ENERGY
SAVING
TIPS
An energy-efficient home saves you and your community money. Lowering your home's energy consumption can reduce your impact on the environment as well. Saving energy doesn't have to be difficult either. Making small changes in your daily power consumption can add up to real savings. We've put together a collection of helpful tips that will help you eliminate energy waste in your home.
Tip of the Month
Electronic Devices – Spending a large portion of time in low-power mode not only saves energy but helps the equipment run cooler and last longer.
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How To Save Energy In Your Home
- Caulk and weather-strip doors and windows that leak air.
- Decorate for a cooler home by hanging light-colored curtains that allow light to enter a room while blocking some of the sun’s rays, and light-colored paint to reflect heat.
- Roofing – reduce the strain on your air conditioner by applying the reflective coating. This will help you save by decreasing the amount of heat coming into your home.
- Block the sun from overheating your home. Inside, use shades, blinds, and drapes. Outside, use awnings, trees, and shrubs.
- Caulk and weather-strip doors and windows that leak air.
- Eliminate “hot spots” in your home by using high-performance windows, solar window screens, and qualified window films.
- Install awnings on south- and west-facing windows.
- Use higher R-value insulation, such as spray foam, on exterior walls and in cathedral ceilings to get more insulation with less thickness.
- Apply sun-control or other reflective films on south-facing windows to reduce solar heat gain.
Heating & Cooling
- You can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling by simply turning your thermostat back 7°-10° for 8 hours a day from where you would normally set.
- Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they’re not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
- Clean or replace filters on furnaces and air conditioners once a month or as recommended
Appliances
- Keep range-top burners and reflectors clean; they will reflect the heat better and you will save energy.
Lighting
Buy LED lights – LED Christmas lights use up to 90 percent less electricity than incandescent.
Electronics
- Using the power management settings on computers and monitors can cause significant savings.
- Using an “ENERGY STAR” labeled computer can save 30%-65% more energy than computers without this designation, depending on usage.
- Putting your laptop AC adapter on a power strip that can be turned off can maximize savings.
- Unplug appliances, or use a power strip and use the switch on the power strip to cut all power to the appliance, to avoid “vampire” loads.
- Avoid placing appliances that give off heat such as lamps or TVs near a thermostat.
Cooking
- Many side dishes can be cooked in a microwave instead of the oven. Microwaves use just a fraction of the electricity that ovens do. A slow cooker can help ease the oven’s burden as well.
- Use small electric pans, toaster ovens, or convection ovens for small meals rather than your large stove or oven.
Washing Clothes & Dishes
- Consider air-drying clothes on clotheslines or drying racks. Air drying is recommended by clothing manufacturers for some fabrics.
- Clean the lint screen in the dryer after every load to improve air circulation and prevent fire hazards.
- Check your dryer vent to be sure it is not blocked. This will save energy and may prevent a fire.
- Wash your clothes in cold water using cold-water detergents whenever possible.
- Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher’s drying cycle.
- Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.
Water Heaters
- Shorten Showers. Simply reducing that lingering time by a few minutes can save hundreds of gallons of hot water per month for a family of four. Showers account for 2/3 of your water heating costs.
- Insulate your electric hot-water storage tank but be careful not to cover the thermostat.
- Drain a quart of water from your water tank every 3 months to remove sediment that impedes heat transfer and lowers the efficiency of your heater.
- Install heat traps on the hot and cold pipes at the water heater to prevent heat loss. Most new water heaters have built-in heat traps.
- Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120°F.
Refrigeration
- Regularly defrost manual-defrost freezers and refrigerators; frost buildup decreases the energy efficiency of the unit.
- Don’t keep your refrigerator or freezer too cold. Recommended temperatures are 37° to 40°F for the fresh food compartment and 5°F for the freezer section.
- Cover liquids and wrap foods stored in the refrigerator. Uncovered foods release moisture and make the compressor work harder