Change, Let it begin with me part 1

There is talk about "Change" in politics, talk about "change in the wind" to mention just a couple of places. Many people expect that government will change with one person or the other in office. Change is only going to occur from the people upwards, not the government downwards.

I'm fiscally conservative and socially libertarian, just so people understand where I'm coming from. I have made energy use reductions in my house for 2 reasons. Saving money and saving the environment.

#1 is I like to save money in the long run, so I replaced my old refridge with an energy star rated one. The cost difference between two refridges I was looking at, one being energy star and one not being was $100.00. The information sheet said that the difference in energy use would be 15.00 a year, well I bought the energy star one and my month electric bill went down 10.00 a month right away with just replacing my old one, plus my electric utility gave me 50.00 for my old one.

Replaced my light bulbs with LED lighting.. Yes it is expensive, but saves I'm told about 30% more then even CFL and you don't have to worry about the mercury in the LED lights. The more people who buy either CFL or the LED lights the price will go down even more. I even have LED lights that are the long tubes you see in offices. I won't see the return on investment for these for a few years, but wanted to help drive down the price by buying them.

I put in my attic was is called an energy radiant barrier, it looks like thick aluminum you would use to put in the bottom of your baking sheets. It was a do it yourself project that took me a day to do. If you can use a big stapler, you can do this job. Research at the University of Nevada showed you could reduce your cooling energy cost by 20% by just putting this in your attic. Plus add 3-5 years for your roofing material. That will save me money as well.
Well for me my summer utility bills went down 22%. My cost was 199.00 plus shipping for 1,500 feet of radiant barrier material. It came in a 4 foot wide roll. I expect to recover my cost of the foil with in the 2nd year then it is money saved
http://www.atticfoil.com/

I replaced my old heating system with a hot water tank and underfloor heating. The cost was 3,355.00 and my labor. The replacement cost for a natural gas energy star rated furnace would have been about 6,000 dollars. Yes it would have saved me money over my old 20+ year furnace, but I will be saving even more using the hot water tank as my heating unit and hot water supply and the underfloor heating. http://www.radiantec.com/index.php in a couple of years I will add their solar panels to heat the hot water which will lower my cost to heat hot water in the long run by 70% or more. Plus in the summer I will be able to do my watering and the cold water will run thru the pipes under the floor between going outside which will help me even more with my cooling costs.

I'm waiting for the better energy cars to come out in the 2010-2011 model years, and following the X-automotive prize contest which which will be held in 2009 and will be testing cars that will be trying to get 100mpg or its equal.

Looking over my numbers I expect to save about 500-600 dollars this year. Yes I spent money to do that, but I saved money in replacing my furnance with the underfloor heating. I needed to replace the furnace and saved about 2,700 dollars in costs, plus more savings will occur each month. If everyone made changes like this, think of how much money you could save each month and to protect the environment. If more people changed the energy star appliances, heating and cooling think of the money we could save and the help we will give to the environment.

Remember the changes you make in your own life will make more change then anything the government will do.