When you conduct over 3000 Home Energy Audits per year you’re bound to run into some interesting opinions. Many people believe certain things about home energy consumption that are just not true. These “Energy Myths” have often been inherited from one generation to the next. “Grandma always said…” is the typical preface to many of these energy myths. But a whole lot has changed in the last 50-100 years that makes grandma’s recommendations obsolete. Sorry Grandma. So after hearing many different Energy Myths from many different energy customers, the staff of Conservation Consultants got together and compiled some of the most common ones into a list of… drum roll please…

Top 10 Home Energy Myths

10. Myth: Closing off vents will help save on your heating bill.

Closing off vents, or putting a piece of cardboard over a vent is not typically a good way to save energy. Modern forced air heating systems balance their pressure load throughout the house. If one vent gets turned off it effectively unbalances the system. If you have forced air heating/cooling, you have two types of vents in your home; return and supply. Return is where your HVAC system inhales and supply is where it exhales. Just blocking any old vent is bad practice first off because you definitely don’t want to block a return vent, your heat would not work. But you don’t want to block vents because puts the system out of balance. Pressure will build up in in the ductwork, causing excess leakage into the walls. And less air will circulate through the system. Less air through furnace means less warm air in house which means a colder house. This sort of defeats the purpose. For more information on why you shouldn’t close off vents, go here.

9. Myth: Fiberglass Insulation alone will stop cold air from coming into your home.

While insulating is important, the job is not done until a home has been air sealed. Air sealing is the process of stopping air leaks and drafts which often occur though cracks between drywall and baseboards, windows, doors and any holes in an exterior surface. Insulating is like putting on a warm winter sweater, while air sealing is like putting on a windbreaker so that air doesn’t blow right through the sweater. Lets say you’ve got a hole in your attic floor where you can feel cold or warm air coming through. Putting a piece of insulation in this hole accomplishes very little. Air passes through most types of insulation quite easily. What you need to do is block the hole off using drywall or fiberboard and then insulate it with fiberglass Batt or loose fill. Or better yet hit two birds with one stone by using insulating foam board with a foil back, it blocks air and resists temperature differences. These items can all be purchased at your local hardware store.

8. Myth: Microwaves use a lot of electricity.

The simple explanation to this energy myth is that in the past microwaves used a whole lot of electricity – when they were first produced as giant appliances that took up a whole kitchen counter. Today’s technology makes microwaves the most efficient way of heating food or beverages costing approximately $1.00 per month for every fifteen minutes of daily use.

7. Myth: A dripping faucet is no big deal

At a glance, a faucet that drips may not seem to be a big deal. But try putting a gallon jug underneath that drip and you’d be surprised how quickly it’ll fill up. I hope you’re sitting down because that little drip could use 300-4,600 gallons per month!!!! Now if you’re still sitting, you shouldn’t be, you should stand up and go fix that dripping faucet!

6. Myth: Compact Fluorescent light bulbs don’t turn on when you flip the switch, have poor light quality and make buzzing noises.

Energy efficient lighting, such as Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs have really gotten a bad reputation from this pervasive energy myth when in fact they have nothing in common with the old-fashioned fluorescent bulbs of cubicle-jammed offices. Back in the 80s and 90s fluorescent lighting lights always took a second to warm up and turn on. But compact fluorescent light bulbs have come a long way technologically. Manufacturers have been able to make it so that they come on immediately, are brighter and don’t emit that annoying humming sound. And don’t forget how much they will save on your electric bill ($20-50 per bulb over its lifetime) and how long they last (10,000 hours or approx 7 years)

5. Myth: You can save water by putting a brick in your toilet tank.

This one we can directly attribute to Grandma. But while putting a brick in your toilet tank will displace some water, thereby saving the amount of water that goes down the drain, it will also erode. “Erode?” you say. Yes, bricks are made from soils all of which are susceptible to erosion. Once the erosion starts, the flushing water pulls off little abrasive pieces of brick which end up tearing holes in your toilets rubber seal. These holes then let water through in what is called a Silent leak, which can cost you lots of money in the long run. Sorry Grandma.But this whole displacing water thing is a good idea, just not with a brick. So what we recommend is either a water bottle filled with water with the cap on (and perhaps some rocks in the bottom of the bottle to weigh it down) or else a device known as a toilet tummy, which hangs off the inside wall of the tank and displaces over half a gallon of water per flush.

4. Myth: Your house will heat up faster if you set the heat up higher than you’d actually like it. aka “It’s cold in here, let me crank this thing up to 90.”

This one’s a bit of a no-brainer. Your house will heat up to around 70 just as quickly if you set it to 70 as it would if you set it to 90. Setting it to 90 will only waste energy when your furnace actually responds by heating it up to 90. Chances are you’ll forget to turn it back down. And I can guarantee that you will not feel comfortable at 90 degrees. So why not just set it to the temperature that you’d like it to be. Your thermostat doesn’t work like a gas peddle. It works more like… well… a thermostat.

3. Myth: Turning down your thermostat uses more energy because it has to work harder to make it cool/hot again once turn it back up.

This energy myth costs utility customers loads of money during the cold months. Turning your thermostat back (or purchasing a programmable thermostat that will do it for you) while you are away or asleep can only save you money, it will never cost you more. The explanation for this is a bit complicated, but the key points are that your home is much more resistant to heat loss than you may think, furniture and carpeting retain enough heat so that your furnace will not have to work that hard to raise back up to a comfortable temperature. The longer that the furnace is off, the more savings you will achieve because the energy used to reheat a space is always less than or equal to the amount of energy used to keep it at a consistent higher temperature.

2. Myth: “Flipping the light switch on and off makes your electricity bill high!”

This energy myth has induced many parents to yell at their children: “stop flicking that switch – your bringing up the light bill!” In fact, turning lights on and off does NOT use more electricity, so turn off the lights when you don’t need them and on when you do need them! If it’s on then it’s costing you money… if it’s off then it’s not.

1. Myth: “Energy efficiency is expensive… I can’t afford compact fluorescent light bulbs, blown-in insulation, energy star appliances and efficient HVAC systems.”

Although some energy efficiency “measures” (Energy star appliances, insulation, Compact Fluorescent light bubs, solar panels, Green materials etc) may be initially more expensive than their conventional counterparts, they all end up paying for themselves, some almost immediately. The “Payback period,” as it’s called, is the time that it takes for an energy efficiency measure to save enough energy (aka money) that it has paid for itself.

“What?!?! Saves money?” You may ask, “But it cost me money… how does it save money?” Well, to clarify, here is a general example. Lets say you are shopping for a new furnace in your home. The salesman shows you a few options. One, an 80% AFUE behemoth that costs somewhere around $800. And another, a 98% AFUE that costs a bit over $2000. You say, “Ohh boy I can get a new furnace for $800, I’ll Take it!” Then you go home, put in the new furnace , winter arrives and before you know it your monthly Gas bill is $350!!! If you’d have bought the more efficient one your Gas bills could be around $200 (Still higher than it could be, it wouldn’t hurt to insulate) But what this amounts to is a $150/month savings. That means it will only take 8 winter months to make up the cost difference and then a little over 5 months after that, it has paid for itself. While the less efficient furnace ends up costing you way way more than even $2000 in the long run. What you need to have an eye for is the long term cost of a measure rather than the price tag. The low price tag on a cheap furnace does not reflect the the high bills that you’ll be paying down the road. Though it should. The same can be said of any conservation measure. Light bulbs, insulation, solar panels, new windows. So, don’t think that you can’t afford to be energy efficient. Truthfully you can’t afford NOT to be energy efficient.

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