How to Need Less Heating and Cooling

After your house is ‘tightened up’, that is you have insulation in place and ventilation rather than drafts, there are many other steps you can take to lessen your heating and cooling loads.

Wind protection is the first thing to consider in cold weather. As you know, there is often a big difference between the temperature and the chill index. Old farm houses long ago proved that a well-designed and well-placed windbreak can reduce heating costs by 20% to 40%.

In town, careful placement of evergreen trees and shrubs can slow the wind near the house. Sometimes it is possible to berm (pile earth against) the windward sides of the house. Lattice trellises furred out an inch or so from the walls and used to support thick evergreen ivy can help provide wind control in winter and shade in summer.

In hot weather, shading the house with deciduous trees can make a difference of up to 20 degrees — even more if it is breezy. Sometimes it is more convenient to use awnings to shade certain windows. Shade must be on the outside. Once sun hits the glass, the heat enters the house. If you have an old house with screens that cover the entire window, investigate “shade screens”. There are many new types of windows available with special coatings and gasses between their sealed panes that insulate better than older windows.

Taking advantage of a simple “stack effect” can help with summer cooling. This means bringing air into the house near the ground on the shaded side of the house and providing a free path for it to rise as it heats, then exits through larger high windows. The larger the temperature difference between intake and exit, the stronger the cooling circulation will be.

If your area usually cools down at night, another cooling option is the whole-house fan. This is a large attic fan that you run at night taking cooler intake air from near the ground, drawing it through the house, and exhausting it out the attic. You then close up the house in the early morning, and use small fans to circulate the cooled air.

The best way to achieve good daylighting without adding to your heating problems is by installing carefully sited solar tube skylights. Light tubes are like stovepipes, but reflective inside and capped with lenses at each end. Most do not open for ventilation. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to install, and no more likely to leak than a stovepipe. Solar light tubes in the kitchen, bathroom, and over reading areas can insure that you will never again need electric lights during the daylight hours. Daylight is also easier on your eyes.

Relatively simple changes like these can make a huge difference in your “energy footprint” and equally huge savings in your energy bills.