It all starts at home
BY MECHELE COOPER
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 10/09/2008

WHITEFIELD -- Homeowners can save dramatically on their energy bills and cut down on pollution this winter with the right home improvements.

Curry Caputo and his wife, Andrea Lani, took the "whole-house approach" -- making changes from the roof to the basement -- to increase the energy efficiency of their Whitefield home.

"It's really habitual stuff you need to think about when you use electricity," Caputo said. "One thing people can do is buy a Kill-a-watt monitor that you plug into the receptacle and then plug in the appliance to give you an indication of what appliances are inefficient."

Kill-a-watt P4400 isn't available at local stores, but it can be bought on Amazon.com for $37.99.

Caputo said few people realize that most equipment today has stand-by power -- energy used by equipment even when it's supposedly turned off. That energy doesn't contribute to the products' main function.

"You're using 10 watts of electricity every second with remote-control-ready equipment," he said. "You need to get power strips, ones with breakers. And I've installed switches where I have outlets so I can turn things off."

Hot water pipes should be insulated, he said, and oil-fired boilers or hot air furnaces need to be serviced every 12 to 18 months.

"You can easily gain 5 to 10 percent efficiency, and that would result in 5 to 10 percent less use of oil," he said. "And in the winter, make sure that all your shades are open on the south side to collect sun and leave them closed all the time on the north side.

"We don't have a dryer. We dry all our clothes out on the line, even in the winter. And we had to get a frontload washer and dishwasher that uses substantially lower electricity."

Compact fluorescent light bulbs have been screwed into all the fixtures in Caputo's home. He hopes mercury-free LED bulbs will become more affordable in the future so he can switch over.

His refrigerator is energy-efficient. But to increase the savings, he sunk the back of the refrigerator into a mud room separated by a wall in the kitchen.

"The idea is that we don't have heat out there, so it's already a cool space, and the refrigerator will heat that room," he said. "It decreases the energy the refrigerator uses and it's flush in the wall so it saves space. It's one of those things you can do to increase performance.

"I also took window screen panes and fitted them with foil face bubble wrap that is able to create an insulated screen panel that fits exactly into the window. What it does is turn the window R (resistance to heat flow) value of 2 to an R value of 12."

The purpose of insulation is to reduce the flow of temperature from one space to another. The higher the temperature resistance -- R-value -- of the material, the greater the insulating power.

The Caputos took their energy savings ideas even further.

Hot water and heat for the house come from a propane water heater; two small wood stoves provide supplemental heat.

He said they made a conscious decision to build their home for as much solar gain as possible. The 1,400-square-foot salt box off South Hunts Meadow Road faces the south to maximize its solar exposure.

They installed eight rooftop photovoltaic solar panels, 20 deep-cycle batteries and a computerized control system plus a backup generator. With the solar electricity-generating system, they were able to sever their tie to Central Maine Power.

Caputo, a certified home performance analyst, figures he paid about $17,000 for the system seven years ago. Today, that system would cost about $20,000, he said.

He said the more practical use of solar-electric generation for homeowners comes by using specialized equipment that charges much smaller battery packs and feeds power back to the electric grid. They can use electricity from the power lines when needed and reduce the home's electric bill by selling excess power back to the distribution system.

Caputo said homeowners can benefit significantly by having trained professionals analyze their homes and make cost-effective improvements to reduce energy bills.

The state housing authority offers loans up to $30,000 at a fixed rate of 3.95 percent for improvements that increase home-energy efficiency, including home-energy audits.

Dan Simpson of MaineHousing said his agency also runs a weatherization program. He said Gov. John Baldacci recently put forward a $12.6 million plan with new investments in weatherizing, training and education. In addition to the governor's short-term plan, the federal government just released $7 million to Maine in assistance money, he said.

"Just about everyone is looking for help this winter," Simpson said. "And it's not just homeowners. It's also apartment owners and businesses. Everyone's trying to find ways to cut their energy use and cost."

Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, Ext. 408

mcooper@centralmaine.com

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