The Energy Star Yardstick: A Handy Device To See How Your Home Measures Up

Have you ever wondered just how energy efficient your home is? You can use Energy Star’s Home Energy Yardstick to determine how well your home performs, and what you can do to raise that score — and save energy and money.

The program is fairly simple and easy to use. You will need to first input some information about your household, including:

• How many people currently live in the building.
• Your ZIP code.
• The total square footage of your home (this figure should include the basement).
• The types of fuel your home systems use, in addition to electricity.
• The total amount of energy your home consumed over the last year.

After you upload the details, the Yardstick program will give your home a score, from one to 10. But that’s not all you get. If you’d like to save more energy — and money — you can ask the program to show you how to improve your score, and by how much to improve it.

Common suggestions for homeowners in the Orlando area include:

• Steps to make your home more airtight, so that less energy is lost. These projects generally include sealing air leaks around your home, adding insulation to keep cool air inside during summer and hot air inside during winter, and sealing ductwork. Installing a programmable thermostat is also commonly suggested as an improvement, so homeowners can schedule regular setbacks for savings.
• Suggestions for larger investments that will have a bigger impact on energy consumption. Upgrading your air conditioner or heating system, for instance, will allow you to choose a more efficient system, which use energy wisely, effectively boosting your home’s energy savings. Replacing an old water heater can also help to advance energy savings, as water heating is often the third-largest energy consumer in the average home — after heating and cooling.

Use the Energy Star to guide your home’s energy performance, and take steps that will boost your savings. For help with these or any other home performance projects, contact the HVAC experts at Rinaldi’s Air Conditioning. Serving Orlando-area homeowners with pride.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about energy star and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Rinaldi’s services Orlando, Florida and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

Energy Star image via Shutterstock