Home energy audit not only makes you familiar about the energy consumption of your home but also paves way to minimize the cost of utilities for a life time. While the process would lead you to a money saving path, you can save some more money by adoption ‘ Do it Yourself’ Home energy Audit. Here is how you perform it.

Locate Air Leaks:

Did you know that from preventing air leaks you could save upto 30% energy used in a year? For this reason you should first begin by checking to see if there are any drafts(leaks) in your

1. Switch Plates
2. Electrical Outlets
3. Fireplace Dampers
4. Attic Hatches
5. Air Conditioners
6. Baseboards
7. Window Frames

Insulation Level:

It is important to determine whether the insulation level of your home is optimum. While constructing the house, the level fixed might have been in par with the standard level but now as the scenario is changing the insulation level might also need alteration. Hence look into the issue and solve it.

Monitor your Heating/Cooling Equipment:

It is necessary to monitor regularly the working of your heating and cooling equipments to make sure no energy loss is taking place. If you own an equipment older than 15 years, you might want to consider replacing it.

Lighting:

Lighting contributes to 10% of your electric bill hence make sure the wattage size of the bulbs used are apt for the purpose, else replace them. Try to use compact fluorescent lamps where the lights have to be switched on for a long time at a stretch.

For more information on do it yourself home energy audit, you could visit here

This is all that is there for today, i will be back with more information on home energy audit.

Today we are going to take a brief look on what home energy audit is. To put it in a simple manner, it is the first step you could take to know the energy consumption of your house. This way you would know how to make it more energy efficient. Audits can spot problems in your home when corrected can save you a lot of money. You would also know how efficiently your heating and cooling system works. You could learn though an audit how to save electricity and hot water.

Home energy audit can either be done by yourself or by a professional who would use equipments like blower doors(measures leaks in the building) and infra red cameras (to spot areas of missing insulation and air infiltration).

If you find this information useful then let me tell you, i have a lot more coming in future about home auditing.

]]> http://www.8000credit.org/910/home-energy-audit-basics/feed/ 0 http://www.8000credit.org/880/7-reasons-home-energy-audit/ http://www.8000credit.org/880/7-reasons-home-energy-audit/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:03:54 +0000 Teena http://www.8000credit.org/?p=880 If you are a regular reader of 8000credit, you must be familiar with the posts that tells you how to save money on travel, clothes, electricity bills, phone bills and television bills. Today there is an addition to this list. I am going to tell you how to save money on Energy and have a comfortable living while contributing to the ‘Go Green’ movement.

What will you gain out of home energy audit?

1. Save money on utility bills for all years to come
2. Learn to make your home feel comfortable during warm and cold seasons without having to spend a lot
3. Learn how your heating system works and why it doesn’t work sometimes
4. Learn to keep your home cool without the aid of air conditioning.
5. Less burden on earth
6. Spot the energy vampires of your house and learn to slay them effectively and save money in turn
7. Be sure about the safety of the air you breathe everyday

While this is just an attempt to creative an awareness about energy audit, more on this will be discussed in detail in upcoming posts.

The energy saving consciousness is gripping everyone these days . Not only can it save money but it will also let all of us contribute a little towards the war against global warming.

I am now going to tell you, how you can save thousands of dollars a year by reducing your electricity bill and also contribute towards the ‘Go Green’ movement.

1. Use space heaters instead of centralized ones and save $1200/year

2. Replace air conditioners by fans and save $600/year

3. Use your balcony/terrace to dry clothes instead of dryers to save $150/year

4. Wash your clothes in plain water instead of hot and save $150 per year

5. Use compact fluorescent bulbs and save $100/year

6. When not in use put your laptop/desktop in sleep mode to save $60.

In total by following you these tips you could save … let me do the math… $2260 in a year and more if you don’t leave the lights and fans on every time you leave a room. Isn’t that amazing. This entire money can work wonders if goes into your savings or emergency fund. Give it a thought!!!

]]> http://www.8000credit.org/792/save-elecriticity-bills-save-earth/feed/ 0 http://www.8000credit.org/404/former-at-ceo-new-gm-chairman/ http://www.8000credit.org/404/former-at-ceo-new-gm-chairman/#comments Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:55:14 +0000 Teena http://www.8000credit.org/?p=404 Former AT&T chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. would head GM’s board post GM’s bankruptcy protection recovery.

The 67 year old ex AT&T CEO will replace Kent Kresa, though Kresa will continue to serve as the interim chairman of the company till it recovers from bankruptcy. Whitacre was responsible for the company’s sales and acquisitions during his tenure as the CEO and chairman of AT&T and its forerunners from 1990-2007.

Whitacre also serves the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp and Exxon Mobil and the railroad company boards.

Whitacre would form an important part of a newly formed board which would include current board representatives Erroll B. Davis Jr., Kathryn V. Marinello, Philip A. Laskawy, E. Neville Isdell, Intermediate CEO Kresa and CEO Fritz Henderson. It is speculated that the rest of the members who represent the board currently would in all probabilities retire.

Whitacre established his name in the industry turning the regional telephone phone corporation Southwestern Bell into the biggest telecom service provider Nationwide breaking the AT&T brand in due course of time.

Victor Schnee, a Telecom industry analyst at Probe Financial opined that he found Whitacre’s anointment outlandish adding that he had carried out a lot of projects successfully in telecom and that was the end of it. He also said that Whitacre came from an old school of thought and merits credit for moving into the wireless business pretty early.

Schnee’s opines that in the long-term, his visions for the telecom industry were no better than that of General Motors. He feels that the wireless technology picked up speed and momentum and provided immense opportunities for growth, and therefore turned out to keep drowning companies like AT&T and Verizon afloat.

Kresa revealed in a concall that he chose Whitacre after the chairman of the Treasury Department Steven Rattner, member of the auto task force referred his name. he added that the government wants to play a very active role in GM’s board selection process, but would like to keep distance from GM’s daily operations. He said that Whitacre’s experience seemed very appropriate to the government.

Candidates who had prior experience in innovation and change and success in such initiates were of special interest to Kresa. He said he was considering candidates who have been part of companies that have experienced drastic changes and the manner in which it addressed the market. He said Leadership qualities are of utmost importance.

During Whitacre’s 17 year term at AT&T and in her former companies, he turned around the company’s growth a small regional telephone service provider to the country’s largest broadband, wireless and traditional phone service provider.

Formerly known as Southwestern Bell followed by SBC Communications, AT&T was a small scale spun off of all the AT&T’s seven spun off units way back in due to the 1984 government’s orderes to split and curb the AT&T monopoly.

Kresa confirmed that another board would be formed salvage the old GM.

According to the new bankruptcy protection program both the U.S. and Canadian governments would own almost 75% of the company. The U.S. government holds a 60% stake and Canadian government holds the rest12.5%. Another 17.5% stake would be held by the UAW and remaining 10% would be held by the bondholders causing the stockholders to completely withdraw.

GM would now try to normalize the compensation for the board members, Kresa said. The board was paid a meager $1/year ever since GM sought loans from the government past year. Although he kept out from specifying what was the normal level of compensation was, ex board members are reported to have received $200,000 a year, and Stock options worth $140,000 of the company’s common stocks.

The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2, 1970, and has since been chiefly responsible for the environmental policy of the United States. Presently, it is led by its Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, who is appointed by the President of the United States.

I have just covered what does EPA stand for and I am sure many of you would be curious as to what is the purpose of the EPA.

The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education and has the primary responsibility for setting and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. EPA enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures. It also works with industries and all levels of government in a wide variety of voluntary pollution prevention programs and energy conservation efforts.

The EPA found that carbon dioxide; one among the greenhouse gases could be a potential danger to public health and submitted the finding to the White House. If the White House Office of Management and Budget approves, the EPA could use the Clean Air Act to control emissions of greenhouse gases that are believed to contribute to climate change. As a result, the government would hence forth start treating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

While Obama wants the Congress to pass energy security legislation that includes a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions. The Supreme Court ruled that the EPA must review whether greenhouse-gas emissions pose a threat to public health or welfare, which would take a while to be finalized. The administration has proposed a cap-and-trade system that could raise $646 billion by 2019 through government auctions of emission allowances. Environmentalists are pressing the administration to act before December, with respect to Koyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement that forces many industrialized countries to reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions.

The agency, ever since it recognized the potential scope of this regulation has proposed a national system for reporting carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions by major emitters. The EPA has said about 13,000 facilities, accounting for about 85% to 90% of greenhouse gases emitted in the U.S., would be covered under the proposal. Coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and domestic industries, such as energy-intensive paper, cement, fertilizer, steel, and glass manufacturers, worry that increased cost burdens imposed by climate-change laws will put them at a severe competitive disadvantage to their international peers who aren’t imposed with such rules.

EPA believes that the health effects of elevated greenhouse-gas levels could cause severe heat waves with likely increases in mortality and morbidity, especially among the elderly, young and frail. The agency feels climate change caused by higher greenhouse-gas levels could result in more severe storms and more suffering related to floods, storms, droughts and fires. Environmentalists feel strongly about the endangerment finding, and say action by Congress or the Obama administration to curb greenhouse gases is necessary to halt the ill effects of climate change.

One of the agenda of this American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the stimulus plan, is that it provides increased funding, extended tax incentives and grants to encourage renewable-energy projects, energy savings and green jobs.

Kurt Hildebrand, the public works director of Orange County has been looking for ways to convert the polluting methane released by the garbage in the county’s landfill to fuel or electricity. He has been struggling for funds for the past two years ever since the idea struck him. Now, with the passage of the stimulus plan, Hildebrand’s finally seeing a ray of hope. He and Brian Stuver of Joyce Engineering Inc., a solid-waste-management consulting firm in Richmond, have applied for $1 million in stimulus funding to construct a landfill-gas-to-energy plant at the county landfill on Porter Road.

Since Methane is 21times more effective in absorbing heat from atmosphere that carbon dioxide, large municipalities and private landfill operations have started recycling it as part of the push to reduce greenhouse gases. There are nearly 9,160 projects submitted statewide for a total of $465.6 billion in stimulus money. There are quite a few ways for making it more effective, such as generating electricity or finding users to use natural gas in their operations. This not only reduces the impact but can also be a good source of income.

Apart from Orange County, Gail Crooks, management analyst from Spotsylvania’s Planning Department from Spotsylvania County has also applied for $250,000 from stimulus fund. In addition to this it has also applied for $1 million for a biosolids composting program that would divert biosolids waste from the landfill and create a commercially viable fertilizer product. Others locally for renewable energy include Matt Rothell of Top Choice Homes’ request for $8.5 million to retrofit 17 Spotsylvania elementary schools so they use geothermal energy for heating and cooling.

Spotsylvania-based Energy and Environment, has seen an increase in the demand for small-scale wind turbines that generate up to 4 kilowatts for a home, which can light up 65 to 70 percent of an average home needs. The stimulus plan removes caps on the tax credits for residential use of renewable energy such as wind.

Upfront costs are the biggest hurdle to establish landfill-gas-to-energy projects, especially for smaller localities such as Orange. Government funding acts as a catalyst by making it more feasible because the county wouldn’t have to invest as much and would therefore begin to realize a return faster. Once this hurdle is crossed and people are convinced of the long term advantages there would be no looking back. Many feel that there is only room for growth, particularly as fuel prices continue to climb and coal and other baseline electrical-generation sources become more expensive.

The bill was signed after a tour of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science that utilized solar panels attached to its roof for power generation. Blake Jones, the head of Namaste Solar Electric – a company based in Colorado that has installed solar panels for various high profile clients including the Governor of Colorado; had the privilege of introducing the president.

The president said that the investment is said to double the total generation of renewable energy in the three succeeding years. Some of the highly appealing provisions in the package include $11 billion to invest in “smart grid” projects. For carbon capture and clean coal projects, an additional $3.4 billion has been sanctioned. In order to overhaul federal buildings, several billion dollars have been allowed and a grant of $6 billion has also been provided to local and state Governments.

Alternative Energy Buzzwords:

Solar, Renewable, Wind, Nuclear

After the recession ends the plunged oil prices will rise again. This has fetched the gravest of renewable energy and climate action opponents the two way table, if they get expanded drilling rights. Experts suggest that the impacts on job generation will be very high. Each investment of $1 million would generate somewhere around 18 jobs. A $500 million has been especially dedicated towards helping workers train for ‘Green Jobs’.

Gamesa – a Spanish wind company is said to bring more than 1000 jobs to factories located at its headquarters in Philadelphia and other parts of Pennsylvania. Such companies will be benefited as the stimulus package has extended the production tax credit for wind energy for a period of three years. Washington has taken the right steps towards the green economy. The prices of fossil fuels will soon be raised so that the industry will be steered towards other eco friendly alternatives.

Many developers will now have the option of turning tax credits into direct cash with the government underwriting the cost of the project up up till 30 percent. The investments in infrastructure like building lines of transmission needed to bring power from huge power plants in the desert or prairies of North Dakota and other energy development and research programs that have shriveled up; due to declining funding will also get a boost. The advocators of the stimulus bill reckon that all such efforts will lead American companies to overshadow their rivals in the overseas market.

Skeptics reckon that President Obama was keen on the bill as he needed to raise America’s reputation across the world, in addition to bringing India and China on board. They doubt if the stimulus package will have the said effect or not.

However, most agree that the package needs to encourage private sector investment in the presently prevailing poor conditions. It should not just be limited to mere piecemeal funding but should actually generate effects that it is said to generate.