Electricity cost savings at home

THINGS YOU CAN DO TO CONSERVE ENERGY

By exercising even a few of the following steps, you can cut your annual energy bills by a significant amount,

Home appliances

1. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly.
2. Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater.
3. Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and use the energy saving setting, if available, to allow the dishes to air dry. You can also turn off the drying cycle manually. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 percent of your dishwasher's total electricity use.
4. Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine.
5. Select the most energy-efficient models when you replace your old appliances. Look for the Energy Star Label - your assurance that the product saves energy cost.

Home Heating and Cooling

1.      Be careful not to overheat or overcool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78.

2.      Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used.

Small investments that pay off

1.      Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by using only 1/4 the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 8-12 times longer. They provide an equivalent amount of bright, attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot.

2.      Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket.

3.      Use less hot water by installing low-flow shower heads.

4.      Weatherize your home or apartment, using caulk and weather stripping to plug air leaks around doors and windows.

Home Improvements.

When you plan major home improvements, consider some of these energy saving investments.

1.      Insulate your walls and ceilings. This can save 20 to 30 percent of home heating bills.

2.      Modernize your windows. Replacing all your ordinary windows with argon filled, double-glazed windows saves electric heat.

3.      Plant shade trees and paint your house a light color if you live in a warm climate, or a dark color if you live in a cold climate. Reductions in energy use resulting from shade trees and appropriate painting.