The Quickest Way To Begin Greening Your House
Quick - What’s the easiest way to reduce your energy use and costs in your home? Better Insulation, perhaps? Solar panels on the roof? Microturbine on the lawn? All valid ways, but there’s an even more direct path. Your thermostat. If it’s more then an orange pointer to a temperature, in other words programmable, you have the power to make significant changes in your energy footprint.
And yet you don’t. Why?
For many, it’s just too complex, intimidating, and just not a regular part of their routine. It’s this that the people at EcoBee sought to address in creating their new device, released last week. One could ask, what is it, beyond being a fancy thermostat control? It’s comfort, ease, and accessibility. Like the iPhone, the interface was carefully thought out and tested to be simple, effective, and most importantly, used.
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In a nod to modern day life that revolves around the computer, it can be controlled by your computer via the wifi network on a personalized web portal. All you need do is tell it what temperature you want when, and it calculates how best to achieve it. And in an area I’m sure 95% of you overlook, you can set it to remind you to change your furnace, humidifier, and ventilator filters, and get your equipment serviced.
EcoBee helps users have a more fine grained awareness of their energy usage, showing current real time, what it’s been today, what it was yesterday, and how that compares to the average, best, and worst days. Like cars that show real time mileage, being able to see just how much juice you’re using would for many I imagine be incentive to modify your energy use and what other methods you use to achieve optimum temperature in your house.
Speaking of, with your greater awareness may come a desire to know more, do more, and share more. Ecobee has created an online community where other owners can gather to share tips, experiences, and resources to live a more sustainable life.
Suddenly that copper colored plastic circle and temperature dial on your wall is looking a little scared. Recycle it well, won’t you?
Readers: What are some other ways you’ve found to easily and smartly green your house? Chime in, below.
Additional Reading:
Bad News For Green Builders? Not So Fast: Ecopreneurist
A Financial Stimulus Package That Pays For Your Photovoltaic System? : Green Building Elements
Weekend Review: The Renewable Energy Handbook and Smart Power : Green Building Elements
yes, save energy. You probably should turn it down lower than 72 degrees. That is a bit warm if you are trying to save money. Mine is at 60 degrees.
Good suggestion, depending on where you live. And it’s but one setting example.
Anyone stupid enough not to be using an auto set thermostat deserves to be on the street freezing. And to think these losers are allowed to vote and drive cars.
Pathetic
Two very easy things everyone can do to reduce energy use:
1) turn off what you’re cooking 5-10 mins before it’s due time. Sure, this depends on what you’re cooking, but alot of things which take > 30 mins will happily cook in their own heat for another 5-10+ mins before serving without any extra power being supplied.
2) if you have an oven/grill, consider using the grill for the oven. Some have separate oven controls for the grill … in which case well and good. Others don’t, in which case you will need to experiment. Bottom line though is that your grill is 1/2 to 1/3 of the size of your oven. If you can fit it in there to cook, do so. The power savings will be enormous.
HTH
Wow, the Ecobee is really cool looking…it definitely reminds me of the iPhone!
Great tips Chris!
I’m working w/ ecobee to help launch this thermostat. It doesn’t just control heating, but also air conditioning. If you live in FL or AZ, 72 may be the right temp for some rooms - although 75 or higher saves on electric bill. It can be set as low as 50 degrees F.
Our thermostat is in the kitchen, making for interesting temperature zones in the remainder of the house. A warm kitchen, we cook with gas, will switch off the heating and keep the rest of the house cooler. At first we wanted to change the location of the thermostat, now we’re looking at this as a benefit.
One neat product that can help out is The Energy Detective. It monitors and reports your household electrical use so that you can tell how much energy your appliances are using, and subsequently, how much you’re spending. Granted, the effort required to go green is still on you, but by informing you of your use (and the cash it’s costing you!), you’re much more likely to conserve.
Check it out: http://www.theenergydetective.com
Andreas, what an interesting way to reframe what could be seen as a negative.
Awesome find Chris! Is this on a per appliance basis, or overall energy use? Either way, definitely helpful to have real time feedback.