Frugal and Energy Efficient Living

Ceiling fans help alot. When the then wife and I bought an old home and completely remodeled it, I put in ceiling fans in the kitchen, dining room, living room, office and the bedrooms. They do make a big difference on hot days and by reversing the direction, they'll help on heating costs during the cold season

I installed a heat pump electric water heater in the basement. This not only heats the water but removes humidity in the basement so I installed registers in the return duct located in the basement which I could open on hot days and by turning on the furnace fan, the cooler, less humid air in the basement is spread throughout the house.

A/C can produce many gallons of condensate water. If one has a flower or vegetable garden, you may consider methods of capturing that condensate for use in the garden. I've seen setups where folks who had a window mounted A/C had the condensate drain into a rain barrel. The condensate from the heat pump water heater I mentioned earlier which drained into a 5 gallon bucket was used to water the plants in the house and for the flower garden and young trees and shrubs we planted outside. I know of one person who by use of a condensate pump, pumped the condensate from his central A/C to a rain barrel outside.

When I was working, I've told a number of customers who wanted central A/C installed that they'd be better off spending the money on replacing doors and windows instead. Putting in central A/C in a poorly insulated house will drive the electric bill sky high. Insulate your home as well as it can be first. My ex and I spent about $35k on replacing all the windows and doors, putting in blown in foam insulation in the walls and increasing the insulation in the attic to R-60. So far this summer, she has told me that the house hasn't gone up past 76 degrees where there have been a number of days where I've had temps of around 85 degrees in the house I live in now. And that isn't even with the registers in the return duct being open as I described earlier.

For those who can't afford to replace all of the windows, good quality thermal insulated curtains installed on windows on the sunny side of the house may help. However, problems have arisen with the use of insulated drapes in some circumstances during the heating season and here is a link to site that discusses it:

http://utwired.engr.utexas.edu/conservationMyths/heatingCooling/drapeDefense.cfm

Another possible option is the use of interior storm windows:

http://www.toolbase.org/technology-inventory/windows/interior-storm-windows

For those who have more of a problem with humidity then temperature, a room or central whole house dehumidifier may be a better and possibly far cheaper option then A/C.

http://www.dehumidifierexperts.com/article.php/whole-house-vs-portable-dehumidifiers/?id=14