Using environmentally friendly energy is a great way to improve your home life and helps save the environment, too. It only takes a few changes to vastly improve your home’s energy efficiency, and cut that electric bill down to size! Read the following tips to learn how you can use less energy at home.
Replace or clean your furnace filters yearly, and recheck them monthly. Filters can also be installed in every warm-air register. These filters keep children’s toys, dirt or dust from clogging the heating ducts.
You can consider getting solar water heaters to heat your water. If you live in a region that is not at risk for freezing, it is possible to install a system that pumps water into a solar heater, then pumps it into your house. However, consider that you may still need a traditional heater if you will be using a great deal of hot water, or if the sun does not come out for some time.
Turn off electrical items whenever you aren’t using them. When you leave a room, switch off the lights, computer or T.V. Use a power strip for your home electronics, and turn it off when you aren’t using the equipment. If something is left in standby mode, it is still wasting power.
If you clean your dishes using a dishwasher, refrain from doing a load until the dishwasher is completely full of dishes. The dishwasher uses the same energy when full that it uses when empty, but you’ll have to run it less often. When you do use the dishwasher, be certain to always use the setting for saving energy, which air-dries your dishes.
If you’d like to cut down your hot water bill, look into using solar energy. Install a water heating system that uses solar power. You can select from direct circulation systems or indirect varieties. Indirect is best if you have cold winters and worry about pipes freezing.
When you plan a solar system for your home, try calculating what the energy generation of your system will be when you use hours worth of sun in the winter. This can prevent any nasty surprises during winter, and it can leave you ahead in the summer. If you have a net usage program you will get money returned to you from your utility company for energy generated by you.
When putting in a new solar energy system, the batteries that store the power should be kept really close together to the cells. Power can be lost over long cables so this will lessen the impact. It also reduces shading of the solar shells. Shading reduces solar panel energy generation.
If you have storm windows and doors in your home it helps control air flow. The cold air which comes in from drafts can be reduced with proper care for doors and windows. Storm doors and windows can increase a home’s energy efficiency by up to 45%, which can have great impacts on utility bills.
As said before, using green energy does not have to be time consuming or expensive. Usually this can be accomplished with just a few simple changes that can save you money on electricity costs. When attempting to go green, recall the tips in the article above and share them with others to increase the impact on the environment.