The following are a few ideas from the EDF web site that includes additional information and links:
Heating and cooling
In summer, keep shades drawn to keep the cool in.
In winter, open shades to let the sunlight to help warm rooms.
In winter, keep your thermostat cooler at night or when the house is empty.
Install a programmable thermostat to heat and cool rooms only when necessary.
Plant trees around your house to cut cooling costs in summer.
Insulate your walls and ceilings.
Install a light-colored or reflective roof.
Appliances
After heating, refrigerators and freezers are generally the home's next two big energy eaters. Other appliances follow closely. Together, these items account for nearly eight tons of heat-trapping emissions per household per year.
Upgrade to Energy Star products. Not all appliances are equal. Whether you're in the market for a new fridge, toaster or air conditioner, look for Energy Star choices, which offer the best energy savings.
Size counts. When in the market for an appliance, make sure you buy what suits your needs. Items too large or too small waste electricity and your money.
Unplug. Your electric meter is often adding up kilowatt hours when you don’t think you’re using an appliance. Unplug toasters and cell phone and other chargers when they’re not in use. Don't use air fresheners that have to be plugged in.
Use power strips. Cable boxes and video game boxes, and to a lesser extent TVs and VCRs, use almost as much energy when they're off as when they're on. Make it easy to turn them all the way off—plug them into a power strip and turn off the whole strip.
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Lighting
Lighting accounts for about 21 percent of commercial energy consumption and about 12 percent of home energy consumption. In terms of heat-trapping pollution, that means the lights in the average household produce just over a ton of carbon dioxide each year. Here are a few steps to lower those numbers.
Use energy-efficient lights. Changing just one 75-watt bulb to a compact fluorescent light cuts roughly 1,300 pounds of global warming pollution. They also last up to 15 times as long and save you money. (Learn how to pick the best bulbs.)
Turn off lights. A good chunk of lighting expenses is from rooms that stay unnecessarily lit.
Use natural light. Open shades and use sunlight to help light rooms.
Install motion-sensors so that lights automatically turn on when someone is in the room and turn off when empty.
Energy Tips #1
4 comments:
You posted a comment that didn't mean anything to us and now I don't even remember where you posted it. You wrote about your front loading washer.
Well, our washer died in April and with kids, a quick replacement was needed. The front loader was more expensive, but I remembered your comment.
It chopped a bunch off the electric bill, enough to pay it off on the credit card.
As we can afford to make other changes, we're doing them like the light bulbs and the power strips.
It took the washer for me to understand that the bill can be lower. And we even put a small garden in this year.
Maria
OK! You nagged us to insulate the attic and we bought insulation to install tomorrow. We'll see what the A/C costs next month, but thanks for the nag.
You posted on nemasket about those curly bulbs that convinced me that I needed to reduce our bills. Im tired of the bills increasing for nothing.
Just dont tell me I have to cover the house with plastic and seal it with duct tape. I'll start looking for John Ashcroft.
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