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Home > Energy Saving Tips
Improving Home Efficiency
By
taking some simple steps to make your home more energy efficient, you
can decrease your electric bill by 10%-50%. Much energy is wasted
on things that many of us are not even aware of. Below are things
you can easily do in your own home to save money, and help out the
environment in the process. Don't you love the way being frugal and
looking out for Mother Earth go hand in hand?
1. Unplug electrical devices when not in use.
Even things you may not think of, such as lamps, alarm clocks in the
guest room, the toaster and coffee pot if they stay on your counter top
all the time, cell phone chargers, etc. Appliances that remain
plugged in can use up to 40% of the energy while turned off that they
use while turned on. In other words, “off”
isn’t really off. Go through your home room by room and
unplug anything you don’t use on a daily basis.
2. Even if you have a top-of-the line heating unit,
it won’t keep the bills down if the ducts that deliver the heat
throughout your home are leaking and inefficient. Make sure all
ducts are in good order and insulated.
3. Wall insulation. Okay, this may be a bit of
a bigger step, but making sure your home is well insulated is a major
step in making your home more energy efficient! Whether you are
trying to keep cool in summer, or warm in winter, bad insulation will
let the air you want in out, and the air you want out will come
in. Not to mention, to go another step further in being
environmentally friendly and saving money, you can used recycled denim
for insulation, so don’t throw away those old jeans!
4. Change your light bulbs. By replacing as
many light bulbs in your home as possible with energy-efficient bulbs,
you can make a big difference with a very small step. They may be
more expensive to buy, but they last much longer than normal
incandescent bulbs and use a lot less energy. Therefore, they save
money on your bill and on frequency of replacement.
5. This one is along the same line as #3, but instead
of talking about wall insulation, we are going to talk about insulating
door and window sills. Many homes already have this, but need
maintenance. Make sure you check the insulation along your window
and door frames twice a year to see if there are any cracks or leaks
that need repairing. If you have an older home that does not have
insulation, you should definitely look into getting this taken care
of. As a temporary fix for a door or window that is leaking air
along the bottom, you can tuck a towel or even buy the cute little
draft blockers to help keep the air from coming through.
6. Isolate unneeded areas of the house when
possible. If there are rooms you don’t use very often, shut
them down during winter months, or summer months if you prefer.
Close the vents and seal the room off with masking tape so that it
doesn’t use heating or cooling resources. The fewer rooms
that have to be temperature controlled, the lower the bills.
7. Next time you go to buy new appliances, make sure
it is energy efficient certified! New high efficiency washing
machines use approximately 50% less water and electricity to do a load
of laundry, and the clothes get cleaner. And since gas is much
less expensive than electricity, make sure you get a dryer that runs on
gas if you have access in your home. It does make a
difference! Check the energy efficiency of anything you are
buying, whether it is a refrigerator, a furnace, or an air conditioner.
8. When you are washing clothes, only use hot water
when really necessary, as that can take a lot more energy than cool or
warm water to wash a load of clothes. And don’t over-dry
your laundry. Make sure the dryer only runs long enough to dry
the clothes, and then turn it off. If it’s a nice breezy or
sunny
day, consider using a clothes line to dry them instead of the
dryer! It may sound old-fashioned, but I actually find it to be
quite a relaxing activity. You can save a lot of energy and money
by doing this.
9. Fix that leaky faucet. I know it’s a
pretty obvious one, but you would be surprised how much water can be
wasted by a leaky faucet or pipe. It might be easy to
procrastinate, but you will benefit from getting it taken care of as
soon as possible. And speaking of saving water, make sure you
turn off the faucet while you are brushing your teeth. A lot of
people forget to do this when they are half asleep in the morning.
10. Set your water heater to 120 degrees
Fahrenheit. This makes the water safer for little ones, and keeps
the bills down.
11. When it’s nice outside, turn off the AC or
heater unit and open those windows! It saves money, and
let’s the wonderful outdoors in. A nice breeze through the
house can also be very refreshing, and helps clean the air of year
round allergens, such as dust mite dander and animal dander.
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