By Sarah Kezer123SolarPower.net
How To Save Energy At Home
Sarah here, from 123SolarPower! I’m so excited to have connected with Heather recently and want to express my thanks to her for allowing me to provide a guest post for her awesome readers. We share a passion for healthy and sustainable living practices, so a partnership felt very natural. I’m a writer myself and have always had a love for the outdoors through horseback riding, playing sports, and exploring the nearby nature in North Carolina. Part of my job is to learn and share knowledge about ways to adopt greener lifestyles that are both good for the environment and our families. I work at 123SolarPower, which is a marketplace that connects people interested in learning more about solar power, with our network of solar experts. So I try to help anyone looking to reduce their carbon footprint and adopt sustainable practices. Today, I thought I’d share some tips that anyone can follow on how to improve energy efficiency at home. These are small, easy steps that in the long run, can make a big difference!
Using more electricity than you really need may not seem like a big deal, but in reality it does have some consequences…for the environment. When fossil fuels are burned they release carbon dioxide, which adds to greenhouse effects. Fossil fuels are also of limited supply and will eventually run out; so the sooner we adopt alternative resources for energy, the better.
The first thing you can do is to evaluate how you’re currently using, and possibly wasting energy at home. One way to do this is by having a home energy audit. In this case, a professional will come out to your house and run a variety of tests to assess your energy usage and the efficiency of your home’s structure. Another step to take is to start making observations about how many time you run the laundry or dishwasher each week, if you leave lights on after exiting a room, and the settings on your appliances.
Chances are that the majority of your monthly utility bill can be attributed to cooling or heating your home and running large appliances. Luckily, there are ways for you adapt how you utilize these modern conveniences at home to maximize energy savings.
- If you don’t already have them, consider installing ceiling fans in the largest rooms of your home and use them to lower the temperature and allow you to turn up the thermostat a few degrees.
- Be sure to turn up your air conditioner when leaving the house and turn it off completely when you leave for an extended period of time.
- Check the temperature on your water heater. Rule of thumb is that it should be higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Running it at a higher temperature not only wastes energy but can also shorten the life of the tank.
- Set a timer on your water tank and install a programmable thermostat to make things easier with your cooling and heating devices.
- Replace standard bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs for better energy efficiency
- The biggest energy hogging appliance in your house is most likely the fridge or freezer. If you have an old refrigerator, you can compare how many kilowatts per hour (KWH) of electricity your current unit is using to a newer model’s to determine the amount of savings you could receive by replacing it.
- If your roof isn’t properly insulated, your heating and cooling systems are going to be working overtime, using a ton of energy.
- You can start producing your own clean, free, sustainable energy with a residential solar power system. Solar panel installation allows you to harness free energy from the sun and convert it into usable electricity to power your home. You can use a solar savings calculator to determine exactly how much you can save with solar power, depending upon you home, location. Using a marketplace like 123SolarPower gives you access to free tools and competing prices on solar panel system.
These are just a few examples of ways that you can reduce the amount of polluting, fossil fuel energy you use at home. Every step you take counts, so don’t be overwhelmed in trying to do everything at once. It’s all about doing what’s right for you and your family. And by continuing to read great resources like Heather’s blog (and hopefully the 123SolarPower blog too) you can stay up to date on sustainable living.
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