Monday, March 17, 2008

Cutting your air conditioning bill

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life." Aristotle

Not all savings on your electric bill has to come from reducing the amount of energy you use. There is also the possibility of changing when the power is used, thus receiving a lower electric rate.

Using electricity at night costs less than using it during the day, but I am not sure if you automatically receive that savings. Check with your local power company to see if you do receive the discount or there is something that needs to be done prior to receiving the lower rate.

A Manhattan Skyscraper uses ice to air condition their facility. The tanks holding the water are cooled/frozen at night when the rates are lower. This building saves one million ($1,000,000) dollars a year on their energy bill. Not sure how much of a electric saving during peak hours that is or how much of a reduction that is on the carbon footprint of the building that is.

The company that supplies this system is working on a system for the home and should be available this year. The problem for me is that the system costs $10,000 and for me that is a lot of money. I would have to assume that as the system becomes installed in more houses the price will come down.

Can you supplement the cooling of your building by dumping the ‘heat’ or cooling your air into the water that your building uses each day? Can your water system be used to supplement the cooling of your building by piping it threw the HVAC system? Does your facility have a boiler system which would cost less to operate if the water temperature which is used in the boiler was 10 to 20 degrees warmer?

“And what is a man without energy? Nothing - nothing at all." Mark Twain

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