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Making our homes as energy efficient as possible keeps utility bills down and helps us preserve precious natural resources for future generations. This interactive house is designed to help you understand where and how energy is used in the home, and how to use it wisely.

Our homes use energy in a variety of ways to provide comfort, convenience and entertainment. Some systems in the home use energy directly, like our appliances and lighting. Other home systems impact how much energy the home uses even though they use no energy themselves, like the walls and windows.

Let’s take a few minutes to wander through Interactive House and learn how our home’s systems use energy and identify the best opportunities for savings and home improvements.

Kitchen

Kitchen tasks include reading the fine print in recipes, cutting vegetables, cooking, washing dishes, and even entertaining. All of these tasks require plenty of light with good color rendition.

The kitchen also contains many large and small appliances that are used daily, so it is a good place to manage energy.

Refrigerators and freezers run constantly, ranges and ovens are in frequent use, the sink and dishwasher require heated water, and a multitude of labor-saving small appliances round out a household center for energy usage.

Miscellaneous Energy Use

Today’s homes have a multitude of miscellaneous energy users scattered throughout their rooms. Some use a trivial amount of energy, like a clock radio. Others use an enormous amount like a heated aquarium or water bed.

Knowing where energy is used in your home is the first step toward managing your energy use and reducing the associated costs. The next step is knowing how to use each appliance wisely. While it wouldn’t be wise to turn off your clock radio when you leave the room, since you’d constantly be resetting it, you probably do want to turn off a ceiling fan and cover a water bed. The more you know, the more control you’ll have over your energy costs and comfort.

Energy Meters

Energy Meters are installed on homes to allow the energy provider to know how much energy was used and produce a bill for the correct amount. Most utilities send someone to the home monthly to read the meter.

Systems that automatically read the meter and send the information are increasing in popularity because, although the metering and communication equipment may be more expensive, it saves on the cost of sending someone on-site to read the meter.

For homeowners, reading an energy meter is a good way to become familiar with how much energy a home uses. For example, when trying to decide between two energy alternatives, like:

"Should I close the windows and run the Air Conditioner around-the-clock?" or "Should I open the house at night and air-condition only during the hottest portion of the day?"

...reading the electric meter can provide the answer.

Begin the experiment by reading the meter and trying it one way for a few days, and reading the meter again. Then, try it the other way for the same time period and read the meter again. If most other variables were the same during the time periods (e.g., weather and use of the home), one should have the answer to which is the most economical.

Another way to use meter reading is to see how much energy a certain appliance is using. Suppose you wanted to know how much energy your refrigerator uses and the nameplate data telling its wattage is in a hard to read place. You could turn off everything else in the house, then take two meter readings an hour apart to find out how many kilowatts it uses in one hour. Or do it for half an hour and double the reading to scale it up to a full hour, or even 15 minutes and multiply the reading by 4.

Solar Energy

Solar energy is certainly one of the oldest home heating methods, being used since people first selected caves on the sunny side of mountains. And, since the energy source is free and inexhaustible, modern home design should also include consideration of beneficial and cost-effective solar effects.

At a minimum, the home's designer should consider orientation, use of glass, sun spaces, deciduous trees, and glazing technologies to take full advantage of this source. It may also be economical to retrofit existing homes to use solar energy. Many systems will provide space heating, domestic hot water, and swimming pool heating.

Most solar systems require some type of "back-up" heating system to provide for long periods of overcast weather.

Gasoline Fuel Economy

While you are thinking about energy use in your home, here’s a test. What do people spend more money on: energy for comfort and convenience in their homes or gasoline to power their transportation? Surprisingly, while the two numbers are often about the same, the cost for gasoline can be greater by a factor or 2 or 3!

Check it out for yourself using our quick and easy cost estimator. Enter the annual mileage you put on your cars on the top line “Annual Miles.” (10,000 miles per year is pretty typical.) Then enter the miles per gallon associated with each vehicle on the Mileage (MPG) line. (20 MPG is typical for an average mid-size car). Finally, enter your gas price and click the red Calculate button to see what gas for each vehicle costs annually. If you have two vehicles, the total for both is shown at the top of the calculator.

So, how does your investment in energy split out between home and transportation? With the high price of gas, you may want to work harder at conserving your gas dollars. Here are some tips to help save money:

1: Drive efficiently. Speeding, breaking, and rabbit starts waste gas, and slow down: mileage usually decreases at speeds over 60 mph. Each 5 mph you go over that speed costs about $.20 extra per gallon!

2: Choose a fuel-efficient car. Look for high MGP ratings on your next vehicle.

3: Don't haul around weigh unnecessarily. Unload heavy items from your trunk.

4: Keep your car tuned up, use the correct motor oil and keep tires properly inflated.

5: Plan and combine your trips to minimize travel.

6: Carpool or use public transportation.

Home Office

Computers are changing the way we live and work. Increasingly people are working at home and requiring all of the office equipment they would use in an office setting including computers, monitors, copiers, printers, fax machines, scanners, multiple phones and peripherals. Even people who don’t work out of their homes often have a home office just for managing their lives, paying their bills and coordinating their activities. The office may be one separate room or a portion of one devoted to being an office. This lifestyle change has required some new thinking about how we use and manage energy for these areas. While most of these pieces of office equipment don’t use an enormous amount of electricity by themselves, in aggregate, they can create a large load. Heat generated can require additional cooling for that area. It’s wise to purchase energy efficient office equipment like that displaying the Energy Star logo, and it’s generally a good idea to keep equipment off when it’s not in use. That can save on the life of the equipment, reduce direct energy costs for operating it, and reduce heat build up in the area. One characteristic most of this office equipment shares is sensitivity to power quality problems. The least little sag or spike can cause an interruption or even damage, so all of these devices should be protected.

HVAC and Water Heating

Heating, cooling and water heating are the largest energy consumers in the home.

In most homes in this country, heating is the largest energy expense. In colder parts of the country, heating accounts for 36 percent or more of annual energy bills. Depending on where you live, reducing the amount of energy used for heating may be your most effective way to lower your home's energy bills.

The second largest energy consumer in the home, after space-conditioning, is water heating. Water heating uses more than 15% of the average home's total energy use.

Depending where you live in the country, cooling can account for a significant portion of your home's energy bill. In some southern climates, it can easily account for half, particularly in homes having air conditioning.

Outdoor Lighting

Outdoor lighting can enhances a home in three primary ways: It improves its curb appeal or overall night-time appearance, increases safety around it, and extends the enjoyment of outdoor areas. Like strokes of an artist’s brush, façade and landscape lighting can add accents and drama to architectural elements of the home and bring life to trees and shrubs through use of light and shadow. From a safety perspective, outdoor lighting can light a walk-way to reduce the chances of an accident or improve security by activating the lights when someone approaches to potentially frighten away prowlers. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of outdoor lighting is its ability to extend the use of exterior spaces. Yard lighting allows kids to playoutdoors long after dusk and makes spaces around the home easy to enjoy in the evening hours when outdoor temperatures permit.

Laundry

The laundry room is another place to save energy. More efficient clothes washing machines save energy by the owner knowing which washing jobs really need hot water. Coordinating "like" loads of fabrics and matching the size of a load to the appropriate water level can save substantially on energy bills. Clothes dryer "energy-saving" features include sensors which detect dryness and automatically turn clothes dryers off.

More homeowners are purchasing clothes washers and clothes dryers in matched pairs. Although some manufacturers offer incentives for dual appliance purchases, personal preference is still the main factor in deciding which make and model to own.

Insulation

Insulation is any material that restricts heat flow. It comes in a wide variety of materials, including mineral, organic, fibrous, and reflective, and in many forms, such as batts, blankets, loose fill, rigid and foam. Insulation is installed in homes to reduce heat flow through the home's envelope, keeping heat in during winter and out in summer. Considering that in most parts of the country, almost half of the home's energy dollar goes to heating and cooling, improvements to the envelope are often good investments. Even though insulation materials themselves do not use energy, or heat or cool, they have a big impact on home energy bills and comfort. If you currently have little or no insulation and you have already sealed air leaks with caulk or weather-strip, adding insulation may be the most cost-effective energy improvement you can make. However, adding insulation to an existing home can be difficult and fairly expensive, so take time to evaluate your home carefully, learn a little about insulation and get advice and estimates from experts. An energy audit may help you prioritize measures. One of the first principals of insulation is (if your home already has some insulation) adding more does not have the same impact as installing some in a home that has none. This is known as the diminishing return on investment in insulation. However, the addition of five inches of fiberglass saves 80 percent of the insulating potential. Additional inches don't save as much because most of the savings has already been achieved. The concept is easier to understand if you think about dressing for cold weather. The first coat you put on makes a big difference in your comfort, but if you put on more coats, each subsequent coat makes less difference.

Pool & Spa

While lovely to look at and enjoyable to use, pools and spas require energy and can be big energy wasters if not managed properly. Homes with either of these recreational features often have higher than average utility bills. Both pools and spas use electricity for circulating and filtering water, and hot tubs and some pools are also heated for comfort. Here are some general low to no-cost measures that can help keep costs down: Keep heated water at the lowest acceptable temperature and keep it covered to reduce heat loss. Keep heaters, pumps, and motors well maintained. Schedule regular maintenance check-ups. Make sure the pump time clock is properly set and that the filtration pump runs for the minimum time necessary. Check the thermostat setting regularly and keep it at the lowest setting that meets your needs. Keep the filtration system clean.