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American Morning

Energy Crunch: How to Save Money Around the House

Aired May 17, 2001 - 09:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And as we know, the politicians have had plenty to say about it, but we're going to check and see this morning what the experts say that you can do about saving some money on energy in your own homes.

Joining us this morning is Liza Bowles, she is with the National Association of Home Builders and, with her, an extra; you see there is Chris Cook (ph) -- he's an energy conservation analyst. And they join us from Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Good to see both of you, thanks much for coming in and talking to us. Where exactly are you right now, that looks like a kind of -- bunch of mess you've got behind you.

LIZA BOWLES, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME BUILDERS: We're in our laboratory that is where we test various building products.

HARRIS: All right. Well, before we get into our e-mails, I want to ask you first of all if you can give us some quick advice on some items that people can use right now to look at to go and turn down their energy costs. I understand there's something you can do with light bulbs that you can save yourselves a lot of money on?

BOWLES: Absolutely. Actually, lighting is up to one-eighth of your energy bill. And you can replace your incandescent bulbs with these nice, compact fluorescent bulbs. They're both for indoor use and for outdoor use. And they can cut your energy bill by as much as 60 to 70 percent.

HARRIS: Now, I've seen those bulbs before, when I've gone to Home Depot or -- but I'm not sure about...

BOWLES: Chris, do you want to talk about the motion sensors?

CHRIS COOK (ph), ENERGY CONSERVATION ANALYST: Sure, if have you an outdoor light too, you can also add a motion sensor to it -- that's what this does. So the outdoor light only runs when someone's in the vicinity of the light. That also adds a security feature as well and certainly saves a lot on the energy cost for outdoor lights that might otherwise run all night long.

HARRIS: Now, is there such a thing as an incandescent floodlight for outdoors to save money...

BOWLES: Lighting is a good investment when you're looking at reducing your energy bills... HARRIS: OK. All right, well, let's get right to our e-mails then. Our first e-mail that we have for you all this morning is "I'm getting ready to redo my kitchen..." I believe we may be having some audio problems. Liza, can you hear me now?

BOWLES: Yes, I can.

HARRIS: There we go. OK, we're having a bit of an audio problem there, I'm sorry about that, but glad we got it straightened out and thank you for continuing without me.

(LAUGHTER)

Let's go now to our e-mails. Let's see, our first e-mail for you two is this one: "I'm getting ready to redo my kitchen floor. What type of insulation should I put under the floor?"

BOWLES: Well, under the floor in your kitchen is probably not as important as under your floor generally. If you can see what sort of insulation might be under your floor, if you're on a crawl space, you're probably going to see something like this, a bat insulation product.

HARRIS: That's the stuff that most people like in -- during construction, correct?

BOWLES: That's right,

HARRIS: Yes.

BOWLES: You'll see it in the walls and you'll see it under the floor. The other place to really look is up in the attic. And in the attic, you might see a bat insulation or you might see something that looks like this, which is what's called blowing wall. And it's blown in. You can go up there, you can measure your insulation, whether it's bat or whether it's blowing wall and see if you've got adequate coverage.

COOK: And I'd just like to add too, there's some high-tech insulation like this over here, so you'll have a very narrow space. This kind of insulation will still give you a lot of R-value in a very narrow space. It costs a little more, but it will pay itself back in your energy savings.

HARRIS: All right, good deal, let's go to the next one now. This one is from Dennis Hermes (ph) in New Braunfels, Texas. Well, actually, we've got another one here -- Greg Sparks. It says, "I just installed solar heating for my swimming pool. Are there any federal or state -- California -- tax credits or breaks that I can take advantage of here? Thank you, Greg.

COOK: Well, there are tax credits for solar -- both for solar thermal and for the solar electric -- the photovoltaic technologies. Those pretty much run state by state, so the tax credit is available and it's going to be different in each state. Some states are also offering rebates, where they actually help pay part of the up-front costs of the solar. And in the states that are offering that, solar can be a very cost-effective option if you want to switch to solar. There's more information on the Web site where you can find out what your particular state has to offer in terms of the tax credit.

HARRIS: All right, what is the Web site address?

BOWLES: Nahbrc.org -- you can get pretty complete energy information, as well as the tax credit information on that Web site.

HARRIS: Nahbrc -- got you -- Nahbrc.org, thanks much

BOWLES; Right.

HARRIS: All right, thanks, we appreciate the advice this morning and thanks to those of you that sent us some of the e-mails. I'm sorry that we couldn't get to all of them. I want to think Liza Bowles and Chris Cook, thank you very much and we'll talk to you down the road.

COOK: Thank you.

BOWLES: OK, thank you.

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