Most families spend anywhere in the range of $1700 to $2000 dollars per year at home on electricity. The costs are rising as well. Everyone wants to spend less money on anything if they can right?? Then make sure that you make smarter decisions on how to spend less and reduce your energy consumption by doing the right things. Not only should you be charged less, but every business owner or resident needs to create a plan on how to start using less electricity as well. Here are some helpful tips on how to use less.
Insulation
If you have a well insulated home, then you can save hundreds of dollars every year. Make sure you have proper insulation in the attic. This is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to reduce your energy costs in your home. Insulate all exterior outlets and electrical receptacle. Most of the air that leaks from your home comes from the ceilings, walls, and floors. You might want to take some time and check all of the windows around your home or business and put a good amount of caulk around your windows and doors in order to reduce the flow of air that is going in and out of your home.
Lighting
Get rid of the incandescent light bulbs that you are used to using and get some fluorescent light bulbs. Fluorescent light bulbs use less electricity and they also last a lot longer. Fluorescent light bulbs cost a little more, but if they use less electricity and last longer as well, then the average resident can save from 20 to 30 percent a year on their lighting costs of their electricity.
Things to know:
• Use only the light that you need. Opening the blinds may give you the same light that you need as oppose to turning on the lights for hours.
• Don’t use the highest amount of light in the light bulb. Install a lighting control to reduce the amount of light you use at a time where you can use less at a time.
• Install motion sensors for the exterior of your home. That way your lights aren’t on all night long while you are sleeping and turn on and off when motion is nearby.
Heating and Cooling
Every home should have a HVAC system (Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system) that works properly and efficiently. Heating and cooling can increase or decrease your costs of energy sometimes up to 50% a year depending on how you live and operate your HVAC system. Every vent in your home should be cleaned out at some point in time by a professional to make sure that healthy and clean air is flowing in and out of your home.
The bigger the difference from what the temperature is outside of your home and inside of your home will affect your energy costs the most. You want to make sure that your thermostat is as high as it can be in the summer and as low as it can be in the winter. There are programmable thermostats that can raise and lower the temperature slightly while you are away from your home. Turning your unit off and on constantly will only cause your unit to use more kilowatts all together.
In the summer, always remember to keep your drapes and blinds closed and to monitor how much sunlight enters your windows to keep your home as cool as possible. It will cause the temperature to increase if a lot of sunlight enters the home continually. Remember to regularly change the air filters in every room of your home. Changing your filters once a month can make a big difference. Having old and dirty filters can easily cause your Unit to work less efficiently resulting in higher usage and you will be breathing in air that is not as healthy.
Heating Tips
• Clean and replace your filters once a month.
• Clean out all air vents in home to have air flowing more efficiently.
• Keep blinds and shades closed to let less sunlight enter your home.
Cooling Tips
• Always keep your thermostat at 78 or above in the summer. Ever degrees below 78 can increase your costs in the range of 5 to 15% depending on the size of your home.
• Keeping fans on can lower the degrees up to 5% in any given room.
• The more shade that you have protecting your home from the heat can reduce the need for lowering your thermostat. (Keep the heat away!!)
