Earth Day 2015: Conserving Energy Around The House
Whether you’re motivated to have a green home or simply by the green it can put back in your wallet, it doesn’t have to be hard to conserve energy at home. Everything from lighting to cooling can be altered to make your home more energy and cost efficient without requiring hours’ worth of work. If you’ve got a spare afternoon and the time to read these tips, you’ll be well on your way to being green!
Turn Out The Lights
This is one of the most common ways that homeowners rack up energy costs without even really thinking about it. Where possible, it’s important to ensure that you turn the lights off when you leave the room. Another tip for keeping lighting costs down is to use energy efficient bulbs, which can be purchased from most stores these days. You’d be amazed how much of a difference this can make.
Watch Home Heating Costs
Central heating is another resource that really can pile on the bills if you’re not careful. This is especially the case during the winter months or if you live in a naturally colder climate, where many people will simply keep the heating on 24/7 without even really thinking about it. One of the best ways to combat this is to install an electronically controlled thermostat. This brilliant piece of equipment will allow you to set when the furnace fires up, meaning that you can still have a nice warm house when you wake up in the morning and come home from work, but without having to leave the heating on all day. A couple of the new stats will monitor the amount of time that your heating and air conditioning unit actually operates so that you can compare it to your utility bills. For those of you with smart phones you can even make changes to or monitor your thermostat while away.
Appliance Running Costs
Another common mistake that homeowners make is to leave their electronic appliances on when they’re not being used. A good example of this is mobile phones. Most modern smartphones only require three to four hours of charging in order to achieve a full battery, but many people will leave them on charge overnight or all day, which is a massive waste of electricity. Don’t leave the coffee machine on for too long in the morning or leave your computer on all night. Switch those appliances off!
Water Heating Costs
Water heating requires the furnace to be on full-tilt in order to get everything up to full temperature. Whilst it’s never a good idea to have no hot water at all, it’s certainly a bad idea to keep your water heating on all day. This will lead to some substantial bills by the end of the year. The best way to minimize this is to work out in advance how much hot water you’ll need, and to keep the heating on for the necessary time to obtain that much. If you live by yourself, then an hour’s heat will be more than sufficient, and there’s no need to have the heater working overtime.
Cooking Costs
Energy efficiency can be improved if the family cook and eat together. Cooking costs can rack up some big bills, when you consider the fact that when cooking a meal you might end up using the oven, the microwave and a couple of hobs at the same time. If every member of the family does this once a day, you’re looking at some big energy bills! The best way to avoid this is to eat together.
If you are looking for a plumber in The Woodlands, Tomball, Spring or surrounding areas call us at (281) 351-6661 or contact us online to get your plumbing problem taken care of quickly. We have 24 hour service 7 days a week and there are no special charges for after- hours calls.