What are the benefits of energy efficiency?

But the utility bills aren’t the only reason why energy efficiency and conservation is important. There are many other reasons why we should all want energy-efficient homes and lifestyles to consider as well.

Why Make Your Home Energy-Efficient?

Here are seven reasons, in addition to saving on utility bills, that energy efficiency and energy-efficient homes are important:

The Environment

Energy efficiency reduces our carbon footprint. In 2016, as much as 19% of our carbon footprints came from our homes with greenhouse gas emissions. By implementing energy efficiency in our homes, the contributions to that can be significantly reduced. We can reduce this by up to 30% by simply investing in appliances and other home improvements. 

Why choose energy-efficient appliances? Upgrading to energy-efficient appliances will not only save on our monthly utility bills, but they enhance our lifestyles and protect the environment by lowering the amount of carbon dioxide we produce. 

Utility Bills

As we’ve already mentioned, our utility bills can skyrocket at certain times of the year. By working toward having energy-efficient homes with energy-efficiency upgrades, we can lower our utilities by up to 30% each month. 

Protecting Your Investment

Energy-efficient upgrades are often considered an expense, when in fact, we should view them as investments. The amount we can save on our utilities is the ROI of the initial cost to purchase the energy-efficient upgrades. 

Raising Your Property Value

Energy-efficient homes are an attractive draw in the real estate world. A home buyer is more likely to pay the asking price or more, for a home with all the energy-efficient upgrades already in place. Like the appliance, insulation, windows, and exterior siding. These are expenses that a homebuyer doesn’t want to face any time soon after closing. 

Your Quality of Life

With energy-efficient homes, the comfort of living will improve your quality of life with health benefits, which is a money saver too. energy-efficient homes are cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter, drier and well-ventilated. These are the things that lower the risk of mildew and mold growth and minimize illnesses. When the financial benefits of energy-efficient homes are analyzed, the benefit-cost ratio is four.

Cutting Other Costs

It doesn’t require big money to be spent to create energy-efficient homes. Yes, the new appliances, upgraded insulation, and windows are a huge help in cutting down carbon footprint and energy bills, but there are smaller investments you can make that will help too, such as:

• Installing a programmable thermostat
• Purchase advanced power strips
• Purchase energy-efficient lighting 

Returns On Your Investment

Even the smallest energy efficiency measures will generate utility savings over time. You won’t see as much ROI on upgrading to a programmable thermostat as you will with upgrading the windows, but the proportions of any energy-efficient home improvements are dollar-for-dollar and lessen the carbon footprint. 

How much can energy-efficient windows save?

A big push to create more energy-efficient homes is to install energy-efficient windows. Is that just a sales tactic or is really going to save money over time? The DOE (Department of Energy) has stated that energy-efficient windows do offer significant savings, by as much as $500 a year, depending on where you live with upgrading your single-pane windows. 

How can buildings improve energy efficiency?

Okay, we’ve discussed ways to increase energy efficiency in our homes, but what about our businesses or places of employment? Here are some ways commercial structures can become more energy-efficient, starting with measuring the energy the building is consuming, and where that energy is being lost or utilized. Other ways to upgrade to a more energy-efficient structure can include: 

• Insulation: The exterior envelope of a commercial building needs to be designed to lower cooling and heating needs. Start by making the building airtight and with a new building that can be done by having high-performance insulation installed with non-traditional wall systems. Replacing the older doors and windows to remove air leaks.
• Ventilation: With the right ventilation system, a commercial building can be airtight, the indoor air quality improved, and moisture buildup minimized. A heat recovery ventilator system will use the outgoing air to heat incoming air and during the summer, the air inside the building can cool the air that comes inside. coming from outside.
• Certified equipment: Purchasing equipment that is certified as energy-efficient, and high-performance, like Energy Star certification. A computer that is Energy Star certified uses as much as 60% less energy than older computers. 
• LED lights: By upgrading to LED lights, energy consumption is reduced by up to 75%. Adding sensors that turn lights off and on by motion will cut back the energy costs even more. 
• Upgrade to LEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is being pushed globally to make the world more energy-efficient, improve air quality, and more. If your commercial structure isn’t following LEED guidelines now, consider retrofitting it soon. 

What is considered energy-efficient?

Energy efficiency is the practice of using less energy to accomplish the same goal by minimizing the energy cost and pollution. In our homes and businesses, society, in general, has the habit of using more energy than we really need to accomplish our tasks. We have the habit of being inefficient and wasting energy and the natural resources needed for that energy. 

So, what is the difference between energy efficiency versus energy conservation? Where energy efficiency is the technical performance of conserving energy and natural resources, energy conservation is the act of reducing the amount of energy used.