Useful Tips for Going Green
Go Green! Here are a few tips to help you save on heating and cooling.
In keeping up with our green efforts, we have compiled a list of useful tips you can use in your everyday life. Our goal is to help save you money on your energy bills as well as reducing your carbon footprint.
Heating and cooling is the number one consumer of energy in your home, with appliances being a close second. So here are a few useful tips on how to reduce your bills and energy consumption in both of these areas.
Get a Home Energy Audit
This is a useful way to put your energy usage in perspective. An energy audit takes into account all heat loss factors in your home; insulation, windows, doors, walls, efficiency of your heating and cooling systems, etc. With most home energy audits, you will receive a detailed report which can help you decide in what areas you can improve your home’s efficiency.
Weatherize Your Home
You will be surprised by how much energy you can save by sealing up your home. Caulk joints and other drafty areas, insulate your plumbing, water heater, basement, and attic, and replace leaky/inefficient windows or doors. These are just a few ways to improve your energy usage. These may seem like simple steps, and they are, but they can and will save you money in the long run.
Program Your Thermostats
If you have a programmable thermostat, take the extra time to program it wisely. You can set specific temperatures for certain times of the day, and some even have the ability to set it for different days in the week! This will make it easy to keep you comfortable when and where you need it, and also save your energy when you don’t.
If you don’t have a programmable thermostat, be proactive about manually setting temperatures down during times you don’t need heating. We have all heard the standard 65° in the day, 55° at night, and it still proves to be a useful standard to go by, but feel free to experiment.
Tip: You may not physically feel a 2° decrease in temperature, but your heating bill will notice. You could save about 5% annually, by just setting the thermostat a bit lower.
Natural Ventilation
During those not-so-hot times in the cooling season, try shutting down the air conditioner in favor of some fresh air. Screened windows and doors combined with a nice box or ceiling fan should be able to keep you cool enough. This can also save you wear and tear on your air conditioning system for when you may really need it.
Replace Your Light Bulbs
Get rid of those standard light bulbs and replace them all with compact fluorescent bulbs or LED bulbs. They are a bit more expensive, but they pay for themselves in savings, when compared to incandescent bulbs. They use a fraction of the energy and last at least 10 times as long.
Natural light is always better than artificial. Try to find more ways to let that light in during the day! For those intrepid homeowners looking for renovations, you may want to try researching Solar Tubes/Solar Pipes for your home.
Shut Off Appliances at Their Source
Most modern appliances and especially electronics draw electricity even when they are turned off! This is known as a “phantom load”, which basically allows the device to be constantly ready for you to use at any time with the push of a button. To cut down on this bit of electricity usage, get some nice quality power strips or surge protectors and switch them off when you are not using the devices plugged in to it.
