80 degrees with ceiling fans on keeps you just as cool, thanks to the cooling power of air movement. However, be mindful of the lights that are often attached to ceiling fans; leaving the lights on when they’re not needed will cancel the savings benefit from operating the fan. Also, we now understand that some ceiling fan designs are much more efficient than others, due to the use of high efficiency motors and improved blade shape. Read an article on a new, high-efficiency ceiling fan. Find out more about ceiling fans and how their use can reduce air conditioning costs.

June

Walk, ride a bike, take Metro. Cars pollute the most when their engines are running but still cold. Arlington is a compact city, so a car will often not even warm up by the time you finish a short trip. Consider walking, or riding a bike for your health and cleaner air. Arlington has an extensive network of trails and bicycle routes. Metrobus and Metrorail serve Arlington very well, too.

July

Get unplugged on vacation. Did you know that the little "black boxes" charging your cordless drill, your hand-held vacuum, and your cordless phone all consume power even when the appliances are fully-charged? In addition, any equipment that responds to a remote control, such as a TV or stereo, also consumes power when turned off, so that it can instantly respond to the remote. In the average American household these standby power supplies add up to about 500 kWh/year or more, as much energy as a modern refrigerator. So when your home is vacant for days at a time, and no one will need instant access to the DustBuster or TVs, unplug these little vampires, so they don’t suck a lot of juice from the electric company at your expense.

View a chart showing the power used by typical appliances you think are "off."

August

Choose properly-sized, energy-efficient heating equipment. New boilers, furnaces, and heat pumps are much more efficient than many models sold just 12-15 years ago. Look for a boiler or furnace with an Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) over 82% (the minimum efficiency allowed by law is 80%). The most efficient boilers and furnaces have AFUEs above 90%, but these excellent machines might not pay for themselves quickly in our mild climate. [Also, the highest-efficiency products may have special venting requirements that may not be easy to satisfy in older existing housing.]

If you are replacing a heat pump, look for a new model with a seasonal energy efficiency rating (SEER) of at least 13, and a heating season performance factor (HSPF) of at least 8. You will need to have both the inside piece of equipment (blower unit) and outdoor piece (compressor) replaced to achieve these high efficiencies. Find out more about high efficiency heat pumps.

If insulation or storm windows have been added to your home since the old heating equipment was installed, the heater is probably oversized for your heating load. If you are considering a new heating system, ask your contractor(s) to perform a heat loss calculation to determine the proper size for the new unit. For example, when I replaced my old boiler with a new one in 2000, the insulation and storm windows that had been added to my home allowed me to reduce the capacity of the boiler from 140,000 Btu/hour to 95,000 Btu/hour. In addition to optimizing the size of the boiler to the house for efficiency, a smaller boiler is less expensive to purchase.

Find out more about high efficiency boilers and furnaces.

Fireplaces are not efficient sources of heat. Unvented gas fireplaces are not a good idea in housing, despite marketing efforts by the gas company and the fireplace manufacturers. Other unvented gas and kerosene heaters should be avoided too.

Back to Top

September

Insulate for comfort and $ savings. Many homes in Arlington - even some of the newer ones - have inadequate levels of insulation in the attic and walls. At least ten inches of fiberglass or cellulose is recommended to achieve "R-36" insulation in attics. Special foam insulation, either rigid or blown-in, can also achieve R-36, but the foam may not be easy to apply in existing houses. A well-insulated attic reduces your air conditioning burden in the summer and reduces heating bills in the winter. If you have a wood-frame house, you may be able to have your walls insulated, too (unfortunately, older homes with brick-and-plaster walls are much more difficult to insulate).

Read some general information on insulation how-to and savings about fiberglass insulation, and cellulose insulation.

Don’t forget to insulate hot water pipes that run through unheated spaces. In addition to saving energy, pipe insulation helps you save water, too, since hot water will reach the shower or faucet faster. Insulate your water heater tank, especially if it is electric.

October

Choose energy-efficient appliances. One of the wonderful engineering and business success stories of the past 30 years has been the evolution in energy performance of major home appliances. New refrigerators today use only ¼ as much electricity as their predecessors did in 1972, and yet the new refrigerators have the same (or larger) usable storage space and have more features and conveniences. Adjusted for inflation, the cost of a new refrigerator today is much less than a new refrigerator in 1982. Similarly, new dishwashers, clothes washers, air conditioners, and heating equipment are much more efficient than older models. Federal efficiency standards pushed manufacturers into many of these efficiency gains, but there are some manufacturers who continue to exceed efficiency standards and produce innovative, high-quality products. Look for the Energy Star logo as a sign of a particularly good appliance in terms of energy use.

November

Use efficient LED holiday lights. Each December, our streets and neighborhoods become festive and bright with holiday lights. However, a string of conventional Christmas lights consumes about 50 watts of power, and it is easy to get carried away and use several strings of lights, indoors and out, to create a storybook scene. Ten strings of lights, at 50 watts each, turned on for 6 hours a day over 21 days, adds $5 to your electric bill and over 100 pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. An appealing alternative is to use new, light-emitting diode (LED) holiday lights. LEDs use 95% less electricity than conventional bulbs, and they last much longer than conventional lights, too. County staff are encouraging LED holiday light manufacturers to make these products available in the Arlington area. After all, how much energy should it take to have a happy holiday?

Find out more about one type of very-efficient LED holiday lights.

Read a fact sheet on LED holiday lights, from Washington State.

Read a general article on a lighting retrofit, from the Florida Solar Energy Center.

December

When you do drive, use a green car. Cars with high fuel economy (miles per gallon) are gentler on the air we breathe. Electric vehicles charged overnight help reduce urban smog, and gas-electric "hybrid" vehicles do not need to be recharged by the electric grid at all. These hybrids are an exciting advance in auto fuel economy; Toyota’s 4-seat Prius hybrid gets 42-58 mpg, Honda’s 2-seat Insight hybrid gets 61-68 mpg and the 4-door Civic gets 42-45 mpg. There are many other models available as well!

Check out this Green Car Guide, which shows how ‘green’ different makes and models are, based on fuel economy, emissions, manufacturing energy.

View the official Federal compilation of fuel economy ratings for cars and light trucks.

SPECIAL NOTE:

General bibliography of resources for churches to pursue energy efficiency and conservation.

Energy Efficiency Guide for small- and medium-size businesses.