subject: Electricity Saving Tips That Save Huge Cash [print this page] Let's face it..Let's face it... You probable spend way too much money on your average energy bills right? Sadly the cost of energy is not going to get any cheaper and the ones who are going to feel it the most are the majority. In these uncertain economic times we need ways to save, we need answers. The good news is, there are numerous ways to lower the costs of energy without much effort that anyone can implement even if you're in a shoe-string budget.
In order to save the most amount of energy and money it is a good idea to formulate a simple plan of action before you start to implement the following eight electricity saving tips. For example, did you know that combined your home's heating, cooling, water heater and lighting account for a whopping 66% of your homes energy usage? Think about that for a few minutes... On an average, sixty six percent of most peoples energy bills will come from those four specific areas, so by putting into practice only a few of the electricity saving tips below the savings can be considerable! With those areas in mind, let us begin our journey:
1. The greatest amount of energy your home consumes is in heating. Nearly 31% of your energy costs are accumulated from this one area. In order to help you cut down on your energy consumption here, you should purchase and install an electric thermostat. By doing this, you can more easily and efficiently regulate the temperature in your home. Once you have installed your new thermostat, set it 1-5 degrees lower than you normally would... with every single degree lower you're going to save five percent off the power you use.
2. You can significantly reduce the amount of heat your home loses by weather stripping the windows and doors in your home and using a clear caulk along the baseboards to seal any cracks in the flooring where heat may escape your home. This can stop 20% of your heat loss and significantly reduce the amount of money you spend on heating your home, and by regaining that 20% heat loss, you could probably set your thermostat an additional 2 or 3 degrees lower and save even more energy.
3. The hot water heater is what you need to look at now. Did you know that it uses about 14% of your homes energy? It's a prime example of an area where you can save energy and money. First, have a look at your thermostat. The thermostat should be not set any higher than one hundred and twenty degrees. At one hundred and twenty degrees it is a very comfortable temperature for taking a shower and a bath. The thing is if a small child was to immerse themselves into water any warmer than one hundred and twenty degrees they could seriously burn themselves. Remember a child's skin is much more sensitive than an adults skin would be. Besides, if your thermostat is set any higher, the system automatically adds cold water to prevent burns. Too, by wrapping the pipes that lead from both the hot and cold water you can actually increase the temperature of the water by about 4 degrees which allows you to be able to turn it down to around 115 degrees. This will save a great deal of energy and money.
4. Cooling our homes also takes a significant amount of energy, but there are some wonderful electricity saving tips you can implement in this area that will save energy and, of course, money. You can put in white coloured blinds or curtains and keep them closed throughout the warmest part of the days. By using white, you will actually be reflecting the heat away from your home rather than having it be absorbed thus causing you to crank up the air conditioning. Too, by using fans, in conjunction with your air conditioner, you can actually raise the temperature on your thermostat 4 - 7 degrees without losing any comfort.
5. Lighting. This is an area where you can begin saving power as soon as you change your light bulbs. By replacing your incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent light bulbs (CFL), you can save roughly 75% of your homes energy usage through light bulbs. This can amount to considerable savings over the lifetime of the CFL bulbs.
6. When something is not in use, TURN IT OFF! Not just on stand-by, but off! The kind of electronic devices that don't need to be plugged into a live power points are things like DVD players, cell phone chargers, printers, computers and other items that just don't need to be left on. Just by leaving them on when not in use (in the stand-by or hibernation mode), you are wasting about 35% of your home's energy. To make this an easy task, buy power strips and plug all your electronic items in to them, when not in use, just flip the switch on the power cord and voila, instant savings. You can go a long way in saving power used in your home by implementing this electricity saving tip.
7. When washing clothes, use the coldest water setting your fabrics can tolerate and make sure to only wash a full load during each wash cycle. Too, instead of drying them in the dryer, hang them outside if it is a nice day and save energy that way as well.
8. Insulate your walls and attic. When you take measures to insulate your home what you're doing is affectively creating a barrier that stops the outside weather from affecting the inside comfort levels. This ultimately leads to a considerable saving of energy.
As you can see, there are many ways in which you can reduce the energy usage in your house that will not only save you a significant amount of money, but will also save a considerable amount of energy -- that has the added effect of helping reduce your carbon footprint and your household's impact on the environment. Just take advantage of the electricity saving tips above and you are on your way to a leaner, greener energy bill.
