Home improvement can pay for itself, and even put cash back in your pocket – if you’re putting your money in the right places.  Renovations that increase your home’s energy efficiency aren’t just nice for the environment, they can be economical as well.  The folks at One Block Off The Grid offer a great guide to help you sort out which upgrades make the most sense for your home.

The graphic highlights a range of improvements, both big and small, that will cut your utility bills while reducing your home’s environmental footprint.  Each project is marked with four key figures:  average annual savings, projected savings over a 20-year period, the amount of time for the project to pay for itself, and the cost of the renovation.

(click to view the full size image)

The handy illustration points out that in terms of financial investment, many of these home upgrades can offer a better payoff than traditional investments like stocks or CDs.  And depending where you live, incentives like rebates and tax breaks can make the renovation costs substantially cheaper.

These aren’t just long-term projects, either:  upgrades like low-flow showerheads and programmable thermostats can pay for themselves in less than a year, making them a good choice for renters as well as homeowners.  Larger scale renovations on the other hand, like a green roof or solar array, have the potential to save a homeowner tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

(via One Block Off The Grid)

Summertime is almost here, but hot weather doesn’t have to mean skyrocketing power bills and nonstop air conditioning. We’ve compiled these tips to help you maximize your summer comfort and energy efficiency.

Remember, It’s Summer

Listen up – your home isn’t an arctic retreat for polar testing, it simply needs to be a comfortable living space. Avoid using your AC when you don’t really need it, and set it at a reasonable temperature when it’s operating. HVAC experts suggest 78 degrees as an ideal level to ensure comfort without unnecessarily wasting power.

Also, don’t underestimate the power of a fan. Whether you use a portable room fan or a ceiling fan, it will consume far less energy than an air conditioner. A fan distributes cool air around a room, and the breeze on your skin can let you stay comfortable while relying less on the AC – or even skipping it altogether.

A portable fan can help reduce or eliminate your AC usage

Make Your AC’s Job Easier

Summer heat is enough of a challenge for an air conditioner – don’t make it work even harder than it has to. Have your unit maintained regularly by a pro to make sure it’s operating at its peak efficiency. And you can do your part too, by regularly cleaning or replacing the air filter. A clean filter means less air resistance for the unit, and better air quality in your home.

Don’t Cool An Empty Room

Even though it seems obvious, this one gets ignored all too often: Turn off the air conditioning when you leave the house. If you absolutely must have a cool home waiting for you when you return, use a timed thermostat instead of running the AC all day. Remember that when you come back, turning the unit to its coldest setting won’t cool your house any faster, so set it at 78 and be patient. Also, while you’re at home, close the doors and vents in unused rooms, and consider using an efficient portable air conditioner that will only cool the living space you’re actually using.

An efficient portable air conditioner can be a good alternative to window units or central AC

Don’t Add Fuel To The Fire

Beware of unnecessary heat sources around the house that compete with your air conditioner. Still using incandescent light bulbs? The reason they use so much power is that only a fraction of the electricity they consume is used for light, while the rest gets wasted in the form of heat (which your air conditioner must then cool down). So that’s another reason to switch to compact fluorescent bulbs, or the even more efficient LED lights. Another common foe of your AC are long, hot showers that raise the surrounding air temperature inside your home, and also add humidity to the air which makes it feel even warmer.

Other appliances can be particularly tough for an AC to work against. Avoid using your dishwasher, oven, and clothes drier at peak heat times of the day, and use settings that minimize their heat output and energy usage (which you’re already doing anyway, right?) For example, disable the air-dry function on your dishwasher, and lower the temperature on your clothes drier – or even better, use a simple clothesline or laundry rack to let your clothes dry in the breeze.

Ironically, refrigerators can be one of the biggest heat sources in the home. Use a thermometer inside the refrigerator and freezer to make sure the temperature stays at the ideal levels, since going colder just wastes electricity and creates more wasted heat in the kitchen. And older models are especially inefficient – do you really need that old fridge you moved down to the basement for extra soda?

Shade Is Your Friend

Shade is nature’s air conditioning, and it doesn’t cost a penny. Low-e windows are great for keeping unnecessary heat out of the house, but a simple window shade will do the job too. On a bigger scale, shade trees can dramatically reduce interior temperatures when planted on the south and west sides of your home. Plus, lawn vegetation has the added advantage of transpiration cooling (the evaporative cooling effect from moisture in the leaves).

Properly placed shade trees can help keep your home substantially cooler (photo: Trint via Flickr)

In addition to keeping direct sunlight out of your windows, try to locate AC units in shaded locations. An air conditioner basking in the sun all day has to work much harder to cool the air that passes through it. Just make sure that any screens or nearby plants don’t interfere with airflow to the unit.

Look Up

In freestanding homes, the roof and attic can be your best friend or your worst enemy when it comes to keeping the heat outside and cutting your energy consumption. Consider roof materials and colors that efficiently reflect heat from the sun’s rays, or even use them to provide solar power. Ensure that your roofline and attic are well insulated, and use an exhaust fan to draw collected heat out of your home.

And If You’re Shopping For A New AC…

It goes without saying that if you’re considering a new air conditioner, it’s worth investing in an energy efficient model. It will use less power, which means less pollution and lower energy bills. The new residential evaporative cooling models that use the same principle as skyscraper cooling towers can be extremely efficient, and they’re especially worth considering for residents of hot, dry climates. And though they may be more expensive initially, many high-efficiency models qualify for tax credits as well as rebates from local utility providers. Energy Star models are available everywhere, and remember that the higher the SEER/EER score, the better. Last, ensure that your model uses a non-flourocarbon refrigerant.

We all have better places to spend our hard-earned money than power bills, and summer is plenty hot already without needless pollution adding to global warming. Being smart about keeping cool in the summertime is a win-win scenario for everybody.

A company called GreenCore Air has released an air conditioner than can be powered by a single 170 watt solar panel. The GreenCore air conditioning unit can heat and cool a 600 square foot room. It runs on DC power, so there is no need to put an AC inverter between the solar panel and the air conditioner. This eliminates the power losses associated with converting AC to DC.

When the sun is not out the unit runs on the battery bank which is integrated within the unit.

There two version of the air conditioner: a fixed one, and a mobile one that is mounted on wheels.

Solar AC: GreenCore Fixed AC Unit

GreenCore units are being tested by a McDonald’s restaurant and the U.S. Navy.

Link: GreenCore Air (the website appears to have been shut down)

Here’s another company with a Solar AC product.

Notes from Manufacturer:

Recommended for drier climates. Works when humidity < 40%
Features:

• Cut your cooling costs by up to 90%
• Low wattage cooling: from 20 to 150 watts
• This is a cooler that can run on 1 or 2 solar panels, or a car battery
  charger
• More environmentally friendly – no freon
• Cabinet is 24 gauge stainless steel, warranted against leaking for
  5 years

Cool 110°F air to 75°F by evaporating water. Nearly 16,000 BTUs
of cooling is gained for each gallon of water evaporated. Evaporation rates
in the Solar Chill™ can range from 1 to 7 gallons per hour. The extremely
low wattage allows the solar chill to operate well on just one or two solar
PV panels. This lowers the payback period for a Solar Chill™ system
to about 3 to 5 years. Though we recommend powering the Solar Chill™ with
PVs, they can also be run on 115 VAC Adapters, or even a car battery charger.

The Solar Chill™ uses an 8″ thick, wetted CelDek™ pad,
and is efficient for both airflow and evaporation. The Celdek costs $20
per cubic foot. The large cooler pad costs $75 (included with purchase)
and should last for 5 years with proper maintenance.

Highly efficient DC motors, usually with permanent magnets replace the
inefficient AC induction motor. Propeller fans are used to move the air
in the Solar Chill™ instead of the traditional squirrel cage type
blower (which require higher wattage’s).

Minimal duct work is recommended with a Solar Chill™ to obtain maximum
efficiency with lower wattages. All of our models can optionally be made
into down draft models for roof installation, with the addition of a 90
degree elbow. Local sheet metal shops can easily and inexpensively make
one of these out of 24 or 26 gauge galvanized steel.

Purchase from: Alternative Energy Store

Amazon also offer a large range of evaporative coolers.

Notes from Manufacturer:

The IceStrMystr IM30 combines ice induced Air
Conditioning with the age-old art of evaporative cooling. The cold water
rushes through a special Cooling Core to produce air-conditioned air instead
of merely evaporative cooled air. You can now choose your own size of cooling
container. The water contained in your Ice Chest is cooled by ice or ice
substitutes like reusable Freeze Packs which are available in many local
stores in most areas.

You can get cooler air from an IceStrMystr
than a standard Evaporative Cooler, even after the ice melts. This is possible
because of the two stage cooling process.

A fully charged 105 amp hour deep cycle battery should
last from 8 to 12 hours on low or medium speeds without charging.

The IM-30 evaporative system will cool for two to four hours on one gallon
of water. Incorporating the dual cooling system, by adding ice, provides
a sizable temperature drop from evaporative cooling alone. If you do not
need the cold air ice produces and the humidity is low, you may wish to
accelerate the evaporative cooling system by utilizing reusable Freeze
Packs.

How it works: Block or cube ice is placed in the ice chest which chills
the water. The water is then pumped into a special chilling core inside
the Swampy and also through the evaporative pads. The blower motor draws
ambient air through the evaporative pads pre-cooling the air before it
is drawn through the chilling core. After the air is cooled it is directed
outward to cool the occupants. The water that has been used plus excess
humidity in the air and not evaporated during this process is then returned
back to the ice chest to complete the cycle.

Price: $487
including shipping

Home Page: Swampy.Net