Mon 29 Jun 2009
You Can Avoid Wasting Money in Energy Expenses
Posted by admin under Home Buyer Articles , Home Seller ArticlesNo Comments
You Can Avoid Wasting Money in Energy Expenses
The cost of energy, groceries, Healthcare costs, and almost anything else you can think of — everything is rising. Everywhere you look you can see that prices are rising. If you have to spend more for big items like medical care, food and household energy, that leaves less for other things. Some items like the rent or mortgage and monthly health insurance charges are harder to reduce without taking drastic action, but energy usage is an area where you can do a lot to keep expenses down without making a really big effort. These things won’t even cost you anything to start saving. Start saving money today by using these easy steps.
Use a low-flow showerhead. It will save water and also the energy to heat up that water. You can purchase one for very little outlay. Installation is nothing harder than opening and reclosing the lid on a jar.
Do the laundry in cold water. The largest part of the energy used in washing clothes is used in heating up the water. Eliminate this unnecessary expenditure of energy just by using cold water with the laundry. Just use warm water when you’re doing a load of whites. Modern detergents do a pretty good job without needing hot water.
In summertime, set your thermostat to 78 degrees. You can save substantially by raising the temperature from 72 to 78 degrees. Your air conditioner is probably the home’s biggest energy user, so even small improvements can offer big paybacks.
Fix leaky faucets. A leaky faucet can waste huge amounts of water over the course of a year. Added to that, if the leak is hot water you are losing a lot of money down the drain. The cost of heating water typically weighs in at around 10 to 15% of household energy costs. Those incessant drips can add up to a big loss and they are avoidable.
Use vent fans only when you really have to. A bathroom vent fan can replace your home’s entire air volume in as short a time as one hour! Letting vent fans run for extended periods will push the heated or cooled air out of the house and replace it with more air from outside at your expense. This will run up your cooling and heating expense and it is completely without any offsetting benefit.
Only run the dishwasher when it’s fully loaded, so you won’t run it as often. The dishwasher accounts for around 2% of your home’s overall energy usage. Don’t run partial loads. Wait until it is as full as possible before turning it on.
Keep your refrigerator coils clean. If the coils are dirty, your refrigerator will build up excess heat as the accumulated dust performs an unneeded insulation function. Pull the fridge out from the wall twice a year and inspect the condenser coils. Clean them as necessary. The home refrigerator can account for 6% or moreover 6% of the home’s energy use, so make sure it keeps working at its best efficiency to keep costs down low.
Use sensible window treatments to reduce the home’s temperature. In the summertime, close the south and west facing blinds or shades. Keeping direct sunlight out will reduce the load on the air conditioner. It will also make your rooms cooler. During the winter, do the opposite. Open up on sunny days to let the sun warm your rooms. As evening approaches, close them again to keep the warmth from escaping.
Lower the temperature to 68 degrees in wintertime. You can save up to 5% on the heating bill by cutting back your thermostat from 72 to 68.
Close the fireplace damper. When you’re not burning a fire in the fireplace, close the damper. This will keep heated air from escaping out the chimney.
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