Optimized Home

Introducing small changes to your daily routine can have a significant impact on the energy efficiency of your home. Not only will you reduce your carbon footprint, you’ll also reduce your utility bills.

To help you, here are some of the best habits that you can form to gain great energy saving benefits.

Your Shower

You may not realize how this affects your energy bills, but it does. Unless you are taking very long showers, they are much more effective and use a fraction of the hot water that a bath does.

To make it an even better option, consider using an oxygenated shower head, which makes a trickle of water seem like a powerful jet. It also uses 70% less water than a traditional shower head. These are inexpensive (although they do cost more than a standard shower head) but will reduce the amount of water that comes through and is wasted. You simply will use less water and reap the benefits of lower consumption.

Because you do not need to use as much hot water, you are reducing the work load of your hot water heater and saving energy in the process. You should  consider replacing standard water heaters with energy-efficient tankless water heaters. You may qualify for rebates from your local gas utility. The tankless water heater will often pay for itself within the first few years.

Appliance Use

Next, take a look at your appliance usage. There are certain appliances that generate heat more so than others. The washer and dryer as well as your oven are prime candidates.

Therefore, whenever possible, use these during the cooler parts of the day such as the morning and in the evening, to keep your air conditioning from having to kick on. If it is already hot and you are using them, the air conditioning units have to work harder using more energy to do so and costing you more.

During the winter, doing this will help you to keep your home warmer in the coldest times of the day, therefore keeping your furnace from having to work as hard and using less energy.

Washing Clothes

First off, only run full loads of laundry. If you run just a few items, you are simply wasting the energy that is needed.

In addition, make sure that the weight of the object is taken into consideration. Keeping like weights together can help to reduce the amount of time that some items are needed in the dryer. For example, if you wash towels together, which require longer periods of time to dry, you can save energy when you wash light weight t-shirts.

Another tool that has been put onto the market is cold water detergent for your washer. These chemicals claim to work well if cold water, meaning that you do not need to use as much hot water in your laundry. Without using hot water, you lessen the demand on your hot water heater and therefore lower your costs significantly.

Keep the units working at their best. That means cleaning out the dryer filter too. There are two things to consider here. First, keep the interior filter clean by cleaning it after every load. This allows the clothing to dry faster with each load. Second, clean the tubing that runs from the dryer to the wall clean as well. This should be cleaned out every six months for optimal use. Put a reminder on Google Calendar so that you don’t forget.

Cook Tops

Electric cook tops can pose a problem for those that are looking to save energy. These pull quite a bit of electricity to be used effectively. To minimize power consumption, make sure that you select the right size burner for the pot that you are using.

Another trick with these units is to insure that the bottom of your pan is flat. Those that are rounded have less surface area actually touching the cook top, causing it to take longer to heat and therefore requiring more energy use for the same meal.

Keep the surfaces cleaned and wiped down after each use. If you have a gas stove, keep the carbon build up around the actual pilots clean as well. They will work better and use less gas in the process lowering your costs while doing so.

Lights

Throughout your home you will find various lights on and off at all times of the day, right? Make it a habit to turn them off each time you leave a room. In addition, you will want to make sure that the smallest comfortable light is in use at all times, not necessarily the light that is going to fill the room.

In addition, as you go throughout your home replacing bulbs (as they burn out of course) begin replacing them with compact fluorescent bulbs.

These light bulbs put out as much as four times as many lumens per watt. So, if you purchase a 25 watt fluorescent bulb, you are going to have as much light as if you were using a 100 watt bulb of the standard, incandescent bulb. Therefore, with lower wattage use, you will use less electricity and save money.

In addition, these light bulbs will last you almost ten times as long as a standard light bulb will. In some case, you won’t have to replace them for years! This is definitely worth the investment. Doing this slowly as the others die out will allow it to be less of a cost shock.

Window Tips

While we have already talked about how windows affect the heat and air conditioning in your home, it also is important to mention them as in habit usage.

If you will be using your windows during the summer months to bring in air, do so! This is a great way to bring in free, fresh air to your home. But, do not turn off the air and open the windows. Instead, open them once the effects of the air conditioning have worn off and the home has started to heat up.

In addition, during winter months, keeping the drapes and blinds closed can significantly lower the energy need for heat throughout your home especially during dark hours and colder periods. But, you can benefit from opening up those drapes when the sun is shining and allowing the home to get some free heat from that sunshine.

During the night, the drapes will act as insulation to the windows keeping heat in during the winter and cool air in during the summer.

In summer months, if there is a breeze or if there is a temperature drop to a comfortable level, ease off the air conditioning and let the cool air from night cool down the home.

In addition, make sure that you lock your windows when they are closed. That little extra push can help to keep the right temperature maintained.