Sometimes, making little changes can add up to big energy savings, and reducing your family’s energy consumption can save you money. If you feel like your home’s energy bills are too high, take control! You have the power to reduce them and save energy.
Don’t Overlook Lighting
It’s easy to take lights for granted; you flip a switch and they illuminate any room of your house. It’s so easy, many often forget that a few simple and relatively inexpensive changes can play a big role in their efforts to save energy.
- Turn off lights when you’re not in the room.
- Install occupancy sensors, which will turn off lights automatically when you leave a room.
- Make the most of daylight by opening shades and drapes.
- Use more efficient lamps and fixtures, such as fluorescent lamps.
Be Cool About Hot Water
Hot water is another luxury people take for granted. Turn on a faucet and there it is! But ensuring that you have sufficient hot water whenever you wash dishes, do laundry or jump in the shower actually relies on a complex and expensive-to-operate appliance — the water heater. Luckily, saving energy by altering hot water consumption is relatively easy:
- Reduce consumption by installing low-flow shower heads, taking shorter showers and using cold water settings while doing laundry.
- Purchase a high-efficiency, natural gas hot water tank.
- Wrap your existing hot water tank in an insulating blanket.
- Lower the temperature setting on the hot water heater from the factory setting of 140 degrees to the sufficiently hot 120 degrees.
- Consider installing a solar hot water heating system, which can be especially effective in sunny Savannah.
Cut Cooling Costs
If there’s one thing people in Savannah understand, it’s the high cost of cooling down their homes. Saving energy on air conditioning probably offers the greatest number of opportunities to save money on energy bills.
- Turn off the air conditioning system on cooler days.
- Purchase Energy Star qualified HVAC equipment.
- Open windows, leverage the power of cross ventilation by using fans, and keep shades drawn when the windows are in direct sunlight.
Saving Energy on Appliances and Electronics
If you’re serious about saving energy, look to home appliances and electronics for opportunities. These days, most houses are inundated with electronic devices and appliances. You’ll likely find them plugged in in every room of the house, burning through electricity whether they’re in use or not. But it doesn’t have to be like that if you:
- Only purchase appliances that have earned the Energy Star rating.
- Turn off computers when they’re not in use.
- Use tools that can aid in your efforts to save energy, such as a computer’s power management features.
- Regularly clean the condenser coils under and behind the refrigerator.
- Use energy-saving dishwasher settings, like “no heat dry” settings.”
- Choose natural gas over electricity for your stove, oven, clothes dryer and water heater, if possible.
- Invest in a horizontal clothes washer, which uses significantly less water and are better at spinning clothes dry.
- Unplug TVs, DVD players, chargers for mobile devices, appliances and the like when they’re not in use.
Saving energy doesn’t have to be a difficult and expensive endeavor. In fact, it’s relatively easy, and little changes in your habits can lead to big savings on your energy bills.
For more information about saving energy in your Savannah home, contact the HVAC experts at McDevitt Air.
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