Image: Energy Star

The following article is the first installment in an on-going series in which we’ll explore unique ways to save in each room of the house.

Summer is approaching, and these tips can help transform your living room into the coolest, most energy-efficient oasis in the neighborhood, while simultaneously saving you money. Whether you live in a temperate climate or a scorching desert, these 7 tips are living-room musts:

1. Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs):
You know CFLs can save you 75% off lighting costs, but did you know they can save on cooling costs as well? A whopping 90% of the energy produced by incandescent lamps goes to heat, not light, whereas CFLs are much cooler. Hint: use the Energy Star lighting guide to get the light quality you desire.

2. Close Blinds or Shades
Yep, it’s as easy as it sounds. Closing the blinds or curtains on south or west-facing walls can cut down on solar heat gain during the day.

3. Use Fans, We Can’t Stress This Enough
If you use air conditioning, a ceiling fan will allow you to raise the thermostat setting about 4°F with no reduction in comfort. And here’s the best part: most ceiling fans use less electricity than a light bulb. Remember to turn fans off when you leave the room, since they work by creating a breeze to cool people, not rooms.

4. Arrange Furniture Properly
Make sure your furniture isn’t blocking vents or air registers and double check that your air can circulate freely. It would be a shame to condition all that air, only to have it blocked by the couch or bookshelf.

5. Close the Fireplace Damper
If your living room has a fireplace, make sure it is not leaking conditioned air out the chimney. Close the damper or seal your fireplace if it is no longer in use.

6. Plug Your TV into a Power Strip
TVs, cable boxes, and other equipment continue to draw power even when they are turned “off.” Plug your living room electronics into a power strip and turn the strip off when they are not in use. You can also find smart meters which automatically cut off the power supply for you.

7. Use a Programmable Thermostat
One of the best investments you can make is a programmable thermostat. It can help save you up to $160 per year and keep you comfortable by turning on heating or cooling according to your schedule.

Already a pro at living room energy efficiency? Pass the savings along to friends or family members by sending them this story. Also, stay tuned for the next installment, where you’ll learn secrets to saving in the kitchen.

One of the many green features of the David Brower Center: recycled materials. Shown here is a table made from repurposed planks.

Bringing social and environmental interests together under one energy-efficient roof, Berkeley recently unveiled the newly-built David Brower Center. The building is an office building/community hub, featuring a public art gallery, a state of the art theater, an organic restaurant with locally grown cuisine, and more. The Center is designed to be 40% more efficient than a similar, traditionally constructed building, and it boasts a host of green features, including:

• Photovoltaics on the roof to provide shade and solar energy
• 53% of the materials used in construction were recycled
• Gray water system uses runoff water for toilet flushing and irrigation
• Efficient radiant heating and cooling within concrete structural slabs
• Solar shading on all south facing windows
• 100% daylighting in all office areas

One of the most compelling features is the proposed Interactive Building Dashboard, which will allow tenants and visitors to monitor the building’s current energy consumption and compare this use with other monitored buildings. Such power monitoring has been known to help save significant amounts of energy, and it can be a great tool for businesses and homes alike. The center is expected to achieve LEED platinum status and will provide educational programming, lectures, events, and exhibits.

• Read background: “Intersection of Art and Ecology, LEED Platinum David Brower Center,” by Frank Robbins (Jetson Green, 5/4/2009)
• Visit the David Brower Center homepage

(Photo: BrightSource)

Oakland’s BrightSource Energy has expanded its contract with PG&E again and increased its proposed desert solar plants to a whopping 1,310 megawatts of solar thermal electricity, enough to power 530,000 homes.

This new deal is the largest solar power contract in the world, although in reality it is just an expansion of the 900 MW contract signed last year between BrightSource and PG&E. BrightSource also inked a 1,300 MW deal with SCE in February.

These projects will utilize solar thermal technology – using fields of mirrors to focus the sun’s energy and drive a tower mounted steam turbine – and will be located in the deserts of California, Arizona and Nevada.

These deals show that California’s major utilities are taking every opportunity to expand renewable energy production to meet the state’s requirement that they produce 20% of their electricity from renewables by 2010.

• Read more about SCE’s solar energy plans
• Learn about solar for your home and the state and federal tax benefits

Representatives from the Santa Clara Valley Water District accept their award

The Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) has been a leader in water conservation and through its programs it saved over 19.5 billion gallons in fiscal year 2007/2008. Its programs are a mix of incentives, such as rebates, no-cost water saving devices and home and site visits, and education to help customers cut water use. One example is the district’s high-efficiency toilet program, which has installed 10,500 toilets in the last five years, saving 113 million gallons. The SCVWD has also provided recycled water and encouraged its use throughout the county to reduce demand on traditional sources. Its water conservation efforts since 1992 have saved 1.42 billion kWh and prevented the emissions of over 700 million pounds of GHG.

• View the 6th Annual Flex Your Power Award Winners
• Find out how your district can save
• View SCVWD’s conservation page

(Photo: Lemnis Lighting)

We all know that replacing old incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs saves energy and cuts lighting costs. As big of an improvement as CFLs are, new breakthroughs in Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology may soon put these bulbs in more homes, giving CFLs a run for their money.

Lemnis Lighting, a Dutch company, has developed a consumer-ready bulb that they believe is the future of lighting and is available now.

The new Pharox is a 6 watt LED bulb that matches the light output of a 60 watt incandescent bulb and contains no mercury. The bulbs are designed to last an astonishing 25 years with normal use and are fully dimmable.

While the price, just under $50, is steep for a single bulb, its super low energy use means a payback of just 3.5 years. Like any new technology there are some problems that need to be worked out. The bulbs may generate too much heat in enclosed fixtures like ceiling fans, and testing has shown lower light output than advertised. Despite this, the new bulb is important because it shows what is possible in the next generation of consumer lighting and the price is sure to fall as more companies produce these type of bulbs.

• Get more information on lighting efficiency in our Product Guides
  
• Read about saving money with LED holiday lights
• Check out lots of other Flex Your Power articles on LED lighting