EnergyMiser101

Save Big With an Energy Star Refrigerator

   My husband and I were working upstairs late one afternoon last month when we heard our daughter, who was doing her homework in the kitchen downstairs, moaning about an awful smell. We both assumed it was more teen-age theatrics, but decided that it might be a good idea to check it out. Was the left-over meatloaf past its prime, did a skunk sneak in the back door? We were curious.

   It turned out that our 14-year-old Frigidaire refrigerator was the culprit behind the smell and the sound. Basically, it just died on us. The noise Grace heard was the fridge's last gasp, and the smell was, well, the stench produced by its failed compressor. We tried to resuscitate it, but it was quickly apparent it was a goner. I put all the food on the screened back porch—luckily it was a chilly night—and Joe and I headed to the local appliance store to check out new models.

   It was probably one of the fastest shopping trips I've ever made, helped by the facts that my husband is very decisive, and the store was closing in about 15 minutes. In those few minutes both of us had a refresher course in refrigerators and energy efficiency. For instance, we were told that models with top-mounted freezers and without in-door ice makers use a lot less energy than bottom-mount or side-by-side models, especially those with in-door ice machines. Also, and maybe this is sating the obvious, but the smaller 16-20 cubic foot units, are the most attractive in terms of energy efficiency.

Low Supplies Help Keep Heating Oil Price High

     It seems like we just can't win on heating-oil prices. The U.S. Energy Department estimates that we're going to pay 10 percent more for heating oil this winter than we did last year, even though temperatures for the season are forecast to be 2 percent higher.

     And here's something that isn't going to help: U.S. inventories of diesel fuel and heating oil have dropped to a three-year low, just at a time when we're going to need them the most!

     There are a couple of reasons why prices are rising and supplies are dropping:

• Crude oil inventories are tighter because the political unrest in Libya has cut the country's exports to near zero.
• Competition for diesel fuel, which is essentially heating oil but with a lower sulfur level, is growing as the world's automobile fleet expands. Diesel fuel is a factor in the U.S. for trucking, but it's the primary automobile fuel in most of the rest of the world.

      In fact, the U.S. now is a major exporter of diesel and heating oil, also known as distillate fuel. U.S. exports topped 600,000 barrels a day last year, up from 100,000 barrels a day in 2003, according to the

Save Heating Oil With an Electric Radiator

     We just got a 170-gallon heating-oil delivery, and at the $4 a gallon we’re paying in New Jersey the bill came to a whopping $680 dollars! If you heat with oil, you’re sure to feel our pain.

     But what to do? We’ve insulated. We have storm windows. We’ve added weather-stripping. We have a programmable thermostat. We have a fairly new and efficient furnace. Oh, and we keep the thermostat at a chilly 65 degrees during the day. There’s not much left to try to keep us from the agony of a heating bill that may top $2,900 this winter.

     So we’re thinking outside of the box, or, outside of the furnace. The cost of oil has risen much faster than the cost of electricity—so much so that we’re taking a gamble that supplementing our heat with electric radiators will save us money this winter. A quick calculation shows that we might save up to $750, and who wouldn’t want to do that?

Why Is Heating Oil So Expensive This Winter?

     Ouch! We just got our heating oil bill for a delivery made a few days ago and it was over $700 for just 183 gallons! That really hurts.

     The U.S. Energy Department says households will have to spend 30 percent more on heating oil this year than they did last winter, and do we ever feel it! Unfortunately, there isn't much on the horizon to indicate things will get better any time soon.

     If you've gotten a similar bill, you know how helpless it makes one feel.

     After all, we've picked all the low-hanging fruit in an effort to conserve the precious fuel. We've insulated. We've installed a new furnace, we've plugged leaks around doors and, most importantly, we've kept our thermostat set at a chilly 62 degrees. Why, at times I felt so cold that the only thing that would keep my stiff fingers warm was keeping them wrapped around a hot mug of tea.

     Why does the price of heating oil just go up and up and up? 

     The answer lies in the increase in demand for fuels as the economy has begun to pull out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. The Energy Department says that in 2010 demand for diesel fuel, which is nearly identical to heating oil, grew by 3.6 percent. That's a pretty hefty increase, and the gain is matched by improvements in consumption in much of the developed world. The Energy Department says to expect more of the same this year.

    Where is all that diesel fuel going? For trucking. As business at factories improves, diesel-fueled trucks ship more goods. Increasing consumer confidence means people start buying more goods, and those goods are shipped to stores or from Web sites like Amazon by trucks that burn diesel fuel.

How Adding Insulation Cut Our Heating-Oil Use

     The new winter heating oil season is underway and while we're looking forward to toasty nights by the fireplace, today we're celebrating the past. After tallying our bills for last season we found that we cut our consumption of the fuel for the fourth straight year! Our 2,100-square-foot house consumed 571 gallons, a 14 percent reduction from the winter of 2009-2010.

     There's one reason for this year's savings--insulation. Well, to be completely honest, it was a warmer winter than the year before, too, so that had something to do with it. Still, we're giving the lion's share of the credit to the fluffy stuff we had blown into our attic.

 

     For those of you new to this blog, we've been on a ten-year quest to lower our heating oil bills through a combination of new hardware, conservation, and a bit of attitude change about the cold.

     It's been quite a success story. In our first winter in our 1924-built wood-frame house, we burned through 1,500 gallons of heating oil. Since then, we've replaced our old furnace, installed a programmable thermostat, sealed leaky doors, removed air-conditioners from windows, and altered, somewhat, our notion of just how warm we're supposed to feel during a New Jersey winter. You can read the entire story by following this link to an earlier post.

     But this story is about our insulation. After having a home energy audit in the spring of 2009, we learned that while our attic was insulated, the amount of protection was nowhere near what it should have been. We contracted with a home-insulation company that spent a day blowing treated cellulose under attic floorboards and into hidden spaces behind walls. You can read all about it by looking at these posts:

• Quest for an energy audit
• How we chose an insulation contractor
• How the insulation job went

     We spent $1,200 on the insulation job. Was it worth it?

     We used about 100 gallons less oil. Our average price was close to $3 a gallon last year, so we saved about $300. That means the job may pay for itself in about four years, and less if heating oil prices continue to escalate--as I think they will.

     Also, we definitely felt warmer, especially in our bedroom, which is under the attic, but even on our first floor. I think less heat escaped into that wasteland of old suitcases, school papers and discarded clothing.

     So what's next for this year on the energy-saving agenda? I'd like to get our basement steam pipes re-insulated. We had all the asbestos removed from the pipes in 2002 when we replaced our 80-year-old steam boiler. Ever since then the basement has been toasty warm because of the unprotected pipes, but that's heat energy we'd rather have upstairs. The man who conducted our energy audit a couple years ago said that we're wasting energy because pipes that are meant to be steam conductors are actually steam radiators.

     We can buy insulation for some of the smaller pipes at our local home center, but we don't have a clue how to go about insulating some of the fatter main pipes. It'll be fun to find out, however, and we'll let you know how it goes! Have any of you readers insulated your steam pipes? Let me know!

How Much Energy Does Your HDTV Use?

A  reader, concerned about a potential rise in her electricity bill, wrote to me the other day with some questions about her new, larger TV and its energy usage. The distractions of snow days and the long Presidents Day weekend delayed my response, but what I found out was interesting. A larger TV screen will cost you more money, but not that much more.

Sandra said that she bought a 32-inch Insignia high definition television that has an Energy Star rating of 150 watts to replace her 5-year-old 20-inch Magnavox Energy Star tube TV. She didn't know the wattage of her old set, but she wondered how much this larger, newer TV would affect her electricity bill.

Beat the Cold With an Electric Radiator

      It got down to 14 degrees in northern New Jersey over the weekend, and the wind was howling through the trees—not a recipe for a toasty warm house when we keep the thermostat at 62 degrees. But upstairs in the spare bedroom where our main computer is located I was snug because of the new oil-filled electric space heater we bought for less than $60 at Home Depot.

      Also, it didn't cost an arm and a leg to use the heater. Used sparingly, the heater cost us about 5.5 cents for each hour it was in use. Used injudiciously, that cost can go much higher!

      I love the winter, but the cold makes it really difficult to work at a keyboard. The relative inactivity makes my body feel like it's an icicle in short order. The choice before me was to keep the whole house at a higher temperature, a waste when our daughter is in school and my husband is at the office, or to seek out a supplemental heat source.

      We did some not-very-scientific research about ways to heat a room. One choice was an electric resistance heater. You turn it on and some heating elements begin to glow similar to the way an electric stove works. I didn't like the idea because it seemed that as soon as you turned the unit off, it stopped generating heat.

State Aids Removal of Underground Oil Tanks

     You may be noticing some large, deep holes in front yards around town and wondering what's going on. Well, don't panic. It's not some strange burial ritual, but rather a sign that many residents in Montclair and other New Jersey towns are taking advantage of financial incentives offered by the state for removing old, underground oil tanks before they start to leak because of rust and old age.

      Leaking underground heating oil tanks are a growing potential environmental problem for millions of homes in New Jersey and throughout the Northeast, because oil seeping from a tank can pollute the ground around your house and your neighbors' houses, and work its way into the water table, contaminating the drinking water supply.

      New Jersey has recognized the environmental threat and it's offering financial aid to homeowners to get those tanks out of the ground, hopefully before environmental damage occurs. That's important because an ounce of prevention in this case is worth a pound of cure.

      More than 6 million homes in the Northeast use heating oil, according to the U.S. Energy Department. It isn't known how many of those homes have their tanks underground, instead of, for example, in a basement. The number is undoubtedly in the millions, however, and for many homeowners, an underground tank can be a ticking time bomb.

Crock Pot Cooking Saves Energy

      If you want an energy efficient, convenient, and delicious dinner, try using a crock pot. I saved about 80 cents by using my slow cooker instead of the stove top to make a dinner recently, and everyone loved the results.

      There are tons of savory crock pot recipes on line. A few weeks ago we had a friend staying and I thought I'd drag out my old crock pot and put it to the test. On a cold, damp morning I found a recipe for an autumn stew that sounded really good. I've made many stews on the stove top, but they require being at home to watch the pot.

Oil Supply Is Plentiful, but Prices Rise Anyway

     If you notice higher gasoline prices at your local pump, don't think it's because there isn't enough oil to go around. Supplies of refined products, both gasoline and heating oil, are plentiful. Gasoline stocks rose this past week, but prices climbed higher anyway, which is contrary to what we all learned in Economics 101. In fact, there hasn't even been a significant hurricane, something that often causes refinery shutdowns and temporary refined-product shortages at this time of year.

     Oil prices (and that includes prices for gasoline and heating oil) are acting completely independently of supply/demand fundamentals. It's the recent rise in the stock market and the weakening of the U.S. dollar against other currencies that are making the fuels you consume more expensive. Traders believe that oil, just like gold, will hold its value as currencies decline.

Oil Is the New Gold

     Prices for gasoline and heating oil rose in the U.S. this past week, following crude oil. There were no major supply/demand fundamentals driving prices up, and as I mentioned in an earlier entry, supplies of refined products, particularly heating oil, are high. The major factor pushing fuels higher is the declining value of the dollar relative to other currencies.

      Speculators are trading their dollars for oil because they believe that oil will do a better job of holding its value. In the past two years, as the economy steadily weakened, oil has become more of a financial instrument, like gold, and has begun to respond less to to changes in supply and demand.

Lessons from Montclair's Recycle Master

     If you've ever wondered what happens to the old newspapers, water bottles and laundry detergent  containers you put at your curb once a week, you might be surprised to learn where they go and what they're worth. The items that I thought had value didn't, but things that I thought were worthless were the stars of the recycle pile.

     Environment and economics are the driving factors behind any recycling program.  That's according to Craig Brandon, Montclair N.J.'s Supervisor of Solid Waste Management. Craig spent a good hour explaining some of the ins and outs of the recycling business to me when I visited him in his office.

This Compost Event Can Save You Money

      I took my daughter to the YMCA this morning and picked up a flier on composting that caught my eye. It's a great way to save energy because you don't have to buy fertilizer, which has natural gas as a raw material, as I wrote about in a previous post.

     Our town, Montclair, NJ, is trying to make composting easier for its residents, and it's sponsoring a composting event Saturday, October 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Edgemont Park.

     Now this blog has readers from as far away as New Zealand, so, obviously a lot of you aren't going to make it. But read on anyway because you might pick up some ideas that you can use wherever you live!

High Stocks Drive Prices Lower

       When it comes to both gasoline and heating oil prices, consumers could be in for some significant price relief. The key word here is supply, or more precisely, oversupply.
     The Energy Department reported lower spot prices for gasoline in all major markets for the week ending November 2. Prices for gasoline have been declining for weeks because of reduced demand and a build up of inventories. Lower consumption partially reflects the seasonal shift in driving habits, but a much bigger factor is the weak economy and the high unemployment rate which is keeping a lot of drivers off the road.
    The trend in oversupply is even more pronounced in the heating oil market. The Energy Department resumed reporting distillate prices this week and will continue to do so until mid-March. This market has been decimated by the weak economy and the fall in trucking traffic.
     US inventories of distillate are almost 50 percent higher now than they were at this time last year. This can only be good news for heating oil buyers. Gasoline stocks are up around 25 percent and crude oil inventories are nearly 34 percent higher than a year ago. Basically, we're awash in refined products!

Winter Forecast Favors Heating Savings

     The Energy information Administration (EIA) published its winter fuels outlook today, and it brings good news for homeowners. This winter, the EIA said it expects the average US household to spend $84 or 8% less on its home heating bill than it did last winter. Their projections are based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA)most recent forecast of 2009-2010 winter weather, which is calling for it to be 1 percent warmer than last year.