• Reduce your hot water use.

• Lower your water heating temperature.

• Insulate your water heater tank.

• Insulate hot water pipes.

• Install a timer and use off-peak power for an electric water heater.

If you haven’t already, you can save energy and money by installing a new, more energy-efficient water heater in your home.
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For a thorough and accurate measurement of air leakage in your home, hire a qualified technician to conduct an energy audit, particularly a blower door test. A blower door test, which depressurizes a home, can reveal the location of many leaks. A complete energy audit will also help determine areas in your home that need more insulation.

Without a blower door test, there are ways to find some air leaks yourself. First, look at areas where different materials meet, such as between brick and wood siding, between foundation and walls, and between the chimney and siding. Also inspect around the following areas for any cracks and gaps that could cause air leaks:

• Door and window frames
• Mail chutes
• Electrical and gas service entrances
• Cable TV and phone lines
• Outdoor water faucets
• Where dryer vents pass through walls
• Bricks, siding, stucco, and foundation
• Air conditioners
• Vents and fans.

You can also try these steps to depressurize your home to help detect leaks:

1. Turn off your furnace on a cool, very windy day.
2. Shut all windows and doors.
3. Turn on all exhaust fans that blow air outside, such as bathroom fans or stove vents.
4. Light an incense stick  and pass it around the edges of common leak sites. Wherever the smoke is sucked out of or blown into the room, there’s a draft.

If you don’t want to turn off your furnace, you can just turn on all your exhaust fans to depressurize your home.

Other air-leak detection methods include the following:

• Shining flashlight at night over all potential gaps while a partner observes the house from outside. Large cracks will show up as rays of light. Not a good way to detect small cracks.
• Shutting a door or window on a piece of paper. If you can pull the paper out without tearing it, you’re losing energy.

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Choosing and Programming a Programmable Thermostat

Most programmable thermostats are either digital, electromechanical, or some mixture of the two. Digital thermostats offer the most features in terms of multiple setback settings, overrides, and adjustments for daylight savings time, but may be difficult for some people to program. Electromechanical systems often involve pegs or sliding bars and are relatively simple to program.

When programming your thermostat, consider when you normally go to sleep and wake up. If you prefer to sleep at a cooler temperature during the winter, you might want to start the temperature setback a bit ahead of the time you actually go to bed; you probably won’t notice the house cooling off as you prepare for bed. Also consider the schedules of everyone in the household; is there a time during the day when the house is unoccupied for four hours or more? If so, it makes sense to adjust the temperature during those periods.

Other Considerations

The location of your thermostat can affect its performance and efficiency. Read the manufacturer’s installation instructions to prevent “ghost readings” or unnecessary furnace or air conditioner cycling. Place thermostats away from direct sunlight, drafts, doorways, skylights, and windows. Also make sure your thermostat is conveniently located for programming.
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Exterior Panels

There are two types of exterior storm window panels: single and combination. Single storm panels are made of glass, rigid plastic, or plastic sheeting. You typically put them up in the fall and take them down in the spring. A combination panel consists of two window panes and a permanent screen over the window. In the summer, you can slide one of the panes up and the screen down for ventilation.

Exterior storm window panels need to be custom-made.

Interior Panels

Interior storm window panels consist of flexible (like polyethylene) or rigid plastic. Rigid plastic panels are typically mounted using Velcro, magnetic, or snap-in seals. You can easily install the flexible type in window frames using snap-in retainer seals or double-faced tape. Despite their ease of installation, interior panels are usually not as clear as their rigid counterparts. Flexible panels may also wrinkle or sag after installation.

Heat-shrink film, however, doesn’t wrinkle. This type of flexible film adheres tightly against the seal as it’s heated using a hair dryer.

Interior storm window panels should go up before the heating season and come down before the cooling season. They are more useful for windows with awnings or for those that crank-out, where it’s difficult to use an exterior storm window panel.

Unlike exterior storm window panels, interior panels don’t have to be custom-made to fit windows, though custom-made ones are available from some window suppliers. Therefore, interior panels usually cost less. You can purchase interior panel kits from building suppliers or hardware stores.

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Window shutters—both interior and exterior—can help cut energy costs by reducing heat gain and loss in your home.

Interior shutters need a clear space to the side of the window when they’re opened. They also require hardware that is fastened to the window jams or trim. Properly designed exterior shutters may provide the best possible window insulation system. They offer several advantages:

• Weather protection
• Added security
• No use of interior space
• No thermal shock to windows if left closed.

Exterior shutters must be integrated into your home’s architecture. Their mounting, drainage, and hinging will require special consideration; it’s easier to address these design issues in new construction.

Most exterior shutter systems include a mechanical crank, rod, or motor to allow operation from indoors. This can help encourage daily use of the shutters, and may be required by local fire codes.

Roll-down metal exterior shutters are often used as protection against storms and/or vandalism. While metal shutters provide protection against these hazards, they don’t provide much of a barrier against air infiltration and heat.

Like window blinds, louvered shutters work best for summer shading. Movable or fixed louvers allow ventilation and natural daylight to enter a room while blocking some direct radiation. However, they won’t provide much insulation against heat loss in the winter.

Solid shutters will decrease both heat loss and summer heat gain. These insulating shutters consist of wood panels, a vapor barrier, and sometimes a decorative covering. If you fit them tightly against a window frame, they’ll provide an insulating air space between the shutter and the window.

You can combine shutters with other window treatments, such as draperies, for greater insulating ability.

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Shades should be mounted as close to the glass as possible with the sides of the shade held close to the wall to establish a sealed air space. You should lower shades on sunlit windows in the summer. Shades on the south side of a house should be raised in the winter during the day, then lowered during the night.

For greater efficiency, use dual shades—highly reflective (white) on one side and heat absorbing (dark) on the other side—that can be reversed with the seasons. The reflective side should always face the warmest side: outward during the cooling season and inward during the heating season. They need to be drawn all day to be effective.

Quilted roller shades, and some types of Roman shades, feature several layers of fiber batting and sealed edges. These shades act as both insulation and air barrier. They control air infiltration more effectively than other soft window treatments.

Pleated or Cellular Shades

Several manufacturers have designed two- or three-cell pleated or cellular shades with dead air spaces, which increase their insulating value. These shades, however, provide only slight control of air infiltration.

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Construction and orientation of an overhang can be tricky since it involves many passive solar design factors:

• Latitude
• Climate
• Solar radiation transmittance
• Illuminance levels
• Window size and type.

It’s easy to incorporate overhangs into a home design before or while it’s under construction. Adding an overhang to an existing home, however, can be quite difficult and sometimes impossible. Window awnings, louvered patio covers, or lattice-type panels can be considered as alternatives for existing homes.

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Interior screens come in a verity of designs. They can be like a web blind or a roller blind. Roller screens can be motorized and can be controlled either by a wall switch or by remote control. The advantage of the screens over blinds, drapes or curtains, is that you can see through them. Both exterior and interior screens give you daytime privacy.

The screens come in a verity of colors. The best color for exterior screens is black. You can see better through black screens because they reflect less light when looking through them from inside the house.

Interior screens reflect more solar heat if they are a lighter color.

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Solar window films help block summer heat gain.

The effectiveness of cutting energy costs by using  reflective films depends on many factors:

• Size of window glazing area
• Window orientation
• Climate
• Building orientation

Silver, mirror-like films typically are more effective than the colored, more transparent ones. East, south and west-facing windows, because of their greater potential for heat gain, can benefit more from these films.

North-facing windows won’t really benefit from reducing solar heat gain. However solar film reduces 99.9% of harmful UV rays from light which in turn reduces fading of furniture and furnishings. They also give you daytime privacy.

Solar film also acts like a low-emissivity film which will reduce about 15% of the radiant heat from escaping through the windows in the winter time

These films have some overall disadvantages:

• Some loss of interior light
  
• Extra care required for cleaning
• Reflections.

These reflective films are available to apply yourself over existing windows. The installation can be very tricky. It is recommended an expert install the film.

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In the summer during the day, you should close draperies on windows receiving direct sunlight to prevent heat gain. According to the University of Florida, medium-colored draperies with white-plastic backings have been found to reduce heat gains by 33%. Draperies also stay cooler in the summer than some other window treatments because their pleats and folds lose heat through convection.

When drawn during cold weather, most conventional draperies can reduce heat loss from a warm room up to 10%. Therefore, in winter, you should close all draperies at night, as well as draperies that don’t receive sunlight during the day.

To reduce heat exchange or convection, draperies should be hung as close to windows as possible. Also let them fall onto a windowsill or floor. For maximum effectiveness, you should install a cornice at the top of a drapery or place the drapery against the ceiling. Then seal the drapery at both sides and overlap it in the center. You can use Velcro or magnetic tape to attach drapes to the wall at the sides and bottom. If you do these things, you may reduce heat loss up to 25%.

Two draperies hung together will create a tighter air space than just one drapery. One advantage is that the room-side drapery will maintain around the same temperature as the interior space, adding to a room’s comfort.

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