Energy Efficiency

With energy costs skyrocketing, you should always consider the energy costs for any new house you purchase. This home will exceed your expectations for lowering your energy bill over many years. Here is a sampling of some of the ways you can expect to save money and help protect the environment at the same time:

• Natural gas appliances for your home heating, hot water heater and stove. Natural gas is an extremely cost-effective way to heat your home and hot water. It is cost effective for cooking as well (not to mention the preferred choice of most chefs because of its exceptional ability to control temperature!) Using natural gas whenever possible can save you literally hundreds of dollars each year on your energy bill.
• Insulation in all walls, floor, and attic space exceeds the recommended R value for home insulation needs.
• Insulated garage doors will keep your garage (one of the largest rooms in your house) from getting too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer. This will help with your energy bill as garage temperatures can have a noticeable impact on heating and cooling expenses inside your home.
• Energy efficient windows double panes and low-emissivity (low E) coatings to greatly reduce heat loss in the winter and heat entry in the summer.
• Crawl space rather than concrete foundation pad to allow for insulation of floors. This minimizes heat loss through direct ground contact.
• Two-story design that minimizes the square footage of external walls exposed to the outside air and also captures the benefit of heat rising in the wintertime from the first story to the second.
• Ceiling fans to enhance circulation of inside air. By reversing the fan blade direction in the summer and winter, you can dramatically reduce heating and cooling costs by letting the fans better circulate hot air (in winter) and cool air (in summer) throughout your rooms.
• High ceilings which allow heat in the summer to rise above the heads of occupants.
• Strategic orientation of the house so that the narrower sides are facing east and west, along with minimizing the number of windows facing east and west. This minimizes the amount of light (and thus heat) entering the house during the summer time.
• Light colored exterior siding on the sides and south-facing rear of the house to better reflect the heat of the sun in summertime.
  

To read more about the benefits of the items listed above, and to read about additional measures you can take to save energy in your new home, see a recent article in the York Electric Coop's magazine.