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New Construction Homes For Sale in Burnt Hills NY. Stewart Construction-Custom Home Builder. Begley Says $10 of Insulation Cut Utility Bills by Half.

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Home Builder with Stewart Construction Inc

New Construction Homes For Sale in Burnt Hills NY.  Stewart Construction-Custom Home Builder.     Begley Says $10 of Insulation Cut Utility Bills by Half.

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New Construction Homes For Sale in Burnt Hills NY.  Stewart Construction-Custom Home Builder.     Begley Says $10 of Insulation Cut Utility Bills by Half.

Mar. 26-Actor Ed Begley Jr. has been an environmentalist since the late 1960s, when Cleveland's Cuyahoga River caught fire and Los Angeles was choking on its smog.

But the host of a green-living reality TV show and author of "Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life" told hundreds of students and business people at the Green Energy Summit Thursday that he got his own comeuppance, thanks to modern technology.

A couple asked to do an energy audit of Begley's house, where the actor had worked for decades to go green, using recycled-denim insulation and injecting other insulation into the air cavities in the walls, among other moves.

"I said come on in, maybe there are a few little things here and there that I didn't catch," Begley said.

In came the auditors, armed with an infrared camera and a blower-door-techniques used to measure the flow of air through what may seem like unlikely spots in the house.

New Construction Homes For Sale in Burnt Hills NY.  Stewart Construction-Custom Home Builder.     Begley Says $10 of Insulation Cut Utility Bills by Half.

To Begley's surprise, the auditors found what amounted to an open fireplace flue leaking air from the house.

A $10 piece of insulation solved the problem, and a few other fixes later, Begley says his monthly electric and natural gas costs were cut in half.Recycling Symbol

"Twenty years of an open fireplace flue in my house. Think of that. Think of what would happen if everyone does this," he said.

He advised homeowners thinking about going green to start small and shore up the efficiency of their homes before taking other steps like adding renewable power.

The efficiency-first message is resonating in Wisconsin, where cities like Racine have launched programs to help lower the cost of retrofitting homes, and the state Focus on Energy program has modified its incentives for renewable energy to encourage folks to pursue air sealing and other efficiency measures first.

New Construction Homes For Sale in Burnt Hills NY.  Stewart Construction-Custom Home Builder.     Begley Says $10 of Insulation Cut Utility Bills by Half.

Energy efficiency is almost too invisible for people who want to show the world they're going green, said Kathy Kuntz, director at energy programs with Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp. in Madison, the firm that runs Focus on Energy.

"People who want to be green would rather do things that are very visible, so they drive a Prius rather than carpool," Kuntz said.

The same is true with home energy choices. Putting solar panels on the roof is something people can see, but there's a greater return on the dollar in making extensive energy efficiency upgrades in a house, she said.

"I tell customers that every dollar invested in energy efficiency buys you $5 on the renewable energy side," Kuntz said. "That's shifting a little bit as prices start to change, but it's still a much better investment to invest in efficiency first."  By Thomas Content, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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