Making your home more energy efficient needs planning and design
Making your home more energy efficient is very easy and these are excellent suggestions on how to do it. Sometimes the smallest thing that you do can save you a lot of money and electricity. Many people are not aware of what they can do to cut down on their usage of electricity.
If you own your home, check in the attic to see how much insulation you have. If you have to, call an electrician to come and check it for you. Not enough insulation can really make a big difference in the amount of your electric bill.
Check the seal around all of your doors. Be sure that the seal is very tight when you shut the door. A lot of cool and warm air can escape through these cracks if the seal is loose. The seal is a rubber stripping that can be bought very inexpensively at your local home supply store.
Inspect all of your windows to make sure that they are completely closing. If you find a window that doesn't shut tightly, remove the window and replace with one that does.
Buy a tube of Dap and apply it around all of the windows to fill the cracks where cool and warm air may be escaping.
Do you have a pool? If so, check the pump and make sure that it is functioning correctly. A pool pump is a major item that uses a lot of electricity. Try to cut back on the usage of the pump a little and you'll be amazed at the difference in the amount of your next electric bill.
Dust the coils in the back of your refrigerator. Dusty coils make the refrigerator work harder, therefore it uses more electricity.
Change the filters on your air conditioner often because dirty filters make your air conditioning unit work harder.
Try to wash and dry your clothes no more than twice a week.
If you have ceiling fans, turn them off when you're not in the room or going somewhere. Ceiling fans actually do not cool the air, they just circulate the air giving a feeling of coolness.
Always turn off lights when you're not in a room because this is wasting money as well as electricity.
Set your hot water heater on a lower temperature and you will realize that you can get by on a lower temperature of water.
Clean your ceiling fans because this will help them to put out more air and it will ease the stress on the motor and make them last longer.
Keep your thermostat set on 78 degrees in the summer and around 70 degrees to 72 degrees in the winter. Your body will get used to these temperatures and you will feel very comfortable.
Try some of these ideas, even one or two of them will make a tremendous difference in lowering your electric bill and making your home very energy efficient.
