PLANO, Texas - With a 34-year-old, all-electric home - which leaves her with winter heating bills even higher than her cooling costs - Uhura Davis is among thousands desperate for no-nonsense, straight-talk energy advice.

Fortunately for people like Davis who are facing serious energy issues, help is available.

And even homeowners without obvious problems can benefit from thoughtful energy improvements. The most fumble-fingered can complete most of them with little effort, a few hours and a bit of money for materials.

Heck, you'll probably even qualify for a tax credit.

Chip Deaver, director of product innovation for TXU Energy, said even simple steps - like changing light bulbs or replacing the filter in your air conditioner - can trim your electric bill by 5 percent.

Set your thermostat at 78 or higher this summer. According to Reliant Energy, every degree below 78 raises your bill 5 percent to 7 percent.

Only do full loads of laundry and dishes. Turn off lights and fans when you leave a room. Fans only make you feel cooler. They do nothing to lower the temperature.

Some tips are slightly more ambitious:

- While you're in the attic replacing the AC filter, measure the insulation. Many houses have 4 to 6 inches. You need about 12 inches, Deaver said. Big-box stores have blowers you can use to spray insulation if you buy from them.

- Check air conditioning ducts. If you feel leaks between sections, or where the ducts connect with the air handler, seal them with metal tape and a coating of mastic.

- Fill any exterior gaps, especially around windows, with spray-in expandable foam.

- Plant trees on the south and west sides of your home. The savings might take 10 years, but shade makes your air conditioner much more efficient.

But what if your air conditioner is wheezing from old age, and your furnace employs the same technology as a hair dryer?

That was Davis' predicament. She'd already done a lot to save energy, including a layer of fresh insulation in her attic.

But when heating season came, her electric bills doubled.

So Davis turned to Oncor, the electricity provider for much of the Dallas area, and TexEnergy Solutions, a private contractor that spent a couple of hours checking every corner of her Plano home and its heating and cooling systems

The audit cost Davis some money - inspections run about $500 on average - but it could help her save in long-term energy costs and in making the proper improvements.

That's the point of the program, said Oncor spokeswoman Carol Peters. The audits, done in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Star program, help people make best use of their budgets.

If you don't understand your home's problems, "you can spend the pot of money on something you don't need," she said.

Davis knew about the big, obvious problems with the inefficient heater and aging air conditioner.

She wanted to know about other issues and needed a priority plan for upgrades and repairs.

Once that work begins, Oncor could help pay some of the costs, up to $1,500, or assist her in finding third-party financing. Other programs, including federal tax credits of up to $1,500, can cut costs, too.

Kerry Hutchison and his crew from TexEnergy used a "blower door" to decompress Davis' house to check for leaks into the living area. Then, with inside pressure increased, workers tracked air leakage from the living space to the attic.

They used a thermal camera to look for hot spots - signs that better sealing and insulation were needed.

Finally, they used a "duct blaster" to check for leaks in the duct work.

It turns out that the original metal ducts in Davis' house leak like crazy. But they can be salvaged and sealed.

More problematic is the air conditioning unit's air handler, sitting in an open corner of the garage. Every time the air conditioner kicks on, it pulls in air from the garage - potentially laced with auto exhaust and fumes from paints and household chemicals stored there.

Davis, who said earlier that she might need to replace the old system with a modern heat pump, was right. And she knows what repairs are priorities, and which ones can wait.

"Now," she said, "I can have a plan."

 

(c) 2009, The Dallas Morning News.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.