On Friday I shared with you some of Michael Blasnik’s advice on the best ways to save energy at home. But a lot of what I found most interesting about the lecture was how much oft-repeated advice is wrong. For instance:

1. Blocking off registers to unused rooms may actually make your furnace work harder and waste energy.
2. Cleaning refrigerator coils regularly may not save energy at all. Blasnik said heat exchangers are so big now that it makes little difference.
3. Running a ceiling fan counterclockwise in the winter to circulate the warm air at ceiling level doesn’t actually translate into energy savings. (Darn—I was really trying to believe that one.)
4. A house would have to be really drafty for caulking and weatherstripping to translate into much energy savings. Attics and basements make up 50–75% of air leakage: plumbing stacks, walls without top plates, ceiling height changes, chimneys, soffits, knee walls, recessed lights, and foundation walls. Even then leakage only represents 30% of energy use.
5. Tankless gas water heaters take just 1/3 off  your hot water load and can cost twice as much as regular hot water heaters. Blasnik says the best buy is an indirect-fired unit.
6. Cool roofs are just silly in cold climates. They may be good for the Earth’s albedo, but not for energy savings. Good insulation works just as well to keep a home cool.
7. Single pane windows with storm windows perform almost as well as energy star windows, and a layer of plastic can be just as good as a layer of glass.

Michael Blasnik

Lower priorities

• Use carafe instead of coffeemaker warmer – costs $0 – $5/yr
• Cook with lids on pots – costs $0 – saves $2–10/yr
• Turn off heat in unused rooms – costs $0 – saves $0–200/yr?
• Clean fridge coils – costs $0 – saves $0–10/yr
• Change furnace filters monthly (vs. once per season) – costs $0 – saves $0–5/yr
• Unplug cell phone charger – costs $0 – saves <$1/yr
• Close fridge door quickly – costs $0 – saves <$1/yr
• Keep fridge full – costs $0 – saves <$1/yr
• Ceiling fan in winter – costs $0  – saves $0/yr?
• Close drapes on winter nights – costs $0 – saves $0/yr?
• Hot water pipe insulation (after first few feet) – costs $20? – saves $1?
• Replace old furnace w/92% efficiency (avg. use) – costs $3,200 – saves $250–400/yr
• Replace old dishwasher – costs $400+ – saves $25-40/yr
• Caulk/weatherstrip windows/doors – costs $50–600 – saves $10–40/yr
• Seal basement ducts  (unless big holes) – costs $50–600 – saves $0–50/yr
• Insulate attic (some existing insulation, no seal) (DON’T DO THIS—SEAL BYPASSES!) – costs $700 – saves $30–60/yr
• Insulate basement ceiling (1000 ft^2) – costs $1,200 – saves $30–100/yr
• Cool roof – costs $1,000 – saves $10/yr
• Tune up gas furnace (annual) – costs $150 – saves $0?
• Tankless gas water heater – costs $2,500 – saves $60–120
• Replace 15 old windows – costs $10,000? – saves $50–150/yr

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Blasnik has a web site where he shares the sources of all these numbers, so before making any serious decisions based on his seminar, I’d do more research. As a professional consultant, maybe he’s not of the information-should-be-free mindset.

Update: HEET now has Blasnik’s PowerPoint presentation posted. If you don’t have PowerPoint, here’s a pdf version.

One year ago: Stress = Waste