If your furnace is a mid-efficiency model, and the money for a new, high efficiency model simply isn’t in the budget, a retro-fit might be in order.  If your furnace still has plenty of life left in it, the retro-fit could be a good way to save on natural gas prices.

One way to increase efficiency is to install an intermittent ignition device.  However, these units require professional installation and cost about $250.  Even though they can save you some in natural gas costs, they generally won’t pay for themselves for about a decade, so it may not give you the return on investment that you’re looking for.  Another down side is that they may not save you anything if your equipment is too old.

One viable alternative may be shutting the furnace’s pilot light off in the spring and turning it on in the fall.  This will definitely save you money in the short term since there’s no real investment – other than a little bit of sweat and time.

Another option may be to reduce the heating capacity of your furnace.  First off, you’ll need to make sure that the modifications don’t violate building codes or void any manufacturer’s warranty.  If the furnace is old, the warranty shouldn’t be an issue, but if it’s a newer model, you’ll want to check it out.

This is not a simple operation, so a professional will definitely need to be called in.  What they are going to do is reduce the size of the orifice on the gas burner and the baffles, if needed.  Again, this is something that should only be attempted by a qualified professional, but the modification should cost less than $100.  And, it will definitely give you a substantial return on investment since the modification can save you up to 15% on the cost of gas.

Retro-fitting your furnace won’t net you the huge savings that installing a new, high efficiency furnace will, but it won’t cost you thousands of dollars either.  It all comes down to what you can afford to do, but retro-fitting can be a great way to save money on natural gas while you save up for the new, high efficiency model.

Let’s say you pay the gas company an average of about $175 a month – higher in the winter, lower in the summer – over the course of a year.  That’s an annual savings of $315, which means the modification has paid for itself in just about four months, and if natural gas prices go up, you’ll be saving even more.

In an article titled “Kiss your 100-watt lightbulb goodbye“, the Mercury News details the early adoption of national energy efficiency laws in California and Nevada.  Both states have long been champions of energy efficiency, but the latest additions come a year before the rest of the country will be held accountable.

According to the article’s author, Tracy Seipel, “As of Saturday, what used to be a 100-watt light bulb manufactured and sold in California will have to use 72 watts or less. The 72-watt replacement bulb, also called an energy-saving halogen light, will provide the same amount of light, called lumens, for lower energy cost.

Similar new standards for traditional 75-watt, 60-watt and 40-watt incandescent bulbs will go into effect in California over the next few years, with wattages reduced to 53, 43 and 29 respectively.”

The new standards will be required throughout the country starting January 1, 2012 and will cause traditional light bulbs to be 25 to 30 percent more energy efficient.   California and Nevada may be leading the way, but we’ll all be joining them soon enough.

A press release issued earlier today by Cyclone Power Technologies claims Philadelphia based  PECO, an electricity and natural gas provider, has approved the completion of the waste heat power generator at Bent Glass Design.

Approval from PECO is a huge step forward in the renewable energy market. It lends credibility to the idea of capturing otherwise wasted resources to deliver usable energy.  Cyclone claims capturing the existing exhaust heat will allow Cyclone’s waste energy recovery system to “convert over 500,000 BTUs of exhaust heat from Bent Glass’ furnaces into power that can off-set peak electricity usage and corresponding demand charges at the facility.”

Whether it’s locked in or a variable rate, most of us are aware of the “per therm” natural gas rates we pay each month.  But have you ever thought about how you impact natural gas prices?  More specifically, have you considered how your everyday use drives your natural gas bill?

When you look at your bill, natural gas prices seem pretty straightforward.  You use X amount of therms at X amount of dollars per therm.  That’s easy enough, but how do you determine what in your house is using those therms?   Try a natural gas usage calculator.

Our natural gas usage calculator allows you to specify how often you use some of the more common natural gas appliances in your home.  Using the data you enter, the calculator will give you a monthly and yearly breakdown for your natural gas prices.  It will give you a clearer insight into what drives your natural gas bill and reveal potential opportunities for cost savings.

If nothing else, it may cause you to stop and think about how you use natural gas and where you could upgrade to a more energy efficient appliance.  If you’re interested, check out our Natural Gas Usage Calculator.

In a move to enhance its existing “smart grid” technologies, networking giant Cisco is looking to buy Arch Rock, a wireless sensor networking company.

According to Rick Merritt from the EE Times, “Cisco Systems has announced it intends to buy wireless sensor networking startup Arch Rock as part of its growing portfolio of products for smart electric grids. The news comes three days after Cisco announced a partnership with smart meter maker Itron.”  The partnership will further the efforts of both companies to install and use “smart metering”, in-home devices wired into the electric grid to help homeowners and electric utilities make better use of our aging eletric system.

The two moves strengthen Cisco’s inititaive to drive “smart grid” technology, an inititative also championed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology and the IEEE.  According to the article, “the U.S. government has allocated more than $3 billion for projects that test out smart grid technologies.”  It may not happen overnight, but technology companies, electric utilities and the US government appear to be serious about fixing our antiquated electric grid.

Fixing the power grid has been getting more and more coverage lately, as it should.  However, one of the nation’s most well known energy, appliance and electricity companies may be giving the grid the most exposure.

Through its Ecomagination Challenge, GE, the “imagination at work” company, is offering millions of dollars in funding to help drive the development of our future energy needs.  According to its website, ”GE’s Ecomagination Challenge is a $200 million call to action for businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators, and students to share their best ideas and come together to take on one of the world’s toughest challenges – building the next-generation power grid to meet the needs of the 21st century.”

It’s no small task, but it is an absolute necessity.  Consisting of three specific challenge areas, Renewable Energy, Grid Efficiency, and EcoHomes/EcoBuildings, the Ecomagination Challenge is open to pretty much anyone.  GE wants you to “change the way the world uses energy in powerful new ways”.  Are you up to the challenge?

In today’s economy, we’re all cutting back and spending less – at least we’re trying to.  The odds that you know someone who has lost a job recently are pretty good.  You may have even lost a job yourself.  Regardless, there is renewed interest in sticking to a budget and making every dollar go further.  Whether you’re planning for a worst case scenario or simply trying to save more, it pays to be frugal and the stats agree.

According to a recent survey from The Hartford, an insurance and wealth management company, one in four consumers said they have just enough money to meet basic living expenses.  In fact, thirty-seven percent of consumers reported feeling “‘severe’ financial impact due to the recession.”  Sixty-one percent said they would have to make significant lifestyle changes if they lost their income for three to six months.

It seems obvious, but not everyone realizes just how much it costs to keep a house running.  The essentials, food and shelter, have morphed into food, shelter, cable TV and high speed Internet.  You could even justify the expense as a job hunting tool.  But why wait until you lose your income to save money on cable TV and high speed Internet service?  Our recently released Home Services Advisor was built to help you save money on utilities .   There’s no need to wait until it’s a true necessity.  Start saving now.

With the oil disaster in the Gulf, “green energy” and energy conservation efforts have received some much overdue attention.  For families, helpful tips like how to save money heating and cooling and your home and how to save money on utilities with emerging technology.  However, there hasn’t been a whole lot of information for the local government and business environment.  Well, the EPA recently addressed the need to “go green” by releasing the “Sustainable Design and Green Building Toolkit for Local Governments”.

Yes, it’s long on title, but it’s also filled with useful information local governments can use to research and implement energy saving measures into new local building projects.  Good for the environment and energy conservation, “sustainable design” is also another means to address long term savings in local budgets.

According to a news release posted by the EPA, “The Toolkit is designed to assist local governments in identifying and removing permitting barriers to sustainable design and green building practices. It provides a resource for communities interested in conducting their own internal evaluation of how local codes/ordinances either facilitate or impede a sustainable built environment, including the design, construction, renovation, and operation and maintenance of a building and its immediate site.”

You can download the Toolkit directly from the EPA at: www.epa.gov/region4/recycle/green-building-toolkit.pdf

There seems to have been a lot of bad news floating around cable TV news channels.  So here’s a spot of good news I didn’t see on any of the morning news shows.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced last week that it’s providing $30 million in funding to develop clean energy technologies through small businesses.  This funding has the potential to truly drive progress in several fields: smart grid technology, fuel cell development, green building, solar energy, wind power, nuclear energy and fossil fuel recovery.

Not only does the $30 million funding drive much needed progress in the areas of electric utilities, natural gas providers and oil dependence, it also puts much needed capital behind small businesses.  You can read the specifics over at the DOE.

It’s summer.  Heat waves are wreaking havoc around the country and folks want cheap electricity to power those overused air conditioners. Answering the call, electric companies have been making progress in renewable energy and emerging technology, but can our power grid continue to operate without a serious upgrade?

A recent Reuter’s article on the current heatwave zapping the East coast isn’t inspiring.  Reporting on recent July outages,  Reuter’s says Con Ed of New York had “restored power to about 18,700 customers in the metropolitan area over the past 24 hours, but still had 6,300 homes and businesses suffering in the triple-digit heat without service.”  Could you deal with this heat without your A/C?

According to Reuter’s, workarounds and rationing have been used with some minor success.  Still, “authorities were taking precautions to prevent any disruptions to service.

The state-owned New York Power Authority on Wednesday again activated its demand response program, which pays large business and government customers, such as Citibank and New York City, to cut back on energy usage.

Con Edison asked businesses and government offices in New York to conserve energy by shutting nonessential lights and discretionary equipment, such as extra elevators or escalators, turning off pumps for ornamental fountains, limiting the cooling of buildings, and using emergency generators to offset some of the electricity they take from the power grid.

[Last] Tuesday night, Con Ed imposed a voltage reduction, or brown out, of up to 8 percent in parts of Brooklyn and Queens to allow workers to fix overheated cables supplying power to several neighborhoods.”

Fixing existing issues is a necessity, but there is certainly a larger problem to address.