Tag: energy cost

Energy Savings Calculator: Making Every Dollar Count

Posted on by T.F. O'Brien Cooling & Heating

Use a Free Home Energy Calculator to Understand Your Energy Use

Energy savings calculators are questionnaires that gather information on energy usage and process that information to identify changes that will decrease energy usage and provide energy cost savings. Using an energy savings calculator can help you focus on the parts of your home energy system that need attention. The  Home Energy Saver website is a good example of an energy savings calculator.

After you input your household data, then the calculator provides recommendations on potential energy cost savings in the following areas:

  • Heating
  • Cooling
  • Hot Water
  • Large Appliances
  • Small Appliances
  • Lighting

The savings in energy costs are based on reduced energy usage after upgrading your current home energy system. Think of your home energy system as being enclosed in your house structure, or envelope. Making small but important changes in the envelope to seal leaks and add insulation are important first steps to reducing energy usage and costs.

Here in the New York and Long Island areas, heating and cooling are critical to your household. These systems should operate efficiently and provide the best performance for the least cost. One way to improve heating and cooling efficiency is through using a programmable thermostat. To improve the basic performance of your heating and cooling, consider replacing your heating or air conditioning equipment.

Hot water, appliances, and lighting are also areas where you can use the energy savings calculator to help decide on the best equipment upgrade plans for energy cost reduction. You can also take advantage of newer and more energy-efficient technology like solar and tankless water heaters, energy star appliances, and CFL lighting options.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about preventive maintenance and other HVAC topics, please download our free  Home Comfort Resource guide.

Heat Pump Essentials for Homeowners

Posted on by T.F. O'Brien Cooling & Heating

If you’re a Long Island homeowner using a heat pump to heat and cool your home, you may already know that this equipment offers energy-efficient comfort.   We’d like to go over some heat pump essentials for anyone who’d like more information about this type of HVAC system, or just wants to better understand how their system works.

A heat pump is an efficient alternative to furnaces and air conditioning systems.   It’s a reliable way to keep your home comfortable, and it offers significant energy savings for homeowners.   As many of our customers know, heat pumps are an ideal solution because they work well in almost any climate (often as part of a hybrid system for cold climates like ours) and cost a lot less to run than conventional fuel-burning systems.

More good news for your energy budget–a heat pump uses 30-40% less electricity than other types of heating and cooling!

So how does it work?   A heat pump uses a refrigerant to draw heat from outside air and compress it, making it even hotter.   Coils then send the heated air to the blower to be distributed through your home’s ductwork.

This cycle is repeated over and over as the refrigerant cools down and goes back to get more outside air.   The system runs efficiently on electricity so no fossil fuels are burned.   In our opinion, this combination of energy cost savings and fuel conservation is one of the biggest advantages of heat pumps.

A hybrid heat pump allows you to use a fossil-fuel burning furnace as a backup heat source, when outside temperatures go below 30 degrees.   One consideration here is your home’s electrical capacity.

When it comes to heat pumps, there are a few things you should know about how to buy and operate your system for maximum energy efficiency.   Ask us about ratings for energy efficiency, sizing your unit and other factors that will determine which system is right for your home.

Heat pumps offer big energy savings both now and later on down the line.   Get the most comfort at the least cost by choosing the one that’s best for your home, and operate it properly to ensure long life and even better savings.   Contact us for more information about heat pumps, and how to maximize your energy savings and home comfort with this energy-efficient heating system.

T.F. O’Brien services the Long Island, New York area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about preventive maintenance and other HVAC topics, please download our free  Home Comfort Resource guide.