Tips on Reducing Your Energy Bills
Reducing the electricity consumption is important not only to your family’s budget, but also to the natural environment. The less energy we use, the better for the mother nature. However, most of us don’t feel like sitting in cold darkness and prefer to save energy without significantly altering our lifestyles. We want to help, but we prefer keep our current lifestyle intact. Is it some vicious circle? Fortunately not – we can do quite a lot without getting back to the stone age.
Keep in mind that the prime reason for your high energy bills is heating and cooling of your house. Do your best to have only the best and most modern heating systems installed. Also, remember that you have to keep an eye on them and service them regularly in order to keep your furnace and air conditioning system work at peak efficiency.
Another tip: keep your house well-insulated and prevent the outside air from entering your house. This will reduce the amount of energy needed to heat/cool it. Seal all cracks and drafts you notice (remember about checking the attic, too!), and make sure that all doors and windows seal when you close them.
Use the best thermostat you can afford. Every dollar spent on it means five dollars saved per year on lower energy bills. Also, make sure that you place it properly – far from extremely hot or cold areas. You may also turn it up a bit in the summer and turn it a few degrees down in the winter. You won’t notice the change, but your energy bills will fall another bit.
Consider purchasing new Energy Star-certified appliances instead of your old ones. Old fridges or washers may use even twice as much energy as newer, more energy-efficient models. In most cases new appliances pay off in a few years’ time at most. One more thing: be responsible and try to give your old stuff to some recycling center instead of throwing it away.
Remember that the water heater is probably set above the recommended 120 degrees. Turn it down or even better, use cold water during laundry if only you can. This will negate the risk of burns and thus get rid of a big problem for every parent.
If you have energy-efficient appliances, make sure that you enabled all energy-saving features. This is especially important in case of electronic equipment where the Energy Star options must be turned on by a user.
Change your old bulbs with energy-efficient fluorescent models. They use even four times as little energy as older models. They also last much longer so despite their higher per-item price, they pay off pretty soon. The only drawback is that you should dispose them appropriately – fluorescents contain a bit of mercury to we can’t just toss them to our trashcan.
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