IDT Energy Savings

It takes a lot of energy to get the hot water you need for all your household needs, probably more than you think. For most people about 12% of the money they spend on powering their home is used to heat water, which is typically the third largest household energy expense. It therefore is a smart place to start when looking for places to make cuts in their budget for utilities.

There are basically four strategies to consider when planning to reduce your water heating bills. Those strategies are:

1.    Reduce the amount of hot water you use.
2.    Lower the temperature on the thermostat of your hot water heater.
3.    Efficiently heat and retain the heat by properly insulating your water heater.
4.    Purchase a new water heater which heats more efficiently.

It is one of the goals at IDT Energy to help consumers in New York and elsewhere save money on their energy bill. We have been providing ideas and tips for saving money, but another approach is to think more globally about saving energy at home.

It is time to begin thinking about your home as unified system with many parts that all fit together and affect each other. For instance, you may decide to install Energy Star rated windows and improved insulation; you will probably be able to replace your heating and/or cooling system with a smaller unit when the time comes for replacement.

Not only have you saved money because you are retaining the heat/cold air inside where you want it with more efficiency, you also save money on the purchase of a smaller heating/cooling system.

If you realize how each element of your home effects the other, you can plan a more energy efficient and cost effective energy using household.

Some Statistics About Savings from IDT Energy

Here are some interesting facts and figures from IDT Energy to keep you informed with up-to-the-minute information on energy savings issues.

•    The vast majority of consumers-92%- believe that business, government and consumers all have an equal responsibility to save on their energy usage.
•    Consumers get their info about energy savings from several sources: 45% read brochures and/or info from their utility companies; 40% get info from friends, neighbors and others; 39% look for the Energy Star label on products they purchase.
•    Eighty percent of Americans believe that the U.S. needs to reduce oil imports.
•    It is being predicted that in the next twenty years energy consumption in the U.S. will increase by almost 40%. That is the amount now being used in the states of California, Texas, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois combined.

. Good insulation should effectively keep either heat or cold, in or out of your house, depending on the weather (season). The most important places to insulate are the space between the doors and the door frames, around the windows, the attic floor or the roof, crawl spaces, and any other place where the outside air can get in and the inside air can get out.

Take note that only 20% of homes built before 1980 are properly insulated.  Check and see if your older home needs its insulation updated so that you will be more comfortable throughout the changing seasons and also so that you can save money on your energy bills.

Good insulation has the added benefit of reducing the amount of external noise that will reach your ears.  In New York this is definitely an important benefit of insulating your house.

In its ongoing desire to help you save energy this summer, IDT Energy has found some slightly creative ways to help you trim your electric bill.

1.    Quick Cook- The most efficient way to cook your food is in the microwave. It takes 2/3 less energy to use than your stove top. Who’d a thunk it?

2.    Dishwasher Ease- Not only does your dishwasher save you time, it actually uses less water than hand washing. Incredible!

3.    The Cupboard is NOT Bare- Did you know that the MORE food in your fridge, the easier it is for the fridge to maintain the cool temperature when you open the door? I didn’t know that!

We hope you stay cool this summer, without using too much electricity, and IDT Energy wishes its customers and friends a great vacation!

Spring is in the air, and in New York that means just one thing: soon it will be summer! Summer is great. Visiting friends, relatives, time off from work to vacation, go to the beach, whatever your heart desires. But in New York we are faced with a special climate which brings hot and humid air into our city, making its otherwise happy citizens distinctly annoyed. How do we deal with this extreme discomfort? Easy. Turn on the air conditioner! From home to car to office to shopping mall, we surround ourselves with cool, dry air, at a huge cost in energy resources.

Not to worry. IDT Energy New York is always on the lookout for great ways to help you save on your electric bill, and we found a few on Frugal Dad.

1.    Keep the room dark with curtains and blinds during the hottest part of the day in rooms that are not in use, like bedrooms, where the light from the sun is not needed.  It would be counterproductive to draw the curtains to keep out the heat to save energy but have to turn on the lights to see.  West facing windows which get the later afternoon sun should especially be curtained.

2.    Allow the hot air that accumulates in your attic a way to get out, either with a fan or a vent, so that the hot air will be drawn away from your ceiling.

3.    Make sure the vent for your clothes dryer is not blocked or clogged with lint. If it is the hot air from the dryer will blow back into your home, adding extra, unwanted heat.

4.    Check your doors’ and windows’ insulation. The strips around the windows and doors can become ruined by the weather, dog scratching, and any other number of ways. The better the insulation the more efficiently your cooling system (and heating system, too) will work.

5.    Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) not only save energy by creating light more efficiently than regular incandescent bulbs, they also create less heat. Less heat produced by your lighting means less cooling by your air conditioner needed.

Thanks to Frugal Dad for these great tips.

Air Dry Dishes to Save Energy

In its relentless search for more ways for you to save on your electric and other energy bills,  IDT Energy has compiled some more ideas on how to start saving, right now!

1.    Turn off the heated drying cycle on the dishwasher and let the air dry your dishes instead.

2.    Did you know that washing your clothes in hot water is not only a waste of energy which is needed to heat that water, but it is also harmful to your clothes?  Wash in cold water whenever possible.

3.    Replace your light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. They last longer and use less electricity.

4.    Showers are much more energy efficient than baths, and they save water, too!

5.    Products with an “Energy Star” label have met strict guidelines for energy use efficiency as set by the U.S. Department of Energy.

At IDT Energy we are doing all we can to help people save energy and money now and protect our world for the future.

Stay Cool!

IDT Energy wants you to save on your energy bills with some tips on what you can do right now to achieve this goal.

1.    Get a programmable thermostat which will automatically adjust to keep your house just the right temperature, either comfortably warm or cool.

2.    Not only does it save energy when you reduce the temperature on the thermostat of your hot water heater, it is safer, too. 120 degrees Fahrenheit should be hot enough for just about anyone, without that “scalding effect” you might experience at higher temperatures.

3.    It is more energy efficient to run your dishwasher or washing machine when fully loaded.  Go out and buy more clothes and then you won’t need to do a wash so often!

4.    Keep your electronic equipment hooked up using power strips. When not in use, turn off your equipment with the power strip. This saves your equipment from the constant and wasteful energy draw of “stand-by” mode.

5.    It is incorrect that turning your computer on and off is damaging. Save electricity by turning off your computer when not in use. If you leave your computer for differing amounts of time make sure to set the power save options.

Summer’s coming and IDT Energy wants you to think about saving on your electric bill. We all know that summers in New York can be challenging when it comes to staying cool, so here’s a simple summary of the basics of saving energy, and keeping cool, too.

It’s always important to keep in mind that there are two aspects to saving, efficiency and conservation:

Conservation refers to how you use energy; do you only use exactly how much you need, or do you leave lights on when you’re not in a room, or let the water run when it’s not in use. Recycling would also come under the category of conservation, because whenever you don’t need to use resources, for instance if you can use paper, glass or plastic over again, you have conserved the resources that would have been needed to produce new paper, glass or plastic.

The other half of the saving equation relies on energy efficiency. This often refers to how well a machine or appliance, such as an air conditioner or refrigerator, turns energy into the form that you need it, such as turning electricity to cold air. Efficiency can also be increased using insulation and other mechanical ways of focusing or directing the effect you want to the place that you want it. For instance, if you want to cool off your living room you can increase the efficiency of your air conditioner by closing curtains to keep out excess sunlight and heat, and closing doors to keep in the cold air. In this way your air conditioner does not need to work as hard to produce the same cooling effect.

IDT Energy wishes you a cool summer in hot New York!

NO-COST WAYS TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY

* Turn off everything not in use: lights, TVs, computers, etc.
* Check the furnace or air conditioner (AC) filter each month, and clean or replace it as needed. Dirty filters block air flow through your heating and cooling systems, increasing your energy bill and shortening the equipment’s life.
* During hot months, keep window coverings closed on the south, east, and west windows. In winter, let the sun in.
* Glass fireplace doors help stop heat from being lost up the chimney. Also, close the fireplace damper when not in use.
* Activate “sleep” features on computers and office equipment that power down when not in use for a while. Turn off equipment during longer periods of non-use to cut energy costs and improve longevity.
* When cooking, keep the lids on pots. Better yet, use a microwave oven instead.
* Dress appropriately for the weather, and set your thermostat to the lowest possible comfortable setting. On winter nights, put an extra blanket on the bed and turn down your thermostat more. { Use the Honeywell Digital Thermostats: Check Out: www.idtenergystore.com }
* In summer, use fans whenever possible instead of AC, and ventilate at night this way when practical. Using fans to supplement AC allows you to raise the thermostat temperature, using less energy. Fans cost less to use than AC.
* About 15 percent of an average home energy bill goes to heating water. To save hot water, take five-minute showers instead of baths. Do only full loads when using the clothes washer or dishwasher.
* Switch to cold water washing of laundry in top loading in top-loading, energy-inefficient washing machines to save energy and up to $63 a year—detergents formulated for cold water get clothes just as clean.
* Lower the temperature on your water heater. It should be set at “warm,” so that a thermometer held under running water reads no more than 120 degrees.
* Only heat or cool the rooms you need—close vents and doors of unused rooms.

LOW-COST WAYS TO SAVE ENERGY & MONEY

* Install low-flow showerheads and sink aerators to reduce hot water use.
* Seal and weatherstrip your windows and doors to ensure that you’re not wasting energy on heat or air conditioning that escapes through leaks to the outdoors.
* A water tank insulation wrap costs about $20 and helps hold the heat inside. Add pre-cut pipe insulation to exposed pipes going into your water heater—it is cheap and easy to install. If you’re starting with an uninsulated tank, the energy savings should pay for the improvements in just a few months.
* Duct tape works well on lots of things, but it often fails when used on ductwork! Use mastic (a gooey substance applied with a paintbrush) to seal all exposed ductwork joints in areas such as the attic, crawlspace, or basement. Insulate ducts to improve your heating system’s efficiency and your own comfort.
* Storm windows can reduce heat lost by single-paned windows by 25–50 percent during the winter. As an alternative, you can improve your windows temporarily with plastic sheeting installed on the inside.
* When buying new products, look for the ENERGY STAR® label, found on more than 40 different products such as TVs, furnaces, cell phones, refrigerators, air conditioners and more.
* Incandescent light bulbs are outdated; 95 percent of the energy used goes to heating the bulb, adding unwanted heat to your home in the summer. Replace your five most used light bulbs with ENERGY STAR compact fluorescent bulbs to save $60 each year in energy costs. These light bulbs use two-thirds less energy and last up to 10 times longer. Use dimmers, timers, and motion detectors on indoor and outdoor lighting.
* Consider safer, more efficient ENERGY STAR torchiere lamps rather than halogen torchieres, which can cause fires. Halogen bulbs are expensive to use.

THE ULTIMATE CHECKLIST: For Saving Money by Reducing Energy Bills

* WEATHERIZE & INSULATE
Save up to 20 percent of your heating and cooling costs.
o Warm air leaking into your home during the summer and out of your home during the winter wastes money. A handy homeowner can seal up holes to the outside by weatherstripping doors and sealing windows and other gaps along the home’s foundation. A combination of air sealing and adding insulation to attics, basements, and crawlspaces provides tremendous energy savings and increased comfort.
o The easiest and most cost-effective way to insulate your home is to add insulation in the attic. If you have less than 6 or 7 inches, you can probably benefit by adding more. Most U.S. homes should have between R-38 and R-49 attic insulation. In order to achieve this, many homeowners should add between R-19 to R-30 insulation (about 6 to 10 inches).
o Other effective places to add insulation include unfinished basement walls and crawlspaces. Insulating walls can be more complex, but it can be worthwhile to do if you have little or no insulation now. Check with a contractor for advice.
o Consider the ENERGY STAR® Home Sealing Program—the government’s information for sealing your home:
* IMPROVE YOUR APPLIANCES & ELECTRONICS
Appliances account for about 20 percent of household energy use.
o Appliances and electronics really add up on your energy bill. When it is time to replace, remember these items have two price tags: purchase price and lifetime energy cost. When shopping for new appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, etc.) and electronics (TV, computer, etc.), demand the ENERGY STAR label. ENERGY STAR is the government’s rating program that shows you which items are more efficient than typical models. ENERGY STAR items will save you money over the product’s useful life.
* IMPROVE YOUR WINDOWS
Efficient windows can lower your heating and cooling bills up to 30 percent.
o If your home has only single pane windows, consider replacing them with low-e coated or ENERGY STAR windows. Alternatively, storm windows can reduce your winter heat loss by 25–50 percent.
* IMPROVE YOUR MECHANICAL SYSTEMS
Up to half of your energy bill goes just for heating and cooling.
o Turn your heating or cooling down every night and whenever you leave home. Better yet—install an ENERGY STAR programmable thermostat and save about $100 each year; it adjusts the temperature automatically for you.
o When it’s time to replace your hot water tank, buy the most efficient one possible. Consider a tankless, on-demand system (these won’t work for everyone, so talk to your installer).
o An ENERGY STAR qualified furnace, when properly sized and installed, along with sealed ducts and a programmable thermostat, can save up to 20 percent on heating bills. {Buy them at: http://www.idtenergystore.com }
o When buying a new AC unit, look for a SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating) of 13 or higher on central systems and the ENERGY STAR label on room units. In arid climates, evaporative coolers are much more efficient (and less costly) than AC. They also add needed moisture to the air, while AC units further dry the air.
o Adding area heaters to warm just the occupied rooms in your home will enable you to keep the rest of your home at cooler, more economical temperatures.
* LANDSCAPE
Save $100-$250 each year.
o Trees that lose their leaves in the fall give protection from the summer sun and permit winter sunlight to reach and warm your home. Plant trees on the south, east, and/or west sides of your home. Be sure to shade the AC unit. Create a windbreak with evergreen trees and shrubs to stop chilling winds.