Is it just me, or have energy prices been going up and up lately? Unfortunately, this causes our home energy bills to go up by a lot.
There are a lot of changes you can make around the house that don't cost much or are even free that will save you money. I've made a list of twelve tips that cover heating and cooling, lighting, appliances, and home electronics. All of these places tend to use a lot of energy. Let's get started.
Tips for Heating and Cooling:
- Make sure your house is sealed so that you don't lose heat when it's cold. Close the fireplace damper when you're not using it, and put a timer on the bathroom exhaust fan.
- If you can, use natural ways to cool your home. For example, you could plant trees around your house to provide shade (especially on the east and west sides). In the summer, they keep the sun from beating down on your roof and siding, which can make your home 4 degrees cooler on its own. (In the winter, trees also help protect your house from cold winds.)
- Switch to a natural gas water heater if you haven't already (electric water heaters use twice as much energy).
Tips for saving money on lighting:
- Use timers and lights that turn on when they sense motion or heat outside.
- Put dimmer switches on all of your light bulbs and only keep the lights as bright as you need to do your work. Use task lighting instead of big overhead lights that use a lot of electricity.
- Use the light from outside as much as possible. Skylights and well-placed mirrors can reflect more light into a room, making it brighter and saving you money on energy costs.
Tips for saving energy on home electronics:
- Unplug chargers when you're not actively charging your cell phone, iPod, battery charger, etc. Why? Because as long as the plugs are in an outlet, they are getting power.
- Unplug your TVs, DVD players, stereos, etc. when you're not using them (you can use a power strip with an on/off switch to make this easy). If you really need to see ten green clocks all day and night, that is. When these things aren't being used, they use 60–80% of the electricity they need.
- When you're not using your computer, unplug it or turn it off. Set the computer to go to sleep after a certain amount of time if you think you might forget (sleep mode draws 60-80 percent less energy than full-power mode).
Tips on how to save energy with appliances
- If your fridge was made before 1993, you should get a new one. It could use $140 a year in electricity, which is a lot more than newer models, which use much less. Today's fridges with the Energy Star label only use about $20 worth of energy a year.
Do all of your laundry on the same day and dry each load right after the other. This uses the heat that's left over from the dryer.
- Get rid of your top-loading washing machine and get a front-loading one instead. Most of the time, these use about 50 percent less energy and a third less water.
This article has no more tips to offer. If you use these simple tips to save energy, your bills will go down quickly.
