The hot Phoenix sun can be a double-edged sword. It can heat up your home and make it uncomfortable, but that same heat and energy can be harnessed and used to save you money. Dale Merritt of Custom Energy Design, a Phoenix home energy efficiency company, explains how you can protect your home from the sun and how you can harness its heat, both of which help to save you money.
One way that homeowners are saving money is by installing solar water heaters into their Phoenix homes. The system works by installing solar panels on the roof of the home. The solar panels have copper tubing that run inside, and when the sun hits the solar panels, it heats up the copper tubing that supplies the water to your water tank. Hot water is stored and is available for use any time of day. When Custom Energy Design installs Phoenix solar water heaters, they also install an extra tank, which ensures that you won’t have to worry about running out of hot water.
The benefit of a solar water heater for Phoenix homeowners is that it produces water to the home for free. Typically, water heaters run on either electric or gas and will therefore incur a monthly utility charge. By harnessing the heat of the sun, once the system is installed, hot water is available for use without a monthly utility charge. According to Merritt, the typical household saves $35-$40 a month in utility charges.
Another way to save money on utility bills is by installing a radiant barrier. As the hot sun beats down onto your roof, it heats your attic up and temperatures can reach up to 140 degrees. A radiant barrier is a reflective material that will reflect radiant heat that penetrates the insulation. Insulation isn’t made to reflect radiant heat, and therefore, your attic can benefit greatly as radiant heat is one of the main heat transfers that gets through. Radiant heat is typically what will make your ceiling feel hot, which in turn, will heat your home. Radiant barriers act as a supplement to insulation.
“In Arizona, (radiant barriers) has an especially big impact if installed correctly,” says Merritt. Correct installation, in the case of radiant barriers, means it needs to butt up against vertical rafters, knee-walls, and vaulted areas in order to be effective. “Some companies won’t install it on the knee-walls or the vaults. But if it isn’t installed properly, you aren’t getting the benefits, and means you may be wasting your money,” says Merritt.
For more information on solar water heaters and radiant barriers in the Phoenix area, contact Custom Energy Design.