Heating & Refrigeration

Do you find yourself wishing your room was cooler or warmer often? Heating and cooling can be major energy consumption sectors. However, there are ways besides adjusting the thermostat to save energy and stay comfortable. Windows, vegetation, building situation, and design all affect the temperature inside buildings. Here you will find a few options of energy conservation without adjusting your heat or air conditioning.

You may want to keep your room cool in warm weather, but have you ever thought about that perpetually cold box that keeps your food at an ideal temperature? Refrigerators are an essential appliance in the homes, buisnesses, and schools of today. Their cool temperatures come at the cost of a high energy demand, and more research must be done to come up with the best energy efficient version. You will see a few factors that are considered to make the refrigerator efficient while maintaining enough storage space. You can use these factors as a starting point when shopping for a new refrigerator, because not only does the environment benefit with better energy efficiency, so does your electric bill.

Commercial (1992)
4% of energy used for water heating
5% used for food refrigeration
15% miscellaneous use

Residential (1992)
15% of energy is used for water heating
10% used for food refrigeration
13% miscellaneous use

Heat
To cool buildings:
Avoid parking lots on S/SW building sides

Plant leafy trees in this area
Trees shade in summer and let light in during the winter

Light colored buildings will be cooler
Light roofing materials with high reflecting properties

Large ceilings and rooms need a large amount of energy to heat and cool

Windows
In cool climates windows should be in the south for warmth
In warm climates they should face north to cool
As the amount of window area increases walls need more insulation
Heat losses and gains through windows use 25% of the heating and cooling energy in the U.S.

Low Emissivity Windows
A film inside the pane reflects up to 85% of the room temperature back into the room
Also reduces inward radiation during the summer, keeping the room cooler

Now are similar in appearance to conventional double glazed thermopane windows

Lifespan of 20-30 years

Payback is only a few years

A small window costs $10-20 more than a regular thermopane window, but it saves 10-15 million Btu’s in it’s life
10-15 million Btu’s are the equivalent of 80-120 gallons of gas
$70 saved in energy bills

Refrigerators
Energy use is from keeping a temperature difference between the inside of the fridge and the outside environment

By keeping heat outside of the fridge energy consumption can be reduced
Improving compressor design
Installing separate compressors
Moving the compressor to the top of the fridge
New insulation materials being researched