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Health & Fitness

Let's Save Energy! - Control that heat – save money…and help the earth!

If you are building a new home, or performing any major renovations, be sure to  consider separate heating zones.  This could potentially save you between 30% and 50% on your heating costs.  

What are separate zones?  Basically this means a specific thermostat controlling the temperature of a specific portion of your home, and another thermostat (or two) controlling the temperature of other parts of your home.

An obvious example where this makes sense is in a finished, heated basement.

A separate heating zone for the basement would allow control of the heat for the upstairs portion of the home when occupied, and not waste heat on the downstairs when it is not used (of course, you would want some minimal level of heat downstairs to avoid frozen pipes).  The upstairs could be at a comfortable 68 degrees, and the downstairs at a much lesser 50 or 55 degrees.

Another great example is separating the main living areas from the bedrooms.  At night, when the bedrooms are occupied, they could be kept comfortable while turning down the heat in the main living areas.  

In larger homes, we can really get creative (and save a lot of energy dollars and help the earth).  4 or even 5 zones may make sense.  For example a potential zone layout could be:  


Zone 1 -- living room and kitchen areas;
Zone 2 -- the family room at the end of the house;
Zone 3 -- the bedrooms upstairs;
Zone 4 -- the finished basement;
Zone 5 --  the master bedroom could be separated from the other bedrooms  

The bottom line is:  the more zones you have, the more control you have over your heat usage and ultimately your cost.  Actually, this is one (and maybe the only) advantage of electric heat…..typically each room has its own thermostat (or zone).  So there is room by room control.  However, electric heat is not cost effective, and really pollutes the Earth.

Of course, creating separate zones has extra costs in the additional controls and installation time.  But these extra costs should pay for themselves within a couple of years, depending on your heat usage.  

For more information on all kinds of ways that you can reduce your energy bills, often times no cost or low cost actions, please see my website at www.saveenergyusa.com.

Think energy savings every day!

Energy Saving Tip of the Week:
If you need to replace your boiler or furnace, and you have natural gas in your area, consider yourself VERY lucky and switch to natural gas! Natural gas is the least expensive fuel and helps the earth the most. Natural gas could reduce your heating bills by 44%, and would emit 38% less CO2!.



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