Penn State professor provides energy-saving tips to beat high heating bills
Roberto M. Esquivel | Herald-Standard
Dave Meredith, associate professor at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, demonstrates how increasing the amount of insulation can keep warm air from escaping. Meredith recently gave a lecture on how to weatherize a home in time for winter.
Roberto M. Esquivel | Herald-Standard
Dave Meredith, associate professor at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, demonstrates how air can escape a closed door by sliding a dollar bill through the closed portion. Meredith recently gave a lecture on how to weatherize a home in time for winter.
Homeowners received bad news last week about their winter heating bills: they’re expected to go up.
Prices for natural gas, electricity and propane should be higher, the primary reason that more than 90 percent of U.S. homes will incur higher heating expenses.
Natural gas users will see the biggest percentage increase after two years of historically low prices. Their heating bills should rise to an average of $679, the Energy Department said in its annual outlook for heating costs. That is about 13 percent higher than a year ago, but still 4 percent below the average for the previous five winters.
And to add another layer to this bad news, Fayette County residents should also prepare for bitter cold temperatures and a long, snow-filled winter, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.
However, Professor David Meredith, program chairman for the Building Environmental Systems Technology Program at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, has a list of proven ways to beat the winter cold, while at the same time, avoid high heating bills.
He often gives a presentation on his energy-saving tips once a year in October, and this year was no different.
“I’ve been doing energy conservation my whole life,” Meredith said. “I’m a green nut. I was a green nut before it was popular.”
With a lifetime of experience and success in weather-improving homes, Fayette County residents would be wise to heed Meredith’s advice and batten down the hatches against heating overpayment.
Meredith often engages his students in projects to energy-improve homes. A recent project saved one of his colleague’s about $556 for an entire winter.
His colleague, who lives in an older house, paid $890 to heat his home during the 2007-08 winter season.
After making various improvements for the 2008-09 season and then adding additional insulation to the attic last year, his colleague’s bill dropped to $278 from November through February. Although the improvements cost his colleague $500, he’ll save more than that each winter, forever.
“We jacked it (the attic insulation) up to about 8 or 9 inches and it made a huge difference in his heating bill,” he said.
Meredith said today, the recommendation is to have “at least” 12 inches of insulation in the attic, where rising heat goes.
He said that most older houses do not have a lot of insulation because when they were built, energy was inexpensive.
He added that a door with a drop-down ladder that leads to the attic are “notoriously leaky.”
According to Meredith, one-third of a person’s heating bill has to do with air leaking into the house.
“You heat it up, and then it goes away,” he said. “Where it comes in typically is around the foundation — it’s the biggest air-leaker in your house.”
He suggests caulking right at the bottom, where the house sits on the foundation. Today, there are easier and more efficient ways to caulk than in the past.
Meredith suggests that people use rope caulk. For big air gaps, however, he suggests using foam caulk.
“It’s really good stuff, and easy to use,” he said.
All supplies to weatherproof a house are available readily at any home supply store, and putting them in place is not very time-consuming.
Another one-third of heat loss goes out the windows of a house.
“If you’re paying $1,000 to heat your house, your losing $300 out of these windows,” Meredith said.
Christmas dinner beside a big bay window in his father’s house would have been a little more cozy and comfortable if there was plastic on the windows.
“You could feel that cold air coming off that window,” he said. “A lot of older homes have single-pane windows. You can cut that $300 in half by putting plastic on the inside of your windows.”
He said if people are worried about plastic being noticeable, they shouldn’t be. Windows with plastic on them appear crystal clear because it snaps in so tight.
But while plastic can stand up to 40-mph winds, in a battle with a cat, the plastic loses every time.
How the windows in a home are closed for the last time before cold weather hits make a difference as well.
“You’ve got to make sure when you close them, that they aren’t catawampus — that it seals tight,” Meredith said.
He suggests performing a “dollar-bill test.”
“If you can take a dollar bill, and put it in a door or a window, if you can move that thing, the air can get in and out,” he said. “And if the air gets in and out, you’re losing money.”
Once all the drafty areas of a typical home are added up, most homes have a 3-by-3-foot hold in them where air escapes, he said.
At night, Meredith recommends turning the thermostat down and using blankets, especially an electric blanket.
“When you’re sleeping, you don’t really care how cold the air temperature is in your house,” he said. “Electric blankets can really save a lot of money because it keeps you warm, and isn’t that the most important thing in that house? If your dishes get a little cold, do they really care?”
People can also purchase a night setback thermostat for about $100.
But one of Meredith’s colleagues provided him a “poor man’s solution.”
A person can put a nightlight on a timer near the thermostat. When the light kicks on, it sends enough warmth to the thermostat to trick it into reading that the house is at the right temperature. When the timer shuts the nightlight off in the morning, the thermostat recognizes the cold air, and the heat kicks on to compensate.
Meredith also recommends that people turn the heat completely off if they go on a trip, but not if the temperature is too close to freezing.
During a five-day Thanksgiving trip last year, he and his wife turned off the heat when they were away.
“I’ve got a well-insulated house, so the temperature only got down into the 50s,” he said. “So when we got back, we basically turned the heat up, went out and got some dinner, and when we got back, the house was warm. You can save energy that way.”
They weren’t, however, willing to turn the heat off for Christmas.
Meredith also suggests sealing off rooms that are not used.
“The smaller area you heat, the more energy-efficient it is,” he said. “By closing off your doors and blocking heat that goes to those areas, you’ll save about 10 percent of your heating bill.”
That can be fixed by simply covering a register with a piece of cardboard, he said.
“That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it,” Meredith said. “We’re trying to save that gas for the next generation so they have energy.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.