Your household’s energy consumption doesn’t have to be so high. You have the power to use less power!
Reducing your household’s energy use can be your way of going green and minimizing your impact on the environment. It can also lower your energy bills and give you some essential savings while living on a tight budget. Whatever your motivation, you can shrink your energy consumption with these tips.
Seal Air Leaks
Air leaks around your windows and doors offset your home’s indoor temperature, which encourages you to waste more energy on heating/cooling your rooms. You can conserve energy by sealing up those leaks.
How? Close the gaps around your windows with fresh caulking. For additional insulation from the outdoor air, add weatherstripping inside the window sashes. For your entrance doors, put draft blockers on the bottoms and add weatherstripping inside the frames.
If you have old windows and doors, you might want to skip this step. You should consider getting replacement windows and doors to conserve more energy instead. Look for options that have energy-efficient features like low-emissivity glass, fusion-welded corners and UPVC frames. You should also look for Energy Star certification — this is a clear sign that the products are energy-efficient.
You’ll want your replacement windows and doors to be professionally installed. A professional will have the experience and the tools necessary for seamless installations. This is not a home improvement project that you should DIY. If you do a bad installation, you could end up with big air gaps.
Get Better Appliances
Speaking of replacements, you may want to upgrade your old appliances to Energy Star certified ones. You can do this with your refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes dryers, clothes washers and freezers and take care of all the maintanence.
Change Your Bulbs
Do you use incandescent bulbs in your light fixtures? You can save a lot of energy by switching to light-emitting diode bulbs. Energy Star certified light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs are 90% more efficient than any of the incandescent bulbs you’re using.
What if you like the warm light of an incandescent bulb? There’s no need to worry. You can get LED bulbs in different colours and “temperatures.” You can find a range of options from warm yellowish light to cool blueish light. If you like the warmth of an incandescent bulb, get LEDs from the warmest side of that range.
Air Dry
A simple way that you can conserve energy is to skip any heating cycles with your appliances. So, when you’re running your dishwasher, skip the heat-drying cycle. Instead, open up the door, pull out racks and let the freshly-washed dishes air dry.
Apply the same rule to your laundry. When the weather is warm, you don’t need to put your freshly-washed clothes in the dryer. You can hang them on an indoor or outdoor clothesline and let them air dry.
Unplug
Your electronics use phantom energy when they’re plugged in but not in use. So, they’re still contributing to your energy consumption, even when you’re not doing anything with them. What a waste!
An easy way to stop your electronics from pulling power even when you’re not using them is to unplug them when you don’t need them. If you think you’re going to forget to do this, you can give yourself a helping hand by plugging your electronics into power bars with built-in timers. Once the timer goes off, the power bar will shut them down.
Start making these changes right now and see how much your energy consumption drops especially if you are into the business like Oyo.
