Judy has all electronics in the house plugged into power strips, and when not in use, the power strips are turned off. To help reduce unnecessary light usage, Judy had her electrician install motion detection activation for all common areas in her home, and she also uses ENERGY STAR CFLs in all possible lighting throughout the house. She gets her furnaces (3) checked and tuned every year to make sure they are running efficiently. She had programmable thermostats installed into all 3 units and taught her tenants how to use them to help save on energy costs and usage. She had her heating ducts insulated and insulation blown into the attic to help reduce heating costs. She walks and takes public transportation as much as possible. She has attended green retrofitting workshops at Nexus Boston to learn about how to make her home more energy efficient. She is a member of the Stillman’s Farm CSA in order to purchase locally grown produce and to support local farmers. Judy has learned about dual flush toilets and is currently investigating residential retrofit options in order to reduce water usage. She has applied aerators to all 3 kitchen faucets in order to save on water usage. She has been washing her clothes in cold water and has encouraged her tenants to do the same to reduce costs for heating water. Due to all these methods of saving energy (including recycling and composting so much she and her partner produce only 1 grocery bag of garbage a week), when Judy had an energy audit performed on the 3-family home there wasn’t much left to improve! However, she plans to implement the additional suggestion made by the auditor.
Q: What is the smartest energy decision you have made? Getting insulation installed in our house (our ducts were insulated and we had insulation blown into our attic space). Our 3rd floor tenant’s gas for heating bill was reduced by approximately 50 percent and with the rebate program we only had to pay a relatively small amount to get the work done. We are also thrilled at having motion detection lighting in our stairwells because our electric bills have been quite low considering it is covering our apartment unit as well as common areas for 3 units in total.
Q: How has this decision affected your lifestyle and your wallet for the better? Our gas bill is quite low (we’re on the 2nd floor) and the insulation helped with that, too.
Q: Are you surprised at the big changes that came from making a small change? Definitely! We had no idea that the heating costs would change by so much.
Q: What led you to make the decision I the first place? I was doing internet research about what insulation rebate programs are available and found the 75 percent rebate program online and figured it was an excellent way for us to spend our money and help the environment.
Q: How have you shared your experience with others? I’ve told many of my friends and colleagues about our experience and have encouraged other homeowners to consider getting insulation installed.
