DECREASE YOUR ELECTRIC COST NOW

April 17, 2008

There are a few tricks in lowering your energy bills and some of it would be like installing a timer for your water heater and installing in storm windows for more effective insulation for the heat.

When winter comes its always expected that there’s a great possibility for higher electric consumption at your home as. So for taking some effort and time of your own will be beneficial for you since this will take up a lot for you to reduce your energy bill and save money.

Contact Energy Company

First off, start by contacting your local energy company. At first it may seem obscured that companies would want to lower your electric bill, most of the energy companies actually provide programs that will advice you how to save energy, help keep your energy bills low and reduce pollution. There are even energy companies that offer “energy assessment” that the company will send forth a representative that will evaluate your energy usage and will offer energy saving suggestion and ideas. While some also offer products that does energy saving and to name one of these is the low-flow shower heads.

List Down Each Energy Consuming Appliance

But if not given a privilege of a free assessment, you can just do the assessment by yourself by the use of pencil and pad. First you should got to each room in your home and take note of the energy consumption within the room. For example your room uses a lamp that is an overhead lamp, a heater, a television, a overhead light, VCR and stereo system. Never forget to also include small energy uses such as clock radios and humidifiers, and also take note of the not so obvious rooms such as the garage or a basement.

If this is with family, you can all sit down and brainstorm ideas on how to reduce energy consumption within each room of the house. This can include replacing the bulbs of your lights with lower wattage bulb could be a huge saving. You can also replace ordinary windows with storm windows in wintertime that yields a very significant saving. You can also add to door jams some weather stripping that will help restore the heat when the weather is cold. If you would need further ideas in conserving energy and trimming on your electric bill even more, turn off your heaters when no one is at home and at night. The time a lot to heat a room would only be for a few minutes and if you keep on doing this there is a huge lump that is as much as 30% reduction on your energy bill.

Take Note of the Kitchen

It is not advisable to use very old appliances as they tend to take in more energy. A very good example of this is refrigerators. New appliances usually has energy saving features that will tend to save more than the initial costing or investment.

If having new appliances or if your refrigerator is not that old to be replaced, it helps to try cleaning the appliance and replacing the worn parts. The connection of conserving energy with this is that if you clean the coils at the back of a refrigerator, it allows the air to circulate more freely that will enable an even temperature for the refrigerator. You should also defrost freezers often because the layer of frost that is found in the freezer can serve as insulator making the freezer work harder just to maintain it’s proper temperature.

To save on energy, as much as possible fill your dishwasher up with dishes when using and turn the “heat dry” feature. Allowing the dishes to dry up by just simply cracking the door open, or hand –drying the dishes yourself as you place them aside can save a huge amount of energy compared to heating the dishes to dry. If you only have a couple of dishes to wash always opt to press the button of “Light Wash” cycle that is present in most of the dishwashers.

For your Basement/Laundry Room/Utility Room/Garage

Always remember that hotter isn’t always better. You can start washing your clothes in cold water, if it’s heavily soiled clothes, you can use warm water instead of hot. Take note that you can also use cold or hot in more white clothes. Even if the washer has small settings, as much as possible don’t wash small amount of clothes.

As much as possible try to line-dry your clothes. Not only does line drying save energy but also your clothes will last longer. There will be a quick five minute tumble in the dryer and with a fabric softener sheet will help leave your clothes clean and fresh smelling. To help your clothes dry faster in the dryer you can also try to include towels. This soaks up the extra moisture and can minimize your drying time.

Another factor in one of these items is the treasure chest of savings that can be found in the water heater. This is what had been introduced in the early paragraphs of this article. It is to install a timer in your heater that will enable your heater to turn off and on at present time that is in accordance to your family’s need for hot water. Try reducing the temperature of your water heater to 150 degrees but you are advices to not go lower as this may cause your dishes and clothes to not be thoroughly cleaned. 150 degrees can reduce energy consumption and even reduce the risk of children to be scalded.

In the Bathroom

This had also been introduced in the early parts of this article and this is installing a low flow shower head. The latest designs in shower head offer better flow and pressure than their early designs. You can also have toilets that have water saving toilets or try to fill empty bleach bottles that is half full of water and it in the tank that is away from the flushing mechanism, so you could keep the water level down.

Using these tips in your household and you’ll be able to cut 40% depending on how much energy you use and where you live. If you were to save that much, that 40% can be an out of town vacation.

Here are more tips in conserving energy when winter comes or other seasons:

• Try lowering the thermostat to around 65 degrees F or around 60 degrees F when no one is at home will surely cut down the percentage of energy that is usually required.

• By having particularly oil furnace for professional cleaning will help you clear the heater of carbon and some other residue and will also help to make it operate and be able to burn fuel even more efficiently.

• Install storm windows, this will help you conserve in heat within your home make you conserve on energy more.

• Taking down or taking notice of all outer windows, outside vents, doors and checking to see what areas in your place might be letting cold air in. So knowing this will let you cut down on fuel consumption.

• Always close rooms that are not being used as so to not allow heat to come in to those unused rooms.

• Also take special care of fire places by making sure if coolness does not come from it or that a heat is not coming out from the damper and this will definitely increase on energy savings.

• When it comes to air-conditioning, turning the temperature of your air-conditioner to around 76 degrees F rather than having it go down to around 70 degrees F, it will enable you to save on electricity as each degree is equivalent to 5% in energy cost.

• Try to always keep your air-conditioning filter clean to be able to make the unit run efficiently.

• To put your air-conditioning on the shady part of the house instead of placing it in direct sunlight will help the device to work more efficiently.

• Also trying to find new appliances that has energy saving features or less gas consumption.

• Make sure that the refrigerator is closed properly to avoid heat to come in making it not work efficiently.

• Dryer that has a sensor feature where in it automatically turns off when the clothes dry up and will disable the dryer to keep on drying when it is not needed anymore.

• Try using heavier drapes fro your home, this will contribute to not allowing heat to go out from your place during winter.

• You can also have an attic fan so that it can take out the heat in the place as to conserve the coolness of the air-conditioning.

• You can also look up trying to add more structure to your place like putting structure in between walls or in ceilings will help your house to be more energy conserving.

• Never forget to turn off all the appliances that need to be turned off when you leave the room.

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Posted by Budget Saver under Saving |