Home Energy Saving Tips

Whether you admit it or not, with all the expenses you have in mind, no matter how big your salary is, you still want to save some extra bucks one way or another. And the best place to start saving is right at your very home; on your power bills. Yes, your power bills. 

All your appliances and electric gadgets consume electricity and contribute to your ever-growing electric bills month after month. This increases the financial burden for you as a homeowner (or a tenant on a rented place). To save energy, you might want to consider solar power.  Analyze complete up-to-date information on how to start lowering your home energy consumption while not depriving yourself of all the technology you love and have bought. 
    
Let us start with how well sealed your home is…

If you live in the southern part of the country, a perfectly sealed home keeps the temperature of your house well maintained. 

Maximize the power of your air conditioning system.

To do this, keep your window, sills, door frames, and joints tight. Apply sealant on these places so that the air from the outside does not mix with the air on the inside. Whether you want to heat up or cool down your home, a properly sealed house will keep your heater or air conditioning system functioning well. You surely do not want the warm or cold air to go leaking in and out of your home because this will consume more energy and dollars that you will have to pay for. 

Heat loss frequently occurs on windows. To prevent this, use a plastic window cover. Plastic is the best material to insulate and keep the heat of your home inside. 

Free flowing heating vents and air grills will maximize the flow of heat in your home. Keep items such as rugs, furniture and drapes away from heating sources to prevent fire. 

On moveable sections of windows and doors, you may want to use weatherstripping. Weatherstrips are rubber materials that seal movable objects from its non-moveable objects. Put weatherstripping on garage doors, exterior doors, windows, and the door to the attic. 

Then, proceed on to the blinds and drapes.

If you want to keep your home warm during cold weather, choose drapes that will cover the windows entirely. If it is sunny, open the drapes and let the sun's heat insulate your home. In this way, you save a lot of money on your heating system. 

The thermostat.

You can lower your thermostat while you are away and while you are asleep. A centigrade lower equals to 2% saved energy. Again, you may want to turn the heating down if you are not around.  

Laundry and dish washing saving ideas.…

You can save as much as 85 to 90% when you turn the dial of your laundry to cold. Heating the water will consume a lot of energy. Also, you can save a lot when you wash a full load of laundry. One last thing: a front loading washing machine saves you 50% on water and 50% on energy. 

Dishwashers consume the same energy regardless of wash loads. Therefore, it would be much energy efficient if you load your dishwasher to the full state. 

Seal the basement.

Most heat is lost when your basement has leaks and drafts on the walls. Make sure you seal these places so that you can conserve a lot of heat and energy. You may also add insulation in your basement to ensure that the heat is conserved. 

One good way to know if your basement has leaks or draft is to look for spider webs. When there are spider webs, there are leaks. 

Heating the garage.

Do not turn up the heating system for your garage all the time. Whether you stay at your garage often or not, you can always heat it up minutes before you get in there. You can save a lot of energy if you do this. Remember to use your garage heating system only if necessary. 

Protection through insulation – The best way to keep your body warm is by wearing thick clothing, and also clothing material that will trap your body heat inside. The same principle goes with keeping your house warn during winter months. Using good weatherized insulation around wall enclosures is one of the best ways to do this. But it is not always the easiest. Any gaps at any point around the wall enclosure will definitely degrade the quality of the insulation installed. Gaps mentioned here are electrical boxes, pipes, and wires; places where batt insulation can be tricky to install even for a professional. As an alternative, you may want to use materials such as cellulose insulation for maximum area coverage. The cellulose insulation eliminates gap and voids, making your walls 100% insulated.

But this is not all.

After insulating your home, you might think you have done enough. It is true that insulating your home well will keep the cold air from entering your home and degrading the performance of your heating system. But, you can do more to protect your house.

Air sealing leaks around the house can help save as much as 40% of your heating and cooling consumption. This means that no matter how good your insulation is, if your house has leaks, you could still be losing out on important household savings.

Air sealing your home is the next important thing you should remember to do in order to maximize the use of your heating system. Leaks from the front doors must be sealed by weather stripping. Doors leading to garage and attic, and doors to individual rooms should also be sealed. Sealants must be applied on windows, joints and sills. Walls with leaks can degrade the quality of air as well as the performance of your heating system. Leaks from floors will make your heating system work harder as well. All of these should be sealed in order to make your home leak-free and that would equate to your saving money.

Extra savings – Now that you have ensured that your home is well insulated and air sealed, it is time for you to solve minor problems that add big cost on your home energy bill.

Cleaning your air filter will give you 2 good effects:

1. Using a clean air filter will reduce your heating system demands.
2. Using a clean air filter will provide clean recycled air around the house.

Making sure that the ducts are leak free will give you as much as 30% on energy savings from your heating system.

Turn on your appliances only if you need to use them. Never leave appliances on while you were away. Lights should be turned off if they are not used. Lower your thermostat if you are away or sleeping.

Set your washing machine to cold. Your washing machine consumes as much as 90% more power while heating the water than while using cold water.

Using a small electric burner when cooking will give you better cost savings than using a large burner. It will also keep your heating system less stressed in maintaining the temperature of the house.

Lower down the thermostat of your refrigerator.

Use your fireplace to warm the house up is much cheaper than using the central heating system. If your home is not insulated properly the heater will come on more frequently to heat the home while increasing the heating bill.

Invest in energy saving devices that will keep your home warm and at the same time, enable your heating system to work as efficiently as possible. Regularly check on the leaks in the ducts and periodical cleaning of the air filter will certainly make your heating system work more efficiently.

By following these tips, you may now have electric bill that is both manageable and acceptable. Try these ideas and see the difference they can do to help lower your monthly electric bill.

Turn off your electronic devices.

Whether it is your tv, stereo, lights, or any other devices that use electricity, make sure that you turn them off when not in use.

Saving money on your electric bill can be easy if you just follow the home energy saving tips above.