If you live in a McStain home, you’re already taking advantage of the standard energy efficiencies we’ve built into your home like blown fiberglass insulation and duct mastic on your heating ducts. But we don’t consider the job of saving energy ever fully done, so we want to encourage you to take a few more steps to save more energy and big money come bill time.
Do-it-yourself Home Energy Audit
To understand how you’re spending your valuable energy and money, you should take a quick audit of your usage. There are a number of good online tools to accomplish this. Here are a few of our favorites:
Energy Guide (Xcel Energy)
The Home Energy Saver (DOE, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
The Home Energy Yardstick (Energy Star)
Small Changes Cause Big Changes
You can make a world of difference by making some small changes in your daily home life. Things like changing out your standard lightbulbs for compact flourescent lights (CFLs) and turning down your thermostat one or two degrees will save you hundreds of dollars per year. Here are a few Web sites with more great energy saving tips:
U.S. Department of Energy – Energy Savers
Energy Star
Generating Your Own Energy
If you haven’t already added it to your home, which many of you have, there is always the residential solar panel option. These can either be electricity producers or water heaters. And, now with the solar panel lease option, systems are more affordable than ever. One of our partners is Namaste Solar. Visit their residential solar services page at http://www.namastesolar.com/cmsPages/view/page:residential_solar_services
