Ways to Save Energy

Energy is a major part of our monthly expenses. Whether it is summer or winter the energy bills can be a major drain.

Instead of assuming this is our fate, here are some ideas on how to save energy and, in the process, save some money.

Home Energy Audit

The first step to solving any problem is to form a plan.  The method I use for making sure my hard earned money is not getting wasted on heating and cooling my home is to perform an Energy Audit.

This means going around the house and finding any area that might have the potential to form a draft.  The most common areas are doors, windows, fireplaces, and holes in the floor for wiring (older homes).  I also check the insulation that is in my attic as well as what is pinned underneath my house in the crawl space.

When you identify a problem area, you need to get it sealed or fixed in the case of insulation.  If it is an insulation problem you can add more (fairly inexpensively if you do it your self), but for any type of draft the goal is to get it sealed.

The most common practice is to use caulk for windows and holes and possibly the fireplace (make sure to use the right kind) and for doors to use weather stripping and door sweeps.  In a pinch taping plastic over the problem will get you sealed until you can find a more permanent fix.

One last thing to check in your energy audit is whether the bathroom fans are being left on.  This is a great way to loose heating or cooling in your home.

A bathroom fan in the average home can completely move the air out in a little over an hour.  So make sure the kids are turning the fan off once the bathroom is no longer in use.

Hot Water Usage

One of the main ways we waste energy is our use of hot water.  The hot water heater is a highly inefficient appliance.  There are some easy ways to limit how much your hot  water heater has to work and I promise not to criticize your one hour hot showers.

• If your hot water heater is exposed to the out doors (garage, crawl space, outside) you will want to get a water heater blanket.  This is an  extra layer of insulation and helps hold the temperature longer.  They are also fairly inexpensive.  I just bought a hot water blanket on Amazon.comfor $27.89 after shipping.  (Of course I used gift cards that I earned on SwagBucks.com and paid nothing.)
• Check the temperature setting on your water heater.  If you have a dishwasher then water needs to be heated to 120°.  If you use your children to wash the dishes you can cut that temperature down.
• Whenever possible wash your clothes in cold water.
• O.K. I lied.  You should not be taking one hour showers.  If you can cut your shower time in half, you can save as much as 33% on the cost of heating your water.

Another option, if your hot water heater is old, is to get a tankless system.  They tend to run on natural gas and only fire up when you need the water.  And if you have teenagers this means you will actually have hot water when you are the last one to take a shower.

Heating and Cooling

One of the major problems we have in using energy is that we heat and cool more space than we need.  This is very common when using central heating and air.

And I will admit it is difficult to reduce the cost of  of cooling without an unsightly window unit in your most used rooms.  However, with heating, you can reduce your costs very easily by turning down your thermostat and using an efficient space heater for the room where you spend the most time.

Even better, if  you have a room with a working fireplace, you can make that your primary hang out room and heat the room by burning wood.  Wood can be relatively inexpensive if you have property with trees on it or friends who are trying to get a log cut up.

Just keep your ears open for when someone complains about a fallen tree and offer to help in exchange for some free wood.  Buying a good chain saw (on sale of course) and renting a log splitter are much less expensive than paying to heat your home for the rest of your life.

Free Heat in Winter

You can save a ton of money during the winter by not using your central heating to heat your home.  There is this wonderful thing called the Sun and it heats the entire planet.  With a little bit of thought you can also use it to heat your home.

The easiest way it to open up the blinds or curtains on the sunny side of your home.  As soon as the sun goes down make sure to close them.  In fact, having curtains closed on the shaded parts of your home and during then night can work as an extra layer of insulation from the cold.

Now you can stop at opening your blinds and curtains during the day or you can take it to a whole ‘notha level.  We are going to turn the windows that are on the sunny side of the house into our own personal space heater.   Here is what you will need:

• 2 rods (curtain, dow, the lighter the better) that are the width of your windows
• Black sheets of plastic like what you would find under a house
• A stapler with staples in it

You can find all these items at Wal-Mart.

Next we are going to cut the black plastic to be slightly larger than the height of the window.  Once you have your plastic sheets wrap the each end around the dow or curtain rod and staple it so that it holds around the rod.

Finally we want to secure each rod to the window frame.  The most effective way is to nail it into the side of the window frame or, if you are using  actual curtain rods, to use the brackets that come with the curtain rods.

We want to make sure there is a gap of at least six inches between the window frame and the black plastic.  This will create enough space for the heated air to escape out the top.   So when we are done the setup should look and work something like this:

In my area of the country (southeast) you should be able to get heat in the upper 80’s in more northern location your temperature out the top should be somewhere around 80 degrees.  So give it a try and enjoy a little free heat during the day.

Arcadia Power

Arcadia power makes it so that a portion of your energy bills goes to renewable resources. If your power company participates, you can switch all your billing over to Arcadia Power and they do the rest.

Most people do not see any change in their power bills. Our Arcadia Power review details exactly how the service works and how you can use them even if your energy company does not sync with their services.

Make Bacon of the Energy Hogs

I have seen a ton of commercial talking about finding an energy hog in your house.  While the commercials are cute they do bring a good point about items that consume large amounts of power in our homes.

To help you out I went out and looked for the most common energy abusers and bad habits that we tend to see.  These are in no particular order but should help you think about how to save some money.

Clothes Dryer

Sure it is more convenient to throw your clothes in the old spinner but the convenience could be costing you a bundle.  According the the U.S. Department of Energy using your dryer regularly could cost you as much as $85 a year.

The investment of a clothes line will cost you very little and it will preserve your clothing, costing you less for new clothes.  At the very least consider doing all of your small loads on the same day and combining them to dry together.

Old Refrigerators and Freezers

If you are still using an old refrigerator or chest freezer you are probably wasting enough energy in a year to replace that appliance in just a few years of savings.  What makes the replacement of these items even more appealing is the free cash out there for getting a new one.

First there are tax credits for getting an energy star compliant device.  Also, there are electric companies that will come haul away your old appliance for free and some will also give you cash so check with your power company. To help you out the Environmental Protection Agency has a cool calculator that can help you determine if it is beneficial to replace your refrigerator of freezer HERE.

Personal Computers

While everyone seems to bee moving to tablets and laptops there are still a ton of desktop computers with a separate monitor.  This is a great option for kids but if you are leaving both of these energy users on without using them you are wasting about $60 per year.  So the best bet is to power down both items if you are not using them.

Televisions

Many households tend to use the TV as a white noise machine.  Just like light bulbs turn your televisions off when you leave the room.  If you leave the television on for 8 hours per day it will cost you $30 per year per television.

Swimming Pool Pumps

If you have a pool in your back yard you are probably one of the favorite destinations in the neighborhood, but if you are running that pump 24 hours a day you are wasting money.  Florida Atlantic University did a study and found that homeowners could save as much as 75% when downsizing their pump or using energy conservation methods.

There are of course other items that use energy in your home but getting these items in order can save you a bundle and let you spend your extra cash for more fun things, like buying steak!