Let's Talk Energy Savings

January 27, 2011

Let's Talk Energy Savings

The Energy-Star Yardstick: A Handy Tool To Determine How Your Home Measures Up

With the economy down, energy savings are more important than ever to Southern Maryland homeowners. Many are taking steps to improve household efficiency by upgrading to new HVAC equipment, installing high-efficiency windows or sealing air ducts. While there’s no doubt these techniques increase savings, you may have doubts about how well your efforts are paying off. How efficient is your home?

Energy Star has created a tool to help you compare how your household stacks up against others like it across America: The Home Energy Yardstick.

The Home Energy Yardstick is just one more way that Energy Star is fulfilling their goal of helping homeowners reduce their energy usage while sustaining the environment. Thanks to Energy Star’s hard work and the tips and tricks they provide, in one year U.S. homeowners were able to decrease dangerous emissions by the same amount that would have been produced by about 30 million cars.

You can access the Home Energy Yardstick for free online. It’s an easy-to-use calculator that rates your home against similar US homes, showing you how well you really score when it comes to home performance. Using the Yardstick should only take about five minutes, and you’ll be asked for some information, so have the following ready:

The energy sources your building runs on.
Data from your monthly, or annual, utility payments.
The number of square feet in your building.
While the Yardstick lets you choose between using monthly or annual utility payment information, we at Trumbull Mechanical Services Inc. recommend using monthly data. It gets more accurate results. However, start with last month’s data, not the current month’s, because it takes Energy Star about 30 days to update local weather information.

Once the Yardstick shows your score, see where your house falls on the efficiency scale. Is there room for improvement? If so, look to Energy Star’s Home Advisor for more ways to enhance home performance, or call TMS, Inc. 301.843.7477.

We’re proud to help Southern Maryland homeowners save money and stay comfortable.


Thanks,
Tim Johnson
President
TMS, Inc.