Making your home energy efficient is extremely important in this day and age. Not only will it result in a greener world as you will indulge in lesser energy waste, but you will also save a lot of money along the way! Being more sensible and effective with your energy usage can never be a bad thing, so here are 5 quick and easy tips on how you can make your home more energy-efficient.
1. Air seal your home and use a programmable thermostat:
Air leaks and gaps all-around can result in the cooling in your house being lost during the summers and the heating during the winters. If you seal these cracks and leaks, you can save up to 10% on home heating and cooling costs. Think of how efficiently your Costco HVAC cooling systems will work now!
Another neat trick is to use a programmable thermostat rather than a manual one. A programmable thermostat can change the temperature according to the weather and your settings. Hence, this allows for less energy to be wasted as compared to a manual one.
2. Kitchen tips:
Your kitchen uses up a lot of energy, so make sure you make it energy efficient whether it comes to business gas or electricity. When you are using the oven, make sure you don’t take a peek at it as you lower the temperature in the oven; hence it uses up more energy.
Use dishwashers at night-time as less energy is consumed during that time of the day. Set your refrigerator temperature and pressures according to the temperature stated in the manual. This way, you won’t set it at an excessive temperature that wastes energy.
3. Lighting:
Make sure you use natural lighting as much as possible. The sun is the best source of light! Make sure you utilize it as much as possible by keeping the south-facing windows uncensored. Also, use LED lights instead of any other kind of lights, especially incandescent lights! It has been proven that LED lights are up to 80% more efficient than incandescent lights. Now that is a lot of energy efficiency!
4. Don’t overuse heating and cooling systems:
We have this urge to make sure our heating and cooling systems are the sole things that keep us warm and cold. However, that is a very inefficient approach! Wear clothes according to the weather, use ceiling fans in the summers instead of air conditioning when convenient. Add extra layers of insulation in the winters, such as extra covering for windows and sealing all the gaps in the house. Make sure you replace or clean the filters of your heating and cooling systems so they can work at their best!
5. Make sure you turn stuff off!
A common energy-wasting mistake that we make does not turn stuff off when we leave a room, or we don’t need it. Make sure you turn the lights off when you leave a room in the house, and make sure you turn the oven off a few minutes before you stop cooking.
Being energy efficient is very responsible and something every homeowner should take seriously. Your home needs to be maintained, and everyone likes lower energy bills, don’t they?
