Five Energy Saving Ideas for Your Home
Saving water
Saving water is an easy thing to do. It all starts with how much you consume, when, and how. The how much part of saving water is easily solved by limiting the water you consume through water saving devices. Installing low water consuming shower heads, faucets and toilets is a great step towards limiting water consumption. When you consume hot water also saves water and energy that is needed to heat it. Installing a hot water heater on a timer works great by limiting the time to heating hot water during the daytime and shutting off the hot water heater at night. How you consume water also saves money and energy. If you wash one load of laundry at a time then you are wasting water and energy. Wash your laundry at night and always do a full load. Drying your clothes in the morning or at night saves money and electricity by consuming less air conditioning in the summer and actually heating your home in the late evening or early morning hours.
Heat generation
Heat generating appliances such as the stove, dryer, or hot water heater should be used late at night or early morning in the summer hours. Cooking several days worth of meals might not be for everyone but it does help reduce energy consumption. Using flat bottom pots and pans instead of curved or rounded bottom ones make convection occur easier and requires less energy. If your using the oven and a stove burner, place the pot or pan over the exhaust outlet burner on the stove top to use the heat from the oven to help heat your stove top dish. Using a dryer to help heat your home during the winter months is a great way to help save money and heat your home. Open windows facing the sun during this time to let the sunlight naturally heat your home. Close windows facing the sun during the summer months.
Use CFL’s or LED’s
Replace all of the incandescent light bulbs in your home with compact flourescents or CFL’s. These reduce the wattage needed to power a light by 75%. For instance, a 100 watt incandescent light bulb produces as much light as a 25 watt CFL bulb. Not only does it save money, they last twice as long as a conventional incandescent light bulb.
Install ceiling fans
Ceiling fans save a ton of money during every season. They cool the house down in the summer and draw warm air that is trapped on the ceiling during the winter. Simply by turning on a fan you can cut your heating and cooling needs by 25% in each room with a fan.
Install a programmable thermostat
Installing a programmable thermostat for your heating and cooling needs is an excellent way to save money with a minimal investment. By running your heating and cooling through a programmable thermostat, you control the time your home is heated and cooled. Turn the thermostat on when your home, but when you go to work, you can program the thermostat to not run.
