Saving Your Home’s Energy

Do you dread looking at your electric or gas bill every month seeing numbers that are larger and larger each time you see it?  Do you wish there was something you could do about this dreaded monthly bill?  Well, there is and it is easy to remedy.  You just have to check your home to make sure that it is the most energy and cost efficient that it can possibly be.

It might be shocking to you that most people do not even know that because of lack of efficiency they are loosing 25 % or more of the energy used in their home.

Did you know that there are some common every day things that you can do to save energy and money around your home.  Doing it yourself can save you both time and money that you might invest in someone else’s promises to save you money.  I don’t know about you, but I trust myself more than someone else’s empty promise any day.  All it takes is a few calculations, some common sense and you can be on the road to savings and increasing your home’s use of energy.

Some of these steps include:

1.    Calculating your energy cost.  Do you know how much fuel your home is taking to run and how much that cost you?  You need to know this before you can determine if you can lower those costs.
2.    What will it cost you to save.  What things must you put into practice in order to save on your energy monthly?  This is where you have to determine the balance.
3.    Determine your largest needs.  Some practices will save you far greater in the future than others.  You must first determine your area of largest need and go from there.
4.    Developing new habits.  Many of us have habits that cost us energy every day.  We must realize those bad habits and begin putting new habits in place in order to save energy, time and money.

These are only a few of the ways that you can begin to save money on your energy bill and have a more cost efficient home.  There are many more ways to save and you will love how easy those savings come to you.

About the Author:
Cara Mirabella is a WAHM with one toddler from New Jersey. She owns and manages TheHouseholdHelper.com – a site dedicated to saving your time, money and sanity when managing your household. She has written several articles, reports and e-books including <a href=”http://thehouseholdhelper.com/ebooks/EnergyEfficientHome.html”How To Make Your House Energy & Cost Efficient.<a/>

Home Energy Use: Where does it go and how can I save?

Did you ever wonder where does your electric consumption go? And did you ever wonder how are you going to save on your electric bill? Well, you need not to ask these questions without getting the right answers anymore. This article will tell you the answers to these 2 questions.

The largest portion of your electric consumption goes to space heating, 47% to be exact. This is almost half of the cost of our electric bill. The other half is shared by lighting and appliance with 24%, water heating with 17%, air conditioning with 6%, and refrigeration with 5%.

With this information at hand, we can easily determine when to start our move to keep the our electric consumption low.

Since the largest part of our electric consumption goes to space heating, we will start here.

Insulating the parts of your home particularly the ceiling and walls save you as much as 30% on heating expenses that equates to 15% savings on total electric cost. Doing this will of course require you to invest on materials that will be placed around your home but it is worth the money. Imagine a $150 savings per year just by insulating your home.

Also, you can further save on heating expenses if you superinsulate your home if you are living in cooler environment.

Doing some changes around your home will certainly make a difference on your electric bill. If you live on warm climate, a shade of a deciduous tree will cool down your area that will save you on air conditioning. An appropriate roof and wall painting will further give you extra savings.

Covering your window with plastic coating will provide extra insulation. This will help to keep the heat from going outside as well as the cold air from going inside the house.

Sealing all the leaks around your home will ensure that the heat will stay inside. Leaks will often come from windows, doors, sills, joints and walls.

A regular maintenance check on the furnace will keep it running efficiently, thus, ensuring you get space heat equals the electricity consumed. A clean air filter will also ensure that you get efficient air recycling as well as clean air. Leaking ducts will make your heating system work 30% more, thus, you are using power and spending more on wasted energy.

A quarter of our electric bill goes to the lighting and appliances. Here, we would concentrate on the control and responsible use of lights and electronic devices.

Make sure that you turn the lights off when not in use. Turn off the lights when you leave the room even for a few minutes. Turn off the stereo and television if you are not using them.

Reduce the thermostat of your refrigerator. It constitutes 20% of your household electric consumption.

Wash your clothes with cold water. You can save as much as 90% on washing machine’s electric consumption if you will not use the heating. You do not need warn water so kill the germs on your clothes. The detergent will do.

Only use the dishwasher if you intend a full load dishwashing. Dishwasher uses the same amount of power and water whether you full load them or not. Also, prefer air-drying your dishes instead of heating them inside the dishwasher.

Reducing the temperature of your water heater will also help you to further reduce the cost of your home energy bill.  If the thermostat of your water heater is set on 140 degrees Fahrenheit, lower it down to 120. It will be enough to give you warn water. Invest on water heater jacket. It is cheap but will certainly yield to bigger savings.

If you are going to replace your appliance, make sure you select energy efficient ones. Energy guide details can be seen on the label of each new appliance.

Compact energy bulbs are cheaper and more energy efficient than incandescent lights. Compact lights also last 8-10 times longer than incandescent bulbs so you will also save yourself from buying incandescent bulbs 8-10 times.

Replace your regular showerheads with low-flow ones. This will reduce your water consumption by as much as 40%.

Maximizing the Use of Your Home Energy

With the technological advancements we have today, it is hard to resist the temptation of having each electronic device available on the market. And why not grab the latest if you can afford it? However, with the increasing fuel cost and electric rate, there are things that need to be done. You may simply grab the latest plasma television or the most advanced heating system today but the thing is, you have to pay the price not only on these items but the electricity that they will consume. And chances are, if you have all the high tech stuffs at home, your electric bill does not come cheap.

So, as was mentioned earlier, something must be done in order to make sure that your are getting the most out of what you are paying each month energy. And the very first place to do some changes is right at your very home.

A typical household would spend about $1600 per year on electric consumption.  You might fall under this figure. This is big enough right? But this is not the end of the story. Don’t you know that a big portion of what you are paying for electric bill is never been used? Let us put it in other words: Energy is wasted month after month right at your very home. Thus, you are spending on something that you never even use.

To make up for this, here are the changes you can do in order to get the most out of every cent you pay for your electric bill:

Turn off unnecessary devices. If you are not watching your television, never leave it on. This also goes with your stereo. Learn how to turn them off if you don’t need them. Turn off the lights if you are leaving the room as well. Also switch off the air conditioning system if you don’t plan to return for a while. If you don’t use the computer monitor, turn them off. Like the television, it consumes electricity when you are not using it.

Keep the sockets free. Unplug all your chargers. Yes, they consume small electric current but if you leave them plugged in day in and day out for months, you will feel their effects on your electric bills. Remember that these little things, when pile up can be big.

If you plan to leave the house, never let the heating system run at the temperature as if you are at home. Keep them low; better yet, turn it off. You are not using them anyway. Heating system consumes a large portion of your electric bill so you might as well do some necessary changes with them. If for instance you do not want to enter cold home, you can set up remote control heating system or a programmable heating system. In this way, you do not have to leave the heating system running all day. All you have to do is to set the time when you want your heating system to work and you will save a lot of money.

During the day, use the sun to warn up the house. The sun is free so open your drapes and windows and let your heating system rest for a while. Close the windows and drapes at night.

Instead of incandescent lights, use fluorescent. They produce more light but consume less electricity.

If you don’t want to turn the lights on and off every time you go in and out of the room, you might want to get some timers, dimmers and motion sensors to do the job for you. They are worth investing for.

Refrain from using hot water when washing your clothes. Also, it will give you much savings if you prefer washing on full loads. On your dishwasher, make sure you also full load them. If there are few clothes or dishes to wash, prefer using your hands. Air-dry them so that you do not consume more electricity.

Doing these things doesn’t mean you deprive yourself from freely using the electricity you need. It only means that you are wisely spending every cent you pay for electric bills.