One company I’ve worked with here in North Carolina is Smart Energy Solutions. They have a computerized system that manages the big consumers of electricity in your house, like water heaters, air conditioners, dryers, and such. Here’s how it works. In the background, without any noticeable change in your daily living habits and convenience, this system prevents the big electricity consumers in your house from coming on simultaneously. The dryer might wait to start its heating element until the air conditioner is done with its cycle, for instance. This prevents peaks in your electrical usage from occurring and levels out your electrical consumption throughout the “on-peak” period. In most places, the “on-peak” period is usually from around 8:00am through early evening during the weekdays.

    To get the money savings with this system and reduce your electric bill, you switch from having the electric company bill you on the normal “residential rate” and bill you on the “demand rate” instead. The way the demand rate works is the power company can monitor your consumption and based on the highest peak usage they monitor during the on-peak hours, they establish the rate you will pay. The higher the peak, the higher your rate will be. If you keep the peaks low, the cost per kilowatt hour will be less.

     This is the same way industries have paid for their power for years. Now there is this smaller system for your home. It manages the peaks in your demand, thus reducing the rate the power company can charge you, thus reducing your electric bill. And best of all, you never know it’s doing anything because it doesn’t change anything about the way you live. Plus, you are helping the environment.

     You might be wondering how this helps the environment if you are still using the same amount of electricity but just paying less for it. Well, if everyone had this system, the power companies would not have to produce as much power. They would not have as high a demand to meet during high-peak periods. You might already realize that power generating plants can’t be setback from hour to hour like your thermostat. They keep generating the same amount of electricity almost twenty four hours a day. And that amount must be enough to fulfill the highest demand. If the peak demand could be limited, less electricity would need to be produced. That means less fuel will be consumed, less pollution will be produced, and fewer new power plants will have to be built. So this is why a computerized energy management system is a very “good deed” for the environment and for your wallet. You’ll be reducing pollution, preserving fuel resources, and reducing your electric bill all at the same time.

You can learn more about designing your house to be energy efficient by reading Designing Your Perfect House. It’s contains lots of tips on passive solar design and energy efficient building.

We would love to here your experiences with energy savings. Post a comment and share it with us.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

      Natural day-lighting is something that has been under appreciated and undervalued in recent decades. But the current renewed concern about green building and high energy costs have changed that thinking. A good architect can help you orient your house properly on the land to maximize the benefits of free day-lighting without resulting in overheating of the house in summer months. In a well designed house, you should not have to turn on your electric lights during a sunny day. Simply placing windows on the southern walls (in a northern hemisphere site) will gain significant daylight, but the costs to cool the house will soar as the house will overheat badly. You will give up more energy money than you will save. Properly designed overhangs are needed, deciduous plantings, and sometimes shutters or shades can be used to maintain control over the natural lighting in your home. Indirect, reflected daylight is best. Direct sunlight is to be avoided. In addition to the heat gain direct sunlight can give, fabrics and carpets can fade under the intense rays of direct sunlight.

      There are many types of artificial lighting to choose from for your home. And without some training and experience, making the right selection can be tough. Fortunately there are many good lighting stores owned and operated by well trained, knowledgeable people. You can take advantage of their training and experience for free. Most of them will spend a considerable amount of time with you working out a lighting plan for your home, helping you select the best fixtures based on looks, style, type of light the fixture provides, cost of the fixtures, and energy efficiency.

      Having a good, well thought out lighting and electrical plan before you begin construction of your remodeling or new house construction project is one of the keys to controlling homebuilding costs. Costly extras often come from changes people make to the electrical work when they discover things they failed to consider before signing the contract with the builder. The more you can think through your electrical and home lighting plan, the more money you will save and the better lighting your new or remodeled home will have.

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If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

    You’re in luck. There is now a solution. Replace those old-fashioned fluorescents with “full spectrum” fluorescents.

    These lights mimic the spectrum of light that the sun emits. Colors look right. They are accurate enough that designers are using them to illuminate color samples, just to make sure they can see the correct hues.

    As you may know from an earlier post, I am not a fan of the compact fluorescent bulbs due to the mercury they contain and the as-yet disposal issue. But for standard fluorescents, the long tube type, try replacing them with full spectrum bulbs and see if you agree that there is a noticeable difference.

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    If you are placing a ceiling fan in the ceiling of a room and you plan on using recessed lights in the ceiling, make sure to keep the lights well away from the blades of the fan. If you don’t do this, the turning blades of the fan will produce a strobe light effect. Of course, if you’re really into disco and yearn for the 80′s, this might be a great thing. but for most of us, this kind of flashing light situation isn’t very good.

    So my general rule is to keep the ceiling lights at least a few feet away from the ends of the fan blades and even more if the fan is suspended farther away from the ceiling.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

Bill Hirsch

www.designingyourperfecthouse.com

www.williamhirsch.com

    One question was whether or not the Decora style switches, those are the ones with a wider, flatter, rocker type of switch, were “expected” in a high-end house. I told them that I have some clients who like the Decora switches, but I could not say it is the majority opinion. I don’t think there is any expectation of them in a high-priced house.

    They also asked about the color that switches, outlets and switch plates should be. I said that it’s usually best to keep all of the switch and outlet plates the same, except in a room with dark paneling. In those locations it might be a good idea to go with brown or black. Otherwise, we usually use white, if the wall colors are bold and primary (that’s not too often). Ivory is probably the most often used. It is nearly white and often matches the trim color, pretty much. Sometimes we choose alabaster in case there is a nuance in the trim color that makes that a better choice. Matching the trim is probably the best rule for electrical device color.

    They asked about transparent switch plates. But transparent plates won’t work since the purpose of the plate is to cover the ragged edge of the drywall and the screws holding the switch into the junction box. Transparent would just let those unsightly things show through.

    Dimmers, also called rheostats, are a great idea nearly everywhere. Not only do they save energy (a light dimmed by ten percent will not appear noticeably dimmer but saves ten percent on electricity), but according to Cooper Lighting, simply having the dimmer will nearly double the life of the bulbs. It does this by preventing the power surge when you turn on the light. After all, this is when most bulbs turn out.

    Dimmers don’t get installed until you are about to move in. this is because they can be easily damaged during construction. So it’s common to put plan switches on and then change them out later. I like the dimmers with a little slide tab along side of the switch. Check out the Lutron catalog to see what’s available in other lighting controls. I don’t know the costs of some of the fancier ones. They also have a cute little dimmer demo at Lutron. It will demonstrate the energy savings and extended bulb life.

If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.

Bill Hirsch

www.designingyourperfecthouse.com

www.williamhirsch.com