[MUSIC PLAYING] ERIK DROST: Are you a
contractor or homeowner looking to improve the
efficiency of your home's electrical system? Our Eaton Certified
Contractor Network, or ECCN, focuses on electrical safety,
reliability, and efficiency solutions for
today's modern homes. MIKE HOLMES JR: Whether you're
a contractor or a homeowner, there are many things you can
do to make your home more energy efficient. First and foremost,
those old appliances– you want to upgrade to more
energy-efficient appliances, because the old ones–
they're a big energy draw. Secondly, smart
technology, smart lighting, smart thermostat, smart
across the board– it's great to have that
access from your phone in order to control
your technology, in case you left the
light on or in case you want to adjust your
thermostat while you're not home. Last and certainly not least
is renewable technology– geothermal technology,
solar technology– to help produce more
energy for your home. ERIK HURD: Welcome to the
Power Systems Experience Center, where we can show
you live demonstrations of electrical systems. Today, we are going to show
you five ways to improve the efficiency of your home.
And if you're a contractor,
we will show you the ways to build efficiency
into your designs. Let's get started. Number one, make changes in
your home and your behavior so that your home
operates more efficiently, reducing wasted energy. Something everyone can probably
remember hearing as a kid is, turn off the lights,
or shut the door. Wasting electricity by leaving
the lights on in an empty room, or leaving the door open
while the air conditioning is running, still applies today. Here are several tips
that can help save energy. Make sure your house is
well insulated and sealed to minimize the amount of energy
used by your heater and air conditioner. Replace your HVAC
filter, and make sure your dryer vent and
duct work is cleaned so they can exhaust efficiently. Close blinds to block the
sun's heat in the summer, and open them in the
winter to allow the sun to help heat your house.
Adjust your thermostat,
or use a thermostat that can be programmed
or recognizes patterns in your behavior to
optimize your energy usage. Consider using timers, motion
sensors, or daylight sensors on outside lights. Use new technology, including
smart devices such as switches, receptacles, circuit
breakers, and thermostats that can be connected
to your home's Wi-Fi and controlled from
anywhere on a mobile device. Number two, think
about upgrading some of the electrical equipment
and appliances in your home with more efficient ones. Consider spending a little
extra money on this equipment to make sure it is
energy efficient. All new appliances
have an energy guide that explains roughly how much
electricity it uses annually, which can help you
justify the extra cost.
Now, think about
that old beer fridge that you got for free
from a friend or neighbor, and thought it was a great
deal for going in your garage. Old appliances, such
as refrigerators, washing machines, hot
water tanks, or pool pumps, use more electricity
than newer appliances due to the incorporated
new technologies, including VFDs, switching
power supplies, insulation, and new energy standards. So you may want to throw out
that old fridge in the garage. And with the money you
save on the electricity, you could buy a new
one and fill it up. If you are looking to replace
your air conditioning unit, consider a S-E-E-R, or
SEER, rating of at least 15.
The higher the SEER
rating, the less money it will cost to operate. Consider replacing your
existing lights with LED, since they use roughly
one eighth of the energy and provide equivalent
lighting, if not better, and have a much longer
life expectancy. Number three, consider adding
renewable energy and energy storage to your home. If you think of
your home as a grid, you could buy power from
the utility company, or by adding a renewable
source, such as solar, you now have the ability to
lower the amount of power you're buying from the utility. Solar is becoming more common
at the residential level, since the prices drastically
decreased over the last decade, as well as becoming
much more efficient.
As a homeowner,
make sure you are working with a
reputable company that has your best interests in mind,
technically and financially. There are a wide variety
of solar installations and cost points available
today, and make sure you do your research to verify
the best option for you. Solar alone, without
energy storage, cannot be used to supply
power to your home if you lose utility power. With the reduced cost
and number of cycles available with
lithium ion batteries, energy storage, when
paired with solar, is an efficient way to produce
and supply your own power. A power source that is
not thought of much today but soon will be a
part of most households is Electric Vehicles, or EVs. EVs are traditionally
thought of as a load, since they use electricity
for charging the battery.
But as technology
changes, so will the way we use the batteries
inside these vehicles. By discharging the battery
when the car is not needed, which is called
Vehicle-to-Grid, or V2G, you can cut down on
the amount of power needed from the utility. Or they may even incentivize
you to charge the battery overnight, during
off-peak times. Think about when
households may have two or three electric vehicles
connected at one time. Done correctly,
that amount of power can be used very efficiently,
especially using smart circuit breaker technology. Number four, educate yourself
on your electric bill so you really understand
what you're paying for and where you can
truly save money.
The power that you use is
measured in Kilowatts, or kW. And that power, over
time, is called energy and is measured in
kilowatt hours, which is what you will see on your bill. Typical energy prices are around
$0.08 to $0.15 a kilowatt hour, and can be much higher
depending on where you live. The other thing that may change
depending on where you live is the time-of-use rate. This basically
means that depending on what time of
the day the energy is used, the price may
change, for example, $0.12 during the day and $0.05
per kilowatt hour from 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM. You may want to do things at
different times of the day, such as wash your clothes,
run the dishwasher, or even charge your electric
vehicle in the evening or at night.
Homeowners and
contractors need to be aware of the false
energy-saving devices that are all over the market
and claim to save energy. We have done a lot of
testing on these magic boxes, and I've yet to find any of
them that truly save energy. It's hard to compete with
the laws of electricity. Number five, now that homes are
more connected and automated than ever, take advantage
of new technologies to improve your efficiency. Residential products
change so fast that it is important to stay
up to date with the latest advancements.
Here are some examples
of Eaton technologies that can help you make
your home more efficient. Smart breakers allow remote
monitoring and control of branch circuits and demand
response in residential energy storage applications. These breakers
provide intelligence that integrates the ability
to monitor and manage energy consumption with your
preferred software platform. Eaton provides a wide variety
of wiring devices and controls for your home. For example, with our
Wi-Fi smart devices, you can take advantage of
geofencing and other control schemes to minimize the
power consumption when you're away from your home.
Eaton also offers a full suite
of energy-saving devices, including dimmers, timers,
and occupancy sensors that are easy ways
to incorporate energy savings into your home. Solar-ready panels
are an efficient way to add a solar inverter to
your load center in the future, minimizing additional costs. Even if you are not
planning for solar today, talk to your contractor about
installing a solar-ready panel now. The BR and CH plug-on
neutral panels offer advanced features
designed to help you improve safety and
ease of installation, saving you money and time. For older homes and
multi-tenant buildings where existing electrical panels
are mounted in concrete block walls or other
hard-to-remove locations, consider using retrofit
panels to save money and upgrade your
electrical system. Essentially, this involves
placing a retrofit interior with brand-new circuit breakers
into an existing enclosure without disturbing
the existing wiring. Finally, for new construction
or remodeling situations, consider installing additional
circuits, subpanels, or a larger load center now to
make wiring much more efficient in the future. These are a few ideas
to get you started with electrical
efficiency in your home. Our Eaton-certified
contractors can show you lots of ways to help you
design and build with a focus on efficiency.
If you want more information,
contact us or your local Eaton representative to
schedule a visit to one of Eaton's Power Systems
Experience Centers today. [MUSIC PLAYING].
