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It is a multi-point check of your home or business for air leaks around areas such as
  Around light switches
  Electrical outlets
  Doors
  Windows

Select an Adobe Product or Service in the picture.

.     Energy Audits by Adobe are recognized by Arizona Public Service, The Heat Pump Council and other agencies, municipalities and groups.

Adobe Energy Management Company | 1517 E. McDowell | Phoenix AZ 85006 | 602-254-2525

CONSUMER GUIDE TO HOME ENERGY SAVINGS TIPS

Introduction

Everyone knows that energy is very expensive and is becoming harder to get, but there is something we can all do about it.  We at Adobe Energy Management are in the business of helping the people of Arizona become more energy conscious and therefore saving themselves hundreds of dollars a year in energy savings.  We have compiled this information for the purpose of informing you about energy-saving techniques, and to give you the opportunity to try these techniques firsthand. 

It is important to realize that energy is a commodity like food or clothing and yet different because we don’t buy it for what it is, but for what it can do.  It is a commodity that we need to continue our present lifestyles.

Energy costs money to produce.  The major reason that most of us are interested in conserving energy is its escalating cost.  Simply stated: Saving energy saves money!

 If you want to beat rising energy prices and become more self sufficient, study this information and put it to practical use.  By reading this information carefully you can help determine which techniques and products are most appropriate for your lifestyle, as well as how to save the most energy with the least effort and cost.

Adobe Energy Management is here to help and inform you.  By helping you to cut your energy usage we all benefit in the long run with savings.  Besides, that we have new innovative products and services available to help you in your quest to cut energy costs by modernizing your energy equipment and introducing you to new savings services. 

The name Adobe Energy Management is well known throughout the State of Arizona as one of the industry leaders in energy conservation.   WE CAN HELP!

The First Step 

You have taken the first step necessary to start your journey on the road to energy savings.  By calling Adobe Energy Management you have placed your current energy needs in the hands of the most qualified representatives in the State of Arizona.  Our Energy Auditors have many years in the Energy Saving Business and are hear to answer your questions and provide you with the information you will need to start saving money today. 
We recommend that you begin with no-cost measures,
Add the low-cost features for more energy savings. 
Finally, you may want to consider investing in the larger items to gain the utmost in energy efficiency.

Patterns of Energy Consumption 

Keep in mind that the greater the energy use, the greater the potential for energy conservation.  For example, the cooling portion of your energy bill will have more money saving potential than the wash and dryer portion. 

A number of factors can affect your energy consumption pattern: the size of your home, type of construction, amount, type and location of insulation, local climate, how your house is oriented to the sun and prevailing winds, design and number of appliances used, and how you manage and use your home.  In fact, your lifestyle is the most important factor in determining your energy consumption.  It is possible that one household with the same number of occupants can use ½ (one half) the energy of another, in an identical house, with the same equipment, on the same block. 

One more important factor to consider as you analyze your energy consumption pattern and examine your energy budget is the particular climate zone in which you live.  Because the topography in the Southwest ranges from desert to high mountains, there are several different, distinct climate zones and each varies accordingly.  Another high-energy consumer is the swimming pool motor. 

 Therefore as you consider your energy budget, take into account the factors that affect energy consumption patterns for your lifestyle.  Our Energy consultant can assist you in deciding what techniques and products are most appropriate for energy conservation in your home.

NO COST ENERGY SAVERS

No cost energy savers have to do with changing habits and energy management.  You can save energy and fulfill your comfort needs at NO COST by following the suggestions in this section.

Cooling Temperatures

Studies show there is a wide range of temperatures at which people are comfortable depending on humidity, air movement, the amount of clothing they have on, how active they are, whether they are in sunshine or not, and what the temperatures of the surrounding surfaces are.  This presents an opportunity to experiment.  For instance, set your thermostat at a higher than usual setting and then adjust some of the other factors.  For example, set the thermostat at 80 degrees, fix yourself a tall glass of cold water or lemonade, or perhaps change into lightweight clothing.  While you probably won’t notice a change in your comfort, you will notice a change in the amount of energy and money you are saving.  Each degree you raise the thermostat saves approximately 5 percent of air conditioning costs.  Raising the thermostat from 72 F to 78 F may save you as much as $102.00 annually on cooling costs. 

Heating Temperatures

The same factors affect your comfort in the winter.  Try lowering the thermostat, combined with some warmer clothes and a cup of coffee or hot chocolate or sit by a window with the sun shining on you.  Some people feel that lower temperatures aid sleeping and appetite.  Lowering the thermostat from 72 F to 68 F saves you up to $77.00 on heating costs.  Who wouldn’t prefer to keep their money than spend it on unnecessary energy?

1.      Air Conditioning removes moisture from the air to provide greater comfort.  So save moisture-producing activities (showering, mopping floors, dishwashing, boiling water) for early morning and late evening, when the cooling requirement is lowest.

2.      Change air conditioner and furnace filters regularly.

3.      Close doors and air vents to unoccupied rooms (but never close off more than half of the rooms).

4.      In summer close draperies, window blinds and louvered shutters inside your home.  In winter open them to admit natural solar heat.

5.      Use natural light from shaded windows whenever possible.  Incandescent lights are considerably cooler and much more energy efficient.  Given a choice, use fluorescent lights.

6.      Dress warmly in winter to retain body heat.  Wear clothes of natural fibers in layers.

7.      In summer, dress lightly and wear light colors.  Eat cool foods and drink plenty of water.

8.      Cooking and other heat producing activities also place additional stress on a cooling unit.  Save them for early morning and late evening.

9.      Microwave ovens cook while adding less heat to the kitchen and are more energy efficient than ovens or ranges.  If you have one, use it.

Thermostats settings 

The most effective no-cost step you can take to reduce your energy costs for cooling, heating and water heating is to adjust your thermostat.  Your thermostat and placement are unique.  No two thermostats are identical, nor do they operate exactly alike.  They shouldn’t be installed where the sun, will directly affect them by the output of warm air register, by lamps or other sources of heat.    Ordinarily, thermostats should be installed in the room or area where you spend most of your time and where comfort is most desirable.  Your comfort is the primary consideration in establishing temperature setting.

WATER HEATING settings 

When you use hot water, do you find it necessary to add cold water to make it comfortable?  If so, your water heater is set too high!  Turn down the setting to low (120 degrees).  By doing this you will save money annually.  You probably

Won’t notice the difference in the hot water draw, but you will notice the money you save.

Lighting comprises less than 7 percent of our energy budget but it does add heat to a room.  For simple savings:

1.      Turn off lights when you leave a room, even if only for a few minutes.

2.      Move close to source of light for working & reading.

3.      Remove extra bulbs in multiple socket fixtures (replace with burned out bulbs for safety.)  One 100-watt bulb provides as much light as two 60 watts and uses less energy. 

1.      Turn off the radio, TV, VCR and other equipment and auxiliary fans when you leave a room.

2.      Condenser coils of the refrigerator and freezer collect dust.  Vacuum or clean them regularly. 

3.       A full refrigerator actually more efficient since the food stores the cold and air loss is not as great when the door is opened.

4.      Keep the refrigerator temperature between 40 - 45 degrees and the freezer between 0 – 32 degrees. 

With a pool consuming such a large portion of your energy budget, you may wish to consider some of the following energy use reduction techniques: 

1.      Replace burned out motors with high efficiency models.

2.      Do not run the motor longer than necessary.

3.      Clean filter regularly to increase motor efficiency.

4.      Adjust the time of day the filter operates to non-peak hours.

5.      Heat your pool with solar energy.

Two people in an average household use 60 percent of their water inside the house and 40 percent of the water outside. The greatest amount of water used inside the house is used in the bathroom.  In fact, as much as 75 percent of the indoor water is used in the bathroom.  Therefore, the greatest opportunity for reducing indoor water use is to install highly effective water saving showerheads and toilet displacement systems to reduce the amount of water flushed. 

45% - Toilet flushing
30% - Showering
20% - Washer/Dryer
 5% - Cooking       

LOW COST ENERGY SAVERS  

There are a number of techniques you can apply and products you can buy for very little money that will reduce your energy and water consumption.

Water & Energy Savers 

1.      If you take showers instead of baths, and install a non-aerating showerhead, you will save a considerable amount of water, plus the energy to heat the water. 

2.      By installing a dam in your toilet you can reduce water use by 3 to 5 gallons with each flush.  Be sure addition of the dam does not require more than one flush per use, or water savings will not accrue. 

3.      Replace washers on leaky faucets to save water.

Water Heater Insulation 

1.      If your water heater is warm to the touch, you should insulate it.  an inexpensive water heater jacket could save as much as 12 percent of your water heating bill.  These jackets are usually made of a vinyl-backed fiberglass batting, and generally have 2 to 3 inches (R7 to R11) of insulation.

Note:  Installing a jacket on water heaters that indicate “jacket not required” may void your warranty.  Check with your vendor. 

2.      Water heater jackets can be purchased for approximately $10.00 or less, and save an estimated $12 annually for electric water heating or $3.00 for gas water heating (at current utility rates). 

3.  If your water heater pipes feel hot, they also should be insulated for additional energy savings.  Pipe insulation is usually found as rigid foam.  Choose a size that fits your pipes snugly.

Lighting 

1.      Using a clock timer while you are away from home give the illusion that your Home is occupied.  Set it for “on” at dusk and “off” at bedtime.  This can save you up to 75 percent of the energy consumed by a continually burning bulb.  Try to use a fluorescent in this application.

Insulating Gaskets 

Foam insulating gaskets are inexpensive pre-cut items installed behind electric outlet and light switch plates.  They are available at most building materials suppliers and hardware store.  In older homes the interior walls tend to leak as badly as exterior walls, so don’t neglect them.  In addition to gaskets, child-proofing receptacle plugs are also recommended.  If switch and receptacle plates are not flush with the wall, gaps should be caulked.

Fans and Ventilators 

     Comfort can be increased, even when thermostat settings are raised in

In summer, by circulating air with a small room fan.  The flow of air on your skin helps your body feel cooler.  Keep in mind that fans can only help if there is someone there to benefit from their use.  Don’t operate fans unless someone is in the room! 

Use kitchen exhaust fans, sometimes called a ventilator, to remove cooking heat and moisture.  Use them sparingly as you might send cooled air up the exhaust. 

Heating and Cooling 

To help you understand how you can keep cool in the summer and warm in the winter for less money, you need to understand the sun’s effect and how heat works.  We describe these points below, and in subsequent pages, and explain what you can do about it.

Seasonal Sun Movement 

To make the southwestern sun work for you it is important to understand how it moves through the day and year.  Notice the difference between the positions of the summer and winter suns.  At our latitude, the winter sun is very low on the horizon.  It rises south of due east and sets south of due west.  In the summer, the sun is high above our roofs.  It rises north a due east and sets north of due west.

Working with this seasonal movement will bring the maximum comfort and energy savings to your home.

During winter, the sun pours nicely into south facing windows.  This is called passive solar heat gain.  It is cheerful and free winter heat.

In summer, these same areas must be protected from direct sunshine.  Overhangs and shading provide protection.

As you plan work around your home, take the season into consideration.  Check where the sun will be, then work with it and it will work for you.

Heat Gain & Heat Loss

Keeping our homes comfortable is important to all of us.  In order to maximize that comfort, it is important to understand how heat moves through and around them.  When discussing heat transfer there are two things to remember:

1.      Heat always moves from warmer to cooler places, and

2.      The bigger the difference in temperature between the two, the faster the flow.

Following these two principles, heat moves in three ways:  conduction, convection, and radiation.  Although it is impossible to separate one from the other, to help you understand each clearly, they will be explained as though they were independent. 

When the sun shines on the side of your house the surface is warmed.  Once the surface gets warmer than the inside of your house, heat begins to move through the walls to the inside by conduction.  The rate at which the heat moves through the walls generally depends on the walls insulation.  Basically the less insulation in the wall the faster the heat flow.  In summer, the outside surface of your house walls are usually warmer than the inside walls, so heat moves from the outside in.  In the winter just the opposite  happens.  Added insulation is the most common  way to reduce heat gain and loss by conduction.

Warmer air is lighter than cool air, so it rises.  These two aspects of convection considerably affect the heating and cooling of your house.  When the cold winds blow against your house, the house is cooled by convection.  When warm air in a room touches a cool window, the air cools and falls  causing drafts at the base of the window near the floor.

(Cool air seeps through cracks around doors and windows, CAUSE MORE DRAFTS.  Weather stripping, caulking and wind breaks are the most common ways to reduce heat gain and loss through convection.

Shading is on eof the most effective ways to reduce interior cooling requirements.  It is much more effective to stop the sun before it reaches your walls and windows than anything else you can do.  If exterior shading is not possible, close your drapes or blinds. 

Use a trellis 12 to 18 inches away from the outside wall and grow vines, colorful flowers and plants to shade your house most inexpensively.  When painting the outside of your home, use light color that will reflect heat.

STUDIES CONCLUDE THAT THE MOST EFFECTIVE MEANS OF PREVENTING SUMMER HEAT GAIN THROUGH WINDOWS  IS TO SHADE THEM FROM THE OUTSIDE.  This is best achieved though Sunscreens.  These are made of a textilene,  which is a woven, PVC coated polyester yarn that is formulated to withstand solar abuse. 

Texlilene blocks up to 90%of the suns rays and is available in many colors.  These are custom made by us just for your windows.  If you don’t want to spend the money right now than try using a roll up plastic or bamboo shade. 

WEATHER-STRIPPING AND CAULKING

 Air infiltration is the uncontrolled movement of air into and out of the house through cracks around windows, doors and other openings on the outside walls. Air infiltration cannot be remedied by adding insulation.  Even in a well insulated house, infiltration is a significant portion of energy loss.

INFILTRATION IS ONE ON THE EASIEST AND MOST COST EFFECTIVE HOLES TO PATCH.  The worse offenders are not usually doors and windows but utility cut through for pipes (plumbing penetrations)

gaps around chimneys and recessed lights. 

Weather stripping can be purchased by the foot or in kits but before you buy make sure your measurements are correct.  There are many weather stripping materials to choose from.

Better yet,  hire us to bring in a BLOWER DOOR TEST to point out where the worst cracks are.  All, the little, invisible cracks and holes may add up to as much as an open window or door, without you ever knowing it. 

Caulk is a sealing compound use to seal small cracks and openings.  It is available in many forms. The most important areas to caulk are:

Between window and door frames and exterior siding.  Under door and window sills where wood meets foundation, around exterior openings like water pipes and electrical openings.  Caulk adheres best to clean surfaces and you should allow 24 hours to dry.

Filters 

Don’t let your furnace, air-conditioner and heat pumps filters get clogged up with impurities because it is more expensive and detrimental to the equipment that you are using.  We recommend the GOOD FILTER BRAND “TURBO TRAP” ELECTROSTATIC AIR FILTER.

This filter is made of 2 layers of specially designed filter media which contains over 10 times more surface areas, to trap dust, pollen and other pollutants in the home.  Most of these are inexpensive depending on the size you require.

ENERGY INVESTMENTS

Although we are focusing on low-cost and no-cost energy conservation measures, we want you to be informed of some other common practical energy investments you may wish to consider. 

These are the most cost effective and largest savings measures  to take into account when looking to improve your overall energy savings.

You don’t have to stay at home to save energy.  Automatic thermostats monitor air temperature constantly and control heating or cooling systems to maintain a set of pre selected settings.  Models range from simple timers with an on-off switch to sophisticated, programmable thermostats. 

Considerable energy can be saved while you are away from home or at night while you are sleeping by setting the automatic device to raise the summer night temperature 50 to 10 degrees and lower the winter night temperature 5 to 10 from the daytime comfort setting. 

These programmable thermostat are the only way to go, for a very reasonable financial investment.

Why run your HVAC equipment when you are not even home and the energy demand is at its highest cost?

Insulation is considered an energy investment because it requires a one time cost.  It is a permanent way to reduce energy use and to provide noticeably increased comfort as well.  Did you know that according to the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.) your attic is probably under insulated, even if your home is only 3 years old!!!! 

Insulation blocks the transfer of heat, which travels from areas of higher temperature to areas of lower temperatures.  During winter, heat is lost from heated living spaces to outdoors through exterior surfaces (windows, walls and ceiling.  Insulation can effectively reduce these losses by creating an additional barrier to heat flow. 

During the very hot summer months,  heat enters living spaces through the same surfaces.  Therefore, a well insulated home will also stay cooler.  Insulation effectiveness is measured by R-value.  The higher the R-value the more resistance to heat flow it provides.  The thickness of the insulation is not as important as the R-value,  the effectiveness of any one type of material.

We install and recommend Cocoon Cellulose insulation.  Cellulose is more dense than typical fiberglass and conforms better to the space where it is applied, around wires, electrical boxes and water pipes, creating an even continuous blanket of insulation.  This dramatically reduces drafts, energy loss and  air flow caused by air infiltration.  As such, it is simply smarter insulation.

Cocoon is particularly effective in attics, which is the largest single source of energy loss.  There, it achieves an R-value of 30” with only 8.1” of material compared to 12.75” of loose fill fiberglass products to get the same R-value.  This insulation is better for sound proofing than others and is non-toxic, non-itchy and non-carcinogenic.    It is made of recycled paper products and yet is engineered as a Class 1 fire-rated building material.  Insect and Fungus resistant this Insulation is the best way to go.

Attic Ventilation 

Proper ventilation is necessary to prevent heat build up in an attic or crawl space which cancels some of the benefits of insulation.  One study showed that when the interior air temperature was 82 degrees, an unventilated attic could reach 160 degrees and substantially increase heat gain to a home.  Attic ventilation also reduces moisture build-up.  

We recommend either Gable Attic Vents or Wind Turbines.

Hot Water Heater Generator 

Instead of resistance heating elements on a typical water heater this generator is designed to support ducted inlet and outlet air flows.  It sits on top of your existing water heat and looks like a small heat pump.  It draws supply air from any warm or humid area (LIKE THE HOT AREA IN YOUR GARAGE IN THE SUMMER MONTHS) And discharges cool conditioned air, all the time delivering 3.5 KW of water heating using only 1.5 KW of energy.  It gets 12,000 BTUs of cooling at no additional energy cost.

By nature, vinyl is an excellent insulator.   Combine this with 1” thick insulating glass and innovative construction and all this means is lower heating and cooling costs.  Outside noise is deadened and messy condensation is reduced.  For even more greater energy savings we can add Low-E glazing, tinted glass or inject argon gas between panes.

When you add in Strength, beauty and durability the new windows being manufactured are the way to go.   

Milgard even manufacturers a Replacement Series.  It is designed for quick and efficient replacement of tired, old aluminum or wood windows.  Whether your home is stucco, brick or has wood siding, the windows we will install will improve the overall appearance, value and comfort in your home. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to glide effortlessly though the long, hot summer without giving your air conditioning system a second thought?  With all the new equipment that is being manufactured today, that is exactly what you can do. 

With SEER ratings of up to 17.20, new equipment offers the unbeatable combination of energy efficiency and lower operating costs.  The higher the SEER, the greater the energy efficiency.  And, the greater the energy efficiency, the more you wills save on cooling bills.  

What exactly is SEER ratings?  Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratings (SEER) are established according to Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute procedures and may vary depending on the indoor blower/coil installed as part of your system. 

When matched with a variable speed indoor unit a new system offers enhanced airflow.  What this means is you get greater humidity control in cooling.  This is accomplished by running the fan at a slower speed during start up.  This cycle reduces temperatures variance for the optimum in home comfort. 

All of the equipment we sell is made to last and is manufactured by companies that have been used in American homes for over 100 years.  Make the investment, get the facts.  It is the best investment you can make when it comes to saving energy.