Making your home more energy efficient with ENERGY STAR can help to reduce high energy bills, improve comfort and help to protect the environment. Improving energy efficiency is also an important first step for homeowners interested in green remodeling. ENERGY STAR can guide you in making your home more efficient — whether you do-it-yourself or hire a qualified professional.

Homes that meet the ENERGY STAR rating are eligible for Energy Efficient Mortgages. An Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) is a mortgage that credits a home's energy efficiency in the mortgage itself. EEM’s give borrowers the opportunity to finance cost-effective, energy-saving measures as part of a single mortgage and stretch debt-to-income qualifying ratios on loans thereby allowing borrowers to qualify for a larger loan amount and a better, more energy-efficient home.

To earn the ENERGY STAR label, a home must meet guidelines for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These homes are at least 15% more energy efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code (IRC), and include additional energy-saving features that typically make them 20–30% more efficient than standard homes.

The Energy Star EEM program is intended to demonstrate that financing can be a successful tool for lenders and borrowers to promote whole-house energy-efficiency improvements, and that utilizing qualified contractors and energy auditors is key to achieving real-world energy savings.

In addition to the energy saving and tax credits participating lenders must provide their customers with a "net benefit" cost advantage, such as an interest-rate discount, reduced loan fees, closing-cost assistance or another benefit that reduces the cost of the mortgage compared with the financing package that would otherwise be available to that borrower.

Any person who is an owner or purchaser of a single-family home — defined as a one-to-four-family, owner-occupied home — may use an ENERGY STAR Mortgage offered by a participating lender. The program is available to borrowers at all income levels, including lower-income families, for whom the government may bundle available public subsidies to achieve even greater cost savings.

 Resources:
EnergyStar.gov

That’s right a quick search shows study after study that verify that fact. Even with the box powered off these devices use just as much power as when turned on -- And I had three of them…! Now, I have long been an enthusiasts of Home Theater systems. That passion over the years has evolved to Home Theater Personal Computer (HTPC) systems. My latest project however was by far the coolest thing I have done with an entertainment system. With this project I was able to combine my entertain center with a whole house automation system that helps me save energy.

A Home Theater PC (HTPC) combines the functions of a digital video recorder and a personal computer and is designed to play and store movies. To replace my cable boxes I added a Ceton InfiniTV 4 Digital Cable Quad-tuner Card to my Windows® 7 PC which has Media Center. That allows me to watch and / or record up to 4 HD channels (including premium channels HBO, Showtime, Starz, ….) at the same time.

The PC I use as my DVR is actually located in my home office. To watch recorded and live TV as well as Netflix on each of the TV’s in various rooms throughout my house I use Xbox 360 game consoles. The game consoles are wired into my home network and act as Media Center Extenders which gives me a slick interface so that I can access the contents of my centralized system just as easily as using a set top cable box.

To control the Stereo, TV, and game console while watching TV I used Logitech Harmony remotes. This allows to me to control each audio / video component setup with a single remote for each room.

To store all that digital media; Movies, Music, Photos, and Recorded TV I use a HP Windows Home Server. This is where the whole house automation and power management comes in. The Home Server is truly a wonderful device. In Addition to storing all my media content this little box also keeps all my other computers backed up as well as safe guards my content so that if I lose a hard drive I won’t lose any of my data. It does a number of other functions as well but most importantly, I was able to add modules (Lights-Out and mControl) to this system to manage power consumption throughout the house. Everything from automatically (or remotely) adjusting lighting throughout the house to adjusting heating and cooling can be managed from any TV using the remote.

Now… how’s that for energy consciousness?

I was very pleased to hear that the President is not going to let the pursuit of clean energy succumb to the pressures of politics. With all that has been going on in this country in the last 10 years it is very easy to lose focus on what is needed to move us forward on the challenge of developing the full potential of a "Green Collar Economy".  Our society needs the government to act as an effective Agent to get the public sector to play the role of champions of the green economy. What is needed is a powerful political movement -- one that is grounded in the kind of principles discussed in the President's weekly address on Clean Energy to out-innovate the rest of the world. Innovation in alternative energies is deeply important and can mean the difference between being the leading manufacture of a given product or importing that product (manufactured outside of the U.S.) to satify our energy needs. Two sides of the same coin; Reducing America's dependency on foreign fuels is one side -- Creating good paying jobs here in the U.S. is the other.    

Resources:
Energy Information Administration