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Picking up some new habits around your household will help you reduce your carbon footprint and save money on your monthly energy bills. Here are some ideas on how you can save energy at home:
Heating and Cooling: Keeping a comfortable indoor temperature throughout the year accounts for a huge portion of your yearly energy consumption. Making sure your house is properly insulated and sealed will help you save energy by reducing the rate at which air escapes and enters your home. Homes that are inadequately insulated and sealed lose a lot of that valuable heated and cooled air into the atmosphere. Perform your own energy audit or hire a certified energy auditor to determine your insulation level and needs and seal up those cracks and holes that let energy escape.
An easy energy saving idea is to adjust your thermostat by a few degrees. Once your house is sufficiently insulated and sealed, you will be comfortable with the heat turned down to the recommended 68 degrees during the winter, or even lower! Programmable thermostats let you control the temperature throughout the day and reduce the heat even more when you are out of the house or sleeping. Using the same formula in the summer – raising the thermostat a couple of notches – will save energy.
Appliances: Clunky old outdated appliances suck up a lot of energy. If yours are due to be replaced make sure you choose energy efficient models. Major appliances like dryers, washing machines and dishwashers should only be run with full loads, and always use cold water to wash your clothes. Hanging your clothes to dry on a clothesline or drying rack is a great idea for saving on energy bills and will help your clothes look better longer. Avoid opening the refrigerator as much as possible. Just by planning your trip to the fridge and getting everything out or in at one time can add up to some real energy savings.
Hot water: It costs a lot of money to heat water for your home. Use cold water whenever you can and reduce the temperature on your hot water heater to 120 degrees. Simply by putting this idea into practice you will save energy without even noticing. This temperature is sufficient for sanitation and comfortable for bathing. Rather than taking long, hot baths choose short showers and replace your old showerhead with a low flow model.
Outside: Take a walk around your property to come up with more ideas for saving energy. Make sure that the area around your air conditioner compressor is clear of any debris, grass or weeds. Plant deciduous shade trees on the south and west sides of your house to protect you from the hot sun in the summertime. In the fall the leaves will fall to the ground and the trees will provide you with a nice filter to capture warm rays on colder days. Planting trees is also a great way to clean the air of harmful carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
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