I know that a book could be writting on this subject, and it is not my intent to write one. There are a number of thing that most people can do to increase their energy savings through lowered consumption. Some of them are just common sense, and sure you will say “everyone knows that,” while there are a few other suggestions that you may not have thought of. Here’s a quick list:
1. Take time to plan your trips, make sure that your routes are the ones that are the shortest and most efficeint. How many of us think we know a way to get somewhere that is shorter but we have never taken a look online to confirm whether or not it really is?
2. If you can, pay the extra dollars necessary to acquire high efficiency equipment like A/C and heating units. While you pay a premium for the equipment, most units will save you big over the life of the equipment, especially since energy costs continue to rise.
3. Make an adjustment to your heating or cooling habits, you can work and live in a comfort zone without being in an excessive cost zone. If you are in the heat of the desert maybe you can live with 75 degrees instead of 70 degrees. Over an entire summer if you are cooling or heating a 2,000 square foot home the savings can be substantial. Something as simple as a fan or ceiling fan can make an effective 5 degree difference in cooling or direct heat back down to you before it escapes the room.
4. In keeping with the above, upgarde your thermostat and set it to use less energy when your are gone to work. You can save the money that the upgraded thermostat costs you in a short time.
5. Shorten the time that your pool cleaning system runs and consider off-peak times to run motors for such purposes.
6. Cut back on decorative landscaping that is expensive to keep in place. Do you really need to have acres of decorative grass that requires hundreds or thousands of gallons of fresh water pumped to it for aesthetics?
7. Unplug electronics or applicances that stay in a ”standby” mode and continue to use power.
8. Incandescent lights use more energy because they create a lot of heat. While there are still negative feature, fluorescent lights offer a substantial savings.
9. Check to see if you can get a tax credit for making changes. Many utility companies offer rebates for making landscaping, thermostat or light bulb changes. Expect the feds to participate more with major alternative energy credits for solar and other sources.
What about recycling, building ”green” and home tune-ups? All great ideas, it takes some effort, but with energy bills potentially going through the roof everyone needs to take some time and evaluate their consumption situation.
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Great and reminding tips. Point 7 is something that we continuously forget about or just simply ignore. It just takes a bit more ‘effort’ to unplug the electronics after using it, but we are too lazy to do that.
I am practicing some of your tips especially on the unplugging and the likes..some of the tips doesn’t apply in my household such as cleaning the pool since we don’t have one..
Great tips. I must say, I find number one to be very funny. Why? If you think of it, its always like, going to some place without even planning your route then you’ll all end up spending too much when in fact its possible not to if only you first learn how to go there. And you can easily do that by just checking it out in the internet.
I think adjusting the comfort zone can really make a difference, especially when nobody will be home for a while, or in other rooms of the house overnight.
I suppose in some cases it would require less energy to adjust the temperature a little, rather than turning off the heat or air entirely and having to recondition the area from square one. I guess it would be important to be clear on what was the most efficient approach.
I have started switching off appliances instead of keeping them in standby mode. Never thought earlier that they consume energy in that mode also.
Another good point when washing clothes in a machine we can wash now at 15′c instead of 25/30′c which saves on energy,
and i also agree with the above if you turn any electrical equipment that you do not use that will save a lot of energy.
A lot of people do not realise that if you leave plugs on and certain equipment on standby it still consumes a lot of energy.
Hello. Does anyone knows if those appliances that are on standby mode and has usually some small red or green light consumes how much of energy? Or are they even that great to b also responsible for higher energy consumption?
“Gh0st4unt3r says:
July 24, 2009 at 9:41 PM
Another good point when washing clothes in a machine we can wash now at 15′c instead of 25/30′c which saves on energy,”
That’s cool. Thanks for the extra tip. But how about doing the laundry with bare hands and soap. I think that would completely be saving a lot of energy from washing them. Just an opinion though.
That’s really a nice tip for us, guys. What do you think would happen to us if everybody would practice it? Do you think our economic crisis still continue to increase?