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Energy Conservation Whenever you save energy, you not only save money, you also reduce the demand for such fossil fuels as coal, oil, and natural gas. Less burning of fossil fuels also means lower emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary contributor to global warming, and other pollutants. Here are some tips to conserving power: Turn your refrigerator down. 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. Careful with the Dishwasher. 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. Naturally, this helps conserve water as well. Natural Heating. Letting sunlight in by opening curtains, blinds and shades over windows facing the sun helps keep your home warm and reduces heating needs. At night or when the sky is overcast, keeping drapes and curtains closed will help keep the warmth indoors. Trick you body to keep the thermostat low. Dry air makes you feel colder than moist air at the same temperature. Maintaining home humidity will produce personal comfort at a lower thermostat setting and save money. Shallow pans of water near radiator tops or near warm air vents, or a room humidifier, will help raise humidity levels. Air conditioning. On very hot days, you can save energy by closing the fresh air intake on your unit. Cooling fresh, warm outside air requires more electricity than re-cooling the air that is already circulating in your home. Depending on the size of your home, you can save 3% on your cooling costs for every degree you raise your thermostat in the summer. Raising the thermostat from 73 to 78 degrees can mean savings of up to 15% in cooling costs. Auto-defrost Refigerators. Although automatic defrost refrigerators are convenient, their defrosting features use a lot of electricity. A manual defrost refrigerator typically uses 36% less energy. Clothes Dryers. Drying heavy and light fabrics separately will also keep drying time to a minimum. Mixing different weight fabrics causes the dryer to run longer than necessary. Remember to check the lint filter before each load. Lint buildup blocks air flow and lengthens drying time, costing you energy dollars. Microwaves. A microwave oven is an energy efficient alternative to a conventional oven. It cooks food more quickly and it uses 70-80% less electricity than a regular oven so use one when you can. Conventional Ovens. If you do use a conventional oven, try to avoid "peeking" by opening the oven door. Each "peek" can lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees. Use a toaster oven to cook small items. Although often recommended, it's not really necessary to preheat the oven for foods with a cooking time of over one hour. Using glass pans allows you to set the oven 25 degrees lower because glass retains heat. When preparing a meal in your oven, try to use foods that are cooked at about the same temperature. That way your oven can cook several dishes at the same time. Lighting. Lighting accounts for about 15% of a home's electric use. New screw-in fluorescent bulbs can replace the incandescent ones most of us use. Fluorescent bulbs are more expensive, but they last 10 times longer and use 75% less electricity. You can save by turning off incandescent lights when you leave the room. If you use fluorescent lighting, however, turn them off only if you'll be gone longer than 15 minutes. Fluorescent lights use as much energy in starting as they use during 15 minutes of operation, so it's not worthwhile to turn them off for brief periods. We are always looking for more power saving tips. If you have one for us send us a message and we will gladly add you suggestions to the list. |
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