Energy Saving Tips - Please Share

Mine doesn't have water jets. The back lean portion of the tub is heated. I enjoy soaking in the tub and realize I'm in the minority.
I know a lot of people are lazy to clean bathtubs, not me. I use Kohlers spray for the duty.

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I almost mentioned one of the reasons that I prefer showers occasionally is because I can incrementally raise the heat to an almost painful temperature, where baths usually start too hot and end too cold.

You have a heated bath? I’m glad I don’t - my family would be in that bad boy all the time!
 
If you have pull down attic stairs inside the heated space of your house and the stair opening doesn't have an insulated cover over it up in the attic, that stair unit is a huge heat loss. The R value of the 1/4 inch plywood commonly used for the bottom panel is only 0.3. That means a 2X5 stair stair opening is losing about the same amount of heat as 600 sq ft of ceiling insulated with R19 fiberglass. A handy person can fairly easily construct a sealed and insulated cover over the stairs up in the attic but there are also some prefab kits available.
 
I almost mentioned one of the reasons that I prefer showers occasionally is because I can incrementally raise the heat to an almost painful temperature, where baths usually start too hot and end too cold.

You have a heated bath? I’m glad I don’t - my family would be in that bad boy all the time!

Just the back is heated. I think the tub is insulated as the water doesn't cool off as fast as other bathtubs I've bathed in.
Pure bliss.
 
Our house has this radiant barrier stuff, seems to help a little in the summer.
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having a newer LEED rated house has saved us a fortune.

Gas tankless water heater, radiant barrier in attic, etc.

My bill for electric and gas is under $100 total for both on an average month, with $150 being the norm in summer.
 
A few years ago, I bought a old drafty house in the winter, with practically no insulation, and a lot of ill fitting doors, and lots of areas for air to flow. My walls are basically R5, windows whatever, R3. My first wet cold winter here I was miserable. The first summer I added a lot of fiberglass attic insulation (R30), heavy strategic insulated window coverings, some new windows, insulated the water heater with a fiberglass blanket, and literally hung wool blankets across open drafty doorways of low-traffic rooms. Also sealed any gaps in exterior doors with foam strips. Now on very cold nights I will only lose about 1/2 degree per hour; for instance when I turn the furnace down from 60 to the 40s at night, after a full 8 hours I'll have only lost about 4-8 degrees and wake up to about 56-52 degrees.

This year I'll be putting in more new windows and looking at expanding wall foam insulation. And possibly lay another layer of R19 in the attic to reach a R49 value if I can find a sale on insulation. That'll all be many thousands of dollars, but there's nice tax credits for these things. I'm also going to install a wood stove and my quote is about $6k. I'll get about 1/3rd back in tax credits.

Beyond that, the costs will begin to start outweighing the economic benefits.
 
If you have pull down attic stairs inside the heated space of your house and the stair opening doesn't have an insulated cover over it up in the attic, that stair unit is a huge heat loss. The R value of the 1/4 inch plywood commonly used for the bottom panel is only 0.3. That means a 2X5 stair stair opening is losing about the same amount of heat as 600 sq ft of ceiling insulated with R19 fiberglass. A handy person can fairly easily construct a sealed and insulated cover over the stairs up in the attic but there are also some prefab kits available.
Yep did that one with a few sheets of Styrofoam paneling. Built a box that drops right over the stair opening. I probably have less than $25 invested with the Styrofoam, glue and 1/2 inch door sealing strips. In most cases new appliances will not save you much ROI over the old ones except when it comes to water. Newer toilets, shower heads and washing machines will save you a fortune. Over the years at work just changing out two toilets saved over $80 a month. At work I had a 10 year old top loader washer and I was using around 14K gallons of water. A month after getting a HE front loader my water usage dropped to about 6,500 gallons a month. Incandescent to CFL big drop, CFL to LED smaller drop. Going from the large four foot T12 florescent lights to T8's big drop. Four foot T8 to LED smaller but significant power savings.

Around me a number of people went with Solar on their roofs to save money on their electric bills. Had they spent at most $5,000 getting someone in, to go through their home with air sealing and insulation they would have been farther ahead in the long run. I needed a new AC unit a few years ago. It was a 10 SEER and I was asking about replacing it with a 16 SEER unit. The HVAC guys looked at me and said no get a 13 SEER unit. We use AC maybe three months a year, you'll never get your money back that you would spend for the higher efficency unit. Heard the same argument from them on my 80% furnace. Don't replace it until you need to because a 95% efficient furnace might save you a $100 a year yet cost you close to 4K to replace what you already have.
 
Yep did that one with a few sheets of Styrofoam paneling. Built a box that drops right over the stair opening. I probably have less than $25 invested with the Styrofoam, glue and 1/2 inch door sealing strips. In most cases new appliances will not save you much ROI over the old ones except when it comes to water. Newer toilets, shower heads and washing machines will save you a fortune. Over the years at work just changing out two toilets saved over $80 a month. At work I had a 10 year old top loader washer and I was using around 14K gallons of water. A month after getting a HE front loader my water usage dropped to about 6,500 gallons a month. Incandescent to CFL big drop, CFL to LED smaller drop. Going from the large four foot T12 florescent lights to T8's big drop. Four foot T8 to LED smaller but significant power savings.

Around me a number of people went with Solar on their roofs to save money on their electric bills. Had they spent at most $5,000 getting someone in, to go through their home with air sealing and insulation they would have been farther ahead in the long run. I needed a new AC unit a few years ago. It was a 10 SEER and I was asking about replacing it with a 16 SEER unit. The HVAC guys looked at me and said no get a 13 SEER unit. We use AC maybe three months a year, you'll never get your money back that you would spend for the higher efficency unit. Heard the same argument from them on my 80% furnace. Don't replace it until you need to because a 95% efficient furnace might save you a $100 a year yet cost you close to 4K to replace what you already have.

$40/month in water savings on a toilet!?!? Did you flush them with gasoline?
 
@gathermewool

Bumping this thread because I just took the plastic off the windows - there's no way to save them. The plastic gets stretched and ripped and I don't see any feasible way to get it off the tape without ripping.

Here was my usage from my gas company from last winter compared to this winter. I don't have the average temperature but it felt a bit more mild this winter. I was also working from home last winter compared to in-office 1-3 days a week this winter. Last year I had the heat at 68 while home and 64 when gone. This year I did 66 when I'm home, 64 when I'm away, and 60 when I'm on vacation. As far as overall money saved, I spent about $100 in kits to cover ~9 windows and the back door. My monthly bill was nearly but in half but I also lowered the heat this winter compared to last. I would imagine folks who like a higher temp or families will save a lot more money than I did.


DateCCFsThermsDays Used
03/20/202374.00000077.40000032
02/16/202383.00000086.81000029
01/18/202397.000000101.55000033
12/16/202265.00000068.12000030
11/16/202221.00000022.00000029

03/18/202292.00000096.50000030
02/16/2022126.000000132.17000029
01/18/2022107.000000112.24000033
12/16/202189.00000093.36000041

And here was my cost:

Bill DateTotal Bill Amount
03/20/2023$ 42.31
02/16/2023$ 35.96
01/18/2023$ 60.45
12/16/2022$ 60.76
11/16/2022$ 22.14

03/18/2022$ 87.00
02/16/2022$ 87.00
01/18/2022$ 117.09
12/16/2021$ 110.74
 
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