Conservation energy helps your wallet and the planet. The key is to balance our electrical supply and demand. The goal is to keep the amount of electricity used in balance with the amount of electricity generated.
Generally between 3 pm and 9 pm when people are at home running washers, dryers, dishwashers and air conditioners or heating systems; we see the peak demand for electricity. Extreme warm and extreme cold weather create an enormous amount of demand on power generating systems. Use of electrical energy is on the rise in our country because we watch more tv, have all kinds of electrical gadgets to play with and continue to improve our homes in the areas of heating and cooling. Additionally, homes built today are much larger than most homes from 50 to 100 years ago. Air conditioning which used to be a luxury for some households now becomes a necessity for all.
To combat the demand for electrical energy, we are designing appliances and air heating/ cooling systems which are more efficient.
When purchasing a new appliance for your home, be sure to look for the ENERGY STAR ® symbol. That designation assures that you will be installing one of the most efficient appliances on the market today.
In the realm of heating systems there are many options that you should be looking into when building a new home or remodeling your existing home.
In-Floor Radiant Heating – Widely regarded as the most comfortable heating system, warm water runs through plastic pipes in your floor to create radiant heat transfer. This heats your body and objects in the room, not just the air around you. Dust, air contaminants, bacteria and low humidity levels—all problems associated with forced air heating are nonexistent in a home with radiant heating.
Baseboard & Cove Heating – Safe, easy and inexpensive describes baseboard heating. It is 100% efficient because no heat is lost through venting. There are no chimneys nor carbon monoxide poisoning. This is the least expensive system and fits any size home. Plenum Heating – Turn your existing furnace into a Dual Fuel (electric/gas-oil) furnace by adding an electric plenum heater. For more information on plenum heaters visit: www.electromn.com/res/html/em.htm.
Air Source Heat Pumps – While taking heat from air and moving it to other air, they can operate as air conditioners in the summer or heating systems in the winter. Since heat pumps move rather than generate heat, they can be extremely-efficient, delivering more than three times as much heat as they consumer in every.
Geothermal Heat Pumps – Similar to Air Source Heat Pumps, these move rather than generate heat; however, they use the ground or water as a heat source. Geothermal pumps are becoming popular due to their heating and cooling energy efficiency and related environmental benefits. In the heating mode, a geothermal heat pump typically extracts 2/3 of the needed energy from the earth or water loop and moves it indoors. Only 1/3 of the energy needed is purchased power. Lower operating + maintenance + life-cycle costs + reliability = conservation and financial savings.
As issues such as global warming, conservation and renewable resources are being dealt with at every level in nearly every country, watch for more improvement in existing systems having to do with how we heat and cool our homes.
If you are not in a position to improve your existing system, please make an effort to lower the peak demand by scheduling every day tasks at times other than in the late afternoon/evening hours.